Harley they sure did. And, you had to wonder why not San Francisco after all those years. Well I guess San Francisco today is light years away from the one they knew so many years ago. Thanks for the comment. If you ever want a break from a project try some motion graphics. It’s fun and many can be done in hours versus months and months. And, MONTHS! 
The pool table animation is outstanding by the way.
Check this out Ghost … you might recognize someone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHo1fNnXFVU&feature=youtu.be
Thanks Harley. Old Jerry would have liked this. The link is on the way to everyone in my e-mail contacts. Hey, all we can do is hope.
Yea… Imagine if our world looked like this, instead of worrying about what terrorist / or domestic threat looms this week. I would encourage everyone to check out their main page here … take a few minutes and watch a few videos of this great organization.
For anyone who gives a rats ass about this thread or even someone who stumbled on it I apologize. I have a glitch with YouTube and Vimeo right now. Hence Dropbox which is fine to share files but isn’t a streaming video site. And, of course the links take forever to load. Simply put it on the taskbar and I included a little elevator music so… Regardless, without downloading the resolution could be adequate or miserable. Sorry about this.
For those of you who have actually tried animating a scene with a live camera you know a simple truth. The quality is not only constrained by your skill set but the equipment you have available. (Cycles = Graphics Card) It’s a simple truth. And, for those who are first attempting this I can only say at some point your effort is simply: What it is. One of the Old Masters said a work of art is never finished just abandoned. Not that I’m comparing any of my little efforts to them but you get the point. Heck maybe these guys said it better. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81075043/2014-03-29_194950.jpg
The stills on this forum are simply amazing. So many talented artist in the true sense of the word. And, for them once again I urge them to stay in that place. Because attempting to animate can lead to a life of crime. Our prisons are full of aspiring animators with tattoos all over their face simply because of the insanity. And, a bottom tier Nvidia card.
This is my effort for an establishing shot. A simple sweep of this damn lobby. Next our patron has to start walking and hopefully move through those doors into the back. I kind of like it back there in the actual gallery. @harleynut, minoribus, I see every fault you do believe me. But, it’s time to move on hopefully. Now my concern is not only can I finish this but if the machine will hold up. In the back render times seem to be lower by the way.
Oh, and the old gal friend didn’t like the paper on the floor in front of the desk. And, she is from the school of; ‘I know what I like when I see it’. Like probably 85 percent of the people in any target audience. Suffice it to say I don’t sell her opinions short.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81075043/H.264_MPEG%204%20.%20%20%200001-0616.mp4
Sorry Ghost… I’m getting a “video cant be played because file is corrupt” message when I open your link at the bottom. The JPEG image oped fine… I wonder if that is the problem that is occuring with vimeo and you tube… your possibly trying to upload a file that somehow got corrupted in the transcoding process.
What software are you using to create (encode) the MP4 file?
Harley thanks for the heads up. I was almost ready to pack it in since the ‘Daily Show’ is off for a week. It was H.264 with MPEG 4 as a wrapper. So let’s try this once again.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81075043/0001-0616.avi
By the way your remark about the terrorist got me to thinking. Evidently they have no appreciation for any of the arts. In fact they seem to take great pleasure in destroying old priceless artifacts the civilized world holds dear. And, without a doubt my show with Jon Stewart would be a thing of the past. After all a Jewish comedian entertaining millions of people. Thiers is a world beyond the dark ages. And, we are the Infidels. But, evidently they can reach out to any looser in any country to simply murder people. My heart goes out to the families of those Marines today. And, as a father and grandfather it saddens me even more. This is not the world we intended to leave. I think the link is working now such as it is.
Yea that one worked… obviously you are aware of the pixilation problem at certain points, but I wonder what in the hell is causing that?
If you rendereed out an actual PNG image sequence, I’d be happy to try and encode on my program here, just to see if it’s a blender problem. I’m getting a fair amount of stuttering during the pans … are you seeing that locally on your computer?
Harley that is simply a Dropbox problem and nothing you would notice on Vimeo. As a matter of fact if you open the same link tomorrow it might look entirely different. Or, you could download it since I scan everything seven ways from hell. But, once again thanks for your observations and insight. I will have this YouTube, Vimeo problem worked out next week. Thanks for your patience and advice.
The elevator scene has me intrigued. If you have a live camera you too can feel the pain. And, maybe run out to get several tattoos on your neck and face before raising enough mayhem to get life. Ah, the wonderful world of animation. Take care and once again thanks for the heads up.
Vimeo link to my attempt at a establishing shot. And, while Vimeo is the gold standard my efforts leave me a little disappointed. Oh, well such is life. Now our patron has to start walking towards those doors.
@harleynut play it a second time to see it seamless. Evidently Vimeo is in overload right now.
And, while I’m at it a watchable version of a Christmas card sent one year. My mother was very important to my girls. And, they treasured the time spent in that old house. And, to this day believe maybe a little guardian angel shows up occasionally.
I had a old black and white photograph taken at a forty degree angle to work from. So with that and my limited skills I attempted to create something they would immediately recognize. And, believe it or not I succeeded.
Well it plays way better vs. the avi file you posted yesterday. I think it is holding up pretty good in full screen. I’m curious if your using any easing with the camera position?
If not I would recommend adding it. The camera seems to be stopping to abruptly … ie when it stops at the blue couches. The only other thing that seems odd is after the last main camera move there is a jump that occurs at the very end. I would definitely fix that if possible.
