Nosferatu

Great job, Ken. Looks very convincing. Nos

Regarding the "Wagon Wheel Effect" (temporal aliasing), there is another consideration that I rarely see mentioned. When the wheel is rotating under a stroboscopic lighting condition (such as photographing at 24 fps), the mind assumes that it is watching the same individual spoke rotating backwards. For example, let's assume we are watching spoke #1. If the fps matches the wheel rotation exactly, we will see spoke #1 appear to stand still. Of course, this applies to all the spokes, but we are only interested in spoke #1. When we change either the rate of rotation of the wheel or the fps, we will see spoke #1 apparently start to rotate backward or forward. As a matter of fact, the brain is assuming that we are watching spoke #1, when in fact we are seeing other identical spokes each time a frame is shot. It looks like spoke #1 is slowly moving backward, but in actuality we may be seeing other spokes "masquerading" as spoke #1 just because they happen to be positioned in the right place when the next frame is taken. I used to work on mail processing machines that moved envelopes around at extremely high rates of speed. It was very hard to diagnose certain problems because the high rate of speed made everything a blur. One day I made a strobe light with a very wide variable flash speed and with this I was able to "freeze" the motion of gears, pulleys, and envelopes. I could make the gears seem to stand still, or rotate backwards or forwards. I could make it look like the envelopes were standing still inside the machine, because the strobe light would flash every time a new envelope was at point "X". In reality, I wasn't looking at the same envelope standing still, but rather, I was looking at a different envelope at point "X" which was taking the place of the one ahead of it. Yours in ever-increasing confusion, Nos

Well, guys, as the guy who started this whole subject in the original thread, I've been conspicuously absent. My hands have been full with tending to such minor things as a sister's attempted suicide and then a friend's. Just another month in the life of Nosferatu... I just wanted to thank you guys for all the great work you've done. Now I can finally work on the sample projects you've provided and I'm really looking forward to it. I love to see the spirit of invention that this and other threads have brought out in many of us! Nos

Excellent, John. Very useful. Thanks for sharing. Nos

What is thy bidding, Master? Nos

Wow...What software did you use to make that capture? Nos

Try setting the magnitude property on the force. Even if you want the default of 100%, click in the box to highlight it and then hit "Enter" on your keyboard. I find it sometimes has to be reset like that. Nos

Excellent work. Worth the price of admission. Very reminiscent of Lynch and the Brothers Quay, not to mention Svankmajer. Sound-wise, I would almost think that you had gotten Splett to come back from the grave for one more go-round. Very inspiring work because all your elements and pacing are very congruous. There is WAY more sophistication here than meets the eye. Nos

1. Put a null in the center of focus. 2. Scale it large for easy access. 3. Constrain the camera to "translate-to" and "aim at" the null. Turn ON "compensate mode" while setting each constraint. Now you can rotate the null around it's "y" axis and the camera will spin around the null at a fixed distance. (if you convert the nulls rotation type to "euler" you can just type in 360 in the "y" rotation property to set a keyframe for a complete turn. Be sure to key the "0" location first.) Sounds more complex then it is. Phil Phil, Just wondering...is compensating the "aim at" null necessary? I can't see the reason for needing a compensation on that. THanks, Nos

Yes, I think the new cap would look more realistic in the scene. I wish I had a bottle to open so I could test. Nos

Rodger, Regarding the cap, I can't help but think that a real cap would have a sharper bend angle because of the way an opener leverages itself against the middle of the cap. Yours tends to curve up at a gradual slope. The bottle looks absolutely awesome. Just wondering, how many passes? Nos

Looks really great so far, Kevin. This has the potential to be a great piece. Good old Boneless Thom is getting to be a regular Alfred Hitchcock with his cameo appearances! It seems to me that the overall ambience may be a bit high. If you had the fireplace and candle as the main light sources, thereby making the back of the tree and presents much darker, the tree lights might look a lot more convincing. The picture has an overall great composition, as I can tell you already know. I'll bet if you play with the lighting and eliminate the ambience it will really come alive. Nos

Darklimit, You win the grand prize! Your idea about adjusting the falloff properties worked perfectly, though I'm not sure exactly why that serves to brighten the center of the sphere. Thanks for the great idea. And thanks to all for your great suggestions! Nos

Thanks, Stian. I appreciate the encouragement! Nos Thanks, David. I'll let you know how it turns out with the light list method. Nos Why add more lights than neccessary? I suggest the Oren-Nayer diffuse render shader, and just adjust the brightness. Light lists, in my not-so-humble-opinion, are a pain in the ***. I agree, it's going to be a pain. I don't know anything about this Oren-Nayer shader where can I find/learn about it? Nos

Thanks, guys, I'll try a light list. I haven't played with that yet, but I assume by using a light list I can have the lights affect the pupils only and not the glasses. Nos