The Wannabe Pirates

[largento]

Thanks, Nancy!

 

I'm taking the little wing-cuffs off of your parrot right this second... :-)

[agep]

You got one more vote:)

[Jeetman]

You got my vote.

 

Just checked out the website. The comic strip is top notch and I love the progressive pics of the 3D ship. That's outstanding work Largent and Stian, that ship is fantastic!!!

 

George

[largento]

Thanks, Stian & George!

 

I loved being able to show off Stian's work! The Sea Anemone is the crown jewel of the movie!

[largento]

Disaster!

 

Last night during a pretty rambunctious thunderstorm, I woke up and thought I should turn off my iMac just to be safe. This morning, I stumbled over to it and tried to start it, only to be faced with a gray screen and a tell-tale clicking noise from the hard drive. Sure enough, a flashing question mark appeared and booting up from the Leopard disk showed no hard drive to repair.

 

(Insert blood-curdling scream here.)

 

I have been fairly good about backing up my pirates stuff. I have a .Mac account (now MobileMe... ugh) and I use the backup software to back up my Pirates folders to my iDisk online and an external hard drive. In March, I invested in a Time Capsule which has a 1TB drive attached that uses Time Machine in Leopard to auto back up the computers on your network. I also periodically make DVD back ups of my Pirates stuff... and had just done one this past weekend.

 

I did stop my Time Machine awhile back, though. I don't remember how long ago, but it seemed to be slowing things down. I'm hoping that my last backup was within the last two months.

 

Well, the downside of the iMac is that swapping out the hard drive on your own isn't really possible. The case is vacuum sealed and requires a bunch of tools I won't have.

 

I carted the 24" monster down to the closest Apple Store at lunch and was greeted by looks like I was an alien and told that I had to make an appointment. Okay. Soonest they could do was 5:40pm today. I asked if I could leave my iMac with them until then and was told they couldn't be responsible for it, so "no." I decided I would name my new hernia after the employee.

 

Faced with all of this, I started thinking if maybe this was the time to get a new iMac and if maybe doing a lot of rendering in the future might make the case for getting something sturdier. I flipped and flopped (and flooped a couple of times) and decided that I would go back to the Apple Store sans iMac, purchase a baseline MacPro and use the appointment with the "Genius" to find out what my options were as far as getting the drive replaced and getting what info I could from backups.

 

$3K and 2 hours of waiting later, I got to talk to the genius and asked him the questions. I was told that since my iMac was out of warranty, it was a much smarter thing to take it to an Apple authorized service center with a new drive, since Apple would charge fairly high for it. To what i'm hoping will be my relief, I was told that when I start up the new machine, I will be able to chose to migrate from a Time Machine backup, which will put all my applications, files and settings onto the new computer (the ones that were there at the time of the last backup.)

 

This will be excellent if it works. And I already want to kick myself for stopping the Time Machine backups.

 

I'm way too exhausted and beaten up to try it tonight (also, I still have to go and get a monitor). This has been an extremely stressful day. Thank goodness I have the laptop, so I'm not completely removed from the world.

 

My plan is to get the new machine up and running (you'd think I'd be all excited about having it, but I'm oddly not) and then down the road, get the iMac fixed.

 

Many things will have been lost, I'm sure. Sadly, the Wannabe Tutorials will be among the dead. After this is all over, I will rebuild and they will return, but for now, it's all about putting the pieces back together.

[NancyGormezano]

oh groan - I definitely feel your pain. So very sorry to hear this. Try not to stress too much about it. It will work out.

 

I hope it is very minimal effort to recover.

 

(and now meself tries very hard to remember when I last did a backup - Yup, I've been playing chicken with the thin ice Gods)

[KenH]

Oh dear. Sorry to hear that predicament. You might surprise yourself with a backup sooner than you think.

 

A timely warning for me schedule my backups and turn off my computer every night.

[largento]

Thanks Nancy, Ken.

 

I hope so. I just got around to looking at the backup DVD and it was from the 9th, so not as recent as I'd thought, but thank goodness I did it, since many of the things I'd backed up on it weren't in the daily backups.

