I'm going to upscale it a bit so that it's larger than the other ships, I'm planning to have it be roughly twice the length of the Enterprise-E. As I understand it, it was conceptualized to be a large ship anyway, so it all works out.
based on what i've been able to learn on black holes from the news and the major telescopes, putting a single starship, let alone an entire fleet anywhere near one - as in the same system even - a very Bad Idea. But hey, Rule of Plot always wins
Are you going to show any interiors of the Pheonix? if you do, Rduda has some free and some paid bridges available
The clip itself is a WIP, but the Intelligence footage Reyf shows of Drakus is not.
(It's not as if this is a major surprise anyway, we've already seen Drakus plenty of times, so we already knew he looked basically the same--Reyf is obviously trying to make a point by showing that, right after dropping the bomb "eighty-nine years later")
I know this is still a wip, but i highly suggest finding a better comparison between old Garr and new Garr, because i cannot see the difference. The main difference, his skin color should be obvious at first glance, or otherwise this whole scene part will completely miss the mark (i think) you want to achieve.
On the other hand, i think this would be an excellent point in the story for the flashback. But i will wait for more to come.
The fact that the Mellis II surveillance image first seen in Specter and the Intelligence footage look nearly identical is part of this developing scene.
Very interesting, I don't think I looked at this before. The story segment from the last part seems to be quite compelling, I'll be watching for more.
I hope you don't mind a tl/dr on the 100 page thread, but I had a question. I wanted to ask if the relatively small amount of facial animation is simply a sacrifice in order to keep things rolling, or a technology limitation, or something else? I admit I haven't tried it, but it seems like there must be a face tracking software out there that could do rudimentary motion control on the faces, to allow for more lifelike animation. Since someone has to record the lines anyway, doing it in front of a webcam shouldn't be too much hassle. I don't know how easy it would be to interface that with your software, but I see you're already doing lip sync, so it was worth asking.
I wanted to ask if the relatively small amount of facial animation is simply a sacrifice in order to keep things rolling, or a technology limitation, or something else?
A combination. The software I'm using is Poser 7 (but with Poser 4 figures), with Daz's Mimic Pro serving to lip synch. There is no motion control or motion capture software in use for this project (people often mistake it for Mechanimia or Poser Motion Capture, I'm proud to say it's neither), and that's a major selling point. Every animation you see is lovingly crafted by hand, element by element.
The facial animations are as limited as they are because of the limitations of the Poser 4 figures I'm using. They, in turn, are being used in place of higher-detail characters due to limitations in the technology I'm using, and as you guessed, to make production faster.
With regards to doing some form of motion capture: to an animator like me those are swear words. Besides that, doing VOs to a microphone is hard enough--a scene whose dialogue clocks in at five minutes can require almost twenty minutes of takes to get it right, and sometimes more even than that. Adding a webcam to the mix (and thus having to remain stationary, thus compromising my ability to actually act out the motions of the crew as I go, which helps me add realism to the performance) would make things a hundred times more complicated. And with Poser 4 figures, the benefits simply wouldn't justify the effort required.
I'm using the production methods I'm using because they enable me to produce what most viewers have agreed is high quality animation fairly quickly (and what's more doesn't require special equipment, meaning I can do it from anywhere, at anytime).
Thanks for the reply. It certainly gets the point across. I'm involved in Pendant Audio and Darker Projects audio dramas to a lesser extent, so I'm aware of how involved the recording is.
I've worked with Poser, and it does some things well, and others not so well, so I'm with you there. I did like the detailed facial motions you could get in Poser 6, I had fun with it but didn't do anything complicated. I am not very good with getting accurate proportions and perspectives when drawing figures, having a model I can pose how I like is helpful.
I was just wondering when I was noticing their eyes didn't really move or show emotion the way I'd expect. I did enjoy the clip, and I understand it's a WIP as well. The male voice over the female animations threw me for just a second though.
I do the best I can with the limited resources I have; Poser 4 figures may not be perfect, but they suit well enough, and I like to think they at least get the point across (the facial expressions coupled with the tone of voice should be enough to convey what each character is feeling). Ultimately that's what this project and the one before it were about--as long as you can understand what these characters are thinking and feeling, and you can relate to it, then I've succeeded as a filmmaker. In short, I know the limitations of the tools I'm using, but within those constraints I do the best I can to be creative and get the message across.
My strength here is clearly with the set design--people have often commented about the surreality of seeing these basic characters on "such detailed, lifelike sets" (that's a direct quote, I just can't remember who said it or when!). For me, the really fun part of this is getting to experiment with these sets the same way the real production team did, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and always trying to get the most mileage from things where I can. (This is why the crew quarters look like they have Voyager-style windows instead of the more familiar TNG-style ones.)
