On the subject of fan films, I can only say this is a great thing, because the digital democratization has brought really fantastic opportunities for everyone.
I stumbled three years ago about the short story "Extinction" of Timothy Zahn. Then I discovered the Comic and the 2006 Spanish Fan Film:
[video=vimeo;2381772]
They had not todays technical possibilities but you can feel that they made it with devotion.
Very excited I'm about the projects initiated by our German friends A?Descants of Order66Aâ and A?TydiriumAâ. As the US fan film A?RevelationsAâ this are of course very ambitious projects with near feature film length. I guess a few people here work(ed) on these projects.
The most common error I saw in fan films was an excess of dialogue. In my screenplay writer course that was the most frequent admonition of the teacher. "Tell the story wherever possible with plot, action or subtext, because film is a visual medium." To constantly refine the script under this aspect is also an exciting but prolonged thing.
I have meanwhile plot stuff for 50 Min and this project covers the multiple times revised and now conclusive first 15-20 min. which work as an independent story.
By fan film standards, that's not bad at all. Of course, it's obvious that the first couple live action scenes were done against a green screen, but they did a pretty good job at them. (I left while Vader was talking to the scout trooper because I don't understand Spanish ) I was trying to skip ahead and maybe look at the lightsaber action, but Vimeo won't let me do that like YouTube will.
I know what you mean about excessive dialog in fan films. People are in a tense situation and all of the sudden break out in a heartfelt conversation about how much they like each other, or some such nonsense. I think, in those instances, they're trying to "pad" the film by having long conversations, since the effects budgets for those things are usually about nil. (I know, I've been working on one for the better part of a year) Conversations aren't a bad thing, but you have to decide where to put them and try not to make them overly verbose.
I think fan productions are important, because they not only give people a great creative outlet and provide great entertainment, but they show the big movie and show producers the type of stuff we want to see. Unfortunately, getting said producers to pay attention and listen to what the fans want is another issue entirely.
A new feature of Cinema4D R16 is the integrated motion tracking system. In the past I experimented with Pixelfarm MatchIt which is not bad but the export to C4D always was a little mess.
Yesterday I took some intentionally bad footage from my last cloudy trip on the Saentis (2500m) and threw it in the new C4D tracker.
This is really a quick and dirty clip, but the tracker is just sensational. Not only accurate even with bad footage but extremely fast in analysis and calculation. I just sat there thinking, heck, the force really is with me
AhA⦠I'm very sorry for the necroposting, but have you been watching Star Wars Rebels, BigT?
They recently featured a Sentinel-class and it differs from its portrayal in EU sources, but I guess it would be its canon look now.
Knowing how they're always going to the original reference material for the series, this might actually be their proper depiction from the special edition of A New Hope. Just in case you wanted to make some modifications to your mesh, or perhaps take a look. In the concept art gallery for the last episode they have a more detailed drawing in the following link, but contains a spoiler. So click with caution: http://cdnvideo.dolimg.com/cdn_assets/3f86f04b627a115bf21783b918dba8fca815fbf6.jpg
Also, I couldn't come here to scifi-meshes since August and missed a lot of your posts, so I wanted to say you're doing an outstanding job. Can't wait until the project is done, and also until the models are released for us to play with themAâ¦
It was seen so briefly in Star Wars that I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Expanded Universe depictions got it "wrong." That or the makers of Rebels decided to do a redesign.
Not liking the look of this so much, and it lacks a bit of imagination in my opinion, it looks like they've literally just bolted the wings and primary foil from the Lambda on to a larger ship. What I like about the Sentinel designs which have come before is that there are subtle differences such as how the wings fold up for landing, etc. Though you might indeed be right about it being closer to the version we saw in the Special Edition. I do remember that the cockpit section was quite high up on the hull like in this design, which has kinda been lost or made subtler in EU designs for the ship which have come since back then. That said, I'm sure the wings folded in a slightly different way to the Lambda even in that version. Will have to go and check.
Not liking the look of this so much, and it lacks a bit of imagination in my opinion, it looks like they've literally just bolted the wings and primary foil from the Lambda on to a larger ship.
