fae_alba

well then, pop that bad boy off to me, if you would. pharris430 at nycap rr com. I'll put together the "rules". I need three guinea pigs, um volunteers, to do a dry run

How are we doing here? Is the set ready for release so contributors can start working on their piece?

It would if our main character (the one doing the observing) is hanging out on the fire escape,leaning against the railing at the corner.

perhaps yes.. if you have props kicking around along the lines of garbage cans, lawn chairs, tables, etc, to make the scene look more lived in I think that would be a good thing. Your work is over the top btw.

That's a good idea. At the very least a scene snapshot to help identify which short the credits go to. A sped up movie clip might get distracting, the viewer might get caught up in watching the sped up clips and not read the credits. Another thought I had when watching the last scene clip (great job by the way!), is when it ends at night there is only one exterior light, I'd think that there would be more, lights in doorways, stairways, security lights on the corners of buildings, etc.

Would now be the time for folks to start reserving their windows?

Awesome!

thank you much!

Hey Paul, just checking to see how you're doing? We close to a set to work from?

Paul that's great..some larger windows for better viewing would make it easier to work with. So I'm going to push a little, and ask how soon a set project can be released to the forum so folks can start working on their submissions?

works for me. I suppose now's the time to update my subscription.

Many people who use their own creations will be hesitant to submit a full chor with characters. Make it known at the outset that part of their participation will be to revisit their work to render these transition frames, make them do it for you. You'll have lots to do none-the-less. I'm hearing ya...so I'll take an evening this weekend and lay out a project plan for this..I'll approach it as you suggest. We need to finalize the set. Will we want a courtyard to keep it as like Hitchcocks work, or use the set we have and add across-the-street buildings?

There's that. Most windows will not be seen at a straight-on angle where that would work. Also, not every thing may happen within the frame of a window. a character may be lean out of the window, may be on the balcony, may be down on the street or in a doorway. The other option that I'm leaning towards is have each person put together their chor, submit the chor as robcat suggests, then I work the transitions myself. Seems that would be simpler, cleaner, and potentially quicker.

If we had just a few pre-made that could be edited in. Say, a intro shot of Thom, in a wheelchair, cast on leg, sitting and staring out his window. That establishes what is going on. Then perhaps a transition with the camera looking over Thom's shoulder, zooming out his window which then cuts to a contributor's window. Then an outside pan to the next, then perhaps a cut to facing into Thom's window with Thom looking thru binoculars. Randomly edit those in. We may need more, but I can stage extra edits as pieces come in from the forum to keep from re-using too many of the same transitions.

Are you saying each person is going to put the camera inside the room after the transition? That's not "Rear Window" Look at that trailer, every one of the views of the rooms is from Jimmy Stewart's perch across the street, the camera never goes inside. that's the Rear Window concept i thought we were doing. You're right, I hadn't realized that until watching the trailer. So the camera can zoom in a bit, but it will remain outside of the room (I had imagined it zooming into the room, but I like the Hitchcock parady even better (who's going to do the Hitchcock cameo piece?)

the set looks good. Perhaps we could put together a package of room props so contributors can put together their own rooms without scrambling to furnish it. Again, to allow more effort on the animations. for consistency, animate your room scene, the transition to/from your window will be edited in, I'll leave the lighting in each of your sets to you. Are there any other camera/rendering settings that should be set and used through out so it all ties together better? basic parameters (taken from Bus Stop) 1) you can use your characters or any stock A:M characters 2) shorter is probably better. 2b) Use your good judgment on content. I reserve the grand power to not use something if it's unsuitable for mass viewing but I'm sure that will not be a problem. 3) you can add sound or leave your scene silent The camera is set to render to a JPG series. An image series was chosen instead of Quicktime so you wouldn't have to render your animation all in one stretch. Resolution: 854x480 when you go to render.

