NancyGormezano Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Yes, yes ... it could use tweaking. Might add some special effects in post. Might add some sound effects, in addition to music track. Might. Might not. I rendered out every other frame, and I think I like the "stop motion" feel. So probably will not render out the "other" every other frame. This was a good exercise for me. It's been a long time since I've produced anything. Took awhile to feel more at ease. Story is a bit lame. I winged it from the beginning, and changed it many times. This was the least lamest. Music is royalty free from Kevin MacLeod - Incompetech.com. It's unfortunate that I didn't start out with some music, but this piece "Comic Plodding" seemed to fit the best after I got done. It's a good site to check out for music. Thanks in advance to Matt Campbell for the use of his money wad. Thanks to TWO for the Chief Loon model, a basic, generic, amenable to modification model that is also squetch rig enabled. 2final0000.mov Quote
wedgeeguy Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Wow! Nancy that is a feast for the eyes! Beautiful job! My undies would be proud! Quote
johnl3d Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Nancy who would guess you did this entry... Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 17, 2010 Hash Fellow Posted October 17, 2010 Do a commentary track too. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Interesting. I see you didn't render with AO on. Any reason why? Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 17, 2010 Author Posted October 17, 2010 (edited) Interesting. I see you didn't render with AO on. Any reason why? Mainly, mostly because the render times were just too, too long. I prayed to St. Stian of the Eternal and Everlasting Rendering, to grant me patience, give me strength, but alas, Beezlebub showed up instead. Funny, how Beezlebub appeared to me in Bruce "the Undie Guy" Monahan form. I blame it on him. . He inspired...ok...ok...challenged me to get something done when he posted his satanic entry. I averaged 22 secs/frame without AO. Took 3.5-4 hours to render half (662?) the frames. I needed "instant" gratification to keep me going...nay, correction...get me started. I forget what it would have taken, in 15j+ with AO (3-7 mins/frame?). The hair is a bear. Ver 16 beta3 was giving me fits, and on the 32 bit version, I'm not sure how much time it would have saved (20% or more?). I will check out beta4, at some point. Edited October 17, 2010 by NancyGormezano Quote
Gerry Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Nancy. Nancynancynancy. Unbelievably gorgeous and nutzo. Thanks for this. Keeps me honest. Quote
kwhitaker Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Well done Nancy, a feast of color and action. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 Mainly, mostly because the render times were just too, too long. I'm glad not everyone felt this way. I forget what it would have taken, in 15j+ with AO (3-7 mins/frame?). The hair is a bear. Ver 16 beta3 was giving me fits, and on the 32 bit version, I'm not sure how much time it would have saved (20% or more?). These times don't sound too bad to me. Part of the reason for this community project was to have animation rendered with AO. If jenpy's "fake AO" was available, I would have used that instead, but it wasn't. Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 18, 2010 Author Posted October 18, 2010 These times don't sound too bad to me. Part of the reason for this community project was to have animation rendered with AO. 5-6 minutes/frame isn't a lot of time, even more so if I've got someone else rendering for me. This time, my objective was to get me enthused again, and to get something done, in a short amount of time. No need to use this clip if it ruins your AO project. I'm not that in love with the story. I mis-spoke about the hair being the cause of excessively higher render times with AO, other than AO makes hair very dark. I believe it's really the number of patches that seem to cause higher AO render times. Less patches, mo' faster I believe? I had started using a different set of characters that had more patches, and way more hair. When I saw that it might take 10+ mins/frame with the more complex models, I then dropped down to using simpler models, with less dense hair. I probably didn't have to change my models, story, since I ended up going without AO, and only rendering half the frames. AO, to me, most of the time looks great. But I don't think it's the ONLY style in town, and not for all lighting situations. I look forward to trying out Jenpy's plug-in "Thank You" other people for your nice comments. I appreciate it. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 18, 2010 Hash Fellow Posted October 18, 2010 It looks more "there" with the AO. Would it be OK to have someone render it, Nancy? Quote
