D.Joseph Design
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Posts posted by D.Joseph Design
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I'm interested. Send me a script.
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Here's my basic metal material. I think that this is the same as what I used. I'm still at Creation Mega Conference, so I don't have much time to check the file.
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I'm at Creation Mega Conference in Lynchburg, Virginia, right now (free evening sessions if anyone wants to meet me), so I can't test anything on my farm or upgrade it for about a week.
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From what I remember of your setup you have 16 AMD Pc's and 3 or 4 Mac's.
You can use this on nights and weekends. That number may have grown.
Yes, it's grown. I have 8 almost-24/7-dedicated AMD 64s (they're training PCs), something like 16 AMD ~2800s, and 12 Pentium 4 2.0~3.0 GHz. I haven't setup A:M 12 yet, so I don't even know if I can use our 10-or-so G5s. And so far, I have not seen any problems going across CPUs, only pool entrance issues with some scenes (I can explain this if you want).
So what are others thinking about the estimates so far? Too high? "Too low"?
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I've got a 24-fps animation that I estimate will be about 3000 frames in length, to be rendered at DVD resolution. Let's imagine I need a base pass with alpha (30 seconds per frame), a shadow pass (1 min per frame), a highlight pass (1 min per frame), a toon-lines pass (3 min per frame). I also need 30 camera shots rendered as still images for the backgrounds (25x multipass, 60 minutes per still). Finally, a few moving background shots--let's say 500 frames' worth--rendered at final quality (10 min per frame).
Those are not a few numbers! Those are a lot of numbers! I'll think about it later when I can ... think. But if your job is still a combined ~400 hours on my farm, and you need the job within a week, I'd charge $250–$500 including a setup fee. ... I think. And if project doesn't have problems and I only render during the week, then I'd estimate a two- or three-day turnaround.
If it is just rendering during spare time... and not a specific stand alone business model... then... you might still be around when I need you.I think that's the case for both David and I. We both have a bunch of computers in our respective offices and we have permission (at least I do
) and access to use them for rendering. That's my whole reason behind the "Nights & Weekends" name is because that's when I can use the systems—when the other employees are gone.Something that we should definitely do is collectively write a "Preparing your project for NetRender" guide that points out NetRender's oddities (like particles with multipass motion blur, reflections, light flares, etc.), workarounds (if there are any), things to check in the rendered frames (like color blotches), how to compile the project and it's relevant files, and how to reduce render times and thus render cost.
A render farm submission form would also be a good idea.
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I love Wallace and Grommit, Chicken Run, the W&G shorts, and I look forward to the movie. Great job on the modeling. Makes sure that his eyes get that same look.
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We've got some great ideas going in here!
I would think that a more workable fee structure for the hobbyist market would be based on the number of minutes of animation output requested instead of the amount of computing time used. You'll end up averaging plus or minus on actual comp time spent versus what you charge, but it would be a fee structure the customer could easily understand and allow for in costing.Yes, the hobbyist is the concern. Because I want to help Mr. A:M Guy out there, but I realistically can't afford large amounts of time.
Maybe a mix between render time and play time is calculated more on passes. So a one-minute animation at 30 FPS, one pass (1,800 frames) would cost the same as a 1.2-second animation at 30 FPS, 25 passes ( 1,800 frames).
But that still may not be realistic because in my previous Creation Museum logo animation for Answers in Genesis, some frames took 26 hours to render because of the complex particles, reflections, and 16 passes.
Too bad we can't link up our services, to really provide some horse power.We'd probably set quite a few network timeouts though.
Actually, I have done this. With my render server and farm at the offices, I can VPN over a broadband connection and then my computer shows as a client to the server. But the speed and reliability of connection could be in question.
In some cases, maybe some of us "farmers" could also lower the price if the client agrees to include a "rendered by ____" thing at the beginning and/or end of their video. Basically giving us advertising.
But how about some words from "Flog," Dimos, or anyone else that needs a farm to render? Describe your projects (length, resolution, FPS, passes, how many lights, detail, etc.) and we can make "virtual bids" (but not at all representing actual quotes) to see how reasonable they seem for either commercial or hobbyist application.
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Here's a basic concept of what I may do. RenderMuscle, which used to be the only A:M render farm, normally charges about $2 per hour per computer. Commercial places can be almost twice that. I'm thinking of charging between 50¢ and $1 per hour per computer plus a setup fee.
But personal projects are often low-priority (to the client) and very slack deadline. Obviously, Average Joe can't afford $2,000 for a five-minute animation. For these, I would probably reduce the price. Basically, a tiered system based upon urgency.
Thoughts?
On something like this where David and I would be offering identical services, I really don't want to create competition. So maybe he, I, and anyone else with a large render farm, should collaborate to share clients or take turns. That's the socialist idea.
Or we could just battle it out in economics. That would be the capitalist idea.
BTW, do you know the difference between communism and capitalism? Communism is one man taking advantage of another. Capitalism, however, is the other way around.
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I'm still developing my own sales plan for this. Realize, thought, that there is an extra burden of spotting the NetRender oddities (like particles, reflections, and light flares).
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100,000 or 1,000,000,000? Does it really make a difference when one doesn't get credit or a web link?
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Wow! Awesome work!