I really like that abstract motion graphic on the upper 1/2 of the wall at the very end… looks very cool.
harleynut, I agree with every point you have raised. But, on my modest graphics card it’s a done deal. The jump at the end can be fixed and it is leading into the camera walking. You are absolutely right easing in and out would have been way better. And. something the developers have given us. Also something I didn’t think about at the time. Oh, well this could lead to three more days of render time or maybe not. I kind 'a suspect not since I want to get through those doors into the actual gallery. Anyway, thanks for the comments.
Hi Ghost
Been having a look for a while without posting and liking what I have been seeing, especially your banned YT vid. :evilgrin:
On a serious note, any video editor can cut up the vid into various parts and you can stretch the parts if need be and add the ease in/out without rendering again.
Just a quick question are you rendering the couple of second stills? If you are it is not necessary as you could just take a screenshot of this in a NLE and make it as long as you like.
Looking forward to seeing more of the action.
Warm Regards
Shaun
Speed of only one seven (7) now I appreciate the comments. You are absolutely right. Since I have a folder of PNGs that can be a few frames redone.
But, the fact is I’m disappointed with the quality of the entire effort. And, I know after all that talk of accepting the equipment you have and moving on, etc. But, we all get disgusted occasionally and tomorrow is another day.
If I understand your second question right yes that is exactly the way I do it. When the camera stops for any length of time I have the luxury of rendering a still with say 1250 passes and then simply duplicating in the Video Editor. Then the only concern is the obvious difference between that and the frames when the camera starts moving again. Motion blur really helps there.
I saw a outstanding pen and ink drawing several days ago that reminded me of your entry in the contest. Do you have anything in the works right now. I’d like to do an animation with the knock down impact of that still you did. But given the subject matter that simply isn’t possible. Thanks for stopping by and the comments. Later, Bill
Ghost, are you rendering this in Yaf or Cycles? Or another renderer? If you’re only rotating the camera in this shot, you could instead render a large panoramic image, and just shift it left or right in a video editing program. It makes it much easier to fine tune the speed and the amount of motion blur, not to mention rendering will be cut down drastically. Not sure if Yaf allows panoramic/equirectangular cameras, but Cycles definitely does.
James in the first place I hate even a 35mm camera in Blender. And, wish I had made the place big enough for a 50mm. And, you are suggesting what. No man I’m attempting to use Cycles in this little effort. And, the damn walls and molding are baked. Another trade off believe me and quite frankly it looks like shit. But, I appreciate your observations and you stopping by.
Flip flops at my funeral will not be allowed old Blender buddy. Bare feet yes if some country cousin but no flip flops. There’s one cousin who will probably be eating pop corn. But, we do it in style up in Virginia. And, they will hide that retard behind some tree over there.
I need to check your site out. James the entire thing needs to be redone. A GeForce GT 530 is not exactly suited to animation. So render times might go from 4:00 to 7:00 minutes or more. In the mean time stay loose in the state of Florida. Tell the lovely girl fiend hi and keep on doing whatever the hell you all do down there.
Shaun, @Speed7, my South Africa Blender buddy my old head is hard as a rock. On top of that I’m not the sharpest tool in the bag. And, while your link looks very nice I want to use nothing but Blender. Although a outstanding Blender artist who’s name escapes me now uses nothing but Blender and After Effects. I’m looking forward to viewing your photorealistic work and looking even more forward to a effort where you just let the artist run wild if you will.
I do agree with the Blender Guru that photorealism belongs in anyone’s portfolio. But, that is not the only thing that belongs there in my old shipyard mind. And, for all I know you might feel the same. There’s a guy in the Netherlands who is doing a ongoing history of his country. And, to me it’s amazing. It almost looks like it was actually painted doing that time period. Anyway your obvious talent will take you where it will.
James was raised in Maryland if I remember correctly. And, I rib my Florida transplanted buddy occasionally. It’s simply what we do in America. Virginians have a preconceived notion of North Carolinian’s as they do us no doubt. And, no one outside of Texas is to enthused about that desert. Yet, somehow when the chips are down we can come together. As any young man in the military knows.
James I really meant I’m not any to enthused about the Blender default camera. Sometimes a 35mm works but many times it’s so far from the human eye it’s almost a… If the default was 45mm say Blender artist would scale to that. And, yes I realize I could have changed the focal length when starting this project but just saying. Once everything is scaled to what the human eye takes in the focal length could be changed for effect. Once again dog tell the lovely girl fiend hello. Or, is that lovely girl friend.
Speed7 I’ve been going through the Windows problems from hell after a Java update several days ago. Then today they had a new update. Evidently I wasn’t the only one. And, I know why do I even have Java on the machine.
It is great that you have PNG files, but even without them you are able to take a snapshot of anywhere in the vid as you would move along the timeline with the scrubber and then place this snapshot anywhere in the vid for any length of time as you have an option to set how long it is visible for (this will save you many hours of rendering time)
This sentence still has me scratching my head. A camera sweep, pan, is a classic establishing shot in a scene. And, with each frame the angle of objects and distance from the camera change. My point being while After Effects is a fine program I can’t see it generating shots that don’t exist.
And, this was only an attempt at a opening, establishing shot. The intent is the camera (Our patron) will tour the entire gallery including a elevator ride to the second floor in the back. The back being through the double glass doors. I have no idea how that can be done without a live camera frame by frame with the resulting render times. Now from what I’ve read and seen without a doubt After Effects could add a sparkle to those frames once they were rendered in Blender.
At the end of this scene (Camera Sweep) our patron starts walking at about a 45 degree angle to those doors while pausing to take in several more hanging pieces. Evidently I didn’t understand what you were saying.