It's been a couple of weeks so I just thought I'd touch base. Nothing really to show however.
The audio from the cast is slowly coming together, I have 3 of the 5 voices for scene 1 recorded and rough edited together. Which is a start at least.
I've also been rebuilding from the ground up one of the main cast characters. The poser imports are OK for place holders, but it takes to long to fiddle with them and set them up for each shot. Also they have way to high a poly count to be really useful.
So I've taken Mac and rebuilt him in Lightwave, which has also given me a chance to reduce the poly count (I've already dropped the count by 15000 polys.) As well as add a few of the details to the textures I wanted, like the gang logo to the back of his jacket. I still have to add a gun and holster to his hip.
But more importantly I'm re-rigging him. Which is a bit of a learning curve for me, as I've not really worked with bones before. It's meant watching several tuts and then applying my new found information. Lucky for me I can run the tut on my laptop in front of me, while I rig on my desktop. Hopefully I'll have an image to post next time.
As always comment as welcome.
Ok so I've been off doing audio work recently I have the rough edit of the audio for scene 1, so i can go back to work on that, although the first stage has been to fine tune the shots I'd already blocked out.
I've also been slowly rigging Mac so he can be animated properly, which is a slow process for me.
I've gathered a few reference pics, of a friends motorbike, and a policeman's holster.
But today I've been mucking about with a billboard as I need advertising and such for the backgrounds. So here is the latest - a popular soft drink, which will be appearing here and there in a few shots. Can you guess what it was inspired by?
Just a little update. Scene has been done. In fact the final shot is being rendered again even as I type, as I wanted to tweek it a little here and there. Tomorrow I'll edit it into the rough cut and see how it all looks.
I noticed a few people are at least viewing this thread from time to time, so I'll put it out there again. I am looking for help with this project. You don't need to have a lot of experience and movie quality skills. At this point I'm just trying to put together a previs, but I do need help with the vast amounts of models and texture work.
Hi all.
Lots of progress recently. Although mostly animated so a little hard to post here at the moment. I've managed to bang out a few more pages of script as animated shots. So now I have only 2 more pages of scene 1 to do, before going on to scene 3.
As I have completed most of the basic models for scene 1, it has been reasonably simple to just block out the camera moves and shoot shot by shot. My problem at this point is I can only render one shot at a time, so I'm going to set up a second machine to use as a render farm, to help progress.
Also once I finished scene 1 it all goes back to a crawl while I create new stuff for scene 3 and so on. (Yes that was a subtle hint that I am still open for help from anyone who is interested. I need people to do both 3D and 2D stuff. Any level of experience will do, and you get to choose what stuff you work on.)
As you can see in this progress pic, several of the characters are still temps, or have only partial rigging but that's coming slowly.
As always comment ans crits are welcome.
Hey all.
Another update. Scene 3 is progressing. Although the coming shots will slow stuff up a bit, I'm at least half way though the scene, so I can at least see some progress.
I also knocked up another billboard.
Let me know what you think. As always comments, criticisms, offers of help, or just general questions about the project are welcome.
Your color palette could use some tweaking. That saturated blue type is painful to look at on white and does not match the baby blue or the algae green... Speaking of algae, you might want to avoid the use of green in selling a beverage that's supposed to be some kind of water stand-in. That doesn't really promote positive feelings for the product in question. Unless, of course, that's your intent. (Slurm, anyone?) White and tints of blue should be all you need.
Thanks for the feed back. You might be right about the colors (the green aspect). When I get a chance I'll redo the map to see how it looks. It's one of those details that 99% of people won't even notice when they see the final shots, but that doesn't mean I won't know it's there.
OK I've done a redo of the synth H2O ad. Although I now have two camps of feedback those who liked the green and those who don't like the green on the cans.
As has been pointed out to me several bottled water labels have green on them. Because green means nature and nature is good. However in many ways I agree with what DGWilliams said about green not always being a healthy color.
Anyway comments welcome.
Hi all.
Bit of the progress update.
Here is a wip video if the first part of the movie. Just remember it is a wip so almost everything is going to change. Most notable is characters which move, and talk.
As always comments and crits are welcome as are offers of help with the project. http://vimeo.com/30978320
Just a small update.
The project is still ongoing, but there if very little to post pics of at the moment. A lot of it has been reworking of meshes, and creating detailed versions of some of the place holder stuff.
I'll post a few pic on the week end I hope.
