"The Chronicles of Zion"

[ericsh6]

"Chronicles of Zion" - Just click on the quicktime or windows media version

 

 

I think my 4Mbyte file was too big to upload here so I put the link to a website that has a quicktime and windows media versions. I want to post the whole 14 minute movie but it has a few hair issues (you can see the pixely hair on the blond character near the end of the trailer) and I'm not sure if I should submit it to A:M films. Maybe someone has an idea of how I can make the whole movie available? By the way, the movie is done but I am open to suggestions on making better animations, renders, etc.

 

Enjoy! (Hopefully)

[Heath_Naylor]

This is in the showcase, however I feel like commenting on things... Post back if you wont be offended by constructive critisisum.

[robcat2075]

I can't really tell what it is about from the trailer.

 

The "handcart" reference suggests something to do with the Mormon's trek across the plains to Utah. But the dress of the characters doesn't look to be from that period.

 

So I'm stumped.

[ericsh6]

Post back if you wont be offended by constructive critisisum.

 

Yes, please constructively critisize.

 

 

So I'm stumped.

 

That's why I want to post the whole movie. The movie is about a Kentucky girl and her 2 friends that are sent back to 1846 Utah by an Angel to experience the Mormon Trek for themselves.

[markeh]

Ah, the ole' send the girls back to 1846 trick. I like your landscape. Looks like it has a lot of depth to it. 14 minutes is a lot work done on pure animation. I know I 've topped out at 2 or 3 minutes being frazzled. One thing about those girls, they need to be skipping to my lou......a little hop to their step. Also, when they turn their heads they seem to abrubtly stop. Otherwise the scenery looks great and sounds like an interesting story. Oh yeah, one more thing. Get that girl to belt out her line. She's weilding a sword for pete sake.....she's dangerous......she means it!!!!!!

[Paul Forwood]

Well done!

 

Some parts are more like an animatic and other parts are much more polished. I particularly liked the shot of the horse and waggon riding down into the green valley but it looks like your hair-trees are not casting shadows. Was that a concious decision? That is the only thing that spoils that shot for me, otherwise I love it. The horse's motion looks excellent to me!

 

It's kind of hard to make out the detail but you seem to have produced some very interesting techniques. The heavy, dark, rolling clouds for the canyon shot look amazing but should be casting some shadows. Maybe some rays of sunlight could be seen piercing the clouds in the distance? The terrain could use more detail, in the model and the textures, and the trees could be combed to stand more vertical but with the hills brightly lit and set against that dark sky the scene captures those moments at the start, or end, of a storm when the sun and the storm both share the canvas.

 

The three girls walking together need work. Unsynchronise their walk cycles a bit and give them some weight and naturalise their movements. At the moment they look like animatronics on a track. ;-)

 

That's what I see anyway. Hope it helps.

Good work!

[Bruce Del Porte]

I like it. I agree with Robcat, maybe a a "Don Pardo" voice over in the trailer giving the 20 words or less synopsis of the story.

a Kentucky girl and her 2 friends that are sent back to 1846 Utah by an Angel to experience the Mormon Trek for themselves

would do the trick. If you are looking to punch up some of the walks or acting, try some of the exercises in the Student's section of the forum. Hair noise unfortunately is a compression artifact. Making the hair strands thicker and with less contrast can reduce the noise.

 

By all means, I would post the entire film and link to it here. Do submit it to AM films. Nice job.

[Zaryin]

I agree totally with Paul (above). Both on his critisism and his compliments.

[Kamikaze]

Now this is what I have been wanting to see and do with AM from the begining, so congratulations!! on this film, yes, it can use some work, the actors are a bit stiff (who am I to talk...LOL) I hope you can find a way to show it all, I like the feel and mood of the trailer, it made me want to see what is all about....

 

Michael

[ericsh6]

Also, when they turn their heads they seem to abrubtly stop

The head turns get better tward the end of the movie as I get a better feel of choreography animation tools and start to observe how people move. I learned alot by making this movie but compared to much of the posts on this forum - I have painfully so much to learn.

 

 

looks like your hair-trees are not casting shadows

You are right - the trees are not casting shadows. I wanted the frames to render under 4 minutes per frame to finish the movie by December so I turned off shadows on all hair. It looks way better with shadows on.

