DSP (Dark Skull Productions): More tests to show

[entity]

Hello,

We have been busy and I didn't want to post too many WIPs, but I have a few more for you. These clips are just tests to see how the models hold up for animation/rendering. Of course we are rendering everything in HD720, but a few things have to be rendered smaller for testing- (especially those containing multiple volumetric lights).

Comments are welcome. Keep in mind that the purpose of these clips are to show the models in lighting. There is one lipsync in there that is incomplete, because I didn't really want to go into simulating the cloth(It's all about the face/the arms are STIFF).

Thankyou!

 

Click on the pic!

 

 

 

More updated images of characters:

Etharion Assassin

Rom Pitt

 

Thanks!

[KenH]

I feel a sudden flush of "Americanitis" coming on.......Yea! Awesome! You rock dude!

 

Really nice work. Who's "we" and what's this all for?

[entity]

Sorry Ken!

John Hubickey (Hubukai) and I are putting together a series of small episodes that have cliff-hangers. We are going to broadcast online via DarkSkullProductions.com. We are near the first episodes previs-animatics now. The logo just got rendered and we posted it here:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28016

 

: and the old post for the begining of the work is:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s...mp;#entry208058

[Mechadelphia]

Rich and John,

 

This is some very nice work! These are only tests too?!

 

Are you two doing post work in After Effects etc... for these shots or are they raw renders straight from A:M?

[Rodney]

As an American I can certainly say, "Yea! Awesome! You rock dude!" too.

 

Your work is indeed 'awesome'.

 

What does it feel like to be creating our very own... 'Star Wars'.

Rhetorical question of course. I know its a lot of work but you've got to love seeing your work come together.

[entity]

Rich and John,

 

This is some very nice work! These are only tests too?!

 

Are you two doing post work in After Effects etc... for these shots or are they raw renders straight from A:M?

 

Straight out of AM into TGAs into Quicktime... poorman's pipeline! the sentinel alcove has multiple volumetric lights so the render is the original size of the render (30-40 min per frame).

 

As an American I can certainly say, "Yea! Awesome! You rock dude!" too.

 

Your work is indeed 'awesome'.

 

What does it feel like to be creating our very own... 'Star Wars'.

Rhetorical question of course. I know its a lot of work but you've got to love seeing your work come together.

 

WOW... never expected that we are creating the 'Star Wars- Attack of the Splines'! We did the hard stuff first. Now we are just filling in the details and it is becoming more fun... we've had to say "okay... time to move on" a couple of times. Vern and Don Davis have been encouraging us too!

JohnH created the ship and all of the props and sets so far, the Assassin's gun was textured by Don Davis, John H. and I.

 

Thanks so much.

JOHN? Are you out there??

[robcat2075]

Great looking renders! Full steam ahead!

[Hubukai]

I am out here! I am, really.

 

Thanks for posting these photos Rich. We have been working on this project and moving towards a final product.. I am hoping to have our final render for the first scene out within 2-3 months. Stupid life keeps getting in the way for me but I am always keeping my feet in the AM pool of rendering. I have to say, having a local user group helps. Without the user group, I would have never met Rich Jackson.

 

here is an additional prop. A general energy container.... you know, just one of those things sitting over there in the corner of the futuristic room just pulsing away for no reason.

 

The cool thing about our work is that it is a team effort. This energy container was modeled by me over my Lunch hour at work. I like to call it the 1 hour modeling project. basically start with nothing... you got an hour to finish a prop... at the end of the hour, whats done is done.

 

Here is the container before i gave it to RJ for texturing.

 

 

Here is the container AFTER Rich textured it. Brilliant!

 

 

I gotta tell ya, team work is the key!

[UNGLAUBLICHUSA]

This is very inspiring!!!

[Paul Forwood]

Amazing!!!

 

You seem to have broken through so many of the barriers. The hair looks pretty good and I can't wait to see how well the cloth works. How many passes are you using for these renders?

 

One little nit-pick, (if you want it): Rom Pitts's right boot appears to have a visible seam running down the front, where the wrinkles don't match up.

[dre4mer]

It warms the heart whenever I see this kind of quality work being created in Animation Master! Keep up the great work guys! The hair looks great! If you got the cloth working well for clothing like that i'm pretty envious, that's tricky business!

 

Don't wish to be critical cuz the stuff looks so good, but the lip sync doesn't feel quite right to me, I think a phenome where the corners of the mouth went back toward the ears more could help. That probably doesn't make any sense. But like the "E" sound in "egg". In this lipsync test the corners of his mouth never come back in this manner. Just a thought.

 

-Ethan

[entity]

Amazing!!!

 

You seem to have broken through so many of the barriers. The hair looks pretty good and I can't wait to see how well the cloth works. How many passes are you using for these renders?

 

One little nit-pick, (if you want it): Rom Pitts's right boot appears to have a visible seam running down the front, where the wrinkles don't match up.

 

The hair is just hair... no MuHair shader- nothing wrong with MuHair, I'm just too lazy to change those settings. Mostly everything has been done at 9 passes, using a 9 pass skylight. Usually, I use also, 2 spotlights/ 1 sun/ 2 bulbs.

Yeah... the seam in the wrinkles was a forgotten fix I had planed to do... never got around to it. I will fix that... it's a shame, because it's such an easy thing to fix!

 

It warms the heart whenever I see this kind of quality work being created in Animation Master! Keep up the great work guys! The hair looks great! If you got the cloth working well for clothing like that i'm pretty envious, that's tricky business!

 

Don't wish to be critical cuz the stuff looks so good, but the lip sync doesn't feel quite right to me, I think a phenome where the corners of the mouth went back toward the ears more could help. That probably doesn't make any sense. But like the "E" sound in "egg". In this lipsync test the corners of his mouth never come back in this manner. Just a thought.

 

-Ethan

 

With cloth I did lots of sims and adjusted the model's arms (There is a simcloth "Tech Talk" out there, by Bob C. and it is a must see!)... every time there is a glitch you must change something to bring the model back into acceptable ranges and sim from that point. It's tricky, but it takes practice. I saved the simulation from the chor to an action- (right click on Choreography Action->Export as Action) That only saves the sim/cp position/pose slider data, but not the other actions you dropped in on the model... you must remember what frame the chor is using for each dropped action- that is if you use several actions that blend/or stop/or start at different points.

Yes... the phonemes are kinda flat in the corners! But it does look weird because of that fact. There are certain points where the mouth should PULL more... so a slider for that purpose is a perfect idea. I will try it.

 

You can see the reference I used- I didn't use the video to lipsync... just the audio, because I didn't want to be a slave to reality... after all, this is the "virtual" realm we are creating. I don't want to photo or hyper realism, I want to create a stylized realism. Do you know what I mean? I just want to represent life- not mimick it.

LIP SYNC ORIG. Reference(Mp4-989kb)

 

Thanks!

[dre4mer]

Thanks for the sort of mini tutorial about cloth Rich, I will definately keep these notes in mind when I'm working with Simcloth again. I kinda dropped a project I was using it on because it got to difficult. So i'm estatic seeing it being used in this application!

 

I understand what your saying about lipsync style, I trust whatever the final result it will all look fantastic!

 

-Ethan