mtpeak2 Posted October 18, 2010 Posted October 18, 2010 The AO render looks fantastic. It adds alot of depth to it. It's a great sequence either way. AO, to me, most of the time looks great. But I don't think it's the ONLY style in town, and not for all lighting situations. Of course it's not the ONLY style in town, but it is the style of this project. Quote
John Bigboote Posted October 18, 2010 Posted October 18, 2010 Wonderful animation. Very bizarre. My rule of thumb... animate all day-render all night. Weekends are a rendering 'bonus'. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 18, 2010 Hash Fellow Posted October 18, 2010 If this were re-rendered with AO , a way would need to be found to make the sidewalk match the background as with Nancy's lighting. Quote
*A:M User* Shelton Posted October 18, 2010 *A:M User* Posted October 18, 2010 Wonderful Nancy. The AO render does look great. If needed I have a 20 machine render farm that needs a project. I know time is a problem. Steve Quote
mtpeak2 Posted October 18, 2010 Posted October 18, 2010 If this were re-rendered with AO , a way would need to be found to make the sidewalk match the background as with Nancy's lighting. The ground will need to be set to flat shaded or the diffuse falloff set higher. It may need to be animated since there is a transition back and forth between backgrounds. Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 18, 2010 Author Posted October 18, 2010 I did some testing this morning where I set the ground to flat shaded. I also changed AO=75 as 100 % was too dark, grainy for my taste for above the clouds (50% was probably too light for yours). Also 75% AO looks better for the hair - retains the light pink. I would prefer it pinker. I still do not like how AO makes the 3D model semi-transparent clouds dark, and not white. I wanted a more light, ethereal look. Also felt the rim shadows were too sharp, and too dark for the environment when ground is set to flat shaded, so changed that as well to 5% soft, 80% dark. That could be worked more. The color balance could be tweaked some by changing IBL color and klieg color, shadow color. Steve, Rob - Thanks very much for the offer to re-render this with AO. If I get done with some revisions, special effects I want to explore first, and don't run out of steam, I may take you up on it, if the offer still stands at that point. Truthfully, after seeing Stian's turntable of his cathedral, and how it scintilates, flickers from the grainy noise introduced by AO, I would be concerned that AO doesn't work well for animation? Maybe post blurring would help ? AO Looks great, fabulous for stills. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted October 19, 2010 Posted October 19, 2010 If you want the hair pinker, you could try adding ambiance intensity to the hairs surface properties. Quote
mouseman Posted October 19, 2010 Posted October 19, 2010 Marvelous! I love the transitions in the set! Plus the movements of the characters! Plus a clever story line! Quote
Paul Forwood Posted October 19, 2010 Posted October 19, 2010 Ha! Looks great, Nancy! Very creative and typically you. Quote
dblhelix Posted October 21, 2010 Posted October 21, 2010 "gargantuan bedazzlement!" what a treat, thank you! very tickled by the render, did you choose "step" 2 instead of the default 1 in render settings? inspired to work with that in the future if that's ok, looks really, really good! Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 21, 2010 Author Posted October 21, 2010 Thanks dbl ! (I may call you dbl? or do you prefer dblhelix?) Yes, I chose step 2 instead of 1 when I rendered. And then of course when I imported the tga (or jpg) sequence into QT - I chose 12 FPS instead of 24. Quote
dblhelix Posted October 21, 2010 Posted October 21, 2010 (I may call you dbl? ) sure! when I imported the tga (or jpg) sequence into QT - I chose 12 FPS instead of 24. the whiplash render. thought about this all night, pretty sure this lays the ground to animating my paper doll "virtual stop motion" project. Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 21, 2010 Author Posted October 21, 2010 thought about this all night, pretty sure this lays the ground to animating my paper doll "virtual stop motion" project. You can also start out with animating at 12 fps by changing the setting in the project property. You can switch to any fps at any time as well during your development, and A:M will remap the keys to the right frames automagically. You may have to do a "snap to frames" in some cases, eg like when going from 10 to 12 fps. Try it. Quote
