My first Animation (Short Film)

[inveni0]

I've decided to try my hand at animation. Let me explain my goal here...

I'm looking to blend 3D and 2D so that there is a good "layered" feel to the animation. I hope to have good lighting and sharp textures. I want all of my environments to feel 3D, but to also have several 2D aspects within them. All of my characters will be 2D, drawn and colored simply in Photoshop.

Let me show you a bit more of what I mean. This is a test render currently under construction. I'm using it to see how the layers handle FOV, to test particle effects and to expirement with how things look in both 2D and 3D so that I can better decide which objects should be in which artform.

As for the film itself, it takes place after a novella I had written in College. It was called "Wishing Death to a Dying Raven", and was about a boy named Landon that met a raven who could take form as a man. The raven helped Landon learn how to control time. Long story short, the girl Landon loved died as a result and he blames God. So this is his journey to kill God.

I expect this story to continue in several volumes, each stretching over different landscapes and/or worlds. Afterall, journeying to God would take you further than Cincinatti, no?

Anyway, tell me what you think of the overall style. This sene isn't finished with detail or anything, but if I could get some C&C on the general feel, that would be great. I added the smoke in combustion, but when rendered the file was 42 MB, even in DIVX format. So I stuck it in a flash file. You may have to resize your window to bring it back to proper quality.

THANKS

Click here for the clip... (http://www.adenreality.com/test.swf)

[martimus]

I see what your trying to acheive and i quite like it.

crits-

the smoke is unreal, it only begins moving after the animation has started, in combustion you can pre load the particles in the particle controls panel, make it so the smoke has already started moving perhaps 30 frames or so before the animation starts

the guy in the foreground seems to be getting bigger. there is slight movement in him which makes it seem slightly off. what is the guy meant to be doing? standing still or walking?

[inveni0]

Thanks for your reply, martimus.

I understand what you mean about the smoke Just a little glitch I need to figure out. The smoke does preload, but I have to animate the emitter so that it stays in line with the chimney. The movement is what makes the smoke seem to blow. I won't use combustion if I can't figure this out.

About his movement: he does move. But it's not supposed to be something noticeable. When it's tweaked, it should look like the FOV is effecting everything but the character.

Thanks for your keen eye. These are the things I'm experimenting with in this test animation. (Which, when completed, will be part of the first volume.)

[martimus]

Thanks for your reply, martimus.

I understand what you mean about the smoke Just a little glitch I need to figure out. The smoke does preload, but I have to animate the emitter so that it stays in line with the chimney. The movement is what makes the smoke seem to blow. I won't use combustion if I can't figure this out.



ah ha! of course

looking forward to seeing more! :haha:

You could render out the smoke seperatly and then composite it back in. that way you could manipulate the layer independently. It might also make your workflow much quicker.

Im sure their must be a way for the particles to inherit the motion of the emitter but i cant think of it.

one more thing! :lame:

42mb!? what is it 10 seconds? even less?! what settings are you using?!

[inveni0]

I can render it at 30kbps, and it's still 42 mb...i can only guess it's a prob with the program. nothing else renders to divx that way.

[Design]

Inveni0, i like the Concept of it, but this is what i noticed:
* usually when dealing with such issues i think that the matter of ratio is big, martimus noticed the man getting bigger, but he is getting bigger at a small ratio in comparison to the building getting smaller.
* i dont think that the horizon would be affected this much on such a small movement, one second you see no stars the next you see some. where the camera might have moved only few meters.

Other than that i think that it is a cool idea and i look forward to see how it turns out.

Hope my comments were of a good help.

[martimus]

Hmm thats really weird. Im not sure why its rendering such a large file.

I cant think why on earth its so big. Perhaps you have some settings wrong? what res are you rendering out at?

this is bugging me!

[inveni0]

Thanks, Design. Yes, the FOV is weird. I'm still working on it, and I won't use anything that I can't get to look right, so I'll hopefully be able to work it out.

Martimus, my settings in Combustion are the same as my settings in 3DS; however, 3DS renders to a filesize of 500 kb...It's really freak'n strange.

[martimus]

blimey

[inveni0]

Okay, I finally got Combustion to render to AVI correctly. (I just tried a diff. filename.) This is my final combustion test. I didn't add a mask for the car, so pardon the fact that it passes between the flame and the background. I'm not sure I'm going to use combustion for this film. Does anyone know any other good smoke/fire plugins for Max? Free or For Sale is fine.

Also, this is the final artwork for this shot of the main character.