Remember also that this particular scene is mostly exposition, and there's only a limited capacity to show emotion. Realistically speaking I hate the idea of having seven and a half minutes (minimum) of straight exposition like this, but it's the only way I can think of to deliver some very important information to the audience. There are some other scenes in Retribution (and a whole lot of them in Specter) that give the cast far better opportunities to show emotion, and therefore for me as an animator to be a little more expressive with them.
I strongly suggest you give Specter a look (the Ultimate Edition is the best one), the production values were lower because it was my first attempt, but there are some moments when the CG actors really do shine.
the music in the turbo lift scene needs to be turned down a notch, i could barely hear the dialogue, also did I hear that right?
" In order to prevent a temporal Paradox, Garr went back and replaced his younger self, only to relive the events as he did before " ?
- Okay, I'm with you so far, he went back in time and stole his younger self's life. It felt like Reyf just stopped explaining it halfway through " traveled back in time, replaced and relived his life without changing anything. Should there be a line to explain that " certain points in time and history are fixed and can't be altered, Garr knew this and having to relieve through those painful moments and being unable to do anything to change the timeline in a major way, takes your told on insanity " or that " Garr was so intent on changing his own past that in the end, he still lost everything and nothing had changed "
almost feels like a wasted trip really lol
- Also still need to explain how they knew he was 89 years old, even a throwaway line about a bioscan shows that his cells are older than they should be
Trust me, this is going to be a fun scene for all involved. I just finished doing the VOs for it, and it promises to be really something.
Prentice goes down to the cargo bay, where he meets Reyf's source: a hologram of Garr, compiled from the engrammatic scan he downloaded into his android creation in Specter. It was fun for me because up until now, the Braiyon Garr we've been seeing is the dark and evil version, whereas the hologram can be a little looser and I can actually let my own personality shine through. There's an exchange between the hologram and Reyf that was actually ad-libbed but that I decided to keep anyway, I'll be interested to see who can pick it out.
Unfortunately, going to be a brief stopdown while I build the TNG cargo bay set. I know there's an existing shuttlebay set already out there, but it's not broadcast quality and doesn't have a holodeck-style doorway besides (and is really too large for what I'm going to do anyway).
Unfortunately, going to be a brief stopdown while I build the TNG cargo bay set. I know there's an existing shuttlebay set already out there, but it's not broadcast quality and doesn't have a holodeck-style doorway besides (and is really too large for what I'm going to do anyway).
You trying to build the shuttlebay set as it stood in TNG or are you going to try and build Shuttlebay 1? I've always wanted to take a crack at that, from the "half length" shot you see in cause and effect, it looks just like a longer/deeper version of shuttlebay 2/3, I had always predicted that perhaps hangars 1-5 are in the back part there, either "racked" against the wall or they're recessed into deck 3 like Voyager's service bay.
Unfortunately, going to be a brief stopdown while I build the TNG cargo bay set.
1. There was no permanent standing set for the main shuttlebay, due to prohibitively high production costs and space, and as such its interior was never seen.
2. The TNG cargo bay set was played by the shuttlebay 2/3 set, with part of it redressed.
Neither of which should lead you to conclude that I might even be considering building the main shuttlebay.
1. There was no permanent standing set for the main shuttlebay, due to prohibitively high production costs and space, and as such its interior was never seen.
2. The TNG cargo bay set was played by the shuttlebay 2/3 set, with part of it redressed.
Neither of which should lead you to conclude that I might even be considering building the main shuttlebay.
Actually, the cause and effect shot had a partial constructon of half of shuttlebay 1 displayed and clearly visible. The prop auctioned for Christie's auction showed it in more detail too, which is why I asked.
It pretty clearly shows a good amount of bay 1, giving enough of an impression to go on if you include details from the TNG technical manual.
But you've said you just wanna build Shuttlebay 2, that's fair enough. Probably less effort and extrapolation needed, especially on time constraints for filming.
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1400 metres?? Is this from the JJ Universe :P lol
Are you going to show any interiors of the Pheonix? if you do, Rduda has some free and some paid bridges available
EDIT: A Google search turns up bridge results on ShareCG and Vanishing Point, any others?
He's also got an astrometrics lab for voyager, but i imagine it can be tweaked for use in the fitzy
Enjoy
apart from a slight change in hair, i can honestly see no difference in appearance between Garr and 'Drakus'
But this is just a Temp WiP preview right?
(It's not as if this is a major surprise anyway, we've already seen Drakus plenty of times, so we already knew he looked basically the same--Reyf is obviously trying to make a point by showing that, right after dropping the bomb "eighty-nine years later")
On the other hand, i think this would be an excellent point in the story for the flashback. But i will wait for more to come.
