Dream Sequence

[animas3D]

I'm starting to do some experimentation into the dream sequence for my short film project (storyboard link in my signature). Before I start building I was wondering the best way to acheive certain looks.

 

If you look at this video on YouTube which explains how spacetime curvature effects gravity, there are some parts that represent spacetime graphically as a grid or lines in a matrix. Here's a screen grab:

 

 

If you want to see the whole clip that includes animation, here it is:

 

I know that Animation Master has an option to render geometry as lines. I had a few questions about this. First of all, I tried a quick test to see if it would work. I selected all the CPs of a sphere and turned on Render as Lines in the properties panel for the group. Then I tried a quick render in the choreography (not a render to file) and it rendered solid (no lines). I am planning on fiddling with it more to see what I am doing wrong, but if anyone has a quick tip on getting it to work, I would appreciate it.

 

Also, if you look at the picture above, you may notice that the lines kind of fade out as they recede in z space. I kind of like that. I think that one way to do this could be with black fog. Does anyone know if fog effects render as lines? Otherwise, I am open to other ways of acheiving this effect.

 

Also, When you render as lines, is there motion blur on the lines when you move the camera? I would like to achieve a smooth and fluid motion and motion blur will help it. If the lines do not render with motion blur, it maybe added as a effect in compositing so I guess I'm not that concerned about it. By the way I saw a demo of After Effects CS5. It has a new effect called "Scene Motion Blur" which behaves a lot better than simple directional motion blur and almost looks like the scene was rendered with motion blur to begin with.

 

Thanks!

 

Joe.

 

P.S. Thanks for the comments about the Boards in the Main A:M Forum and rest assured that the narration track will be cut down and edited to permit the film to rely more on its visuals to tell the story.

[robcat2075]

If you render with multipass everything can have accurate motion blur.

 

I though Render as Lines would automatically turn off the patch surface between the lines but I find I need to turn the whole model transparent, then make groups for each spline and set each separately as Render as lines.

 

Not sure on fog. I think not.

[animas3D]

If you render with multipass everything can have accurate motion blur.

Cool. Good to know.

 

I though[t] Render as Lines would automatically turn off the patch surface between the lines but I find I need to turn the whole model transparent, then make groups for each spline and set each separately as Render as lines.

In other words, make the whole thing transparent then select each spline with the comma key (to select each cp along the spline) and make a group for each.

 

Not sure on fog. I think not.

Thanks. I will put some thought into otherways of achieving the fade out unless someone else has a thought on this.

 

One other thing... I am noticing a slight converging of the lines in the picture due to perspective (see image above). In other words they get thinner the further away they are from the camera. Do you know if render as lines obeys perspective or whether the lines have uniform thickness no matter how far away they are?

 

Thanks.

[HomeSlice]

Another way to get render-as-lines to work is to add an extra Control Point to one of the splines making up any valid patch.

Or detach all the splines so nothing makes a valid patch

You just need to get rid of any valid patches, then render-as-lines will work.

 

I've never tried render-as-lines with fog ...

[animas3D]

I see... get rid of the patches or make them transparent. I am going to try it out a little later tonight. Before I do, any idea whether the lines obey the laws of perspective and get smaller the further away they are from the camera?

[NancyGormezano]

Before I do, any idea whether the lines obey the laws of perspective and get smaller the further away they are from the camera?

 

IIRC, I don't believe they do - but it should be easy enough to check

[animas3D]

I'm doing some experimentation to with Render As Lines. So I made a group with no legal patches, selected the splines and turned on render as lines in the group. However, where does one set the color and thickness of the lines? I can't seem to find it. I looked in the chor, etc.

 

Thanks!

[NancyGormezano]

I'm doing some experimentation to with Render As Lines. So I made a group with no legal patches, selected the splines and turned on render as lines in the group. However, where does one set the color and thickness of the lines? I can't seem to find it. I looked in the chor, etc.

 

Thanks!

 

It will be under the surface properties of the group

[Darkwing]

I used the render as lines function for my holographic panels for the endeavour. It;s best to apply any surface effects to the model as a whole and then use the group function to use for the render as lines bit.

[Darkwing]

here we go:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=a...st&id=51063

[animas3D]

It will be under the surface properties of the group.

Oops... How did I miss that? Thanks!

 

I used the render as lines function for my holographic panels for the endeavour. It;s best to apply any surface effects to the model as a whole and then use the group function to use for the render as lines bit.

That's cool! Thanks!

[animas3D]

The good news is that "Render As Lines" does follow the laws of perspective as shown in the image below:

 

 

Now I must learn whether it is affected by fog.

 

Joe.

[NancyGormezano]

The good news is that "Render As Lines" does follow the laws of perspective as shown in the image below:

 

That is good news - looks great!

 

 

(it's probably toon lines that don't change thickness?)

[Darkwing]

render as lines acts as any model does, it is essentially just another texturing techinque, at least that's what I've found. I've never tested it in fog or anything, but so far it has reacted how one would expect it too

[animas3D]

Thanks for the input. Well, I guess bad news often follows good news... It seems that, indeed as predicted, fog seems to have no effect on splines rendered as lines. as shown in the following image:

 

The image on the left has no fog, the one on the right has black fog. The cubes are affected by the fog, the lines are not.

 

So, either come up with a way to generate some kind of depth map that to composite over the lines or find another technique (which I can't really think of any as elegant as render as lines).

 

In the meantime, I'll send in a feature request.

 

Joe.

[johnl3d]

how about a group image to make the grid group add image did cookie cutter of square image with alpha

 

rough idea

 

 

 

 

square.zip

 

 

sorry for the size did not notice fog image I used was so large

 

 

here is no fog with smaller stroke image below

 

 

newsquare.zip

[animas3D]

how about a group image to make the grid group add image did cookie cutter of square image with alpha

Thanks! Do you mean do a cookie cutter map on a group of patches. If so, that is a good idea. I was thinking about that. That is the next step. I like your images. I am hoping that Steffen (or whoever) has a chance to implement the fog though.

 

By the way, there is only a couple of days to vote in the contest. For those who are unaware or didn't get a chance to vote yet, I hope you will take a minute to have a look at my storyboards on YouTube, and if you like it, please click the Thumbs Up button to help it win! Here's the link again in case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1yOPu5F9A

[johnl3d]

made a group of entire model then added image to group which means every valid patch gets the image made image cookie cutter this setup seems to work with fog

[animas3D]

made a group of entire model then added image to group which means every valid patch gets the image made image cookie cutter this setup seems to work with fog

Hey that's a pretty cool idea! That might be the way to go. Thanks! I'm going to try it this weekend.