smudge

This is coming togeather sweetly! Keep at it!

Lucky Dog! Congrat's on the airtime! (I didn't here about the NickToon's Festival until after the deadline...=whaaa=)

Lucky Dog! Congrat's on the air time! (I didn't here about the NickToon's Festival until after the deadline...=whaaa=)

That day's already here. Just run around the net a bit and check out all the films (animated or otherwise) that are being done by folks just like you and me. The biggest problem is actually not the financing. Financing comes when you need it. The biggest limiter is Distribution. If you can't get a distributor, the best your film's gonna do is the inside of your living room and that of your friends, no matter how much money you've invested in the film. You don't need to have funding to get a distributor, you do need to have a distributor before you can get funding.

Yes, and how much of that was promotion (ala marketing) and how much of that was legal (a lot more than you would think), or to "name" actors so that they can have something to market the film with? Zombie Express? Oh, that's a good one. Apparently, they hadn't read Dave's rant on the Uncanny Valley did they? But there is hope. While it's mostly traditional (with some CG elements), The Triplets of Belleville (or Belleville Rendez-vous as it's known in the UK) proved that; 800,000 Euros to make (just shy of one million US), they ended up with 2 Oscar nominations and A Cannes Film Selection 2003. They've made their money several times over now.

And here's his buddy, 'Buttery Spirit 02'. ButterySpirit02_TransparentTestSmall.mpg

Thanks for the feed back guys. I wouldn't be surprised if your seeing popping at the end/beginning of the cycle of the father, turbokitty77. He's set up to cycle within his action, not in a single render, due to heavy use of lag constraints. I'm not really planning to use any of these walk-cycles in the actual film at the moment. They are being done more to a) get a feel of the character and (more importantly) testing the rigging. Once I get into the film itself, I'm planning on animating things on a per-shot basis inside the choreography. Looking over my boards, there is very little if any recycled motion. Blah, blah, blah … I’m talking to myself again, aren’t I … Blah, blah, blah. Posting a day early, since I finished 'Buttery Spirit 01' and 'Buttery Spirit 02'. Went ahead and did a walk cycle form him to test the rigging. Glad I did because I discovered that I hadn't rigging one of his fingers correctly. DOH! All fixed now. ButterySpirit01WalkSmall.mpg

It's at least posted over at A:M Films. Nosferatu.

Finished rigging the 'Buttery Spirit 01' and rendered a final model shot. Should have 'Buttery Spirit 02' done in short order (early next week) then it's onto the cattle, heron, and trout.

yeah! It reads to the viewer correctly! Yippie!!

And here's what the final render version of the ‘Buttery Spirit’ is going to be like. Edit! ..Ack! Grabed the wrong file.... ButterySpirit01_TransparentTest2Small.mpg

Thanks for all the kind words guys! Posting early since I've gotten everything I wanted to do this week done. Shock! Here's the final textured model of 'Buttery Spirit 01'. Just need to touch up his rigging and it's on to his brother, 'Buttery Spirit 02'. ButterySpirit01TextureSmall.mpg

Koot! The only thing that strikes me odd about it is the head feels like it's sitting wrong on the neck. You might want to move the head forward a bit in relation to his neck. Right now it feels like a human head 'n neck set up, but that only works if the creature is bi-pedal (it has to do with weight distribution). A quadruped would have the neck pivot point father back on the skull. Just a thought, anyways.

Wow, that sooo looks like one of those microscopic photos. I don't know if that's what you're going for but it looks sweet, nonetheless. (I wish my renderings were half this nice....)

And here is a test render of the B.Spirit with a background. Because these little guys are suppose to invisible, I'm handling them differently than any of the other characters. Their lines are going to be a soft blue (softer than the test blue I used) and their main bodies transparent. I'm gonna have to make two passes just to render these guys properly. But I think the effect is going to be worth it. ButterySpirit01_TransparentTestSmall.mpg

The historic Celts were bloody everywhere and touched a lot of different cultures throughout time. It's why you get a lot of myth-crossovers. They were pushed around a lot during the age of migrations by the Franks and the Romans to eventually settle in Ireland, Scotland and Whales (after being pushed out of Europe). Then again, everyone was pushing everyone else around during that time. Talk about rude neighbors. WB Yeates was an Irish poet in the 1800's and is created with reviving a lot of the traditional fairy-tales and folklore of his homeland. The Stolen Child is just one of his works. Sorry for posting a day early, but I'm off to Yaoi-Con tomorrow to help my publisher, Radio Comix, at their table. If you’re at the show (probably not, due to subject matter) stop by and say “hi!” Anyhow -- Got the basic model for the first Buttery Spirit done. Got his texture templates laid out too. Now it's on to finishing his rig and painting his texture maps. =WEEE!= (Dividing this up into two posts...) ButterySpirit01small.mpg