I just reread my last post. Good lord my typing is crap. Sorry for anyone who was trying to work out what the heck I meant.
Anyway here's an update.
Not a lot of animation has been rendered recently, but stuff has been going on in the back ground.
Reg - the female cast member, is well underway for being reworked. She looks more or less exactly the same, but the poly count is down a lot, and the head has been set up for better rigging and morphing, (when I get to that part).
I'm just working on her arms and her geometry will be done.
Bob - the big cyborg character has started being reworked slightly, in that I have rewokred the mesh of his arm, although the textures still need a lot of work. (I've waked on some quick temp ones to make sure I'm on the right track for what I want, but they need a lot of work yet.) The arm was done on my lunch breaks at work, which is why several different bits are being worked on at the same time.
Also I've just started working on Reg's bike, which will replace the place holder one I've been using so far. But that's at very early stages at the moment.
Also some additional voice recording has been going on here and there, though nothing big for the scene's already shown. And the hunt for a composer has started, although so far with little success.
Anyway comment if you want, it helps me keep focused on the project. As always I'm happy for feedback good or bad, but also it you want to help on the project, or know anyone who wants to help out let me know.
The arm as you've shown it is not an effective Human arm, in that the thumb will not oppose any but the index finger. You couldn't effectively ride a motorcycle with it. You need a ball joint at the base of the thumb.
Well spotted Jenny. However the thumb is mounted to a block which give it the lateral movement. I know it doesn't really look like it at this angle.
Only I have the shoulder finished. I'll rig the arm and move it to a more natural pose and you'll be able to see what I mean.
But thanks for the feedback, it's nice to know my thread is being watched by someone other than me.
Thanks Jenny.
Some progress on the arm tonight.
The textures have been fixed up somewhat, although still a little more to do.
I've finished the mesh at least, and been able to rig it to some degree for a test pose.
As always comment and mild abuse welcome.
But of an update.
I've been working on the guard post for scene 4. So here's a couple of WIP images.
I still have to add the windows and frames as well as the door at the back.
The textures are just to block out the different areas really, so they are still to be done.
I have to add some signage here and there, and the ground of course. I also knocked up a modular wire fence which I'll have extending from the front left corner.
There will also be a second guard post on the other side of the roadway.
Anyway comment and crits are always welcome.
Update time.
Well I've banged out the rest of the little guardhouse, although the textures are still yet to be done.
I've moved on to doing the main building itself. Which you can see behind the guard posts.
The building was originally castle/palace built on a huge scale. Now that it has become the HQ for Imperial Inc, they have added to the castle. Hence the bluestone walls and then the more modern materials used for the areas on either side of the car park. (The blue box, is just a place holder.)
I still have a lot of details to add to the whole thing yet, as well as some stuff on the road leading up to the guard posts.
More lights, security cameras, motion sensors, the door on the building I'm doing at the moment, etc. And of course all the texture work.
As always comments, crits, questions etc are always welcome.
Bit of an update.
I've gotten the entrance set banged out and at least partly textured so I can move ahead with the filming for the moment.
This shot is in fact a two pass shot with the background being done separately. At the moment the background palace is still a low poly mesh, but a better one will replace it latter, which will blend in better with the foreground blue stone walls.
Long time between updates but here's the latest wip of a mesh.
I need a Vatburger stand in one of the latter scenes, but I also want to use it as part of the roadside scenery here and there.
Vatburger produce fast food, where the meat is all vat grown. This means it's very tender, but also "tailor" made. So the meat is all basically the same stuff but they add different flavors to it as requested.
So far he mesh is still a WIP with only basic textures. I'll be adding some more signage, bins, and stuff, but as always comments and crits are always welcome.
The menu pic is stuff grabbed off google images, and edited together, so I can't take any credit for that.
OK so it's a bit of a necro post I know. But this project is still going forward....slowly but steady.
Act2 previz is almost complete.
Some music has been added to a few of the scenes. (Donated by a couple of really cool bands.)
A graphic novel approach to the screenplay is being developed.
A small and sluggish render farm has been set up.
We even have a small production budget. (Well tiny in fact.)
I realize this thread is only being viewed by a few people here and there, which is why I stopped updating it. But if there is anyone who is interested in how the project is going, please comment or send me a PM and I'll forward you links to places where I still make regular updates.
A wip of a new mesh for the project. This will become Bob's right foot. The specs are; clunky, and battered and looks more like the leg from an industrial robot than a cyberlimb designed for a human.