I have a claymore sword much the same size as that, and I can tell you it takes a lot of work moving that thing around like you have there. When a sword that size is swung it takes the whole upper body with it, and it takes a lot of strength to follow through with the swing and recover. Plus, and this may not be relevant to the character and story, but a sword this size is a two-handed sword, you wouldn't see someone fighting with it with a single hand and a shield. Too much weight. Just my thoughts. But for your fight scene, there needs to a a lot more weight to the swing, the whole upper body needs to be used to recover from the swing

As robcat said, do a first pass first. Guaranteed that you will be asked to change some things. The Bus Stop set went thru all kinds of changes before being released to contributors. Also. for those considering jumping in, I think we want to keep this as PG as possible..no gratuitous skin...bummer I know, but we want to give as little offense as possible.

hwo about this...one person animates the beginning and close, thom opens his window, camera zooms thru window, to building across the alley, each contributor animates the next bit of simply what he sees. Since the camera zooms into a window until it is full frame, each contributor doesn't have to worry about the building set, just render off their bit. the rest is done in editing

So by my count rear window wins by a landslide. 4 for rear window, 1 for monster audition, 1 for either or and 1 I'll do anything So ready set start animating rear windows!

I'm recapping Robcats ideas here to freshen folks' memories 1) Next Room. A character walks in to a room, does something and then either he or some other character exits to the other side. Then the camera shifts to pick up what happens in the next room. (I'm not real keen on this one anymore) 2) Rear Window. Peering into rooms in a hi-rise office or apartment complex. 3) Ani-Jam. We had some limited success with where you pick up exactly with whatever the last animator did, but many people found this difficult. 4) Pass the ball. I think we've done this twice before. 5) Commercial block. Everyone makes a 10 second commercial. ( or 5? Or 15?) 6) Who dunnit? I've been watching mysteries lately and they're all basically a bunch of seemingly unconnected events until they get wrapped up at the end. Is there a way to make a collaborative pot-luck project out of that without prescripting it too much? 7) Previously... on "Dynasty". Everyone does a scene that is like a recap of what happened last week on a soap opera. 8) Olympic event. Everyone's character does the same event, like the shotput, or high dive or... (my favorite!) 9) Waiting room. Camera watches various people waiting for the doctor(?) to see them 10) Airport security check. 11) Coach class. Camera peers into each row of seats in a jetliner. 12) Bees and Flower 13 Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! 14) One big continuous Rube Goldberg machine. (Similar to pass the ball but more than a ball is passed) 15) How about using the farmerstractor , that I posted in the wip section and let everybody do something with it?(with enter and exit points) 16) Egg Hatches 17) Thing. Everyone animates a hand of their own design poking out of the box, doing something , going back into the box. 18) Walking to an instruments only music track. 19) everyone makes a character then one by one they join on stage to sing we are the world the world on AM finish with a group shot on the group 20) "Monster Audition" (not for Halloween!) EDIT: in entering all of these I'd say no new ideas, pick one from this list.

I had that gut feeling as well, which is why I suggested the team effort to streamline it a bit. But, that being said, what idea will we do? How about Rube Goldberg? Every one creates their own device, just need a common element to tie it all together. Ten days seems reasonable. My offer still stands of managing this. My first official task is to set the deadline of this Friday to settle on a theme....so from now until Friday 5pm, all ideas are on the table, list them here starting ..... now.

so in your experience when you did the last few community projects, what was the time spent on editing, marshaling, hand-holding, etc.? I'm thinking if we go with the Monsters idea, then we need to shoot for a release of at latest one week prior to all hallows eve, which would mean a release date of the 24th. We would have to set some pretty hard and fast deadlines to make it happen (all properties in by x date, post starts on y date, done on 10/24). I'd be willing to tackle it under the auspices of Pappa Bear Studios donating time to the community, released to the community, property of the community. So folks have roughly 2.5 months to write, storyboard, model, rig, light, choreograph, and render. My suggestion is really make this a community effort, have forum members team up in say groups of 2 or 3, split up the tasks, and put together perhaps 4 or 5 team pieces, instead of 20 individual ones. I'll volunteer to handle the post-production. But we gotta get rolling. All in favor, say aye!

I actually like this one...sort of a Monster's Inc feel to it. I vote for this one..make it official...get the ball, um Monster's rolling, strolling, scaring

The IT field sees this quite a bit. As a consultant, I regularly work un-godly hours a week. At least I can take it home with me, so the late nights are a little bit easier. And you are salaried, then your employer is not obligated to pay you one cent for the overtime. They can, however bill their clients for your free time. For me, I expect the remainder of my summer will see me doing in access of 20 hours ot per week. I won't see a dime for it (I doubt a pat on the back will come my way), but our client (the state) will get billed $100/hr. That's the "glory" of IT consulting.