Ah, Hello fae_alba! I was wondering if you'd find this thread. Welcome! It's based on WB Yeates' Poem the Stolen Child. Been having an interesting time of it since when I started the project I was under the impression that the poem was public domain. Well, it is, sort of. In my research (it helps to be thorough), I discovered it was public domain in North America but not in the EU. Not until 2010, anyway. So I'm currently talking with the current copyright holders, The Society of Authors, to try and acquire the International rights for my short. Fay, of course, is based off the Fae (Fairy folk/grey-folk). Her main variations away from tradition is that I swung her color palette into the blues instead of grays and gave her rather Record of Lodoss War -- Deedlit like ears. Grays would have really flattened out the color palette of the film and I didn't want her to suddenly turn into a 'little gray man' visually. And I wanted the viewer to be able to instantly recognize that she was *not* human. The sprites are more of an English Fairy-Thing. But since I didn't want them to be seen in the same light as 'Fay', I turned them a little more insect-like. The art style of the film as a whole is more of a loose and simplified interpretation of Jim Fitzpatrick’s work (warning, nudity). I do have very loose targets set, but seeing as I've already slipped several I'm not too anal about them. The fact that I have everything storyboarded out helps a lot. I know exactly what I need to reach my end goal. Now it's a matter of walking the path that I've laid out before me. My current target is to try and have the first act animated by the end of January. Since I'm almost at the end of my major model building for the First Act, I don't see too many difficulties in hitting close to that goal.

Been working and not working all at the same time...=Grr!= Was suppose to be working on the ‘Buttery Spirits’, but ended up spending all week on texturing (and re-texturing) the 'Son's Staff. A simple model that was suppose to only take a couple of hours max ended up taking all week because I couldn't come up with a texture map I liked (or didn't moray). Grump! I did, however, get the final design of the ‘Buttery Spirits’ down. Yeah! I guess I can spend all next week modeling them instead. Also went in a mucked a little with the 'Son' walk cycle to include his new staff. More to come! SonWalkStaffSmall.mpg

You also might want to try adding a bump map. Candy canes have a very subtle ribbing (kind of like corduroy, but not nearly as even) to them created by when they're extruded from the candy maker. They run lengthwise and twist slightly to follow the spiral. Heck, If you want to wait a couple weeks, you can just go down to the market and buy one for like $0.50 and see what more you need to do to bring your model in line. Just some suggestions, anyway.

Ah, no finer example of people with "too much time on there hands" than I've ever seen....

I thought this little spot was great. The only problem I had initially was understanding that the first shot the family was cranky about teatime. It's not like teatime is observed here in the states after all. But once I saw it through, and the tea-biscuit thing struck me, I laughed my ass off. I had to watch it again, and again, and again. On another note: James and I were going through the market on a cookie run when, low and behold, there sitting on the shelf were the Bic&. Only they were relabeled as Cookies& for the US market. Same package design thou. We gonna see air-time for that spot over here too?

Actually, that's all cleared up now (part of the reason for the previously mentioned Sun article). There will be Daleks with the new Dr. Who. And let's be honest, you can't really have Dr. Who without them. It'd be like trying to do the Dr. without the Tardis.... (When it absolutely, positively has to be there yesterday). Godfrey, I showed the image to my fiancée and he said "That looks too disturbingly good. No BBC Sci-fi should ever look that real." I think the position change helped a lot. Yeah! The chessboard is insane and our roommate, James, wants to know where to buy one. So, you gonna do one of the new Daleks when they publicly release the design too?

Heh, heh. You're not actually that far off, Rodney. There are going to be several shots were the background is in motion too. I'm just waiting to get the characters and important actions in first before deciding on what's moving and what's not. The reason why I'm waiting is that there are going to be multiple shots on the screen at the same time with movement. I want to carefully lead the views eye around the screen but not have the entire screen vibrate with motion so that you can't tell what's going on. Almost the entire short is done in pantomime and that would be deadly. For the most part, movement like that I find easier to control via Premiere. We’ll wait and see at this point though. Got the Mother's last texture map in. Will post the final render later. In other ‘Stolen Child’ news-- Still waiting to here back from the 'Society of Authors' on the EU rights for the Poem. =Bleh!= Clearance. But it's got to be done if I want to send the film out overseas for festivals there. Back to work for me! Edit-- Got the 'Mother' Final model rendered.

-- There was once a friend who ran a Role-Playing game of 'Paranoia'. In the game, one day when all the clones were looking for someplace to eat breakfast, they ran across these moving salt & pepper shakers with sunglasses, bandoliers, sombreros and cheesy handle-bar mustaches on the end off these long plungers. Clone 1= "Hey, don't these guys look like Daleks?" Mexican Salt Shaker= "NO, SENIOR. WE ARE TOURISTS FROM MEXICO." Clone 2="Man these guys really do look like Daleks." Mexican Pepper Shaker= "NO, SENIOR. WE REALLY ARE TOURISTS FROM MEXICO." Clone 3= "Yeah, they sound like Daleks, too." Mexican Salt and Pepper Shakers in unison="OUR COVER IS BLOWN. EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMANATE!!" Later that day (after everyone was re-cloned): Clone 4(who had come in late)="Hey, don't those guys across the street in the sombreros look like Daleks?" Clone 1,2 & 3(replacements)="shush!" Mexican Salt and Pepper Shakers in unison="OUR COVER IS BLOWN. EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMANATE!!" Thus I learned the hard way never to be in a 'Paranoia' campaign with a British Sci-fi nut. Blasted Daleks harassed us for months (and many clones). -- Anyway, I think your shadow problem comes from the fact that the darker one wants to blend in with the shadow of the house. You might want to switch the two and let the house's dark pop against the light Dalek and visa versa. My two cents, anyway.

Oh no! I'm giving people ideas! I just hope they're not "bad" or "wrong" ones...