Update (http://www.adenreality.com/test_combustion.avi)

[martimus]

Much better!

[RxExpress]

looks awesome! you hand drew that guy in photoshop? also, would this involve frame by frame adjustments of the guy? that could be extremely hard to do...

[inveni0]

Awww....thanks, guys. :P Yeah, I use Photoshop. I'll be animating the kid, but his movements won't be anything like traditional animation. You'll see :D

[RxExpress]

hurry up, i want to see it!

[inveni0]

Well, I'm trying to learn combustion, so I put this little trailer together. No clips or screenshots, just a little test. The file is just over 12 MB and lasts for 1 minute:

Trailer (http://www.adenreality.com/trailer.avi)

[RxExpress]

very cool trailer inveni, what did you make that one with?

anyways, hurry up and animate that guy, he looks so awesome, and im really wanting to see how you animate him.

[inveni0]

Thanks, RxExpress. I used combustion for that one...not the best choice, I know, but it was more of an effort to learn combustion than anything else. Also I used it to practice a little sound editing and such. There are some glitches, but I'm confident that the method I used will work well for the film.

As for animating, I did a slight test, and I think it'll work great.

So, now I think I'm ready to complete the modelling of that scene and start on the film. I'll be posting screenshots as they come available.

[RxExpress]

show me the freaking animation!

[inveni0]

Finished the other side of the street. This scene is going to be shot pretty tight, so there's not much here, but I think you all get what's going on. Gotta make the sign tex and a new rear shot of the kid, but for the most part, this scene is ready for animating.

[RxExpress]

looks awesome so far, cant wait to see what you do with it. I think ive said this before, but your awesome at texturing. I want to know, is the kid a plane with the animated GIF on it or what?

[shengli420]

Much better!

[inveni0]

Actually, what I'm doing on this film is very little hand painting. It would be better considered matte painting. I take several different shots and composite them. The building above is actually composed of 5 different photos. The kid won't be done with animated gifs. After I do a complete animation test, I'll divulge more information about it, but for now I'm not even totally sure of all the little kinks and details, so I'll wait.

And, actually, you reminded me that I need a texture for the street and sidewalk. I got so carried away with everything else that I forgot final textures for those...guess that'll be a project for tomorrow.

Thanks for all the C&C, everyone. Keeps me motivated.

[RxExpress]

so is this a kid or a man then? you referred to him as a kid, but he looks like a private eye or something to me. And most kids arent private eyes ;)

[inveni0]

He's a kid. I suppose the trench coat will throw you at first. However, you'll see later when he's comparable to other characters.

[Freespace-3DT]

Hey inveni0. Nice ideea, I've looked over your stuff here. What I should note is that the image of the skyscrapers in the background is very blurred and low quality, and doesn't fit at all with your scene ( I mean from a chromatic and quality point of view ).

I've always shrugged at the ideea of animating a 2D character. So let's see how you handle it, then. :)

[inveni0]

Thanks for the input, Freespace. I agree that a 2-Dimensional character animated would be not-so-pretty, but I was really liking the feel it created...

The down-side is that I have to hand sketch each individual pose, and it's proving to be quite a task...

So now I'm considering going all 3D. (Right now, 90% of my scene is constructed of planes. For now, however, I'll post a couple AVI files. I'm not happy with them at all. I think the scene would be better served if it were completely constructed. I suppose this is just part of learning.


Example of Slight Character Animation (http://www.adenreality.com/Street_Camera1.avi)
Pan1 (http://www.adenreality.com/Street_Camera2.avi)
Pan2 (http://www.adenreality.com/Street_Camera3.avi)


I'll post updates of what I decide on soon!

[Freespace-3DT]

I agree I think it's easier to animate a 3d character, but you can still make it look completely 2d. I don't know if you've seen the making of Le Building, on 3dtotal. They've had a 3d char that looks totally 2d. You could try that approach. I think it's done with the ink&paint material in 3dsmax.
Also, I've been looking at your latest clips. Does he movie in the Slight Character Animation? Cause I didn't really notice. In Pan1 the sky stays still :) But I like the creepy mood that light sets by flickering over the pentagram. In Pan2 the ideea of the Pan is good, but you could have it focus on the kid faster, because you have some 3 seconds of showing only the door. And also, up-close, the textures are very low-res. You could sharpen them up with some smart sharp tools in photoshop.