Not just that, but the hull also looks like the one from the Lambda in many details (the ship looks a lot like just a Lambda from behind). But funnily enough, I've just checked the scene from A New Hope and it seems to match the Rebels version. The primary foil has the same shape, and it has a large boarding ramp at the front instead of the sides. Looks like the EU sources used some creativity when depicting it, possibly due to having no access to the Lucasfilm archives like they're doing now.
Later, we have the intro for the Force Commander game, in which the wings fold at a different angle, like you and BigT depicted it. This version looks a lot like the last design BigT showed here, and it's also HUUUUGE compared to the Rebels one. I guess we could always go with the "there were several variants" explanation
@DarkSapiens: Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention! :thumb:
As TALON_UK stated: it seems to exist a common base for the design but detail differences in its several incarnations. I already noticed the high cockpit mount and the more narrow shape of the body in ANH. Curios whether this ship will make it somehow into EP VII. That would be definitely canon then.
However with this model I had to 'close the sack' as we say here. I'm happy as it is now, even I cannot say it's canon. But the whole movie is not (strictly speaking) so it doesn't matter. At last I gave the model a sexy front flap for not looking to bulky
The overall goal was to have a trooper ship, more impressive than a Lamda (less elegant as well...) and with a heavier appearance. The usual charm of serious assault craft. I think it will do the job.
Actually planning my 'Ikea helmer' renderfarm:
Running prototype (OS X Hackintosh) :devil:
So in the end approx. 5'200 CinebenchR15... Hope to be ready with it end of february.
For 2015 all the best to you guys! :thumb:
PS: This is a rough draft of the situation inside. the guys will have party too!!
It looks amazing, and your design would fit perfectly among the now-called "Legends" (the previous EU), as you say. With each update I get more and more eager to see the final product! :thumb:
Sorry I couldn't reply before, but I also wanted to explain something quickly. You said the following:
Curios whether this ship will make it somehow into EP VII. That would be definitely canon then.
But I must say that there's no "Expanded Universe" in the new way they're doing things. Everything that they create under Disney (films, TV shows, novels, comics, videogames) is canon from now on, and they have a "story group" to make sure there are no contradictions (or to minimize them). So yes, that new Sentinel craft I showed before is the 100% canon version, allowing for the necessarily stylized mesh for the show
@DarkSapiens:
That's off course true. I'm sure Disney will take good care of the styling canon as they do with the mouse ;-)
Actually I'm working on the finishing of several models and scenes, time consuming but I hope finally worth the effort.
The Renderfarm build up was easier than I expected and it does an incredible job.
I wrote a blog in German language, but it's maybe also fun to watch the pictures only. http://www.darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/pic/renderfarm
Now the movie project is no longer a question of technical feasability.
When it fails then only due to my personal disability.
There is no escape... ;-)
Google will translate the language easy.
Damn... Ansel's ISD is so beautiful.
Yeah, Google Translate really has become better, hope its output makes sense!
Anselms ship ist really amazing, but I had to pimp it very heavy. Thats not the pure download you see.
With my fine modifications the model grew from megabytes to gigabytes. But it was obviously worth it.
I will use it only a few seconds in the movie, but it want to make the ship shine like never before!
The Renderfarm build up was easier than I expected and it does an incredible job.
I wrote a blog in German language, but it's maybe also fun to watch the pictures only. http://www.darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/pic/renderfarm
Now the movie project is no longer a question of technical feasability.
When it fails then only due to my personal disability.
There is no escape... ;-)
I'm in awe of you, sir. Hackintosh renderfarm? VG-20? Star Wars? I love all these things so much! So great! Loving what you are doing. Can't wait to see more.
How's the Hackintosh render farm coming along? I want to do one of those for myself some day, though I'm torn between Hackintosh and Linux based.
I really like your version of the shuttle. Also, I'm glad you told us that image with the pilots was a render, I might have thought it was a photo.
As for SW: Rebels, I'd not really pay much attention to that. Sure, it's "canon," but it's also got some very "meh" artwork. The characters all look very "Disney" to me, in fact the main kid is a dead ringer for Aladdin. The scenery and vessels, vehicles, etc. are a bit better, but a lot of it is very low detail and just not that good. The main ship is literally designed the way it is just to make it easier for the Lego manufacturers to make their version of it. :rolleyes: If I were doing a project, I'd actually pay more attention to the EU, since it's not like your film is going to be considered "canon" anyway. For canon references, I'd stick to the main films, including anything you can get that's "leaked" from Episode VII. But, that's just me.