largento Posted October 21, 2010 Posted October 21, 2010 Wow! I'm just now seeing this thread! Fantastic stuff, Nancy! Those frogs killed me. :-) Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 21, 2010 Author Posted October 21, 2010 Those frogs killed me. :-) Thanks Mark! Jiminy crikey-croaky, I fergot to give credit! Those ladies (descendants of the Toad in Scarecrow of Oz) sneaked in for a cameo. I hope the OAG (Oz Actors Guild) doesn't start a paternity suit. Quote
dblhelix Posted October 21, 2010 Posted October 21, 2010 You can also start out with animating at 12 fps by changing the setting in the project property. i learned animation starting with cell, so 12fps is a familiar principle. but it's the render part that intrigues, and motion blur. i plan to test if i can render so that the blur would bring individuality/character/weirdness to the mix. would there be a difference in motion blur behaviour between animating at 12fps and rendering at "step2"? or maybe the motion would have to be planned with that in mind. you have one really fast movement in your film, and it feels that in that frame she had a bit of a "ghost trail" blur after her. i liked that. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 21, 2010 Hash Fellow Posted October 21, 2010 would there be a difference in motion blur behaviour between animating at 12fps and rendering at "step2"? or maybe the motion would have to be planned with that in mind. In A:M, Motion blur is set as a percentage of the length of a frame. For the same percentage setting, Motion blur for 12 fps would be twice as big as for 24fps with "step 2". Quote
dblhelix Posted October 22, 2010 Posted October 22, 2010 what can i say. went nuts over this, made a quick test, posted it in render forum. Quote
thefreshestever Posted October 22, 2010 Posted October 22, 2010 great entry nancy... beautiful and a little disturbing as ever Quote
HomeSlice Posted October 23, 2010 Posted October 23, 2010 Jiminy crikey-croaky, I fergot to give credit! Those ladies (descendants of the Toad in Scarecrow of Oz) sneaked in for a cameo. I hope the OAG (Oz Actors Guild) doesn't start a paternity suit. This is a serious matter Nancy. You should fill out the proper request forms right away! The proper guilds to petition are the OMG (Oz modelers guild), ORG (Oz riggers guild) and OTG (Oz texturers guild) For OMG, please fill out form 123#-4947-omg-3455723. You MUST include written permission from ORG and OTG along with this form. Failure to include written permission will result in a disqualification of your petition. For ORG, please fill out form 530#-9745-org-54356. You MUST include written permission from OMG and OTG along with this form. Failure to include written permission will result in a disqualification of your petition. For OTG, please fill out form ~54!#794-otg. You MUST include written permission from ORG and OMG along with this form. Failure to include written permission will result in a disqualification of your petition. Once you have obtained written permission from all of the above, you must submit these to the Oz Commission, along with a 500 word essay about why the Land of Oz should even consider such a brazen request. You will notified within 1 year of the status of your request. Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 23, 2010 Author Posted October 23, 2010 Thanks Sebastian! We aim to disturb... Holmes: I'm way ahead of you! The hand made papyrus and disappearing organic soy ink check is in the mailroom, to be on the next spaceship outta FedEx, along with all required forms in double triplicate, carbon copied both sides, blue mimeographed, bound with 1 inch borders, and standard fancy red vellum covers, 3 ring punch, and stapled on all sides, and in the middle. However, the brown donkey truck of happiness that will be hauling the stone tablets, will arrive the following fortnight. I thought it prudent to translate my dissertation into greek, latin, & hebrew. I would have done that sooner, but I needed a refresher course in cuneiform. Please disregard the coffee stains. Oh wait...the donkey...um...it might be more than a fortnight...those aren't coffee stains. Quote
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