 

 

 

 

Hair noise unfortunately is a compression artifact. Making the hair strands thicker and with less contrast can reduce the noise

Thanks for the tip! I have backed up my entire project so I can rerender it with the suggestions I am getting. Speaking of hair, hair collision in netrender v12.0 doesn't work right - the hair sticks straight up and is stretched wildly. I am going to do a full re-render when they have that fixed.

 

 

By all means, I would post the entire film and link to it here. Do submit it to AM films.

I will post the entire movie here in the next couple of days. I think I want to apply all the suggestions I get here to the movie, get Hash to fix hair collision in v12.0 or v13.0, rerender with full shadows on, and then submit it to A:M films.

[Atomike]

My thougts:

1. walk cycles need work

2. the music is very 1981

3. the title - blatant rip-off of Narnia. Big turn off.

 

Despite these points, your project IS ambitious - and that's always a good thing!

[ericsh6]

3. the title - blatant rip-off of Narnia. Big turn off

I can take it. But in 6 months from now when the movie is refined, the title may make more sense. I haven't seen Narnia yet but I am in awe of the trailers I have seen. It will be a big event when I go in a few days.

 

 

I re-rendered part of my mountain scene with tree (hair) shadows turned on and with multipass off (a-buffer render). There seems to be some tree jitter in the center of the screen. This may be due to hair jump in netrender v12.0. I can feel in my bones that Hash will fix the hair jump and hair collision and cloth very soon. V12.0 netrender will be coolest thing around then.

 

Link to mountain shadow re-render

[Slipin Lizard]

There's a saying out there... "it's reach over extends it's grasp" or something like that, and that's what I get from watching your trailier. You're bringing together a lot of different elements, and much could still use refinement. Some of it is hitting much closer to the mark than other parts. I mainly find the actors to be really stiff, the worst part being the three girls walking together. Their upper bodies are hardly moving at all, and their so in sync it just looks off. On a positive note though, the wagon scenes are all quite nice, and look pretty polished.

I think you would really benefit from Crisitn McKee's "Animate!" CD from Anzovin Studios. Some of the motion you've used looks like the key frames were not eased well, giving a stiff look to movement.

 

I commend you for attempting such a large and ambitous project, and you'll have to decide how much you want to rework parts of it, or (what I think is better) just take what you learn from this project and make the next one that much better. I think a good litmus test for any animation is wether or not the viewer is engaged by the story, or is more distracted by technical issues. Remember though, many of the animations out there are produced by a team of animators, where one person is responsible for animation just one character, so don't get discouraged, its a good effort.

[ericsh6]

"Chronicles of Zion" the full movie

 

 

Here is a link to the complete movie. I apologize but the free webspace only fit the wmv version only. I will make a quicktime version if there is a free webspace provider. Also, I apologize for not adding credits - some of you may recognize your modles such as Waffy by Alain Desrochers and the piano by Dylan Perry.

[markeh]

Your trailer didn't do this justice. There were alot of interesting and funny nuances put into this to make it come out very colorful. It was very enjoyable to watch! Your animation skills seemed to get better by every minute of the movie. Ok so the characters weren't moving like Shrek but if you had everything moving like your "Toto", it might have given it a run for the money.

[ericsh6]

but if you had everything moving like your "Toto",

I think my animal animations came out better than the people. The lizard was fun to animate and I like how it looks. The Toto or Waffy dog has some built in shake into it. It shakes automatically - I guess this was done with expressions or something. Thanks for the compliments.

[Motility]

Well from my newbie perspective ...I was entertained and impressed. It is inspiring for me to see some of the power of AM in use and although I could agree with most of other suggestions...I think you should be proud of this creation. In an environment where we work in scenes of a few seconds and struggle to get the details in ....the length of your film in itself is a feat. Thanks for sharing this with us. Great Job.

[ericsh6]

Thanks for sharing this with us. Great Job.

Thanks! I am having fun now improving on scenery, animation, lighting, dynamics, etc. I'm glad that Hash is making the TWO movie and I hope they will be aggressive on using every aspect of version 13. I tried to do that very thing in this movie but had some problems with hair and cloth but I believe those will be fixed and then I can re-render this movie so it looks like I want it.