Ilidrake

Hey Rodney how's about you do Death? Not sure if time constraints and what-not are against you but you seem to have a keen interest in this character and I have no objections if you would like to model him up. If you do just let me know here.

No I haven't finished him. Since he comes in the second act I post poned while working on the animatic and father model. Ill look through these and play around with them. I like them. Should make for good extras too

I think I see where ur going with this and I love the idea!!!! It's great and if your thinking what I think your thinking I think it's great idea!!!! Fill me in in The Raven

I just can't see this being Latimer's father!!! I've been comparing this with the original model I had and I keep going back to the original. It of course is not perfect. Not quite what I want but with a bit of tweaking I think it can be. So stay tuned and I'll have another update once I get the original closer to what I want. I may modify this one a bit and use him for the Marc model as he really is closer to that look than the father figure I was hoping for.

I have to agree Rodney. I sat looking at this latest render and have to wonder lol... I think before I call his father complete ill have to rethink his look. This guy with a few mods would be a perfect Marc. This of course means hitting the sketchbook and redesigning his father again. The tragedy of art lol

I didn't like the hair style so I changed it.

Getting there. Finished up his body, except for the hands. Hands take me a bit longer. I could simply reuse some I have saved but I really need the practice so he gets custom. I went ahead and added hair as well. Anyone have any suggestions for giving his hair the faded gray look? Where it starts gray and then goes to dark near the side burns. I haven't had time to experiement and if someone already knows I'd appreciate the info. Still haven't modified the eyes as that should be a relative easy fix. Just working on getting him finished.

So that's a month down and we're moving towards the deadline of May 1st!!! Let's get those noodles in over drive and see some animation people. There are great prizes at stake!!!

At work right now but will be getting a copy as soon as I can!!!

That is really cool. I do like the second scheme better. The colors pop and it really draws the eyes to it.

So...at this point it is interesting to see the conversation turn to finger pointing. My own thoughts on community projects...it succeeds as a group or fails as a group. Yes, you will always have people burning with ambition when they get on for the ride. And then deflate and move on. That's called human nature. Always looking for the next exciting thing to play with. Fair enough! Can we get past these trivial flaws and consider a real world case of another feature? What would be something that everyone can sink their teeth in, even if temporarily. What kind of project would allow all creative talents, good and bad to learn? I am not asking this question lightly. I am looking for real answers. Not more questions...unless those questions can eventually lead to an answer. I ask this because eventually I will have my own project ready for community help. And the question is are we the kind of community that will help when asked? Perhaps I am being selfish. I'm not sure. I get a real sense of accomplishment when I am able to help people here on the forums. Having said that I believe I owe Robcat an apology. He was coaching a few of us on here and I let him down. So if your reading this Rob I am sorry. My interest in your lessons are still as strong as ever but were swallowed by Woke Up Dead. I hope we can pick it back up and I can learn more from you because your a pretty dang talented animator.

Really good points. I had thought about opening Woke Up Dead to the community but I don't think the subject material would appeal to a lot of people. Although I can say I could use some help on it. Rodney has been invaluable but further along I will be needing a ton of extras modeled and rigged. I'm getting off track though...what was the question again???

Hadn't given the size of the eyes much thought but ill modify them and see how they look at different sizes. Definitely something I will keep in mind for future models

So what can we agree on? That starting something as big as another feature would take a strong willed leader. A person everyone would have little to no problem taking direction from. Do we agree on this?