Yeah, Google Translate really has become better, hope its output makes sense!
Anselms ship ist really amazing, but I had to pimp it very heavy. Thats not the pure download you see.
With my fine modifications the model grew from megabytes to gigabytes. But it was obviously worth it.
I will use it only a few seconds in the movie, but it want to make the ship shine like never before!
Impressive, most impressive.
:thumb:
Looks like that render farm is a beast. Nice work, looking forward to seeing the resulting output.
I'm in awe of you, sir. Hackintosh renderfarm? VG-20? Star Wars? I love all these things so much! So great! Loving what you are doing. Can't wait to see more.
Unfortunately the VG20 was a mispurchase even you're able to shoot awesome quality clips with this camera.
But after talking about the green screen concept with professionals at the art scool I'm working, I had to realize that it's not the right tool for the project. The AVCHD codec and the two linear image profiles (the "Cinema" mode ist also linear) are perfect for very good looking images that should reach the audience nearly unprocessed. For VFX, keying and grading however this concept is less appropriate. This is also true for VG30 and VG900. They are great cameras but they provide not the cine style in professional understanding which means possible usage of (flat) image profiles, uncompressed or pro-codecs and nowadays ideally 10-bit.
In the short: I sold the VG20 lately, set this year's holiday on the lowest lo-budget and ordered a professional FS7. It had to be after all the efforts on the CGI side. At least I can still use all my cine lenses on that camera.
How's the Hackintosh render farm coming along? I want to do one of those for myself some day, though I'm torn between Hackintosh and Linux based.
It works like I would never have expected some times ago. Simply perfect without any issue (after the heating problem fix).
I'm not the experienced hardware guru but as long as you are not dealing with complex GPU setups it's a relatively cheap and easy thing. Never had Linux in operation but is probably best if your softeware nodes supports it. Cinema4D only supports win and mac (also mixed) nodes. Since I'm the mac guy I decided to go with the hackintosh route.
Impressive, most impressive.
:thumb:
Looks like that render farm is a beast. Nice work, looking forward to seeing the resulting output.
Yeah it's really a beast, the kind of vicious small beasts I really should paint it in a dangerous color scheme
At the moment I'm still not in the final render production. I just wanted to be sure that the renderfarm (other say it's not a "renderfarm" it's a "multi-node system"...) as a core element of the project is not only nice wishful thinking. Actual priority has the finalization of all models. Next step will be rendering the matte plates for green screen shooting. I want the direct control over the considered compositing while shooting and for that I'll use the free little "Chroma Key Live" app. It's a great way to preview key and matte together on the laptop.
uh yeah... (cough), just before I went to SciFi3D and I saw I should have ask Fractalspongue before pimping his beauty...
I hope he still will allow me to use it when I ask him now. Let's go to the holo room...
It works like I would never have expected some times ago. Simply perfect without any issue (after the heating problem fix).
I'm not the experienced hardware guru but as long as you are not dealing with complex GPU setups it's a relatively cheap and easy thing. Never had Linux in operation but is probably best if your softeware nodes supports it. Cinema4D only supports win and mac (also mixed) nodes. Since I'm the mac guy I decided to go with the hackintosh route.
That's great that it works that well.
I think I've talked myself off the ledge as far as building a render farm. It seems like a good idea, but then I'm not sure I need that much power. Sure, I do some animation, but not enough to really make it worthwhile. I really just need to build another desktop or two, so that I can work on other stuff while I'm rendering said animations. Pus, if one goes out, I'll have backups. I use Lightwave, which only works on Windows or Mac OS, but it will run on Linux using Wine. Though, I don't know if that would even be an ideal setup for a farm.
You're right, it really depends on what you are going to do. In my case it was also a pure rational decision.
Assuming a quarter hour (900s) of CGI-clips at 25fps and a rendertime of approx. 30min/frame, the arithmetic is simple:
900 x 25 x 0.5 = 11250 hours resp. 469 days resp. 16 month rendertime on my iMac 4 x 3.5 Ghz i7.
With the farm the rendertime is approx. 60 days, which is rather reasonable but still enough.
