Suburban Plight: Live-action short film w/3D animation [Archive]

effstops

20-Aug-06, 03:58

Hey everyone! Some of you may recall my WIP thread for my Snurgle model (here (http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=56138)) back in February.

http://peerlessproductions.com/misc/images/elysiun/snurgle/redesign/18_SnurglePresentation2.jpg
Click me! (http://peerlessproductions.com/misc/images/elysiun/snurgle/redesign/18_SnurglePresentation.jpg)

Well, that character was created for this film I've been working on for the past two years - Suburban Plight.

I spent months working in Blender to figure out how to create and animate a semi-realistic 3D creature, and to integrate that with live-action footage.

Since then I've just been working on individual shots for this film. Each shot that had a Snurgle in it took between 3 days and 2 weeks to complete.

Anyhow, I know this is a little unusual for this forum but I'd like to post the entire film here (it's about 5 minutes), even though there are just thirteen short shots with 3D animation in them.

http://peerlessproductions.com/films/stills/SuburbanPlight/SuburbanPlight.jpg
Enter the site! (http://peerlessproductions.com/films/pages/SuburbanPlight.html)

And, I would like to show you my finalized Baby Snurgle Walkcycle here, used twice in the movie:

http://peerlessproductions.com/animation/stills/BabySnurgle_WalkWrap.jpg (http://peerlessproductions.com/animation/pages/BabySnurgle_Walkcycle.html)

Finally, I made a little screencapture outline video tutorial thing on creating the Snurgle characters and integrating them into a shot- it briefly goes over each process: modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, lighting, rendering, and compositing. Watch it here (http://peerlessproductions.com/tuts/SnurgleShot_Overview/SnurgleShot_overview.mov). (Right-click, save as! It's 60 mb.)

Anyways, I'd love to hear what you think. Hope you enjoy my movie!

--Colin

bELi

20-Aug-06, 05:05

cool movie, especially the unexpected actions =-)

nicely done!

The M.h.p.e.

20-Aug-06, 05:12

I've been admirering you (and your brother's) works for a long time. Good
seeing more stuff!
"No animals were harmed in the making of this film". Great short!:D

Good snurgle model. I really like the texture work you've done for it, though
the snurgles sadly don't really fit into the plates that well.

Thumbs up!
//Mathias

Burritoboy

20-Aug-06, 05:23

A great effort. Excellent work.
Well modelled, good camera work.

Having followed the whole evolution, you've tackled each problem and stage of the process logically and creatively.

Can't wait to see what you do next.

BB

Aligorith

20-Aug-06, 06:22

Well done dude! :)

Snurgles were well done. Some of the animation was better than in other places. The subtle eye movements of the mother/father snurgle when the main character sees the snurgles for the first time were great. However, the feet movements of snurgles in general was a bit floaty.

Aligorith

Roy

20-Aug-06, 11:38

Whenever I try to go on your site, it closes my browser!

Roger

20-Aug-06, 13:49

Haha this is awsome Colin! I know the character from the UV unwrapping video (really nicely done) and I recall seeing it before (probebly in teh WIP thread). The character is soo cool and the texturing and animation in the short movie was awsome. As mentioned before, in some moments it could have been a bit better, but there are not many guys here who can match such an achievement, both thumbs way up!

By the way, thanks a lot for beeing so helpful with showing all the "behind the scene" stuff. The tutorial was really helpful for I am trying to make my own character at the moment (It's the Dad at Focussed Critique but it's not going very well) but the texturing is really difficult.

Thanks again, such community efforts are really appreciated. I try to contribute where I can (buying the Blender Orange DVD and Blender Guide) but learning from the best is awsome.

Best regards

Sander.

PS I realize just now that I remembered the voice of the video turoial....what was that?...ehm... of course! Icarus! I've learned Icarus with your video-tutorials, nevere realizing this incredible character was from this same guy! I'm sorry I should have thanked you before with making the Icarus video tutorials... so here by: Thanks Colin, I really really appreciate it. It really helped me a hell of a lot lot. :D

Linny

20-Aug-06, 15:06

Hi Colin, as i already mentioned in our email correspondence a few weeks ago, i really love your work and especially the snurgle. i just showed the movie to my girlfriend and she immediately fell in love with the snurgles. she wants me to ask you, where she can buy on of these creatures :) or if she can at least get the uvmap of the snurgle to knit a cushion from it.

Keep up the excellent work.

