John Carter"ish" Animation

[detbear]

Hello everyone,

 

I've been producing a direct to DVD video for some time now. BUT as an animator, I also squeeze in some time to work on my demo reel. Attached is a demo reel sequence I'm finalizing. I've been inspired for some time now to animate something Sci Fi along the lines of a John Carter type theme. Lots of Fun..... I used some of the riggs from the Hash community here. They fit the look I was hoping to acheive. Aliens, Tharks, Barbarians, Martian Princess's.....FUN!!!

 

Cheers!!!

 

William Detwiler

 

 

Detwiler_anim_1.mov

[robcat2075]

Looks good! Isn't he supposed to be naked though? And the Thark's eyes are on the side of their head!

 

I actually read the first book a few months ago when I heard Disney was shooting it.

 

Holy S#it! It's like a constant slash-fest, mowing down people whether they're innocent or not! I'll be curious to see how they deal with that.

[detbear]

Hey...Cool...I'm glad you like it.

 

I started out just wanting to do a short.. sci fi sword duel. Not necessarily to match the series....

 

The Anzovin Ogre was the only character I could find with the 4 arms

[Paul Forwood]

Ha ha! : A great B movie in the making.

The alien creature could be more focused on what he is doing but I think he's probably not the sharpest tool in the shed. He could have shredded Barbarian guy when he first leapt out, but he seems more focused on making a hammy entrance and his eye left his prey as he searched out some theatrical photographer in the audience. Well, that's what I see in there. (heh)

 

That's a nicely choreographed sword fight. Did you use a reference video?

[detbear]

Hey Paul,

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

Yeah....There was no facial rigg at all on the Alien, so I tried to portray a very angry attitude going between two objects of his wrath. His short confusion leads to his horrible end

 

I actually didn't shoot any reference for this one..... I just choreographed some thumbs on paper and went straight from my imagination.... I have to study body mechanics to get my animation done at work and I usually shoot reference to get ideas and such.....But I just went straight ahead without any reference on this sequence...... Definately not the best way to go.

[largento]

That's pretty awesome, dude! Has a wonderful stop-motion look to it that is completely appropriate!

[itsjustme]

Very cool, William!

 

I had never read the John Carter books, so I listened to the audio version of "Princess of Mars" on Librivox...it held up surprisingly well (excluding a few mentions of how some of the devices worked) for something written in 1917.

[jason1025]

Thats one of the most interesting things I have seen created with AM in a long time. The lack of motion blur gave it a stop motion feel. I kind of felt like I was viewing a skit from Robot Chicken. Did you use ibl?

[detbear]

Hey everyone...

 

Thanks so much for your kind remarks.

 

Jason....You're right.... there is motion blurr in there, but it's a very small percentage(didn't have enough experimental time to test render it with higher levels). I didn't use imaged base lighting although I do in most other projects. But it is full Ambient Occlusion lighting. Each character was rendered separately and composited back into a matched background.

 

It's interesting that you mention a stop motion feel. From what other animation friends have told me, I tend to have a "stop motion" feel that comes out in my animation. I am a big fan of the Ray Harryhaussen films. Somehow, I guess my influences come out in my work sometimes. The rigs themselves also limited some of the smoother polish which gives it a more stiff feel.

[TheSpleen]

thoroughly enjoyable

[John Bigboote]

Great fight scene!

[wedgeeguy]

That was pretty good!

[Paul Forwood]

I am a big fan of the Ray Harryhaussen films.

Funny, I was going to say, "Who wants to be Ray Harryhaussen then?", but I thought I had better not.

Do you plan on extending this into a full story or was it specifically for your showreel?

[detbear]

At the moment I can't, because I'm working on a Direct to DVD project which is taking up most of my time. HOWEVER, I do have a more lengthy story for this. But for now, it will only be a show reel piece. In order to further develop the idea into something more, I would replace the models with more refined rigs. Hats off to creators of these rigs from the community here. Talbot and the others are so talented at this genre. Without their permission to use those, I would not carry it any further than a demo piece. I would need to refine or replace the rigs/ controls....especially the faces.

[animas3D]

Awesome! Very good work.

[Rodney]

Awesome.

 

John Carter has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. (Can hardly wait to see the Pixar adaption)

Your animation is great too! Very smooth.

[apprentice]

That's a fun animation! The render looks really smooth. Good job!