I mean I can also render a still image in 8 min. instead in 1 hour, but that's definitely no reason to build a farm like this.
Then your approach of a separate second unit is perfectly adequate. I had a Mac Mini for that, but since they are no longer available as 4-cores they have become useless for that purpose. Since I don't want a gallery of iMacs or MacBooks in my room, the only way to expand renderpower within OS X would have been a MacPro. (Today a "Creative" for Apple is obviously only a man or woman with a Porsche on the parking :rolleyes: )
You're right, it really depends on what you are going to do. In my case it was also a pure rational decision.
Assuming a quarter hour (900s) of CGI-clips at 25fps and a rendertime of approx. 30min/frame, the arithmetic is simple:
900 x 25 x 0.5 = 11250 hours resp. 469 days resp. 16 month rendertime on my iMac 4 x 3.5 Ghz i7.
With the farm the rendertime is approx. 60 days, which is rather reasonable but still enough.
I mean I can also render a still image in 8 min. instead in 1 hour, but that's definitely no reason to build a farm like this.
Then your approach of a separate second unit is perfectly adequate. I had a Mac Mini for that, but since they are no longer available as 4-cores they have become useless for that purpose. Since I don't want a gallery of iMacs or MacBooks in my room, the only way to expand renderpower within OS X would have been a MacPro. (Today a "Creative" for Apple is obviously only a man or woman with a Porsche on the parking :rolleyes: )
Yeah, usage is definitely a factor. What I may do when (if) I have the money is build a couple more desktops. If I need more rendering power on down the road, I can always network them to create a DIY render farm. I was looking at how to do that on Ars Technica and it looks pretty easy. Plus, the person writing the article shows how to configure it in Win, Mac and Linux.
With those render times you have, I'd go bats***. Fortunately, all I'm doing is some effects shots for a live action fan film, not an animated film.
FS7!? So when do you want me to fly in to help out on the shoot? Loving the results you are getting and really, really impressed with your workflow and sharing the details of your renderfarm. Showed my director some of your stuff. He was pretty floored.
Yeah, usage is definitely a factor. What I may do when (if) I have the money is build a couple more desktops. If I need more rendering power on down the road, I can always network them to create a DIY render farm. I was looking at how to do that on Ars Technica and it looks pretty easy. Plus, the person writing the article shows how to configure it in Win, Mac and Linux.
With those render times you have, I'd go bats***. Fortunately, all I'm doing is some effects shots for a live action fan film, not an animated film.
Doing effects shots for live action musst be also an fascinating task. I lately saw a showreel of an vfx artist and was amazed about what was all done by vfx. But the guy said, unfortunately nobody notice his work when it's so close to realism
FS7!? So when do you want me to fly in to help out on the shoot? Loving the results you are getting and really, really impressed with your workflow and sharing the details of your renderfarm. Showed my director some of your stuff. He was pretty floored.
At the moment "FS7" seems really like a magic word
It's funny: this camera is technically so close to the Cine Alta line and Star Wars EP I was originally the reason for Sony to the build the first Alta cam. 15 years later this technology has become affordable for ambitious consumers.
I went to the video store yesterday since they had one of their rent items there due to the bad weather.
My first impression was: Wow, how handy this camera feels. The built-in shoulder pad is better than I expected and for sure sufficient for spontaneous shots. The new handle feels also perfect. But most of all I liked the viewfinder and its flexible mount.
I think the FS7 is really like the americans say a "bang for the buck" and maybe the price will fall after NAB if Canon releases a serious competitor :thumb:
Doing effects shots for live action musst be also an fascinating task. I lately saw a showreel of an vfx artist and was amazed about what was all done by vfx. But the guy said, unfortunately nobody notice his work when it's so close to realism
I should clarify, since I wasn't very clear on that. I'm doing space effects shots that go with live action footage, not adding effects to the live action. I've got enough heaped on my plate that involves doing stuff I've never done before, without opening that can of worms.
As usual I had to make some compromises for a reasonable workflow. That means particularly to replace physical reflections with simpler algorithms on some elements. I need 300 frames of that scene, so it's a lot to render. Actually I have it down to 1 hour render time per frame. I changed also from 16:9 to a more cinematic 1:2.35 which safes render time too.
