Cgi - birds and bees

[Jacksonrtw]

We are currently working on a short that will involve some 3D animation, however having little experience in this area (Its actually the first short I have made that has required CGI) I was hoping to ask for your advice.

The film:

It is a 60 second short which involves a single slow tracking shot that moves in on a man asleep on a chair. The light of the window is projected on the wall beside him.

As the shot tracks in I require shlohettes of birds to fly in and land on the window seal. Now I am not sure if it is possible to obtain highly trained birds to do the job so I was thinking CGI!

A Plot summary:

A man is asleep on a chair in the living room of a large country manor, he has clearly had a long night and the reminents of an extravegent party surround him. A single bird lands on the window seal and begins to cherp, the bird is soon joined by another, and then another and so forth. As more and more join in, their cherps begin to merge to create a song. The songs climax awakes the man, startled he flings his arms around and hits the record player behind him and the birds fly off.

Cuts to Black:

As the credits begin to roll, the record begins to play the original version of the song the birds were singing.

So a short but very sweet concept that will be released on the festival circuit. As this is my first time producing a piece that involves CGI I was hoping someone could give me some advice on how best to go about this, what to bear in mind and who I should be looking to get on board?

Any help is much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Paul

[Munkybutt]

my first suggestion would be to search the forums for a person who can make you a bird rig, I have seen two in the past six months i think that were both exceptionally good. From there you will want to get someone capable of animating them. and lastly you will need someone who is knowledgable about compositing and rendering, hopefully IF you are lucky, you will be able to find one person to do all three tasks, but it is unlikely, however I am sure there will be talented people wanting to do work for free if it is to be shown at festivals.