Intro Movie W.I.P.

[arkaos]

Featured here is my progress for the creation of my intro movie. So far, I've got the Space Captain character 90% done. Also shown is a preliminary flight test for the flying saucer / fighter my alien will be flying. The clip shows the saucer experiencing a little engine and stability problems while flying through a gravitational distortion of some kind. This test is just to give me a feel of how to animate the saucer.

saucer_test.mov

[arkaos]

Here is another version of my saucer test clip with some background elements. I also changed the color of the main saucer body. The old blue color didn't offer enough contrast against a black space background.

saucer_test2.mov

[Dhar]

Looking good. Nice simple shapes and primary colors makes for a pleasant watching.

 

The jet flames could use a little secondary motions so as not to look like rigid parts of the saucer.

 

Looking forward to more updates.

[arkaos]

I was thinking about adding some particle effect trailing off the back of the rocket expulsion to make it look like diffusing/dissipating gas. I will try a streak emitter and see what I get. Anybody have any suggestions for that, I'm open to ideas.

[Dhar]

I was thinking about adding some particle effect trailing off the back of the rocket expulsion to make it look like diffusing/dissipating gas. I will try a streak emitter and see what I get. Anybody have any suggestions for that, I'm open to ideas.

 

 

The secondary movements I was thinking of is some delayed reaction of the flames after the saucer bops and weaves. Like when the saucer rolls left, the flames would have a bit of delay before they follow the roll. This can be accomplished either by the sprite emitter or adding a couple of bones to each flame with constraints or simply animated. That'll depend on the vision you have for the scene.

 

Looking forward to your experimentation

[arkaos]

Hi Dhar. Excellent suggestions. I did try a streak emitter this weekend, however. My results were pretty lacking. I got the particles looking really good, but when the saucer would bob and roll the particles delayed too much and looked like they weren't even coming from the rockets during some frames. So I went back and simply added a glow to the flames. I kind of like the look they give, not too realistic and somewhat cartoony. I will try adding some bones with dynamics, like you suggested. For now, here is what I got. I toned down the rolling at the end because it was a tad extreme before.

Saucer_test3.mov

[arkaos]

Well, I added a little bit to my saucer. A hood scoop (Rad, man) and a few lights and a spinning light on the bottom (which you cannot see in the movie) and some very subtle secondary motion in the rocket flames. Not much, but it's there. My next task will be to add some decals and more small details.

Saucer_test4.mov

[Dhar]

That looks better, evolving nicely.

 

Uh.. your side markers (green and red lights) are backwards. Red's always on the left/starboard side, unless of course they're from planet bizarro

[arkaos]

That looks better, evolving nicely.

 

Uh.. your side markers (green and red lights) are backwards. Red's always on the left/starboard side, unless of course they're from planet bizarro

 

LMAO....Silly me!

[arkaos]

Well. Here begins the actual intro clip. This first installment is a basic render testing the camera angles for a "flyby". Let me know what you think. I'm still new at the chor stuff, so any tips highly appreciated.

 

Here are some questions for the community:

 

1) I have applied an on/off pose for my characters dynamic constraints (for his antennae). They move dynamically while scrubbing through the chor, but their motion is not rendered in the movie. Does anybody know what I did wrong? I am guessing that it's because my character has no skeletal motion or keyframes, even though he is on a moving platform.

 

2) The platform my character is standing on is basic, yet the model is not fully designed. The prongs sticking out at each quarter are electrodes. I am planning to have a "ring" of electricity crossing each one during the final animation. Anybody know how I might achieve this effect?

 

3) A short cape will be added to my character. It will be a cloth flapping in the breeze. My question: Should I create a front and back surface for the cape? I've heard before that is necessary for the cloth to cast shadows, but I'm not entirely sure.

Intro_cfb02.mov

[Clone Reject]

great job on both of them!

[arkaos]

Character fly-by with Attitude!

 

I thought a little character motion would spice things up a bit.