And yeah, at the recent "Fantasy" Convention in Basel I met the 501st Garrison and was really pleased of their interest in my project. Their collaboration will make the project only feasible and I'm glad things proceed as I have forseen...
Posts
I stumbled three years ago about the short story "Extinction" of Timothy Zahn. Then I discovered the Comic and the 2006 Spanish Fan Film:
[video=vimeo;2381772]
They had not todays technical possibilities but you can feel that they made it with devotion.
Very excited I'm about the projects initiated by our German friends A?Descants of Order66Aâ and A?TydiriumAâ. As the US fan film A?RevelationsAâ this are of course very ambitious projects with near feature film length. I guess a few people here work(ed) on these projects.
The most common error I saw in fan films was an excess of dialogue. In my screenplay writer course that was the most frequent admonition of the teacher. "Tell the story wherever possible with plot, action or subtext, because film is a visual medium." To constantly refine the script under this aspect is also an exciting but prolonged thing.
I have meanwhile plot stuff for 50 Min and this project covers the multiple times revised and now conclusive first 15-20 min. which work as an independent story.
I know what you mean about excessive dialog in fan films. People are in a tense situation and all of the sudden break out in a heartfelt conversation about how much they like each other, or some such nonsense. I think, in those instances, they're trying to "pad" the film by having long conversations, since the effects budgets for those things are usually about nil. (I know, I've been working on one for the better part of a year) Conversations aren't a bad thing, but you have to decide where to put them and try not to make them overly verbose.
I think fan productions are important, because they not only give people a great creative outlet and provide great entertainment, but they show the big movie and show producers the type of stuff we want to see. Unfortunately, getting said producers to pay attention and listen to what the fans want is another issue entirely.
Troops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvswNDAAZCU
IMPS is also pretty damned good too, some awesome special effects and design in this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHJkxEVENPI
Still waiting for your Ebon Hawk!
And to BigT: Your work is amazing. Pretty excited for the film to come!
@Talon_UK, thanks!! that are the ones I had no longer in mind :thumb:
@wibble: Thanks! I try to do my best!
A new feature of Cinema4D R16 is the integrated motion tracking system. In the past I experimented with Pixelfarm MatchIt which is not bad but the export to C4D always was a little mess.
Yesterday I took some intentionally bad footage from my last cloudy trip on the Saentis (2500m) and threw it in the new C4D tracker.
This is really a quick and dirty clip, but the tracker is just sensational. Not only accurate even with bad footage but extremely fast in analysis and calculation. I just sat there thinking, heck, the force really is with me
http://www.darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/pic/saentis_a4_1.mp4
They recently featured a Sentinel-class and it differs from its portrayal in EU sources, but I guess it would be its canon look now.
Knowing how they're always going to the original reference material for the series, this might actually be their proper depiction from the special edition of A New Hope. Just in case you wanted to make some modifications to your mesh, or perhaps take a look. In the concept art gallery for the last episode they have a more detailed drawing in the following link, but contains a spoiler. So click with caution:
http://cdnvideo.dolimg.com/cdn_assets/3f86f04b627a115bf21783b918dba8fca815fbf6.jpg
Also, I couldn't come here to scifi-meshes since August and missed a lot of your posts, so I wanted to say you're doing an outstanding job. Can't wait until the project is done, and also until the models are released for us to play with themAâ¦
Not just that, but the hull also looks like the one from the Lambda in many details (the ship looks a lot like just a Lambda from behind). But funnily enough, I've just checked the scene from A New Hope and it seems to match the Rebels version. The primary foil has the same shape, and it has a large boarding ramp at the front instead of the sides. Looks like the EU sources used some creativity when depicting it, possibly due to having no access to the Lucasfilm archives like they're doing now.
Here's a screenshot of the film from Wookieepedia:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121215221022/starwars/images/c/c5/Stormtrooper_Search.png
And here's an image of an early EU source depicting the ship in detail, the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, showing the wings folding like a Lambda:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Sentinel_schem.jpg
Later, we have the intro for the Force Commander game, in which the wings fold at a different angle, like you and BigT depicted it. This version looks a lot like the last design BigT showed here, and it's also HUUUUGE compared to the Rebels one. I guess we could always go with the "there were several variants" explanation
As TALON_UK stated: it seems to exist a common base for the design but detail differences in its several incarnations. I already noticed the high cockpit mount and the more narrow shape of the body in ANH. Curios whether this ship will make it somehow into EP VII. That would be definitely canon then.