Greets Linny

Edeehem

20-Aug-06, 15:35

This is an excellent short movie. You were wondering if two years of work for this movie (on your site) was worth, for me, they are and you should be proud of this movie. Great job
Here are my crits on this great and fun shot movie
*Nice camera angles, I especially liked the top down shot from the tree trunk looking over at dad mowing the lawn. Very original
*The snurgles are just great and cute. Awesome and interesting creatures. My only crit would be the front shot at the face with the eyes. They look odd and seem to look inside his head at one point
*Simple and a very effective plot. The simplest of storylines are essentials in short movies since you don't have that much time to tell a story.

Overall, this is a really cool short movie and the blender sequence in them are great

Thumbs up
Edeehem

scorpius

20-Aug-06, 18:08

I just have one word: Excellent. Awesome. Neat. Cool. Professional. Top-Notch. Great. Wow.

How did you get the camera to track around in the real-life shots so smoothly. That was awesome -- very movie-like. It's almost as if you used an expensive crane or something of the sort.

The 3D blended into the well-done shots nicely, and the story line is funny & enjoyable: a winning combo. I'm saving this movie in my archive.

Marve

20-Aug-06, 18:30

That's what we all wants - to 'one man' create a short film. But you did it man, and it's professionel looking, great idea, great camera angles, nice and good looking composition. Nice 3d integration, good shadows and everything. The only thing was the movements of the snurgles, a little too mechanic. But anyways it's awsome, you got my full respect for working 2 years with this.

Super Wu-Man

20-Aug-06, 19:12

haha, looks cool, but with dial up i'm not able to download (dont have quicktime either), any chance you could put it on youtube.com, and the tutorial too?

i would love to see this and learn how to composite 3d with live action, for my next masterpeice (the first one was space slug attack (http://www.simplecartoons.com/film.html)), yes i know you are very jealous, what can i say its just sort of my thing,

but i looks like we got similar actors, yeah fake mustaches and fake teeth are so funny......what........not fake.......errrr sorry dude, haha, great work.......i think
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~nellim/men.jpg

Pseudo-G

20-Aug-06, 21:14

Fantastic stuff! I saw some of your compositing stuff a while back, but this is definitely a step above! I really love the atmosphere created by the acting, visual style, and the music. Great plot, too!

I can't wait to see what you'll come up with next!

The_Warder

21-Aug-06, 00:42

very awsome I watched the small making of video of snurgle and It gave me great insights on a creature I have been working on for a while thank you.

effstops

21-Aug-06, 01:08

Wow! Thanks so much for all the replies! You make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :D I'm really glad you all find my tutorials helpful! I think I'm getting better at talking to my computer screen. :)

First things first:

Whenever I try to go on your site, it closes my browser!
Eep! I have no idea why it's doing that. What browser are you using? What platform are you on, and how old is your computer? If you want to see the movie you can download it directly from this link: http://peerlessproductions.com/films/movies/SuburbanPlight/SuburbanPlight_sor_midres.mov

i just showed the movie to my girlfriend and she immediately fell in love with the snurgles. she wants me to ask you, where she can buy on of these creatures :) or if she can at least get the uvmap of the snurgle to knit a cushion from it.
That's awesome! I'd love to see a Snurgle cushion!! If she's actually serious about that, send me a PM and I'll send you the UVmap! LOL. :D

This is an excellent short movie. You were wondering if two years of work for this movie (on your site) was worth, for me, they are and you should be proud of this movie. Great job
THANK YOU for saying so. :)

My only crit would be the front shot at the face with the eyes. They look odd and seem to look inside his head at one point
Yep, you're right! The eyes had to be keyframed individually cause if you look at the model, the eyes are on the sides of his head. In that particular shot I wanted his expression to be more readable so I chose an angle that would make it look more human (with the eyes in the front). However, it was impossible to get him to look one direction without the other eye looking through his skull. :) Good catch. I hope it wasn't too distracting!

How did you get the camera to track around in the real-life shots so smoothly. That was awesome -- very movie-like. It's almost as if you used an expensive crane or something of the sort.
Thanks a lot! I'm really proud of some of those camera moves and I did actually use a crane (it was my school's). I also used a relatively inexpensive steadicam. But in any case, the shots weren't nearly as smooth as they look now until they were stabilized on the computer. :)

haha, looks cool, but with dial up i'm not able to download (dont have quicktime either), any chance you could put it on youtube.com, and the tutorial too?
Sorry Wu, I have an aversion to youtube... If you download the H.264 dialup version from my site (it's still about 15 mb, sorry!) you should be able to watch that on some other media players. If that works I can compress the tutorial as well.

