Animation test

[STRAT]

Hi guys

 

here's a WIP of an animation i'm working on (DivX5)

 

http://www.nikclark.com/strat/uploads/anim.avi

 

[ February 28, 2003, 06:19 AM: Message edited by: STRAT ]

[nisus]

Hi Strat,

 

I'm not really thrilled, but I guess you'll animate the camera too... Anyway, careful of parallax

 

In a static view I find it very boring watching all those RPC cycles when nothings really happens except for the invisible boat passing by...

Boring, except for the guy to the left, who walks like he is carrying a big brown s**t in his pants... lol! Ow... and I like the invisble mirror reflecting Mr.Brown to the other riverbank a lot too Really funny...

 

The night fx are much better: no distracting people, better atmosphere and more focus on the architecture

 

If this is a test on walking rpc, it's well done: no skaters or floaters on the bridge

 

rgds

 

nisus

[Chris_Mac]

It's looking good.

 

Overall I really like it, but i think there is a bit of an imbalance between your people (ultra photo realistic) and your 3d work (which looks like cg). It's not really a problem though, more an issue of style.

 

I'm sure your client will be very pleased.

[STRAT]

cheers nisus

 

They aren't RPC btw. they're Marlin Studios ppl.

 

I was hoping to pan the camera, but with the High GI settings and considering the final cut is at 800x600 pixels, the render times would be huuuuuuuuuuuge. Doing it this way was the lazy man's solution to getting out an animation within dead line times.

 

And yeah, the ppl do mince along somewat

[Paul Griger]

Hi there Strat,

 

Too bad you can’t animate the camera. I’d like to see the camera move along the river walk at the pace of a person checking out the architecture. The water movement is a nice touch. The lighting and the architecture is well done.

 

For a couple of things that stood out to me:

1. The daytime shot has the feel like it is an ad for Marlin Studios Ppl in motion rather than an animation highlighting architecture. The night time shot highlights the architecture better IMHO. Maybe not having the ppl in the foreground would allow the viewer to focus more on the archi maybe?

2. the clouds in the daytime seem to be rotating along a north pole vertical axis and not to be moving across the sky. The static night time clouds seem to work better

 

did you use C4D for this?

 

Best,

 

paul

[STRAT]

Cheers Paul

 

the fact the camera is static and the ppl move really does take ur attention away from the archi. (isn't this a good thing? )

 

and the clouds were a bugger to animate using the alpha channel. must do better next time.

 

here is basic steps to how i did animation -

 

1) modelled up the entire scene in AutoCAD

2) rendered out 1 frame (without water, sky or people) using GI in Cinema4D

3) imported model into max, assigned that C4D render as backround image, and assigned a matte/shadow material to the model.

4) dropped in animated ppl opacity clips. Added animated sky map into alpha channel. Created animated water map and assigned it to scene. Rendered the composited animation.

5) did exactly same process for the night time bit.

6) composited day time and night time scenes, together with cross fades in max.

[Paul Griger]

thx Strat for the explanation.

 

BTW, 1 post away for 1000 posts for Strat, Wohoo!

[John Dollus]

I would render the background plate oversized and do a simple pan to extend the illusion of the animation.

[schmoron13]

I loved the animation!!! sure there were some faults, but overall you've done a marvelous job....

 

with that said, here we go: First off, I was a little put off by the water. In the forefront, it looks to be superwindy or with a boat passing by, yet everyone's hair is still. Secondly, I don't see why the water ripples hard in the forefront and JUST STOPS at some point (actually prefer a combination of the two?)

 

I love the night shot (especially the reflection in the water, but not a huge fan of all that blue lighting...makes it seem a little too mood setting....all the entire lights are a harsh yello, yet EVERY spot light is neon blue

 

but overall, I would kill to be this talented....well done....BRAVO

[STRAT]

john d - yup, the thought did occur to me, praps i'll give it a go next time. C4D does allow me a single frame GI set up for animation, which im not too chuffed with, but a small pan may be ok with it. and it would make a world of difference to the overall animation.

 

schmoron13 - cheers i agree that the water ripples all of a sudden stop as you go back into the scene. sommit to look at next time. too much fall off i think.

[John Dollus]

I kindof like the falloff on the water motion. Real water has many calm spots as air currents move around. It would be nice to see the calm spot move across the water to give the impression of a gust of wind.

I did an image about a year ago using this same method as I did not have time to model the bldg, so I just painted it and scanned it in as a background plate. In my case, I added birds flying through as well.

For fun, you can create a balloon and attach it to one of the 'walking' people and then let it go.

[nisus]

Hi strat,

 

Marlins... that's how you avoided the skaters (=rpc-walkers)... Good!

 

I like the idea of a pan very much

 

rgds

 

nisus

[O+]

hey strat,

 

beautiful job. I especially like the subtle cloud

movements. there will always be a problem using

'real' people in a cg scene (color/contrast differences- staged movements,etc..) but they're

always preferable to silly looking cg people..

 

only one comment; if there was a way to get the cloud movement/scene movement reflected in the windows of the building, it would really bring it more to life..(along with the very slow image pan mentioned earlier in thread).

 

great job.

 

ed