However with this model I had to 'close the sack' as we say here. I'm happy as it is now, even I cannot say it's canon. But the whole movie is not (strictly speaking) so it doesn't matter. At last I gave the model a sexy front flap for not looking to bulky
The overall goal was to have a trooper ship, more impressive than a Lamda (less elegant as well...) and with a heavier appearance. The usual charm of serious assault craft. I think it will do the job.
Actually planning my 'Ikea helmer' renderfarm:
Running prototype (OS X Hackintosh) :devil:
So in the end approx. 5'200 CinebenchR15...
For 2015 all the best to you guys! :thumb:
PS: This is a rough draft of the situation inside. the guys will have party too!!
Sorry I couldn't reply before, but I also wanted to explain something quickly. You said the following: But I must say that there's no "Expanded Universe" in the new way they're doing things. Everything that they create under Disney (films, TV shows, novels, comics, videogames) is canon from now on, and they have a "story group" to make sure there are no contradictions (or to minimize them). So yes, that new Sentinel craft I showed before is the 100% canon version, allowing for the necessarily stylized mesh for the show
That's off course true. I'm sure Disney will take good care of the styling canon as they do with the mouse ;-)
Actually I'm working on the finishing of several models and scenes, time consuming but I hope finally worth the effort.
The Renderfarm build up was easier than I expected and it does an incredible job.
I wrote a blog in German language, but it's maybe also fun to watch the pictures only.
http://www.darth-vader.ch/tswp/previews/pic/renderfarm
Now the movie project is no longer a question of technical feasability.
When it fails then only due to my personal disability.
There is no escape... ;-)
Damn... Ansel's ISD is so beautiful.
Yeah, Google Translate really has become better, hope its output makes sense!
Anselms ship ist really amazing, but I had to pimp it very heavy. Thats not the pure download you see.
With my fine modifications the model grew from megabytes to gigabytes. But it was obviously worth it.
I will use it only a few seconds in the movie, but it want to make the ship shine like never before!
I'm in awe of you, sir. Hackintosh renderfarm? VG-20? Star Wars? I love all these things so much! So great! Loving what you are doing. Can't wait to see more.
I really like your version of the shuttle. Also, I'm glad you told us that image with the pilots was a render, I might have thought it was a photo.
As for SW: Rebels, I'd not really pay much attention to that. Sure, it's "canon," but it's also got some very "meh" artwork. The characters all look very "Disney" to me, in fact the main kid is a dead ringer for Aladdin. The scenery and vessels, vehicles, etc. are a bit better, but a lot of it is very low detail and just not that good. The main ship is literally designed the way it is just to make it easier for the Lego manufacturers to make their version of it. :rolleyes: If I were doing a project, I'd actually pay more attention to the EU, since it's not like your film is going to be considered "canon" anyway. For canon references, I'd stick to the main films, including anything you can get that's "leaked" from Episode VII. But, that's just me.
Impressive, most impressive.
:thumb:
Looks like that render farm is a beast. Nice work, looking forward to seeing the resulting output.
Unfortunately the VG20 was a mispurchase even you're able to shoot awesome quality clips with this camera.
But after talking about the green screen concept with professionals at the art scool I'm working, I had to realize that it's not the right tool for the project. The AVCHD codec and the two linear image profiles (the "Cinema" mode ist also linear) are perfect for very good looking images that should reach the audience nearly unprocessed. For VFX, keying and grading however this concept is less appropriate. This is also true for VG30 and VG900. They are great cameras but they provide not the cine style in professional understanding which means possible usage of (flat) image profiles, uncompressed or pro-codecs and nowadays ideally 10-bit.
In the short: I sold the VG20 lately, set this year's holiday on the lowest lo-budget and ordered a professional FS7. It had to be after all the efforts on the CGI side. At least I can still use all my cine lenses on that camera.
It works like I would never have expected some times ago. Simply perfect without any issue (after the heating problem fix).