 

So painful to think about.

[Kamikaze]

Sorry too, to hear of your troubles. Wish you the best in getting things as close "back to normal" as possible.

[Jeetman]

Man that's a serious bummer. I really hope you didn't loose too much.

 

George

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

I've just now started setting it up. The restore from the Time Capsule was miraculous! So many things are already working! My mail, all my bookmarks and passwords!

 

As best I can tell, this backup is from early June, so about when I thought!

[largento]

I think the shock has finally worn off and I'm starting to be able to enjoy the new MacPro. (This may have something to do with having found out that I'm getting a small inheritance which will offset the cost by half!)

 

I've gotten most things up and running again. It's taking some getting used to and everything has been a "sure hope this works" kind of thing. I got a little bit of a panic when I connected my iPhone and I watched as a progress bar deleted all of my iPhone apps! Luckily, I was able to download them again from the app store and with a message saying "you've already purchased this, would you like to download it again for free?"

 

Among the casualties of the crash of my iMac were the rendered frames for the one shot I've done (figures!) I've set about rerendering with some noticeable speed improvements. The biggest thing is that I figured since I now have two 2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon processors (8 cores!), I could get away with running two instances of A:M and rendering that way. Doing that more than cut the time in half from the renders I had done on my iMac!

 

Unfortunately, the animated material I'm using for the ocean didn't match up and so I got glitches where the separately rendered frames met up. I'm now doing another render with everything black except the water to that I can cover it up.

 

Obviously that won't be an issue with the other shots, so I'm very jazzed that I'm going to be able to get things rendered so much faster.

 

I haven't set up Bootcamp and loaded Windows XP yet. The last time I did it, I had to install Windows twice (once for Parallels to use and once for Bootcamp.) This time I'm going to install it on Bootcamp first and Parallels will use that copy of Windows, sparing me the second install. I'm considering buying an internal drive that would just be for Windows. I've got room for four drives. (Having used iMacs for so long, this ability to add on stuff is intoxicating!)

 

I'm curious to see how fast things will render on the Windows side, but I've rarely used Windows (except for things that require it, like The Setup Machine), so I'm not in a real hurry to set it up.

[largento]

So, I think the new computer is going to end up being a real plus for The Wannabe Pirates!

 

I'm taking a vacation this week and even though I'm not going anywhere I've had to force myself to take a break from working on the cartoon this week, too. I need the rest! :-)

 

The webcomic was reviewed today on a webcomics review site called Comic Fencing. It's a cool idea for a review site. They have a group of reviewers that picks one strip and they all write individual reviews. A neat way to get varied opinions about a strip before you check it out. The reviews were mostly positive (whew!) and they especially seemed interested in the 3D cartoon, which was really nice to hear.

 

[EDIT] Another review went up since I wrote this which as none-too-complimentary. Oh well, y'can't please everyone. :-)

 

One of the challenges for us is that we really want kids to be able to enjoy The Wannabe Pirates. I think nowadays there is a large vacuum in kid's cartoons where there are the cartoons aimed at very young children and then the ones aimed at young adults. McCrary and I really want to make The Wannabe Pirates something that we would have loved when we were 10 years old.

 

This is not to say that we are in anyway trying to gear it only for kids, but it does mean that we're purposely avoiding the "hard" stuff that is so popular these days. Many webcomics and internet cartoons are successful mostly because they push the limits and you can do that on the internet where there's no censorship.

 

I don't have anything against that, but it does leave behind a stigma that internet cartoons are edgier... and edgy is definitely not what we're trying to do.

 

This will undoubtedly limit our success, but we really are doing this because this is something we want to do and are having fun doing. With that goal in mind, we're already a success!

[Gerry]

Edgy is highly overrated. I think you're making a smart decision.

[martin]

This will undoubtedly limit our success, but we really are doing this because this is something we want to do and are having fun doing. With that goal in mind, we're already a success!

Good attitude.

 

Here's my unsolicited opinion...