Thanks for watching! I was wondering if I could get any specific animation critiques? I agree that the Snurgles are generally too floaty and too mechanical - is there something specific I should work on to make it more realistic? Weight? Timing?

--Colin

Linny

21-Aug-06, 03:36

Well, if you really want some critics (although it's hart to find some :) ) i want to mention two scenes where i spotted some points.

The first is at about 2:47 in the video, where one of the baby snurgles is hopping over the gras. It seems to stay in the air a little bit too long, as if the it describes a circle in the air and not a parabel. Looks a little bit unnatural. Not a big thing so.

The second one is a little bit more severe. It occurs at 4.07 in the video, when the papa snurgle stands right before the plate. there the snurgle casts two shadows. one from his head onto the plate and the other one falling on the ground in a slightly different direction. That's impossible with just one lightsource, isn't it? :)

That's all i could find. Otherwise as allready said. Awesome job.

Greets Linny

Ps.: I Pm'ed you about the Cushion :)

Grogilius

21-Aug-06, 06:19

Wonderful film,great work!

I liked it very much.. keep doing such things !
:)

enricoceric

21-Aug-06, 07:21

This is absolutely fabulous, great work in the camera handling. Nice suspense and very humorous ! The integration of the Snurgles may require a bit more work, but that's great anyway.

Congrats
Enrico

eaglebreath

21-Aug-06, 07:51

this should be in forum gallery, man! I love this so much. I thought that that man beat those snurgles, still, that feeling give me goosebumps :)
You are just awesome.

BgDM

21-Aug-06, 07:59

That was friggin great work. Excellent little story too.

I have to agree that the Snurgles, though well modelled, textured and animated, did not seem to fit 100%. I think it was more lighting than anything that threw it off. Some AO would have been great to use. If it was used, then some more harsher shadows on the Snurgle would have been great. The lack of a good bump map on them seemed to detract from the beleivability of them too.

Overall, 4 out of 5 from me. Good stuff.

BgDM

dodgydavec

21-Aug-06, 08:06

I think 4 out of 5 is a little harsh. I am always impressed by the aptly named "peerless productions" team. Colin, I am in awe of your abilities. Especially considering how young you are. There were some very small flaws in the film but, hey, you're a one man band. And if you take that fact in to consideration, you deserve 99.5 out of 100. Excellent stuff. 5 stars (if you round it up ;))

bLaf

21-Aug-06, 08:18

amazing short!thanks for the great video tutorial!
keep up the good work ;)

reaper

21-Aug-06, 09:57

I love to see this near professional quality work done with Blender. It is a rare gem.

Paul J

21-Aug-06, 13:39

A great little short. The only thing that spoiled it slightly was 'Love and Marriage'. I can't stand that bloody song at the best of times but in this case I couldn't really understand why you used it, since it didn't seem to fit the subject matter. Well, I'm sure you had your reasons. Great work, again. It may have taken two years but at least you have something you can be really proud of at the end of it.

nozzy

21-Aug-06, 13:39

A really nicely executed piece of work. A great story and really well clipped together, a future director definatly in the making here.

I loved the subtle use of the snurgles, rather than just focusing the whole plot on them. Some nice animation on them as well.

The colour correction between CG and plate was a little out but what the hell youve finished a good short, and made a nice job of it.

Mrdodobird

21-Aug-06, 15:00

WHAUGHGHh!!! Sweet stuff! You know I like this. Great animation, and amazing work on the Snurgle!

LarryPhillips

21-Aug-06, 15:22

Nice work. 2 years? Have you estimated how many hours you actually put into this?

In your howIdidit vid you mentioned you were learning some areas as you pushed ahead on the project. I would bet you could now knock this out in a matter of weeks if you worked on it full time. Would you agree? Just curious.

At any rate, I say hell yes it was worth it! The knowledge you've gained by doing this is immeasurable. Also, the ability to see a project through to the end and get it into the can (even after 2 years, warts and all) says a lot about you. Btw, was it a roller-coaster ride? Fun? Of course it was, that's what it's all about, right?

Anyway, it's an accomplishment you will look back on for the rest of your life. Congratulations!

Rinne

21-Aug-06, 17:00

That was freakin awesome, I loved it all the way..

I did also watch the comments you and your father gave, and 2 years sounds a lot, but I think it really paid out.

The camera work is very nicely done, your father did, although he is not a "real" actor, a very great job, and I couldn't do anything but laugh when I saw the snurgles..

They were so sweet and nicely animated, I love the animation of the eyes and eyelids.