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I didn't see this until today. I've enjoyed a nice vacation the past week.
Vern, excellent post. I, too, often have to remind myself to examine the work, and not necessarily the message (in constructive criticism instances).
Bjorn, we can go around and around all day on this, and we would probably both enjoy it.
But to answer your basic question, AiG is not just a "creation vs. evolution" organization, but they are all about the Bible being the accurate, authoritative, inspired Word of God and literal history of the universe. They focus most on the origins debate because that's where "the world" attacks Christianity the most ("The Bible isn't true because evolution proves it false").But the one issue that really discourages me is when people turn this issue into a "science vs. religion" debate, which it is not. Creationist and evolutionists share the same evidence, the same facts, but have different interpretations.
I better stop there before I get into another debate and this topic gets closed.
I wish I could explain more, but I don't entirely know why this topic brings up such a hot fuse with me. I seem to associate many of the more vocal religious tenets with anger nowadays. That goes for Christian and Muslim sects.This does grieve me. Like Vern has experienced, many Christians are not actually living by the words that they preach. Truth and love; that's what it's all about. But so many Christians shout the truth without love, and end up hurting people. Especially in my field, I hear many Christians say (in some sense), "You're going to hell because you believe in evolution." Without being judgmental, I try to distance myself from attitudes such as this because it is hurting Christianity. I'm sure almost all on this forum have had some bad experience with Christians. The best answer that I can give to that is that those people were not living by the Word they preach.
There I go again. I need to get back on topic. ...
I just chatted with AiG's web guys and they said that the Get Start page (with my animation on it) has received over 100,000 visits since its launch. Obviously, it's not as popular as the rest of the site because the majority of the daily 50,000 visitors are already familiar with AiG and probably don't need to "get started."
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Thanks for the compliments, guys!
The museum construction shots with Buddy's full-size dinos and everything are worth visiting alone.Oh yeah! You should see the lobby! They're really built that up nice in the past month.
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Excellent job, Dan (from one who does "agree with the concepts").
Thank you! I think that it's cool to hear from my friends in AiG's web team that many skeptics are writing complimenting the website redesign but hating the content. Many would probably agree with me that it's nice to see a Christian company with quality in their production since so many religious organizations are known for poor-quality stuff.
How did you acheive the reflections..Just with light or with some kind of environment map?The reflections are using my metal material with a slight glow, and a particular lighting setup that I should diagram sometime for everyone. The basics of my metal are:
- Gray diffusion
- About 60% reflectivity
- Reflectivity blend to 0% (very important)
- Additive environment map of just white strokes on black
- And a glow, which I can't recall
I'd give you the link to the material, but I'm redesigning my own website, so stuff is moving around.
BTW, I checked with the AiG web team and they said that AnswersInGenesis.org averages over 200,000 unique visitors every week, with about half a million unique visitors every month. Page views are in the millions each month.
- Gray diffusion
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(I hope the horrors of the R&R fiasco is water under the bridge. No hard feelings right?)
None at all. We're like brothers here—we can duke it out over certain issues, but stick together over others.
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Oops. I forgot to specify that. Yes, I did the 3D logo animation.
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Answers in Genesis (AiG), Christian apologetics and creation science organization, as well as builders of Creation Museum in greater-Cincinnati, has redesigned their extremely popular website. A key feature of the redesigned site is a new "Get Started" section that features an introduction video ("About AiG") that includes one of my 3D animations that I created for them.
www.AnswersInGenesis.org is the single most-popular Christian apologetics website, receiving over 50,000 unique visitors (not hits) every day, which is about 150,000 page views. In a month, the website reaches hundreds of thousands of unique vistors (again, not hits because that would register in the millions).
I think it's awesome that the animation fits so well without alteration from the original design. I offered to reanimate as needed, but they did a good enough job that reanimation wasn't needed.
Too bad I don't get advertising from this.
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Very nice!
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Here are some good sites for textures:
Or for commercial (meaning that they cost) textures, www.StormVision.net.
And while I'm at it, I might as well list some great, FREE stock photography websites that may have good textures for you.
www.sxc.hu (perhaps the best)
www.istockphoto.com (also excellent, but photos do cost ... a couple dollars)
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Yes, his steps are definitely too fast; so are his leg movements. Realize the mass and weight of this guy. He's no Jurassic Park charging terror.
Just for fun, you could make the camera shake with the T. rex's steps.
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Oh. I thought this was from the same poster.
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Real grenades just blow up. But this, blowing glass all over the place, would really hurt if it detonates in your hand.
How do you plan to use this? Because, you know, people who live in stone houses don't throw glass rocks ... or grenades.
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If only that dear hadn't hit my car, I would be able to keep my tax refund and then buy totally cool stuff like this.
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Very, very cool!
Comics art wanted for new Anzovin book
in Animation Books (and other references too)
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We had a miscommunication during 3D Toons and my duckies never got included as you had asked. Do you think that would be good for this book? I've got several great shots that I can rerender at print resolution.
What are the physical dimensions?
And when an Anzovin answers that, here's how to calculate your render size. Multiply the inches by 300 and that's how many pixels you need. For example, a 10" x 7.5" print-quality would be 3,000 x 2,250 px.
Can we make our own spreads? Or should I just give the photos and text for you to layout?