 

There's a niche for everything. "Edgy" cartoons simply have a vocal niche - people who want to show how hip they are. "Ducktales" & "Little Lulu" types are, by nature, not well represented by any means except passive ones (like watching your hits). To sell to a 10-year old, you've got to remember what you liked at 10 - this is tough because you want to remember yourself more mature and hip than you really were. (At 10, my sensibilities foretold the kinds of things I like now: adventures, mystery, gadgets.)

 

Once you've found your niche - work that baby. If you can get a loyal audience, you're in.

[largento]

Thanks, guys.

 

Some will argue that I never matured past age 10. :-)

 

The frustrating thing is that we may be too old-fashioned for our own good. Not that we really have a choice. "Hip" is something I never was and I can't see that changing now that I'm 40.

 

But, I do think the 3D cartoon aspect will get us attention. That will definitely separate us from the crowd.

[largento]

 

I had the need to put up a new image for one of the webcomic listing sites, so I threw one together. The first one I've done with Mark S.' face rigging!

[largento]

A little bit of an update...

 

Not too much progress this week. I was sick the week before last and still haven't gotten back up to speed. Work has also been a bear lately, which really saps what little energy I have up. I sometimes think it would be better to have a job where I didn't have to be creative, so that I could save it all up for my own projects.

 

I also worry that the webcomic is taking me away from the animated version too much, but as it is now, it may end up being the primary thing. It does feel like that sometimes. Yesterday, I was working on lettering some strips for later this month and there's a gag with a T-shirt design. It could have gotten by with just a simplistic thing, but I thought it would be better with a more realized design... And who knows, down the line there might be interest in Wannabe Pirates merchandise, so why not have the design really be worthy of being on a T-shirt?

 

What was different was that I decided to "ink" over a render. I set up Cutthroat Jacques in A:M, got the pose and the angle I wanted, rendered it and then inked and colored it in Illustrator. The results were pretty good.

 

 

Henrietta has finally made her debut in the webcomic, so I can reveal her model on the website. The only issue is that her costume change reveals plot elements, so I'm not able to show too much of her.

 

 

I've got a mini-vacation coming up in a couple of weeks (going to Vegas!) Hopefully, that'll wash away some of these blahs and get me back into motion!

[KenH]

Great! Love the inked look.

[mtpeak2]

I like the inked look too. It looks great.

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

[Rodney]

You are as inventive as you are talented. Great logo!

I like the line work too. It'd be a bear to animate though wouldn't it.

 

You have a way of making me want to enter your world and stay for awhile.

I could easily see myself eating at Cutthroat Jaques and playing a round of mini golf.

Good food. Great fun. Somebody license this stuff!

 

I'm sick as well with a nasty cold so I can sympathize.

Get better quick. Coff! Coff! Nasty stuff goin' 'round.

[jakerupert]

Hi Largento,

 

 

Just watched your pirateship-scene for the first time.

two things that took my attention:

 

-As the wind blows from behind, the pirateflagg must move to the front, also could be much bigger.

 

-why not make the three round windows at the side canonports, at least its a pirateship!

 

 

i am great fan of your project!!!

[largento]

You are as inventive as you are talented. Great logo!

I like the line work too. It'd be a bear to animate though wouldn't it.

 

Thanks, Rodney! A few hours a frame (after animating it in 3D) would definitely keep me from ever considering it. :-)

 

Just watched your pirateship-scene for the first time.

two things that took my attention:

 

-As the wind blows from behind, the pirateflagg must move to the front, also could be much bigger.

 

-why not make the three round windows at the side canonports, at least its a pirateship!

 

 

i am great fan of your project!!!

 

Thanks, Jake! You're right about the flag. I had the devil of a time getting that to work, so this amounted to the best I could get at the time. :-)

 

Flemm's ship isn't supposed to be a great ship and the joke is that not only does he only have one cannon (there is one gunport on either side of the ship), but he only could afford one cannonball, so Poco Boco has to dive in and go after it if they miss. :-)

[Rodney]

I hadn't realized just how long it'd been since I read your comic strip.