Intro_Flyby05.mov

[Kamikaze]

Yes ! this is comming along nicely, he'll go far with that attitude...

 

Michael

[arkaos]

Here is my version with a spring-loaded cape added:

 

Click here to watch Character-Flyby-with-Cape

 

Some interesting things about my project file. Before this, the space captain dude was constrained to the pedestal and the pedestal tranlated though coor-space. A force was constrained to the character to provide the necessary wind for the cape. However, whenn the platform would make a turn in coord space, the added forces applied to the spring system for the cape seemed to "over stretch" the springs and the cape stretched out REALLY long in the direction opposite the turn.

 

Previously, I did a cape test in a separate chor with the character standing still and I got excellent results.

I also tried removing the wind force and the cape didn't really have any control over itself.

 

So...I re-did the flyby chor, pedestal and character do not move, any implied motion will be from moving the scenery instead. Now the cape behaves itself during the animation. Anybody else have experience with the cloth/spring systems? Is their a better way to do it? I am very interested to hear your comments on this.

[arkaos]

I've been tinkering around with lighting and eventually decided to create animated overhead stage

lighting rig.

 

I placed lights in the lighting model and turned on/ tweaked the volumetric parameter for each. Each light has up/down and left/right motion with pose sliders. In this test, I only used some simple motion to see how the lighting would turn out.

 

I have an additional Klieg attached to the camera with it's intensity around 30% to partially illuminate my character during the colored / white light transitions.

 

I hope you like it.

Stage_Light_test_02.mov

[Dhar]

Great idea. The set looks great. The yellow lighting seems to create a "fog" that doesn't exist in the white lighting which interrupts the flow of the scene. If that was intentional then it worked

[arkaos]

The yellow lighting seems to create a "fog" that doesn't exist in the white lighting which interrupts the flow of the scene. If that was intentional then it worked

 

Yup, Dhar...'twas intentional

 

I decided to go for "cool" instead of "realistic". These worlds I create so I can escape reality, not imitate it. (And I'm not really experienced enough yet to make real work.)

[arkaos]

I know that the flying saucer I made before was a tad plain-jane, so I gave it a slight overhaul.

 

Introducing...."The Space Rod"

 

As you can see, the front end isn't done (neither is the rear) and the decaling isn't taken care of yet. I am thinking of putting a mid-late 60's style grill and headlight assembly on the front.

Space_Car_Spin.mov

[Dhar]

Remember the 'cuda? That's what it reminds me of.

 

Nice work.

[Zaryin]

I can't believe I missed this post. Great job so far.

[arkaos]

Hello All

 

I've been working a little more on my space car. Added a little, changed some features. Mostly been trying to find the right coloring and so on that I want. As you can see, I decided against the "musclecar" style front end. I tried it out, but I think I want a sleeker, faster look. Yes, I know the headlights are just jammed in the front instead of patched in. Not going to do any major work until I decide where I want stuff. Also, I want the patch count to be fairly low so I can actually use it in an animation on my equipment. Been spending a boatload of time tweaking materials and such to find the look I want. You know you are in too deep when you spend 4 hours doing nothing but applying, tweaking, trashing, re-applying, tweaking materials for that right look and feel.

 

 

 

I don't have a rear end on this hummer, so no butt pics until then.

[arkaos]

'Hey Arkaos....Pimp My Ride!"

 

The latest and greatest. I, once again, completely changed the coloring.

 

 

 

Here is a few screen-shots.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Space_Car_Pimped.mov

[Eric2575]

Hey, I like your hovering rod. I know you already mentioned it, but those headlight a gotta go. They look like someone stole the lights off of a VW bug and stuck em on your spacecraft.

[arkaos]

Here is the very first test-flight of this baby. Eric, I have changed the headlights. They are not as lame as before, but still have a vintage look to them.

 

Space Rod Test Flight

[arkaos]

Here is the Finalized test flight of the space hot rod! I added terrain and effects.