[inveni0]

Well, I've found that it's easier to tell people what to do than to do it (I'm not talking about your critiques, you're a great animator). In my business, I'm more producer than anything, so I'm used to knowing what I want to see and having other people acheive it. Doing it myself has been a good lesson for me. I know the two shots seem long, but they're animated to match a voice-over. Also, the only movement in the first clip is a slight raise of his head.

Thanks for your help, freespace. It's appreciated.

[RxExpress]

I think producers are necessary, but over-payed. :D If you have brazil, it has an amazing toon shader built in, it could be useful here. I like the 2d guy though...The pentagram does add a very scary atmosphere.

[inveni0]

Once he's built, I'm gonna toy with Max's built in Ink & Paint. But I'm still working on the environment, so I won't be modelling him until then. He wears a trench coat and never shows his face...most of him will be cloth, in other words. I think I'll be able to stick a trenchcoat on a simple BiPed and add cloth modifiers to acheive the result I want. I'll post screenshots of the city soon.

[inveni0]

Well, I can't seem to sleep, so I thought I'd suck it up and start on the character. Here is what I have so far of the head:

Head (Quarter Turn) (http://www.adenreality.com/headtest.avi)


At this point, it's not really up for critique, but I thought I'd show you all where it's headed.

[RxExpress]

lookin good so far! how long do you plan to make this animation, like 10 min?

His goggles look kinda weird, but as you said, its not in a finished enough state for crits, so im sure youll work out the details like that soon.

keep it up!

[inveni0]

Thanks, RX. I'm not sure about the goggles either. They may be replaced. However, there is something about them I like, though the modelling may be off.

Originally, this animation would have been a simple intro to the series, and only run for approx. 2 mins. NOW, however, I'm thinking that I will mix this short with what would have been volume 2 of the series. This is going to require a bit of script work, but since I'm redoing the scene and characters, I have the time. This way I can deliver more of the background and plot to the viewer. AND, I can show off some of the lands our little guy will be visiting.

Got a little journey of my own cut out for me.

[inveni0]

Well, I've had serious problems working on this project lately. Work has been double time, and I'm leaving to Myrtle Beach this weekend for personal/business reasons.

Will hopefully have a bit of time when I return.

[inveni0]

Well, I'm back, but I'm putting in 13 hour days now...so not enough time to do much on the film. I'm trying a little 2D painting in the meantime, since that's something I can do in smaller chunks of time.

I'll be updating before too long, though.

[RxExpress]

update?

[inveni0]

Sorry about the long delay. No character update, yet, but here is something:

For my short film, I require a snowy realm for an ancient culture...So I turned to my old pal Superman for inspiration. I'm using a "Fortress of Solitude" type architecture and basing my civilization's culture off of that. This scene is a WIP.

[Freespace-3DT]

The ice looks wonderful, but it also looks 2d, from this point of view. Is it 2d??

[inveni0]

No, it's not 2D. Here's an update, and I'll post a link to a short fly-to soon. This shot is a test render, and is not final.

[martimus]

Not to put a dampener on the ice shot, but the scale seems kind of off to me, even with the trees it kind of looks about the size of a large ham.

Nice modelling though

[inveni0]

Thanks, Martimus. I'm really working hard to improve the scale. I'm building an entire scene here, with the equivalent of 50 miles of arctic snow. I'm hoping that (in building this) I will acheive some scale. The photo above has a 2D mountain mapped to a plane. The mountains will be there later, but modeled in 3D. Keep your eye here as I make improvements (and push the limits of my PC, :) )

[martimus]

hmm

i think its because large formations of ice dont tend to be too transparent, like glaciers and such like.

However, you would lose much asthetic value in making them opaque..

Perhaps yo could try making them not so transparent?

http://www.cisl.columbia.edu/grads/schan/Argentina/IMG0041.html

Maybe?

[Freespace-3DT]

Artistically, the transparent ones look better. Realistically, the link martimus shared is more loyal. Choice is yours, inveni0. :)

[theeman]

have u seen the place in superman 2 made of ice.it is something like this

[inveni0]

Well, I played with transparency a lot last night (so much that I didn't get to work on any of the scene) and I just like the way it is. This is an ancient culture, but I want them to have a good mixture of ancient and futuristic technology (much like what you see in mist). I'm not sure that I want you to know for sure that this structure is made of ice. I'll post an update later today, as I'll be working on it a bit later.

[Ilkejav mk5]

IMO the camera agle doesn't help either. If you put it close to the ground and have different scale reference on the ground nearby like rocks, bushes or a crevasse. then the viewer would be able to se the scale right away.