I hope you don't mind a tl/dr on the 100 page thread, but I had a question. I wanted to ask if the relatively small amount of facial animation is simply a sacrifice in order to keep things rolling, or a technology limitation, or something else? I admit I haven't tried it, but it seems like there must be a face tracking software out there that could do rudimentary motion control on the faces, to allow for more lifelike animation. Since someone has to record the lines anyway, doing it in front of a webcam shouldn't be too much hassle. I don't know how easy it would be to interface that with your software, but I see you're already doing lip sync, so it was worth asking.
You might also consider checking out the film before this one: Star Trek: Specter, to which Retribution is the sequel.
A combination. The software I'm using is Poser 7 (but with Poser 4 figures), with Daz's Mimic Pro serving to lip synch. There is no motion control or motion capture software in use for this project (people often mistake it for Mechanimia or Poser Motion Capture, I'm proud to say it's neither), and that's a major selling point. Every animation you see is lovingly crafted by hand, element by element.
The facial animations are as limited as they are because of the limitations of the Poser 4 figures I'm using. They, in turn, are being used in place of higher-detail characters due to limitations in the technology I'm using, and as you guessed, to make production faster.
With regards to doing some form of motion capture: to an animator like me those are swear words. Besides that, doing VOs to a microphone is hard enough--a scene whose dialogue clocks in at five minutes can require almost twenty minutes of takes to get it right, and sometimes more even than that. Adding a webcam to the mix (and thus having to remain stationary, thus compromising my ability to actually act out the motions of the crew as I go, which helps me add realism to the performance) would make things a hundred times more complicated. And with Poser 4 figures, the benefits simply wouldn't justify the effort required.
I'm using the production methods I'm using because they enable me to produce what most viewers have agreed is high quality animation fairly quickly (and what's more doesn't require special equipment, meaning I can do it from anywhere, at anytime).
I've worked with Poser, and it does some things well, and others not so well, so I'm with you there. I did like the detailed facial motions you could get in Poser 6, I had fun with it but didn't do anything complicated. I am not very good with getting accurate proportions and perspectives when drawing figures, having a model I can pose how I like is helpful.
I was just wondering when I was noticing their eyes didn't really move or show emotion the way I'd expect. I did enjoy the clip, and I understand it's a WIP as well. The male voice over the female animations threw me for just a second though.
My strength here is clearly with the set design--people have often commented about the surreality of seeing these basic characters on "such detailed, lifelike sets" (that's a direct quote, I just can't remember who said it or when!). For me, the really fun part of this is getting to experiment with these sets the same way the real production team did, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and always trying to get the most mileage from things where I can. (This is why the crew quarters look like they have Voyager-style windows instead of the more familiar TNG-style ones.)
I strongly suggest you give Specter a look (the Ultimate Edition is the best one), the production values were lower because it was my first attempt, but there are some moments when the CG actors really do shine.
As expected, this one is a long one, clocking in at a whopping 8:52!
" In order to prevent a temporal Paradox, Garr went back and replaced his younger self, only to relive the events as he did before " ?
- Okay, I'm with you so far, he went back in time and stole his younger self's life. It felt like Reyf just stopped explaining it halfway through " traveled back in time, replaced and relived his life without changing anything. Should there be a line to explain that " certain points in time and history are fixed and can't be altered, Garr knew this and having to relieve through those painful moments and being unable to do anything to change the timeline in a major way, takes your told on insanity " or that " Garr was so intent on changing his own past that in the end, he still lost everything and nothing had changed "
almost feels like a wasted trip really lol
- Also still need to explain how they knew he was 89 years old, even a throwaway line about a bioscan shows that his cells are older than they should be
You trying to build the shuttlebay set as it stood in TNG or are you going to try and build Shuttlebay 1? I've always wanted to take a crack at that, from the "half length" shot you see in cause and effect, it looks just like a longer/deeper version of shuttlebay 2/3, I had always predicted that perhaps hangars 1-5 are in the back part there, either "racked" against the wall or they're recessed into deck 3 like Voyager's service bay.
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1. There was no permanent standing set for the main shuttlebay, due to prohibitively high production costs and space, and as such its interior was never seen.
2. The TNG cargo bay set was played by the shuttlebay 2/3 set, with part of it redressed.
Neither of which should lead you to conclude that I might even be considering building the main shuttlebay.
(and if you ever build the main shuttlebay, that would be awesome!)
Actually, the cause and effect shot had a partial constructon of half of shuttlebay 1 displayed and clearly visible. The prop auctioned for Christie's auction showed it in more detail too, which is why I asked.
Here's probably the clearest pic of it I've ever seen: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110529145728/memoryalpha/en/images/2/20/Main_shuttle_bay_studio_model_by_Ed_Miarecki.jpg
Also here: http://marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/hi/3/3282/shuttlebay-61.jpg
It pretty clearly shows a good amount of bay 1, giving enough of an impression to go on if you include details from the TNG technical manual.
But you've said you just wanna build Shuttlebay 2, that's fair enough. Probably less effort and extrapolation needed, especially on time constraints for filming.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class