I'm all caught up again. Some serious background filled in. Even got to see the Captain as a kid.

 

There is definitely adventure afoot! (or is that afeet?) Arrh! Arrh!

[TheSpleen]

I really like your character designs.

[largento]

Thanks, Spleen!

[largento]

Well, I've been playing around with After Effects. After more than 10 hours of video tutorials, I feel like I at least have a handle on the basics.

 

I decided to revisit the Sea Anemone "Beauty Shot" I'd worked on:

 

(EDIT: Something wrong with file... see smaller version in post below)

(EDIT 2: Looks like if you change the suffix on this file to "m4v", Quicktime recognizes it.)

 

Sorry for the size, but I didn't want to stick in a postage stamp version. I'm doing the actual file at 720p.

 

A couple of changes:

 

1) The change in size means a change in format, so I've framed the shot now so that the part of the ship that meets the ocean is largely off frame, which limits the screen time for noticing that the water is flat.

 

2) The water is now just an effect in After Effects. It's not very realistic, but this is a cartoon and nothing else is realistic, so I think it works... and it certainly solves the enormous render time for the animated texture I was using previously (as well as eliminating the glitches I was getting.)

 

Since I needed to have the water line still interact with the ship, I set up the shot to be like a green screen shot:

 

 

I was worried that it might be difficult to remove the green, but it was as easy as applying an effect and using the eyedropper to select the green color. Really easy!

 

I'll probably spend some time tweaking things, but I'm feeling good about the possibilities. This is basically a one-man show and I'm not going to have the option of buying a bank of computers to render frames! I certainly won't be getting Pixar-level quality, but there was never any danger of that happening anyway! :-)

greencomposite.mov

[agep]

I was not able to open up the .mov file

Error -2048: Couldn't open the file greencomposite.mov because it is not a file tha QuickTime understands.

[largento]

Oops. Must've done something wrong. It's not working for me, either.

 

Here's a postage stamp-sized one. :-)

 

green_s.mov

[Rodney]

I love The Wannabe Pirates too much to critique...

 

Ah... what the heck.

I think you could work that camera angle better to give a greater sense of scale.

There. I said it.

 

You know I love your work Mark.

I'll enjoy any Wannabe thing you send our way.

 

I was worried that it might be difficult to remove the green, but it was as easy as applying an effect and using the eyedropper to select the green color. Really easy!

 

Now this I do have comment on as I'm convinced you are adding an unnecessary step. Um... Is there a particular reason you are adding the green?

 

After effects should be fully capable of recognizing the Alpha Channels created in A:M. No green screen required as its already built in as a layer of transparency in the image (assuming your render with th Alpha Channel on of course).

 

(If that is a part of the story... the characters are being filmed against a green screen... or you are just playing... or prefer to work this way... PLEASE DISREGARD!)

 

I feel like a fool for suggesting all this.

Its your show. I'm just a fan.

 

More Wannabe Pirates please!

[largento]

Feel free to critique, Rodney! This may not be the final shot in the end, but it's what I've got now. The fact that I'm not going to have to deal with 23 hour long renders will make me less resistant to revisiting things.

 

And if I don't agree, I'll just ignore them. :-)

 

As to the reason for the green screen, I said it in the original post. The ship has a bottom... a bottom that interacts with the plane of the water level and is variably obscured by it as the ship tilts and moves. Rendering it just with an alpha channel, would have meant I'd have had to go in and animate a mask for the bottom of the ship. Not an easy option. In the past, I'd tried rendering it a few times, making some sections black so that I could composite them using layer properties in Photoshop, but with the green screen, I could do it in one render... and do one click of an eyedropper to remove the green.

[agep]

What if you use boolean to cut out the bottom of the ship? Make an box object where the ocean is and use it to cut?

[Rodney]

Thanks for the clarification Mark. I do recall your earlier dilemma now.

I knew there had to be something else I was missing!

 

Thats a tough one. Stian's suggestion of Booleans might work but I suspect there might be some problems if the hull of the ship isn't a fully enclosed object.