The "story" is short (well, it's a shortmovie, though), but I really like the concept.

Great job to you and your dad, I'll be looking forward to your next project;)

JiriH

21-Aug-06, 17:13

Dear Colin,

I would like to congratulate you on this finished project. Simply speaking you are definitely CG genius. Lucas and Spielberg should fear of you (or be lucky that their careers are nearly over zenith) :D

I wish you best luck to your future work. You are one of the most talented people on the forum, one of dozen focus on film FXs. Let me be a prophet I suppose that in near future not only Blender funs will know you.

PS: I have just watched also your walkthrough film. Really interesting. Some trick seems like magic (for example how can you render just AO pass??? Could you explain some details on our rendering settings??? Thank you in advance.

Jiri

Charlie

21-Aug-06, 18:47

A big thumbs up on a good job. It may have taken two years but think about how much you have learnt in that time. I am all for people who actually do things and you can be proud of that. I am sure that there will be plenty of people running out to beg borrow or steal a video camera and start trying out a few CG shots. I know I will!

I hope you get your snoogly Snurgle cushion.

FuzzMaster

21-Aug-06, 21:51

Incredible

effstops

22-Aug-06, 02:58

Thanks so much guys!!

It seems to stay in the air a little bit too long, as if the it describes a circle in the air and not a parabel. Looks a little bit unnatural.
Yeah, that's true. I haven't done too much animating in general and animating separate objects for each foot was a pain. (I rigged it poorly.) I definitely agree with that, though.

there the snurgle casts two shadows. one from his head onto the plate and the other one falling on the ground in a slightly different direction. That's impossible with just one lightsource, isn't it? :) Haha-- good catch! This one I knew about and chose not to fix. :D I was counting on the audience just looking at the Snurgle and not at his shadows. You're right - they don't align properly if you really look at it. It's pretty difficult to set up the lights so that the shadows fall properly.

I think it was more lighting than anything that threw it off. Some AO would have been great to use. If it was used, then some more harsher shadows on the Snurgle would have been great. The lack of a good bump map on them seemed to detract from the beleivability of them too.

Yes, I did use AO but not too much of it - I had it down to like 30% opacity. FUR- good fur - would have made these guys look awesome, and I think the lack of hair makes them look very CG. But it would have been incredibly difficult to set up and animate. But yeah, maybe more bump would have made them more realistic.

Nice work. 2 years? Have you estimated how many hours you actually put into this?
Haha, I don't even want to try. This was done in my free time, and there was a period of 3-4 months where I had made so little progress I sorta gave up... but I did work really hard on this and fairly constantly. Many, many hours.

In your howIdidit vid you mentioned you were learning some areas as you pushed ahead on the project. I would bet you could now knock this out in a matter of weeks if you worked on it full time. Would you agree?
Yes, that's definitely true. The Snurgle was my first organic model, my first UV unwrap, my first hand-painted texture, my second-ever rig (and the first was extremely simple), etc.. I learned an awful lot in creating this guy and became more comfortable with Blender in general during the project. So yes! Now I could probably remake this entire movie in 15% of the time it took me. :)

Some trick seems like magic (for example how can you render just AO pass??? Could you explain some details on our rendering settings??? i
Sure! All the passes required a certain amount of prep work. Once I had finalized the animation I saved out o few identical files for modification. For the AO pass, I added a ground plane and I gave everything a blank white material. I changed the background color to white, and turned on Ambient Occlusion. I have it set up to "add and subtract color" and then I usually turn up the Energy a few notches. Doing this will produce a very nice AO render. The only problem with this method is that it takes a while to set up (5-10 minutes). And if I see something wrong with the animation, I have to scrap my AO file and start from scratch. That's why I'm looking forward to the next version of Blender, which will allow easy pass rendering. :)

Thanks to everyone for their comments! I really appreciate it. :)

--Colin

buergi

22-Aug-06, 04:28

Wow gorgeous, great work! looks really pro! love the vfx work
Thx also for the great making off/tutorials! The thing with the animated background image is really cool, i didn't know this. You make me interessted in starting my own project. I'm currently searching a good idea.
Thumbs up again, thx so much.
The actor, your dad i think does also a great job.
I admire your patience, i think i wouldn't keep up doing 2 years the same project.
So even if there are some mistakes, e.g. the thing with the two shadows, keep on working, stiff upper lip :D

Excitron

22-Aug-06, 11:11

Your flick is great, but you seem concerned about the music rights. In all honesty, you can do without the Sinatra track. Just my opinion of course, but you shouldn't hold up your work for music rights. There's some royalty-free stuff you can use for the other mood music as well if needed.

