So... posters?

How to renderlayers...

That last post was a bit wordy. Here's a .gif that makes life a little easier. If it doesn't play on this page, just try clicking it.



...or not... Doesn't look like blogger likes animated gifs...

More Music

Hey guys, Bob's sent me another musical iteration. I've got some thoughts, but I wanna hear what you guys think first.

Have a listen: here.

Refer-a-Ninja

Remember Mini Ninjas? I can recall being quite excited about it, maybe some time last year. Then it was forgotten...

...Then I found it for $30. It is so freakin' awesome!! You should definitely play it, but more relevant to this - have a look at the art style. This is very much the rendering style I think we should be aiming for. I'll bring it in to uni some day, so we can play and have a good look at it.

Possible Title Shot

Shot 10 - Gross Close up

Rough speed paint so we get a bit more meat into the next previz. The current aspect ratio is 2048x1152. Twice the size of our film's. This shall test if I need to go up any further. Next is sky which will be 4096x2304 so we enough playing room with it when we shove it in.

Kitty Poop 1

Just in case you thought we had an original idea, it turns out someone's done it before us...

Environment Concepts

Ground to a certain extent will be modelled. 2D planes will be placed into after effects for hills, clouds and sky. Basic modelling will be done for ground plane and detail will mosty likely be done as normals in zbrush.

Anmimatronic Notation

Notes for changes to our animatic as follows:


Shot 2: reframe for continuity (move to right?)


Shot 3: ideas for making it more obvious why they're jumping out into an explosion ("CHAAAARGE!!" & vox effects?)
>>Hold shot longer, add more sfx.

Shot 4.5: Add close ups for tripping?
>>Trips over his own feet - close up

Shot 7ish: Frame for OS explosion to reveal of desolation (reframe better?)
>>Knock orange off to the left a little, then quick zip out to reveal desolation.

(remember to cut on action from this to next MCU shot)

Shot 9: Reconsider reveal of Blue guy (pan? POV?)
>>Look at pixar examples

Shot 10: Get more oppinion on slow pull to CU of blue

Fighting sequence: Do some awesome camera work
>>Blue's first shot cuts on action to... Many camera angles, fast moving shots, adding items getting hit, etc. etc.

Add tripping close up again (maybe?)
>>experiment with this.

Remember what was potentially wrong with the bird thing...
>>Maybe unneccessary? Add later.

Long shot of bird getting shot (frank) - falling into frame in later sequence (tune for comic timing)


>>Change 2nd tripping framing
-add quick shot of orange's gun bouncing away
-gun falls to place, cut on action to
-strong perspective shot of gun barrel
-slow pan around gun to reveal blue shaking holding gun
-cut to orange, closer, flinching away (bracing for impact)
-cut to CU of Blue hesitating, looking away
-emphasise gun misfiring animation
-click a few times while looking
-THEN turn gun around.
-orange tenatively looks up a little. (reaction shot)
-Blue still fiddling with gun.

Jumpy camera cuts when giving gun back. Reduce to 1 or 2.

Reconsider jumping back somehow. Flat framing is lame. WATCH KUNG FU AWESOMENESS WITH CAPS LOCK OF EPIC

Show photo flying out in long shot
-cut to CU of photo

Re-arrange reactions (blue react - photo CU - Blue re-react)

Flipping photo album (use cut on action as blue rotates photos [cut from external shot to pov])

Photos framed awesomely together at end.



And all that jazz.

Had a little time to slap down some colour...

Your thoughts on the stages of colour through the film?? Just did a quick colour layout before bed. God damn im tired!

The pic that started it all.......

Hey guys, just thought as reference to include the image that I pitched to Tom last year that gave the theme of the short film I wanted to make. Gonçalo Pereira created this image called "Rabbit Menace". You can find more of his awsum stuff on http://rawgon.blogspot.com/

And here is some more concepts of the same project

Another inspiring short

Here's another short film I just saw. It also has a mix of 2D and 3D, but it's much more angled to the 2D side of things. Good reference for character animation and design none the less. It's got a good comical feel to it too, if there's some way we can encapsulate that somehow, that would be cool.

Knight Fever - Written, Directed and Animated by Christopher Minos.

Thinking style

So I saw Neil's (as always) brilliant work, and I was reminded of an animation style I was inspired by. Storm Hawks, I have both seasons if anyone wants to watch.

Meanwhile, have a gander at these screens next to Neil's arty stuff.





Note painted textures, especially the extreme example on the broom. Good artsy textures save time, space, renders and can still look good. Also see the semi-furry creature in the last image.

Thoughts?

Oh, and on an unrelated note, I've started a storyboard attempt.

Big Band version

I was a little uninspired to try anything truely drastic with the music, so I thought I'd try a big band arrangement. I also thought I'd try Vimeo.

Let's see if this works...

Click here to see it on Vimeo.

Quickly, before my bed eats my soul.

A quick one before bed. Trying to rationalise why there's 2 rabbits fighting alone. It made sense to me that there may be a guard tower. It also made sense that it should look like a rabbit.

... I mean, how many human guard posts are shaped like the freakin' Easter Island Heads? Really? More sketches to come soon.

Strawberry Jammin'

Image via Wikipedia

Another music post. I was feeling to hot and melted today to do anything more physical than wiggle my fingers, so I wiggled them over a keyboard for a while.

This was the result, let me know if there's anything about it you think may contribute to our film. This is just on piano, but I could re-do it in a swing band style if I put my mind to it. Damn drum fills.

Bunker

So when i read Bombi's thang i kind of visualized the orange rabbit as more cute pathetic. The audience would both feel sorry for him and laugh to his lameness lol.