So what'cha think?
Now that Bob is abreast of the situation I've installed his left arm which was designed some time ago. Next up the right arms needs to be shouldered into shape
So I restarted the head.
I wasn't happy with the last attempt, so I got a head from a poser figure. Cut it in half, reduced the poly count to about 25% mirrored the new head, to get a symmetrical mesh, which I then started to alter and tweek to fit my artwork.
Basically using the original as a way to get the geometry right for a basic human head. It's a cheat yes, but it's produced a much better result.
I still have a little more tweeking to do, then I have to add eyes, and change the left ear to a cyber ear, then unwrap and paint it.
As always comments are welcome. In fact with over four and a half thousand views of this thread, and very few comments. it would be really nice if someone could say something....in fact anything
So a new update....I could comment about comments, but I guess there seems to be very little point. Would it help if I added a saucer pic to the front of the thread? Maybe a warning about nudity?
This project is getting feedback in every other forum I post Wips to but this one. Is my stuff so bad none of you want to be the first to say it?
Posts
The audio from the cast is slowly coming together, I have 3 of the 5 voices for scene 1 recorded and rough edited together. Which is a start at least.
I've also been rebuilding from the ground up one of the main cast characters. The poser imports are OK for place holders, but it takes to long to fiddle with them and set them up for each shot. Also they have way to high a poly count to be really useful.
So I've taken Mac and rebuilt him in Lightwave, which has also given me a chance to reduce the poly count (I've already dropped the count by 15000 polys.) As well as add a few of the details to the textures I wanted, like the gang logo to the back of his jacket. I still have to add a gun and holster to his hip.
But more importantly I'm re-rigging him. Which is a bit of a learning curve for me, as I've not really worked with bones before. It's meant watching several tuts and then applying my new found information. Lucky for me I can run the tut on my laptop in front of me, while I rig on my desktop. Hopefully I'll have an image to post next time.
As always comment as welcome.
I've also been slowly rigging Mac so he can be animated properly, which is a slow process for me.
I've gathered a few reference pics, of a friends motorbike, and a policeman's holster.
But today I've been mucking about with a billboard as I need advertising and such for the backgrounds. So here is the latest - a popular soft drink, which will be appearing here and there in a few shots. Can you guess what it was inspired by?
I noticed a few people are at least viewing this thread from time to time, so I'll put it out there again. I am looking for help with this project. You don't need to have a lot of experience and movie quality skills. At this point I'm just trying to put together a previs, but I do need help with the vast amounts of models and texture work.
Lots of progress recently. Although mostly animated so a little hard to post here at the moment. I've managed to bang out a few more pages of script as animated shots. So now I have only 2 more pages of scene 1 to do, before going on to scene 3.
As I have completed most of the basic models for scene 1, it has been reasonably simple to just block out the camera moves and shoot shot by shot. My problem at this point is I can only render one shot at a time, so I'm going to set up a second machine to use as a render farm, to help progress.
Also once I finished scene 1 it all goes back to a crawl while I create new stuff for scene 3 and so on. (Yes that was a subtle hint that I am still open for help from anyone who is interested. I need people to do both 3D and 2D stuff. Any level of experience will do, and you get to choose what stuff you work on.)
As you can see in this progress pic, several of the characters are still temps, or have only partial rigging but that's coming slowly.
As always comment ans crits are welcome.
Another update. Scene 3 is progressing. Although the coming shots will slow stuff up a bit, I'm at least half way though the scene, so I can at least see some progress.
I also knocked up another billboard.
Let me know what you think. As always comments, criticisms, offers of help, or just general questions about the project are welcome.
Try this: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#3C11Tg0--..AX
Also, I would recommend a sans-serif font for your secondary text.
As has been pointed out to me several bottled water labels have green on them. Because green means nature and nature is good. However in many ways I agree with what DGWilliams said about green not always being a healthy color.
Anyway comments welcome.
Bit of the progress update.
Here is a wip video if the first part of the movie. Just remember it is a wip so almost everything is going to change. Most notable is characters which move, and talk.
As always comments and crits are welcome as are offers of help with the project.
http://vimeo.com/30978320
The project is still ongoing, but there if very little to post pics of at the moment. A lot of it has been reworking of meshes, and creating detailed versions of some of the place holder stuff.
I'll post a few pic on the week end I hope.
Anyway here's an update.
