frosteternal

--> QUOTE(Jeff B @ Dec 1 2008, 06:35 AM) 287969[/snapback] Hi sorry to ask probably a silly question. But I have just finished a short film that is about 1minute long and it took 22hours to render is this normal... I'm in the middle of rendering a ~5-minute short and budgeted about 1.5 months render time, after pessimistically calculating ~6 minutes a frame. (My characters are stylized and shots are optimized for fast renders. Yes, 6 minutes per frame is fast.) Rendering takes time. It is affected by... resolution, lights, ray-tracing, (shadows, reflections), number of patches, complexity of materials, number of image maps, and what is visible in each frame. (close-ups of a complex character with a detailed procedural material and reflective eyes will take longer to render than the same character in a long shot.) Other things that affect render time are hardware related, like how much memory you have in your computer, and processor speed, and whether or not you close unnecessary background programs. I calculated each frame your short rendered took just over a minute to render - that is very zippy!

Single pass (A-buffer) fakes the depth of field. The result is very pronounced, but not necessarily "correct". The multi-pass focal blur is more accurate, and will be as obvious as you make it. For dramatic rack-focus shots, use very shallow depth-of-field. The in-focus area should be extremely narrow. (The camera cone has adjusting handles so you can adjust this easily and intuitively.) To get "quality" DOF, you may need up to 64 passes. It really depends on the shot. For some shots, you may want to do the blur in comp. But subtle, more accurate DOF can be invaluable in "selling" a shot as real.

The whole clip is very nicely done, in particular, the lush, soft bunny-fur. Any tips on working a character completely covering hair? How dense is the hair set? Any special grooming tricks? Very, very sharp work.

Gorgeous rigging. The belly is almost a character itself.

The rainbow looks fine, although it would be more convincing if it had ambience to itself; it needs to glow. I love the character designs!

29.97 vs. 30 is a difference of almost 2 frames every minute. Being two frames off will be noticeable to most people and just become more obvious as the minutes pile up. Drop-frame is unnecessary, and hopefully, will be phased out with new technology. However, most (semi-pro) editing programs will seamlessly change from 30 to 29.97 without any frame losses "piling up". I prefer to animate at 24fps and then let AE worry about it later =)

if i recall properly, there is some kind of auto-steady mechanism built into this rig, and those two bones are part of it. in the poses, make sure any such "auto-balance" or "steady" pose is "OFF". or fix those balancing bones.

I love the "look" of your film.

Quite intriguing. I'm off to bed, but I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the previous episodes tomorrow... the story/mysteriousness intrigues me

Yep, he HATES a lot of things, won't vote for such a hate-fueled person... [edit] Clarification : After reading his speeches, and his books, I notice a constant theme of baseless anger keeps resurfacing. (It is very easy to get drawn into the "style" of a skilled orator, which he is, and forget the meaning behind his words, so i read his speeches.) That is where my claim that he is "hate-fueled" comes from. It is not "made up", it is my observations from his own words. [end edit]

WOW That looks fantastic!

I always work from drawings. This is a workflow that meets with varied success. I think for our next film, I'll be buying up some clay for pre-viz work. Drawing makes it a bit more trial-and-error, you must have a very good idea in your brain-meats of what things are.

All objects set to "Render As Lines" will do just that - render as lines. (Great for representation of thin geometry, that would otherwise alias horribly by other render methods or be just annoying to work.)

You are probably modeling in shaded mode, and you need PgUp or PgDn on the keyboard, which will alter the apparent smoothness of realtime shaded mode. There are no triangles in Animation:Master, the only time your patches (which are what surfaces are called in Animation:Master) will look like they are made of triangles is in the realtime shaded mode (your videocard demands polys), final render and everything else is all curves.

Make sure the help file is in the application directory. You may have d/l a copy from ftp.hash.com

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=A...st&id=27061 This extraordinarily civil discussion has reminded me why the people on the boards are some of the best on the 'net. Sebastien - Your work is fantastic - now work on animating

No no... it would be way more hysterically funny stereotypically wise if there was an fascist nazi descendant rascist intolerant insensitive german pig caricature in the story - left over from the really fun days of european colonization, invasion and WWII. Now that would really be funny. "Whee! I'll get the kids and we'll have us a family movie night!"

I think the main thing is don't make the story revolve around a string of racially offensive jokes. Does that mean you can't have Africans in your story about Africa? Of course not! Many people today are WAAAAAAYYYY over-sensitive about race, in general. Were black americans wronged in the past? Heck yeah! Can we ever "fix" that? Nope, just move on. I refuse to feel guilty over something I personally had nothing to do with. But what do I know, I'm American, white, and male. That's three strikes against me right there! Thank goodness I'm technically living in poverty, or I'd get no respect. (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/ provides a counter-stereotype) By the way, your modeling is wonderful - now make a good story, too! (Just make sure there is an evil American industrialist in your story and then you'll have a hit. Kidding!!!)

Hysterically funny. Are you an old person? Only old people are that twisted... And stay away from my cat. He has no sense of humor. This is the best review any of my work I've ever received! Although, truthfully, I am only an old person at heart. P.S. Your cat has no nose. Do you know how he smells? I couldn't resist. So glad the great Ms. G. is a fan! School is good for something.

I'm not a "dog person". Cats are much more intriguing. Gee whiz, you'd think you have never lived in a next-door apartment to a continuously barking dog... ..surely someone can sympathize...Nancy? Anyone? Surely I'm not the most twisted person on here.

Shot, edited, colour-corrected, composited, encoded - DONE. Posted on YouTube to alleviate strain on the forum. Couldn't have pulled it off without Animation:Master. (or Dushan) Warning...rather disturbing and graphic content. You have been warned. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txhsr78574o So, do I deserve an "A+" ?

Is your keframe filter set to key Model, or bones, or just the branch? (little buttons down by the keyframe buttons)

Thanks, that helps a ton! I didn't even think of looking up reference vid on youtube for now I'm boarding out my next few sequences, there is probably going to be only one more CG dog shot, but interacting with my actor... Or maybe a bit more - I'll know for sure after filming is wrapped this sunday, then I'll have some time to edit/fine-tune

Thanks, I'll look into fixing that, I haven't had a dog in years and years and don't recall.