Rendering anyone?

So you guys know I'm a rendering nazi.
Couldn't help myself.
This is my Lizard dude from our last assignment, pulling a stupid face.

I was inspired by this podcast here to try out an unorthodox lighting technique, rather than just the plain old one we've used so far when everything is rendered out in one big block. This has some pros and cons, so I'm looking for your guys ideas on this.

He explains it in the video, but I wanted to show the test I did too:

First I did a simple shadow map with a directional light. This could be problematic if we can't find a quick and easy way to turn all the textures to white and back again. Solution pending.

Then I do another 2 renders: one with a bright ambient light:

...and a darker one for shadows.


Using the first shadow map as an alpha channel for the bright render, we can add them together to look something like this:

...which looks like any standard render you've ever seen. BUT! By having this little bit of extra effort behind us in the rendering stage, it makes it so much easier to tweak colours and change minor details later on.

For example, say we want to make the shadows a little more red:

... then add some blue to the highlights:

...yes, he is purple. Again, me accidentally making something purple.

I'm not sure how comparable the render times are for a full scene, but I may run some tests on this using the level for that game design assignment thingy. I'll keep you posted.

What do you guys think in the meanwhile?

It's got the possibility to make things difficult by tripling our number of renders, and making them a little more fiddly.
BUT
The renders may wind up shorter (think about it, one light per render!)
AND
We may be able to reduce re-renders
BUT
If we need to re-render, it will be a longer process.

Lemme know what you think! I've got some more rules of making things easier for ourselves, but I'm not going to spoil your creative drives by imposing techno-regulations so early on our designs and/or awesomenesses.

War stories

Image via Wikipedia

This is a number of weeks overdue to be posted, but better late than never, right?

I just finished watching the Incredibles with dear little sibling, and I remembered there was a story I was going to post up. It's late partly because a) I got called into work a lot, and b) I forgot due to point a), which brings me to point c): I have an amazing lack of short term memory.

So I was watching the Incredibles and reminiscing on how fantastic and memorable the story is, how flawed and brilliant the characters are, etc. etc. etc... It got me thinking about how we can make a great story that's interesting, and with some great design opportunities.

Which is sort of opposite what I was thinking when I re-read this story idea I had...

This is a more whimsical film, that has a good wartime moral, but isn't too heavy handed, and can still be funny.
-----

We can see a tranquil setting, a green field with a tree, birds and butterflies. An explosion suddenly fills the screen, transforming the green landscape into a destroyed battlefield. (using the awesome gw2 trailer idea,) we see a montage of scenes of battle. The soliders battling are basically the same, except for the colour of their uniforms, orange and blue (or whatever colour looks awesome).

An Orange soldier is preparing for battle. He is remarkably smaller and less adept than his other soldier companions. As he finishes preparing himself, he pulls out and looks at a picture of his family. He is forced to quickly put it away as he is thrust into the battlefield. In his haste, he trips, or does something equally as clumsy, and faceplants in the dirt.

He sits up and looks around. The explosions and gunfire are suddenly gone, echoing in the silence. Over the other side of the hill, he sees another soldier dressed in Blue, similarly looking around, lost. They both freeze when they see eachother. The Orange solider looks between his gun and his adversary, hesitating. The Blue soldier fumbles with his gun, and accidentally fires into the sky.

Terrified, both soldiers are spurred into action, running headlong towards each other, firing blindly, not hitting anything. Orange trips again and faceplants in the dirt. Purple arrives in front of Orange at point blank, and tries to fire several rounds at him. He fails, and his gun clicks with an empty barrel.

Orange quickly realises his advantage, and jumps up, aiming at Purple. Purple cowers. Orange can't look as he pulls the trigger.

There is an odd sound as Orange's gun jams. He examines his gun, hitting it, trying to fix it. Purple looks up, surprised and curious. Purple holds out his hand, offering to help fix it. Not thinking, Orange hands it over. Purple fiddles with it for a few seconds before handing the gun back, fixed. Orange accepts it gratefully, and both smile before they remember where they are.

Both clumsily jump back to their respective positions of aiming and cowering. Orange aims again, but still has to look away. Purple looks up timidly, and motions to wait for a second. He casually pushes Orange's gun barrel aside as he reaches for a pocket.

Orange shoots, still looking away. He opens his eyes an looks over to see Purple still alive, clutching a photograph. Orange is dumbstruck. He lowers his gun and reaches for his photograph. (A few shots of each photograph in here to show some similarities...) After looking at his photo for a moment, Orange throws his gun away and helps Purple to his feet.

... then there's shaking hands or something, and walking into the sunset, possibly turning into a nuclear blast. Seeing the blast, they both make all haste in the opposite direction.

-----

So that was an idea I had. That said, I've also done some concept work for our other ideas, which I'll post up after I've scanned them. Which won't be tonight. But soon. Sooner than the last gap between posts.

The Boss Concepts

These are just two quick drawings I did this morning well i had the time. Concepts for the boss character. It was mentioned that he was a mutant or experiment of some sort, and not just a big dude by chance. The first pic his a bit of an adaption of Brad's first boss concept. I through in some stitches to show he has been cut up a little. The second could be more of the mindless monster kinda mutant. If we wanted to go down that road here is an awesome Warhammer concept of a Rat Ogre: http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/newsletter/global/2006/CA_oct_2006_newsl27.jpg

"Rat Ogres are the masterpiece of Clan Moulder's mad research. They are massive hulking monsters, created from a warped mix of different creatures... little more than a mass of sinewy muscles and razor-sharp claws, moved only by their instinct to kill..."

Sounds kinda cool to me.