Although unfortunately I can't remember the link, I remember reading about a website where there was some free royalty-free stuff for download, you may find some replacement tracks there for the other mood tracks. There's also http://www.ccmixter.org/.

You may also find a local composer who may do a piece on a work-for-hire basis for a reasonable fee.

You should really consider replacing the music so you can get your work out anywhere you'd like. It a great little piece of work.

Job

23-Aug-06, 09:10

brilliant work Colin! The camera work and editing is great! Also great work on the snurgles, nice subtle ear and nose movements :)

you're a big inspiration to me, and a proof that working hard pays off ;)

good luck for you're future projects! :)
(as for crits I ain't got much to add to what the rest has said)

btw, you're father did a great job as well!

Wanted Bob

24-Aug-06, 17:01

Man, this is really cool! I loved the storyline, and even though the mowing went on for a bit too long (IMO), it emphasized his obcession with his lawn. That twist at the end was very funny. The snurgles were very well modeled and animated (I saw the concept of it while it was a WIP) and seems to fit in to the shots very well. The camerawork was amazing, the shots were smooth and well placed. If I didn't know better, this could have been one of those PIXAR shorts (but with real people).

You should be proud of yourself, it turned out great.

Wanted Bob

Lasphere

25-Aug-06, 04:13

oh man... You Are COOL! (And your dad, and brother).. Man! Have u ever thought about getting in to the pixar Studios? (I have) if so.. I hope to meet you some day up there. I hope to be such as good as u when I come to your age.. (im 14).. :D lol you are amazing talentet!!!!!!! 5555555500 stars from me!! :P

blackstorm

28-Aug-06, 05:57

yes really great animation! awsome!

about the schizofrenic shadow - I think if you'd let the sign cast a shadow too the shadow of the head on the ground wouldn't be noticable right?

NodeRanger

28-Aug-06, 11:05

Could someone post a link to colin's Icarus video tutorials? I heard they were pretty good... Colin - in terms of matching plates (obviously, mostly in terms of lighting,) HDRi is an excellent and easy way to make a light probe with a digicam and photoshop CS2, and easier to do than trying to match every light source by hand.

blackstorm

28-Aug-06, 18:23

Im not sure whether you mean the actual page
http://www.peerlessproductions.com/tuts/pages/Icarus.html
or the direct link
http://www.peerlessproductions.com/tuts/IcarusTutorials/Icarus_Tutorial-QTDivx.zip

oh by the way they were really helpfull!!

dawvee

28-Aug-06, 20:50

Wow, this is pretty incredible, especially for a one-person(!) film crew. I'm curious though, how did you get some of the shots? You appear to have a full range of camera motion, from what look like crane shots to smooth dollying shots and all. How did you do that? Did you just have an old Steadicam lying around or something? :p

The M.h.p.e.

29-Aug-06, 01:16

dawvee: It answer is actually already on the web page (just on the right side
of the page you watch the movie on). He used both a steadycam(or at least
an equivilant) and a camera crane.

//Mathias

reywillow

29-Aug-06, 04:38

Full stars! Though there are small flaws as noted above, I love this short! Not only for the CG, but for the whole thing. Well done!

I'm really impressed with the camera tracking, it's perfect!

Be well

dawvee

29-Aug-06, 10:46

It answer is actually already on the web page

Doh! Thanks Mathias, that was silly of me not to notice.

PlantPerson

29-Aug-06, 13:15

Very funny clip, that... I enjoyed it greatly.

I'm honored to be able to say I met you at SIGGRAPH, because I suspect you may be a famous director someday.

WeirdHat

30-Aug-06, 17:17

I forgot to post earlier... this is really really amazingly well done and awesome.

effstops

30-Aug-06, 19:18

Woo! I made it into the Forum Gallery! :D Thanks for the replies everyone.

Have u ever thought about getting in to the pixar Studios? (I have) if so.. I hope to meet you some day up there. LOL, that's one of my dreams, but I doubt it'll ever happen. Pixar would be an awesome awesome place to work, but I don't think I'll be good enough.

Colin - in terms of matching plates (obviously, mostly in terms of lighting,) HDRi is an excellent and easy way to make a light probe with a digicam and photoshop CS2, and easier to do than trying to match every light source by hand. Yeah! You're right - I definitely need to experiment with HDRI - I even bought a big reflective sphere a while ago to do some tests. Can a lightprobe cast hard shadows though? It seems that most HDRI renders I've seen have soft shadows.