Holy cow!!! Another update... Started working on the body. The head is finished. Teeth, inner mouth, tongue...everything a head needs to work. The body is turning out more stylized than planned but I like the look of it so far and will continue to tweak it until I am satisfied. Comments? Crits??? On a side note, isn't it cool to look at old posts of models and compare them to the final version and just be amazed? It's one of my favorite pass times

First is Story. If the story if good then the film will be good. Communication is second. Without it things get off track quickly. Compromise would be third. Projects of this nature have to have some bending by the people involved. If a director is chosen to guide the project then anyone getting involved needs to be comfortable being guided by ths individual. The director doesn't stifle artists but tunnels their natural abilities to the benefit of the movie. Work Pipeline. AM is a good package but working over the net requires a nice streamlined pipeline that is easy and simple to use. I think one problem with people is we think the more complicated something is the better it is. I disagree. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. At any rate the biggest problem is ego. I for one have one when it comes to what I do. There is a lot of work I do that I do not post online because I do not want to hear the negative feedback. Heck, my wife only gets to see 5% of what I do, if that much. I think if we can just shove our pride to the side, like with TWO and SO, and create a film that promotes our collabrative artistic skills and promotes AM we all win!!!

I haven't found a suitable voice. But I pulled the script from Amazon Studios and me and Rodney are working on it together. So there will be no trailer just yet. I do like the voice-over you did and would love for you to do his voice in the film itself. I'm working on the animatic right now and if your interested I could send you a copy of the script. Let me know if your interested

Yes we can all agree that there are some major problems in doing a feature film. The fact of the matter is big companies are successful because of one thing...money. That's one of the reasons people animate for a living. To eat. To pay bills. When you are not being payed it's a bit of a hassle to give up free time for a project that isn't your own. People want to be recognized for their efforts. Me, I was thrilled when I popped TWO into my DVD player. I went straight to the credits and rolled them just to see my name!!! It was awesome!!! And that was enough satisfaction for me. Do I wish I had contributed more to TWO? Dang right. But personnal issues at the time made it impossible. So I did my little set model and moved on. The question we need to ask is how to make community features possible? How do we fix what doesn't work? I'm sure there are some things that cannot be fixed. Some can be bypassed and others simply omitted because they are irrelevant. It doesn't matter what the project is. Webisodes. Movie. Shorts. The problem is getting artist to agree on a vision and make it happen.

Its amazing! I've been writing for oh I don't know, a while now. So very little modeling was getting done. Since the script is at about 95% (Rodney is giving it a good look over and making suggestions and improvements) I turned my attention to the animatic. And modeling, again. Here's the dad so far. I really pushed the envelope on him to give him the look I want. I think once textures and hair is in place he'll look great! This sorta stuff keeps me motivated. As long as things are moving forward...

I think I own every software packagae out there and I use AM 100%. It's just too easy and powerful to not use. Not too mention affordable.

I really was not happy with the old father model. I wanted someone strong in character. Someone aging but still intimidating. So I started over The render we have here is the first general shaping pass. This is the general shape and look I want but now comes the adding and subtracting splines. Pushing and pulling cps in place. Kind of like sculpting clay. It sounds tedious but I find it easier to get the look I want this way.

My experience with TWO was a good one. All I did was build one set and then fill it with props. Easy enough, at least I thought so when I started. Turned out to be a lot of work. But very rewarding. I'm enjoying my person project with Rodney. So much in fact I do believe directing is something I would really love. Communication really was the biggest problem with TWO. I think because of everyone's different schedules. But I applaud everyone who made it happen and thank all for the ton of stuff I learned!!!

I agree Bruce. I contributed to TWO as well. I did the bedroom for Scarecrow and after that just sort of lost interest. The Oz books are okay but I don't really find them that appealing. I prefer original works with quirky characters. But from the posts here I can see that another feature will be a long way down the road, if ever. I started the current contest in hopes of seeing more users, especially beginners, getting into AM and just producing something. With a 3 month window even uncomplete entrants are welcome. I myself will not be stopping on Woke Up Dead Rodney. It's the first project that I have started that really keeps my juices flowing and I hope to see it finished. As I stated...just fishing a little hehehehe...

This is me doing a bit of fishing I guess. I'd like feedback on weather the members of the community are interested in doing another feature film? No need to be hostile just some simple feedback is all I'm looking for.

Great news! We are finally to the point where we can begin the story boarding process. I'll be constructing a sound booth in my house to record audio! Things are getting crazy!