 

As you describe, short of creating a transparency map to cut into an image of the ship I'd guess you have arrived at the simplest solution. Of course that's exactly what you've done via the green screen technique.

 

I think I've extended beyond my level of competence here but... I wonder. There must be another method that'd work just as well for you that would give you more control.

 

I seem to recall a similar dilemma with a rowboat in 'Scarecrow of Oz'.

My memory says one solution was to model the intersecting part of the ocean as if it were part of the boat.

 

Perhaps even better... The Newton Dynamics Solution. (Scroll down and look for the Fluids). Steffen also describes how to stablize a boat in a simulation to keep it from tipping over.

 

Apologies again if this was discussed already and ruled out.

[largento]

I would worry about successfully pulling off the boolean. As Rodney correctly guessed (and Stian knows better than anybody!) the hull isn't a an enclosed object.

 

Experimenting would find different ways of accomplishing this, I'm sure. Anything's possible when you set your mind to it, but when this opportunity became available to me, I jumped on it!

[Gerry]

Mark, I think you've hit on a perfectly acceptable solution under the circumstances. My only comment is that the ship seems to be heading "downhill" at the end of that shot. You may also be able to create an animated mask in AE to refine the waterline on the boat.

[largento]

I see what you mean, Gerry. I need to look at the camera movements in my cho and "move" the ocean to match. I was too excited this morning by the fact that it worked at all. :-)

[Gerry]

I would also recommend that you subscribe to the Creative Cow newsletter if you haven't already. Lots of good AE tutes! You can learn a ton from them.

 

Just looking at the one that came yesterday, there are these featured video tutes: Creating the "Sin City" look; Smoking Letters; Sci-fi Hologram in AE; Making Design Elements Grow. And it text tutorials: Making Lights Disappear Behind Objects and Reappear with Expressions; Morphing in After Effects.

[largento]

Thanks, Gerry! I signed up and flipped through a couple of them... nifty stuff!

[agep]

Hi Mark. I got some good news for you. Boolean works like a sharm. Only the cutter needs to be solid, so no need to alter the model;) Here is a quick test showing the shaded render, final render and the alpha. This might save you some work?

 

[largento]

Cool, Stian!

 

So, how do you go about doing this? Does the boolean cutter have to be part of the model?

[agep]

So, how do you go about doing this? Does the boolean cutter have to be part of the model?

As far as I know it have to be part of the model. Simply add the cube from the library and scale it. Add one bone to the ship and one bone to the cube. In the cubebone properties set "Boolean Cutter" to ON. The cubebone needs to be the child

[largento]

Hmm... there is one downside I can see... or should I say, "bottomside." :-)

 

If you tilt away from camera, you can see the bottom of the model that is being cut by the boolean. Also, I wonder if you could do the y-axis up and down motion with the boolean as a child of the parent bone.

 

[Gerry]

Only the cutter needs to be solid, so no need to alter the model;)

Hey, that's some big news! I thought both objects needed to be closed. Mark, if you haven't worked with them before, you'll come to love booleans, they're a great tool.

[agep]

If you tilt away from camera, you can see the bottom of the model that is being cut by the boolean

Keep the cubemodel (ocean) level

[Gerry]

Mark, here's a thread in the Newbies forum about Booleans. Might help you understand the options a little better.

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33429

[largento]

Not sure what you mean. If I were to do this, the cube *would* be the ocean level...

 

Oh wait, now I see what's happening. If I rotate the body bone, to tilt the ship, the cutter bone rotates with it, because it's a child of the parent...

[agep]

Oh wait, now I see what's happening. If I rotate the body bone, to tilt the ship, the cutter bone rotates with it, because it's a child of the parent...

simply constraint the cutter bone to a null to make it become static, so that you are able to move your ship independently to the cube

[largento]

Aha! That works! And by setting an offset translate to constraint to the null, I can translate the ship in the y-axis, too!

[agep]

Demo of the ship on the ocean using boolean

shaded (showing the boolean cutter):

shaded.movfinal:

final.mov

 

*Edit* opps didn't see you post