I'm honored to be able to say I met you at SIGGRAPH, because I suspect you may be a famous director someday. Thanks man! I really loved your games, by the way - you gave me a CD of your work. Keep it up!

I forgot to post earlier... this is really really amazingly well done and awesome. Thanks a lot WeirdHat! I've been meaning to tell you - congrats on your clip on the Colbert Report! That was so coool.

Thanks again, everyone! Here's a little update on the project right now: I've decided to scrap the current music and get it re-scored. I've found a composer who will be writing a brand new soundtrack. And I have also re-edited a little bit: the beginning is now a little shorter, which I think it works a lot better. When this new version is done I'll post a little update. :)

--Colin

L0GAN

30-Aug-06, 21:11

The movie was very well done. The camera was moving stylistic.

The snurgles are very cool and it's a shame they were'nt featured more, but that's the (movie) magic :)

Some critics may be the jumping baby snurgles floaty jumping. A slight increased speed for the youngsters might also be nice. But many of the small touches seem present. (Remember the look the snurgle gave in the animation included in the Blender Siggraph demo reel?)

Not concerning animation but...
Would it be possible to resize the original footage times 2, then render the 3D at twice the size and after compositing scale it down. That was you get a way better intergration of the snurgles into the live footage. (some frames show almost horizontal rasterlines on the edges)

I dont know it it's worth rerendering on a higher resolution for you but I would like to see it :)

[EDIT] Ooooh new score, new score. Woooooo :D

effstops

30-Aug-06, 21:31

Hey Logan, thanks for the crits!

Would it be possible to resize the original footage times 2, then render the 3D at twice the size and after compositing scale it down. That was you get a way better intergration of the snurgles into the live footage. (some frames show almost horizontal rasterlines on the edges)

YEAH! Do you know what's causing that? I could not figure it out! I hadn't thought of that - stretching the video to twice the size and rendering the 3D at a better resolution. But still, there should be an easier way to get clean edges. I could probably isolate the alpha channel and smooth that out somehow. Anyways, that's a problem that I had trouble with - and thanks for the suggestions!

--Colin

L0GAN

30-Aug-06, 21:42

I dont excactly know. The edges aren't Blended (no pun intended) into the background but a hard edged? (Using a b/w mask without grayscaled soft edge?) It also reminded me of being (de)-interlaced artifacts for but assume your cam nor renders were.

Maybe someone knows a good solution.

Darg

31-Aug-06, 05:00

benstabler

31-Aug-06, 06:59

Wow, that's pretty amazing. Not only was the CG top notch, but you also have talent as a film director (the pans and zooms really make it look professional.)

My only crit is the shadow effects on the sign- when the snurgle is standing looking at the sign, you can see the snurgle's shadow on both the sign and the grass, but the sign has no shadow. Otherwise, excellent ;)

Lando

31-Aug-06, 08:22

Wow, thats some really proffesional looking work. As a filmaker myself, I have to comment on how well shot this was. Really captured the feel of the video. As for the CG elements, these were also very well done. Top notch work, and I'm looking foward to more.

-Lando

POWER 3D

31-Aug-06, 09:36

I have not been able to see it.... I downloaded both low-res versions, and it has some kind of 'bad atom' error????? what can I do to fix this... or how can I see it?

Also I saw on your site that you wanted a music composer... I have not sold any of my compositions yet, lack of getting around to it..., but I have made over 200+ compositions thus far.. If you want to hear some low-res versions of my old compositions, you can goto my myspace page at: www.myspace.com/cigampower I have made far better now a days... So if you want me to email you some of my new stuff I can, but otherwise I was just wondering if I can help any?

effstops

31-Aug-06, 13:00

haha... damn you you made me laugh my ass off in work. Great short. I really like the camera work and the 3D is integrated nicely. Nice acting too. Pity there is no sound to it or atleast there wasn't on the copy that I downloaded, the QT H264.
LOL, thanks a lot! Actually, there definitely should have been sound though - maybe upgrade your Quicktime Player (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/)?

I have not been able to see it.... I downloaded both low-res versions, and it has some kind of 'bad atom' error????? what can I do to fix this... or how can I see it?

Also I saw on your site that you wanted a music composer... I have not sold any of my compositions yet, lack of getting around to it..., but I have made over 200+ compositions thus far.. If you want to hear some low-res versions of my old compositions, you can goto my myspace page at: www.myspace.com/cigampower I have made far better now a days... So if you want me to email you some of my new stuff I can, but otherwise I was just wondering if I can help any?
Hey man, sorry for not getting back to you earlier! I got your email but recently my inbox has been overflowing with stuff I need to pay attention to. Anyways, thanks so much for the offer! Right now I've actually got a composer working on it but maybe we could collaborate on a future project?