 

Test Flight

[arkaos]

A quick prelim of my Alien Dude. The last character I need before I can start the actual Intro Movie animation project.

[arkaos]

I was originally going to use my alien (unofficially named 'Chameleoid') in my intro movie, when I realized I hadn't really done any official casting auditions. In order to comply with the requirements of the Screen Actors Guild, I am now requiring a monologue from each prospective actor as on official audition piece.

 

Chameleoid chose a reading from the character "Professor Pacoli" from the movie "Fifth Element" to showcase his acting prowess.

 

Chameleoids Audition

[phnxpyre]

Awesome work!!!!!

 

it's looking really good, i enjoyed the Chameleoids Audition. good camera work, good lighting, good expressions on his face.

AWESOME!

It's cool to see you progress throught the project.

[DanCBradbury]

that's pretty cool. normaly i've found that the longer a camera scene stays up, and smooth camera movements gives the best look. Awesome lip sinc and character... although he looked like he was glowing a bit... like some light was right in front of his character

[arkaos]

Thanx Phnx. Thanks Dan. Actually, yes he did have some lights right at his feet pointing up at him. Thought I'd give it a try. Not the best, but it wasn't awful either. Good advice on the camera movement too...thanks for the input

[arkaos]

I've been working hard gathering sound clips, lip-syncing and such, so I haven't really had much to post for my movie. I rendered out a sneak-peek screenshot (below) and composed my version of the scene-opener music you should all recognize. As for what actually happens, I guess you'll still have to wait to see the finished animation.

 

Scene opening score

[arkaos]

When I modelled this character, I had a particular look I wanted to give him concerning his eyes. Though I achieved the model I wanted, I realized that his eyes were too small to convey the thoughts and emotions necessary in selling an animation to an audience--especially at the resolutions I would have to use if I want my movie to finish final render within my mortal human lifespan.

 

So I must now adapt to achieving believable animation with this guy relying more on the use of body language. I am pretty new to this, so critiques, reviews, thumbs-ups, thumbs-downs, advice, praise, or general two-cents-worth are welcome.

 

Here is part of the opening sequence for the Space Captain in my movie:

 

1st runthrough

 

And next, a look into the disturbed eyes of Alien Dude:

 

It's Not Easy Being Green

 

Refer to pic from previous post for setup.

[Dhar]

Nice job. Your cartoon style takes me back to the simpler more innocent times, which I find appealing.

 

I like your MIDI of Star Trek, I'm not sure how well it fits your character, but it certainly fits the style of the time.

 

In the 1st Runthrough, I thought your character spinned the gun around his finger like the old Western style movies, but closer look revealed that he only shakes it.

 

It's not easy being green is excellent, nice touch on the mouth wipe. I'd like to see a hickup

 

Good job overall

[Bruce Del Porte]

Nice job on both tests. The movement looked very convincing. If I were to change anything, maybe shoot an angle thet lets us see the green guy's eyes a little more. Give us more.

[Paul Forwood]

Well done. I like what you have done on this project so far.

[arkaos]

Nice job on both tests. The movement looked very convincing. If I were to change anything, maybe shoot an angle thet lets us see the green guy's eyes a little more. Give us more.

 

I actually moved the camera to center the green guy for this test shot. The previous picture shows the actual camera angle for both characters (and the whole scene, really). Just you wait, the green guy has a few tricks up his sleeve(?)!

 

Dhar, as far as the Star Trek theme (made it myself with Voyetra Record Producer), that's kinda of the theme of the whole spoof I am doing.

 

Thanks for the support, guys. This is my first real movie-like animation featuring sound, lip-sync, particle effects and such. I have learned a lot from doing this, but I have learned even more from the members of the hash community, so please keep comments and critiques coming.

 

Hopefully, with my busy work schedule, I can finish in time for the contest, but it's looking pretty grim at the moment. A few more late nights are in store for me, I think.