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Dwayne

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Posts posted by Dwayne

    Lothario the Lover Boy

    in Showcase

    Posted

    The 2011 Mascot contest is over, so just for completeness, here is/was my entry (with different background): Meet Mary Agnes and the Hickenloopers.

     

    I intend to start an exercise for myself, to develop stronger, better "golden" poses, more interesting facial expressions (using Lothario), and maybe do a short vignette or 2 or more of acting moments. It might develop into a story I have in mind, influenced by a recent trip to Amargosa Opera House (in Death Valley) but we shall see how enthused, or distracted I become.

     

    Hi Nancy

    Those are great characters, I also liked the animation you did a few posts back of the Lion.

    Great work!

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    I really love how it's looking. Wonderful feel. How are you achieving that variegated misty look? Are you using Volumetric mist type or fog effects? or is it really the coloring/texturing. I will have to study it closer.

     

    I wish I had some good advice on compression - it's always a struggle to balance size/quality. h264 seems to be what most use. Perhaps skimp on audio quality as much as you can stand.

    The misty look is really blurring ( defocus ) in spots or different areas on the image. The idea being that you have 'say 5 spots' where you want to blur the image. So the blurring is just in areas of the image instead of blurring the whole image. You can do that through actions in PS, So that you can do the same action for all the images in that shot. I think there are some plugins like soft focus , or blur's that give you that look though you have to select, where you want the blurring to occur. It's like looking at your scene through a wet window, where some areas are wet and some are dry.

    The great thing about this is they are post rendered. No real render times, just run them through your paint program or Video editor.

    I will try the h264 compression, and see how that works. I didn't see ( h264 ) format in Vegas. I tried h263 but I think I should be able to do better.

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    I was wondering if the continuity was a problem with opening door and the final position of him waving. I did do an in-between for this but left it out. What this tells me, is not to cut corners or get lazy.

     

    My feeling is that it is always good to have the viewer questioning "why" or "what" from the beginning, and even in the middle. It's a great way to get 'em hooked, and keep 'em hooked throughout the entire piece if they are always wondering "what happens next" or "why". They want to know the answer, so they will keep watching. Don't answer the questions too soon. It will work as long as the questions eventually get resolved, revealed, or are left for the viewer to easily interpret/guess (and feel smug).

     

    My comments in my previous post let you know the questions that I as a viewer was wondering as I watched this. My comments above were after watching 1 time, ie a first impression. After thinking about it now, and replaying it (a couple of times last night, would have to rewatch again) - I am guessing it is the same character, and that he is running out of his (someone's?) house? palace? to greet or wave goodbye to the canoers. At this point it is not obvious why I need to know about the house, other than it looks grand, large (adding more confusion about which culture had grand houses?)

     

    So, if in your piece, it becomes obvious later on as to what that room was and how it's related to the landscape, culture, story (and I expect it will), and it becomes obvious that the characters are the same (or not), then I wouldn't worry about it at this stage. You can always add a bridge scene later if it still turns out to need it. Or perhaps have a slower dissolve between the scenes (rather than abrupt cut) to connect them.

    When it comes to backgrounds I do very realistic to painted backgrounds to this style with AM. ( this style can only be done in AM, they do not work in other 3d apps). They just flow out. But the animation part takes, discipline, and patience. anyway I'm working on that.

    The houses are called 'Long House" and sometimes many families lived in one of these structures. A fire was in the middle of the house and the people lived around the edges of them. The out sides were painted and carved to show their family crest. For example , the eagle cland, or bear, or killer whale , for example.

    Anyway , I am reworking this opening scene.

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    I think it looks beautiful! Love the soundtrack, sound effects. This has my interest hooked.

     

    I am surprised that the sound reminds me of Native American culture, yet I thought the imagery was reminiscent of China. Will this be a melding of cultures? fantasy culture?

     

    The abrupt cut from the running character to the character (same guy? new guy?) waving on the shore is a little confusing as to continuity, but perhaps the inevitable "more to come" will fill in the gaps eventually.

     

    Hi Nancy

    Yes this is about the north west coast natives. I have seen pictures from China that have mountains that do look like the ones I did. Plus the water color sort of look.

    This is exactly the kind of comments I encourage. About the animation itself. I was wondering if the continuity was a problem with opening door and the final position of him waving. I did do an in-between for this but left it out. What this tells me, is not to cut corners or get lazy.

    Thanks

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    I like the foggy shots best for their painterly look. I wonder if there's some way to light the interior shot so it keeps that same mood.

    OK , that's a good idea. I guess you mean a volume light, that would have 'smokey' look with the light rays, coming out from the door.

    That gives me an idea of 'playing' with this fog a little, more. And render it in a higher res. to get a better effect.

    Thanks robcat,

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Wow. great style, looking forward to see it move.

     

    Its interesting to see, theres some kind of trend around here at the moment to go for a somehow more stylized background.

     

    cheers Jake

    Thanks Jakerupert. Also for the comment on my site.

    Yes I'm working on the animation, I hope you guys are tough on me, for that. Because thats where I think I will need the suggestions.

    Anyway

    Thanks Jake

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Wow those are awesome.

     

    Thanks tbenefi33.

    It is encouraging that you guys like these. I have been doing realistic and painterly background before. In other programs. 2D and 3D. I will put some of those up on my site when I get the chance.

    But I always seem to come back to AM.

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Beautiful images! Got a japanese watercolor feel to them! 3D and 2D elements blends seemlessly and works very well together! Looking forward to see more :-)

    Thanks ToreB

    I did try to get a more 2d look to these, I've always been torn between 2d and 3d.

    Anyway, I'm going to work on the animation part of this now, and see what happens.

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Collaborators are tough to come by. As hard to come by as money.

     

    But those backgrounds are beautiful! You should do a brief 30 second test that puts characters in maybe just two backgrounds and puts across some brief story segment. If that looks as good as I think it could and and your story is interesting you might get some interest.

     

     

    15 minutes of video is A LOT though. That's a scary large amount of animation to get done.

    Yes I was wondering about that. The water really looks cool when it is animated. So I think your idea about a couple of small examples, is good. I do have a character set up and ready. I would really like to do this myself, but the animation scares me a little.

    Anyway I will give it a try, on a little short bit.

    Stylized backgrounds

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    Those are lovely!

     

    Can you tell us more about how you do them? I presume there's post processing in a paint app for the soft focus effect?

    Ok thanks guys

    Yes the soft focus was put in later,in post. The reason being that I wanted parts of the area clear and and parts fogged in , so that a character can enter the fog and come out of it again, also it can be animated, no brush work.

    I would like to get some videos out 15 to 20 minutes in length before I give too much out.

    One of the reasons I have come here is that I have had this style for awhile and always seemed to get hung up when it comes to the animation. I see some really good animators and modelers, here, and was kind of hoping someone would like to partner with me on this.

    You know, to discuss stories and , animate, and for sound, and maybe for contacts, that could maybe pitch it to some company.

    I can spend almost full time to this, and would like someone that could almost do the same.

    To me the character is king, and is much more important than the background, also I would like to do this with no dialoge and only one main character. A kind of artsy film.

     

    Anyway, this was what I was thinking. I'm open to ideas.

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