And a whole lot of people have gotten the "Bad Public Movie Atom" error. I compressed it so that people with older versions of Quicktime could still play the movie, but apparently older versions of Quicktime come back with errors. I have no idea why! The only solution is to upgrade to Quicktime 7 (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/). Sorry!

Thanks everyone! :)

--Colin

Lasphere

31-Aug-06, 14:19

:D ofcourse you are..

POWER 3D

31-Aug-06, 16:20

Yeah I was wondering if I just needed to update... I had version 6.5.2, but I guess it needed to be version 7.. So I will try it later... Also I think why older versions could not view it was because you had your render a newer video codec... What codec was it??

And yeah we could work later on, thats fine. Once I see the short I could still send you something, just because. Just to give you a sense of what I can do, but other than that talk to you later on.

eeshlo

01-Sep-06, 01:36

Extremely well done Colin! Still relying on the old icarus script eh? ;)

edit: Ok, that sounded kind of weird, what I mean to say is that I find it amazing that one of my shortest scripts as far as development time is concerned somehow turned out to the most successful. And not in the least because of your work.
As for this one, the only real minor point I can think of is the music really, as others have noted, it doesn't really fit, but I saw in a previous post you are working on that. About lighting, for your purposes, hdr lighting might be more controllable using the old method of creating a light array approximating the hdr environment.
Anyway as I said before, I wouldn't be surprised if some time in the future we will see your name on the big screen somewhere... :)

effstops

01-Sep-06, 19:37

Yeah, eeshlo - this movie would not have been possible without your script! Thanks so much! (Oh, and thanks for updating it. :D Before that I always had to use an older version to import and that could sometimes screw things up.) Thanks for your comments. Yup, I'm working with a composer right now - I heard the first draft today. :)

About lighting, for your purposes, hdr lighting might be more controllable using the old method of creating a light array approximating the hdr environment.
Do you mean the fake GI dome? Or is there actually a way to approximate an HDR environment with a light setup?? I know nothing about that!

Power 3D - yeah, sure, you could do that! I'd love to hear what you could come up with. :)

--Colin

POWER 3D

02-Sep-06, 12:35

Well I just sent a version of the music to your email... It is kind of a quicky, just because I dont know what exactly you are wanting in your style of music... But I tried to get close to what you had... It took me like 2 hours, or so, to come up with this version... It is in roughly the same timeing as your music. So you should be able to play your video and my music, to see how it fits... So talk to you later on...

Leichim

02-Sep-06, 13:47

wow excellent, the camera work, the creature concept; the creature looks and behaviour, the rigging and the (facial) animation. God job, reminds me of garfield the movie, with having real actors and a rendered garfield. I wonder how you made the shadows of the renders into the film.

schdeffan

03-Sep-06, 13:53

Very nice ... I think, the nicest aspect of the whole thing is that your dad did the acting.

scriptcoder

03-Sep-06, 17:54

An amazing job! I frequently check your website and I'm always amazed and inspired with what you've done.:)

I really really like this movie. The plot is well thought of and I liked your cuts. The acting worked surprisingly well and your Dad was a great choice (even if you didn't really have a choice.) The CG animation is amazing also and I really really like the camera tracking and the ease you have with it.

Dang! The camera crane for Suburban Plight gives amazing motion. I wish I had one. (I actually googled it and found the price tag.....:eek:)

The one thing that I did not like and kinda winced at was the use of commercial (and expensively copyrighted) music. But then I read that you we're looking for some original music, so all is good. :D

I enjoyed it and I've added it to my little folder of goodies on the desktop.

effstops

03-Sep-06, 18:42

Hah! I should mention that I don't actually own that crane. :D It's my school's. But thanks man!

