Rough Animation WIP

[jesshmusic]

Here is another view, then off to bed.

[jesshmusic]

For anyone out there that is still interested, I have started in full rendering the animations for this project as most of the modeling is now done. I am well into the first scene and should be finishing it soon. I will post some stills very soon.

[jesshmusic]

can you post a screenshot of the rig and PWS (so I can see the hiearchy)...I'm rigging a lamp with the "leg" in that shape and don't know the best way to..also, can you tell me what constraints you used?

Sorry man! I missed your post! I will post the information you requested this evening when I am home from work.

I will tell you the rig is very, very simple for this thing because of it's limited role in the film. It only has to walk fairly straight and shoot the big gun on the front. So Each leg has a thigh and calf bone that is under a 'body' bone in the hierarchy. The are limited to only rotate on the X (I think) axis. Since I made the animation above I realized the feet and front and rear "toes" needed bones too. Their rotation is limited in the same fashion so they can only rotate on the one axis. This makes these bad boys very, very easy to animate. I have done some scenes already and they look sooooo cool marching slowly along.

[Mr. Jaqe]

Jess, this is awsome! I love it! Can you post a scene with the dropship?

[jesshmusic]

I may post a little snippet....

 

It is just about time for the ever enigmatic Teaser Trailer. I think I can paste something together that won't give much of anything away, but might generate some small amount of excitement.

 

 

[ZachBG]

Man, how did I miss this?

 

These are some beautiful renders you have here. If I can make some minor suggestions:

 

The walkers approaching the colony scene: it seems like the walkers could use more weight. I don't know what the gravity of your planet is, but the walkers sure look like they should be massive. A little recoil in their footfalls should do the trick.

 

The fight scene on your web page: Something bugs me about this and I'm not sure what. I think it's the composition; I don't know what I'm supposed to look at.

 

Can't wait for the trailer!

[jesshmusic]

Thanks, Zach. I have a new plan on how to make Flin do some damage.

 

I have also noticed that on my new G5 the real time animation function works half-way decently. I can get much better motion if I grab a foot and make the kick motion real-time with the mouse. It works fabulous with the pose sliders, too.

 

[Paul Forwood]

Wow!

This is really starting to come together!

Looking forward to some action.

[jesshmusic]

I am just about to animate the first action sequence. It shouldn't be too hard. Just a little chase scene. I should post some kind of stills tonight.

[jesshmusic]

Here is a still of a currently rendering animation. These are the 3 dropships with the Walkers in tow heading for the planet. More stills to come.

[jesshmusic]

Here is a short clip from the chase scene I am working on. The sound FX are a place holder until post production.

 

Hoverchase Chase Scene Clip

[Mr. Jaqe]

coooooooooool! So... Star Warsy! Very good, very good indeed. The only thing that I kinda pick on is the size of his head, when view the flick from the front of the spaceship/landspeeder(?). It looks kinda small... how about moving the cam closer to where his head pops up? Other than that: love it!

[jesshmusic]

The head is small because I am using a small focal length. Go for the stylized look on that clip. There are other clips in the sequence where the viewer gets a good look at Flin in all of his big-headed glory.

[jesshmusic]

Here are a couple stills of my progress:

[jesshmusic]

Next still:

[jesshmusic]

And another still! (project coming along a little quicker!)

[Tony]

Jess, your stuff is really great. I dont know what else to say...i wish i was you

seriously awaesome though, really

[jesshmusic]

3/28/2005: Now I am thinking of spiltting this project into shorter 'Chapters'. The good news with this, is that means the first chapter should be complete in a month or less (or more). After that I can take a little break. The first chapter is up to about 10 minutes long, and getting longer, so hopefully it can stand as a decent short.

 

Mind you, I am not certain I will do it this way. I am afraid to stop work. I may release Chapters, but keep working. More to come soon.

[jesshmusic]

HAHAHAHA! This is starting to get fun. I am still a long way from finishing, but here for your viewing pleasure is the opening sequence with music!

 

http://www.fupduckonline.com/colonists/opening-seq-2.html

[pixelmech]

Excellent! Excellent! Did I mention excellent?

[Paul Forwood]

Nice work, Jess!

Did you write the music specifically for the animation or are you animating to match the music? Looks and sounds great!

[jesshmusic]

Nice work, Jess!

Did you write the music specifically for the animation or are you animating to match the music? Looks and sounds great!

It's kind of a mix of both. I take a rough idea of the time of the section I need music for, then compose the music. After that I make adjustments to the animation, not the music. the advantage of being director and composer!

 

I have now plugged in ye olde Roland XP-80 to make some of my own SFX. Getting some decent results, more updates soon.

[Godfrey]

Great soundtrack!

 

(The modeling/animation's nice too. But an original soundtrack like that is rare on these forums!)

[jesshmusic]

Thanks for you comments. I am hoping to get more done this week.

[msfolly]

The music, wow. The animation, great!

 

I only watched the intro movie, and you can tell that the guy driving the ship is a good guy. I think it is his "clear expression" , He just looks nice. I was impressed as well with the picture of his "protector" friend posted early on in this thread. He LOOKS like that kind of a guy.

 

If you can evoke those judgements without anything but their appearance, I think you are doing a lot.

 

I am really looking forward to seeing more.

[Dhar]

Very nice work - I had fun watching the scenes. The smooth camera movements were a real pleasure.

 

Uh... please accept this as a constructive criticism, but the line "This is the traveller requesting permission to land to the council chamber....please"? leaves much to the imagination. How about a small dose of realistic communication, such as "council tower: This the traveller zero five one niner on final approach requesting permission to land on pod three six five zero at the council chamber sector - over" Tower answers back "roger - traveller one niner this is council tower you're clear to land on pod five zero." or something like that, ya know? just to spice things up as a contrast to the smooth camera work and music.

[Newbert_Zero]

thats incredible nice job!

[jesshmusic]

As the story progresses you will see that the Deutreenums are a little more casual than that. I used to have number and registry markings on the Traveler, but I removed them.

 

Thanks for the comments.

[Newbert_Zero]

it must have taken you a long time

[jesshmusic]

Yes, it's taking forever!

 

 

 

BTW:

 

to a Moderator I am regretting the title of my thread. If someone could change it to "The Colonists Movie Project WIP" I would be ever so appreciative.

[Newbert_Zero]

i wish we could change the title ourselfs.... oh well i guess that would create confusion if we could