I'm not the experienced hardware guru but as long as you are not dealing with complex GPU setups it's a relatively cheap and easy thing. Never had Linux in operation but is probably best if your softeware nodes supports it. Cinema4D only supports win and mac (also mixed) nodes. Since I'm the mac guy I decided to go with the hackintosh route.
Yeah it's really a beast, the kind of vicious small beasts
At the moment I'm still not in the final render production. I just wanted to be sure that the renderfarm (other say it's not a "renderfarm" it's a "multi-node system"...) as a core element of the project is not only nice wishful thinking. Actual priority has the finalization of all models. Next step will be rendering the matte plates for green screen shooting. I want the direct control over the considered compositing while shooting and for that I'll use the free little "Chroma Key Live" app. It's a great way to preview key and matte together on the laptop.
uh yeah... (cough), just before I went to SciFi3D and I saw I should have ask Fractalspongue before pimping his beauty...
I hope he still will allow me to use it when I ask him now. Let's go to the holo room...
That's great that it works that well.
I think I've talked myself off the ledge as far as building a render farm. It seems like a good idea, but then I'm not sure I need that much power. Sure, I do some animation, but not enough to really make it worthwhile. I really just need to build another desktop or two, so that I can work on other stuff while I'm rendering said animations. Pus, if one goes out, I'll have backups. I use Lightwave, which only works on Windows or Mac OS, but it will run on Linux using Wine. Though, I don't know if that would even be an ideal setup for a farm.
You're right, it really depends on what you are going to do. In my case it was also a pure rational decision.
Assuming a quarter hour (900s) of CGI-clips at 25fps and a rendertime of approx. 30min/frame, the arithmetic is simple:
900 x 25 x 0.5 = 11250 hours resp. 469 days resp. 16 month rendertime on my iMac 4 x 3.5 Ghz i7.
With the farm the rendertime is approx. 60 days, which is rather reasonable but still enough.
I mean I can also render a still image in 8 min. instead in 1 hour, but that's definitely no reason to build a farm like this.
Then your approach of a separate second unit is perfectly adequate. I had a Mac Mini for that, but since they are no longer available as 4-cores they have become useless for that purpose. Since I don't want a gallery of iMacs or MacBooks in my room, the only way to expand renderpower within OS X would have been a MacPro. (Today a "Creative" for Apple is obviously only a man or woman with a Porsche on the parking :rolleyes: )
Yeah, usage is definitely a factor. What I may do when (if) I have the money is build a couple more desktops. If I need more rendering power on down the road, I can always network them to create a DIY render farm. I was looking at how to do that on Ars Technica and it looks pretty easy. Plus, the person writing the article shows how to configure it in Win, Mac and Linux.
With those render times you have, I'd go bats***. Fortunately, all I'm doing is some effects shots for a live action fan film, not an animated film.
Doing effects shots for live action musst be also an fascinating task. I lately saw a showreel of an vfx artist and was amazed about what was all done by vfx. But the guy said, unfortunately nobody notice his work when it's so close to realism
At the moment "FS7" seems really like a magic word
It's funny: this camera is technically so close to the Cine Alta line and Star Wars EP I was originally the reason for Sony to the build the first Alta cam. 15 years later this technology has become affordable for ambitious consumers.
I went to the video store yesterday since they had one of their rent items there due to the bad weather.
My first impression was: Wow, how handy this camera feels. The built-in shoulder pad is better than I expected and for sure sufficient for spontaneous shots. The new handle feels also perfect. But most of all I liked the viewfinder and its flexible mount.
I think the FS7 is really like the americans say a "bang for the buck" and maybe the price will fall after NAB if Canon releases a serious competitor :thumb:
I should clarify, since I wasn't very clear on that. I'm doing space effects shots that go with live action footage, not adding effects to the live action. I've got enough heaped on my plate that involves doing stuff I've never done before, without opening that can of worms.
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As usual I had to make some compromises for a reasonable workflow. That means particularly to replace physical reflections with simpler algorithms on some elements. I need 300 frames of that scene, so it's a lot to render. Actually I have it down to 1 hour render time per frame. I changed also from 16:9 to a more cinematic 1:2.35 which safes render time too.
And yeah, at the recent "Fantasy" Convention in Basel I met the 501st Garrison and was really pleased of their interest in my project. Their collaboration will make the project only feasible and I'm glad things proceed as I have forseen...