--Colin

danmark0992

07-Sep-06, 11:00

very nice film colin i wonder if i could make something like that

but how can you put the snurgle into a real film

charliemcf

07-Sep-06, 11:29

one word:

blender!

ok,
1] you need to get icarus or voodoo camera tracker
icarus:
icarus 2.09(not sure, crashed on me, worked for colin!) (http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.filefront.com%2FIcarus_209% 2F%3B3922266%3B%3B%2Ffileinfo.html&ei=IzsARZ7-F62ciAKolPDKCQ&sig=__cgSa8eLJfs3jaG9L-U35u6i8lkY=&sig2=zT-twIYkYyPTi89WEJZ1tg)

wot i use, voodoo:
voodoo camera tracker, nice, simple, n00b proof! (http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html)

2]record your real footage ie.the grass in this one
3]use your tracker (mentioned in [1] ) and track the scene
4]onece tracked save using the export to blender option
NOTE: both voodoo and icarus support blender!
5]open up blender, then go to text editor
6]file, open, then choose/find the file you saved (number [4]) then select file
7]append(merge) yor blender file with your character/thing you want to add eg.the snurgle
8]animate the scene
9]render
NOTE: some bits are missed but im gonna make a tutorial, so hold on 10mins!

cmurphy

07-Sep-06, 14:19

I just downloaded your short film and watched it with my wife. We both really liked it. Two thumbs up!!!

I know some people here have criticized the beginning and said it was a little too long. I disagree, and found the timing to be great. I like how the movie built up to the climax. Very well done.

I give it 5 stars.

Blenderhick

10-Sep-06, 01:01

I saw 'Icarus' mentioned in this post... and fantastic work, by the way... I know the software has since been sold to a larger company... could someone here help me out getting a copy of the last version of Icarus before it was sold?

ZaffieKitten

01-Nov-06, 23:23

oh muh gawd that is the cutest little thing ever

pıkselı

02-Nov-06, 08:30

Totalexodus - Good karma sent your way for posting those tracker links! Thanks and productive day for ya! :)

2disbetter

02-Nov-06, 14:07

Well I'm a little late on the comments here, but I thought the video was well done. Nice work.

Maxu07

15-Nov-06, 15:13

Wow, i really love the way you modelled the man who's in charge of the grassmachine :d NO just kidding.:D
Really nice job !
NIce creature !!!
can't you give a tut about modeling the ' momma'?

Grtz
Maxu

charliemcf

18-Nov-06, 16:10

Totalexodus - Good karma sent your way for posting those tracker links! Thanks and productive day for ya! :)

thanks!

btw, im writing a full tutorial now...

keep your eyes peeled:eek:

ddwagnz

19-Nov-06, 05:38

Hi there Colin,
all i can say is :O
truly an amazing short,
was that your dad acting? if so, he really did well with the whole concept of just acting to porp nothing infront of him and i aslo thought the twist of him grabbing the thing that looked like an axe instead of the camera and him just hammering in the sign was great, i really thought he'd kill the thing haha
you got skill man!
Dave

S-Slash

20-Nov-06, 13:47

Absolutely brilliant short film and animation. Well done!

I was wondering, where can I download the said Icarus software? I already have another freeware motion tracker called Voodoo, but I'm not sure if that one's as good in use.

ms-dos

21-Nov-06, 00:53

Awww... Look at the beautiful Canon Rebel you have.

k3pp

21-Nov-06, 06:48

Awesome work... one of the best shorts I saw recently... as a director you´re very good... as a SFX artists it´s not bad... maybe a DoF would add more realism to your composition... congratulations... great job!

James XVI

21-Nov-06, 16:48

Truly amazing work here :) You should make some more!:D

Liquidshield

08-Dec-06, 00:25

I would give it 3 thumbs up colin, I only wish the oversampeling was better. I used all your tutorials and made a clip with a CG robot and what I did was render it out HD resolution and then scaled it down in motion to fit the SD footage and the edges looked great! Nice work colin I hope to see more of your work in the future. :):):):):)

Skyler

08-Dec-06, 13:58

Wonderful! I like it!

effstops

08-Dec-06, 18:29

Thanks guys! And great idea, Liquidshield - scaling down rendered footage would definitely fix that problem. :)

--Colin

Christopher_K

10-Dec-06, 02:27

Colin -- your work is terrific!

Would you mind clarifying how you import the footage into the camera viewport as a "moving texture" "background image" -- what format does the video need to be in (a sequence of frames) and how exactly do you load it?

effstops

10-Dec-06, 15:24

Hey Christopher. To add video as a texture, I went into the world settings (F8) and added a new texture. Then I went into the texture panel and added a new image texture. The movie I added was in a .mov quicktime format, but .avi's should work and so should an image sequence. By pressing the "Movie" button in the texture panel the image should load as a movie, which should change on each frame. Then I went back into the world settings and cleared the texture (I just went there in the first place just to create a new texture, although there probably is an easier way.)

And then you go into the 3D view and look through the camera. Go to View--> add background image. And then set your movie - your image texture - as the background. When you press alt- A, the movie should play in the camera view.

Hope this helps!

--Colin