Not a lot of animation has been rendered recently, but stuff has been going on in the back ground.
Reg - the female cast member, is well underway for being reworked. She looks more or less exactly the same, but the poly count is down a lot, and the head has been set up for better rigging and morphing, (when I get to that part).
I'm just working on her arms and her geometry will be done.
Bob - the big cyborg character has started being reworked slightly, in that I have rewokred the mesh of his arm, although the textures still need a lot of work. (I've waked on some quick temp ones to make sure I'm on the right track for what I want, but they need a lot of work yet.) The arm was done on my lunch breaks at work, which is why several different bits are being worked on at the same time.
Also I've just started working on Reg's bike, which will replace the place holder one I've been using so far. But that's at very early stages at the moment.
Also some additional voice recording has been going on here and there, though nothing big for the scene's already shown. And the hunt for a composer has started, although so far with little success.
Anyway comment if you want, it helps me keep focused on the project. As always I'm happy for feedback good or bad, but also it you want to help on the project, or know anyone who wants to help out let me know.
Only I have the shoulder finished. I'll rig the arm and move it to a more natural pose and you'll be able to see what I mean.
But thanks for the feedback, it's nice to know my thread is being watched by someone other than me.
Some progress on the arm tonight.
The textures have been fixed up somewhat, although still a little more to do.
I've finished the mesh at least, and been able to rig it to some degree for a test pose.
As always comment and mild abuse welcome.
I've been working on the guard post for scene 4. So here's a couple of WIP images.
I still have to add the windows and frames as well as the door at the back.
The textures are just to block out the different areas really, so they are still to be done.
I have to add some signage here and there, and the ground of course. I also knocked up a modular wire fence which I'll have extending from the front left corner.
There will also be a second guard post on the other side of the roadway.
Anyway comment and crits are always welcome.
Well I've banged out the rest of the little guardhouse, although the textures are still yet to be done.
I've moved on to doing the main building itself. Which you can see behind the guard posts.
The building was originally castle/palace built on a huge scale. Now that it has become the HQ for Imperial Inc, they have added to the castle. Hence the bluestone walls and then the more modern materials used for the areas on either side of the car park. (The blue box, is just a place holder.)
I still have a lot of details to add to the whole thing yet, as well as some stuff on the road leading up to the guard posts.
More lights, security cameras, motion sensors, the door on the building I'm doing at the moment, etc. And of course all the texture work.
As always comments, crits, questions etc are always welcome.
I've gotten the entrance set banged out and at least partly textured so I can move ahead with the filming for the moment.
This shot is in fact a two pass shot with the background being done separately. At the moment the background palace is still a low poly mesh, but a better one will replace it latter, which will blend in better with the foreground blue stone walls.
I need a Vatburger stand in one of the latter scenes, but I also want to use it as part of the roadside scenery here and there.
Vatburger produce fast food, where the meat is all vat grown. This means it's very tender, but also "tailor" made. So the meat is all basically the same stuff but they add different flavors to it as requested.
So far he mesh is still a WIP with only basic textures. I'll be adding some more signage, bins, and stuff, but as always comments and crits are always welcome.
The menu pic is stuff grabbed off google images, and edited together, so I can't take any credit for that.
Act2 previz is almost complete.
Some music has been added to a few of the scenes. (Donated by a couple of really cool bands.)
A graphic novel approach to the screenplay is being developed.
A small and sluggish render farm has been set up.
We even have a small production budget. (Well tiny in fact.)
I realize this thread is only being viewed by a few people here and there, which is why I stopped updating it. But if there is anyone who is interested in how the project is going, please comment or send me a PM and I'll forward you links to places where I still make regular updates.
So what'cha think?
Not wanting to get ahead of myself, but guess what's next?
I wasn't happy with the last attempt, so I got a head from a poser figure. Cut it in half, reduced the poly count to about 25% mirrored the new head, to get a symmetrical mesh, which I then started to alter and tweek to fit my artwork.
Basically using the original as a way to get the geometry right for a basic human head. It's a cheat yes, but it's produced a much better result.
I still have a little more tweeking to do, then I have to add eyes, and change the left ear to a cyber ear, then unwrap and paint it.
As always comments are welcome. In fact with over four and a half thousand views of this thread, and very few comments. it would be really nice if someone could say something....in fact anything
This project is getting feedback in every other forum I post Wips to but this one. Is my stuff so bad none of you want to be the first to say it?