PRODUCTION DIARY 003
"As if overnight, they appeared, attaching themselves to the city, growing. There was no warning for they made no sound. They drew no attention. The streets were empty, quiet. The life which made up this little place we called home was gone. The air was thick, as if there was something more than air inside it. It was like you could feel invisible figures brush past you. Somehow I was left with the feeling that no matter where the people went, it had to be a better place than here."
It's amazing what you can learn when you dare to try new things. Trying new things is, of course, not always the best idea, especially if it means trying new software in the middle of production. In this case, though, I decided to try a new technique. I decided I wanted to model something using metablobs in Vue 6 Infinite. My experiment was not at all successful, in that I didn't get what I wanted. What I learned, though, and what I can now see as the future of using this technique has great value.
I had an image in my head of this substance growing from a center and crawing up the buildings. My first thought was that metablobs might be a way to achieve it. While my experiments with metablobs yielded a lot of interesting organic shapes and showed me great potential for other possible uses. It did not get what I need here, so I went with more conventional methods with primitives, objects and displacement maps. In the end the result is what counts, but at the same time you don't want to sacrifice momentum when you have it. Momentum is hard to come by. It is slow to build. When you have it, you must push on and let it continue to steam roll, otherwise, you may find yourself feeling as though you are starting all over.
One of the best ways to build momentum is to see results. This is why dailies can be a great thing. From the first day I create an edit timeline and start throwing shots into it. Sometimes I will even pull music from my library of many soundtracks to have as temp music so that scenes feel more complete. Watching this, creates of the feeling that "this is real." It feels like "this is a real movie." That immediately makes you want to see more and more.
Another killer of momentum is just plain using too many tools. I think I mentioned before how guys I know working in the hectic television production world, like on Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, would setup everything in camera, in Lightwave 3D, and get it right so they could move on. The speed of the show demanded it. Well, I am finding more and more a desire to do similar things as I continue working. Jumping from program to program too often is both tiring, and a killer of momentum.
Don't get me wrong, compared to the days of Understanding Chaos, the very nature of the tools and technology available to us today allows me work almost ten times faster, but my greatest desire right now is to find that "flow", where time disappears and creativity falls into the realm of the unconcious. There is a creative process there that I remember from long ago. My goal is to experience that again.
It's amazing what you can learn when you dare to try new things. Trying new things is, of course, not always the best idea, especially if it means trying new software in the middle of production. In this case, though, I decided to try a new technique. I decided I wanted to model something using metablobs in Vue 6 Infinite. My experiment was not at all successful, in that I didn't get what I wanted. What I learned, though, and what I can now see as the future of using this technique has great value.
I had an image in my head of this substance growing from a center and crawing up the buildings. My first thought was that metablobs might be a way to achieve it. While my experiments with metablobs yielded a lot of interesting organic shapes and showed me great potential for other possible uses. It did not get what I need here, so I went with more conventional methods with primitives, objects and displacement maps. In the end the result is what counts, but at the same time you don't want to sacrifice momentum when you have it. Momentum is hard to come by. It is slow to build. When you have it, you must push on and let it continue to steam roll, otherwise, you may find yourself feeling as though you are starting all over.
One of the best ways to build momentum is to see results. This is why dailies can be a great thing. From the first day I create an edit timeline and start throwing shots into it. Sometimes I will even pull music from my library of many soundtracks to have as temp music so that scenes feel more complete. Watching this, creates of the feeling that "this is real." It feels like "this is a real movie." That immediately makes you want to see more and more.
Another killer of momentum is just plain using too many tools. I think I mentioned before how guys I know working in the hectic television production world, like on Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, would setup everything in camera, in Lightwave 3D, and get it right so they could move on. The speed of the show demanded it. Well, I am finding more and more a desire to do similar things as I continue working. Jumping from program to program too often is both tiring, and a killer of momentum.
Don't get me wrong, compared to the days of Understanding Chaos, the very nature of the tools and technology available to us today allows me work almost ten times faster, but my greatest desire right now is to find that "flow", where time disappears and creativity falls into the realm of the unconcious. There is a creative process there that I remember from long ago. My goal is to experience that again.
15 Comments:
Terrence,
I read this book called "3D Short Film Production," and I thought it was great, fabulous. The author described the process of creating a story reel in there, and I thought it sounded incredibly overdone.
As I recall, it went someting like: first create a 2D storyboard, then a 3D animatic, then start putting
your actual scenes in there as you go. Wow! I mean, in regular film making they don't go through all these steps. Like, what if I had to photograph stills of all the actors first, shot by shot, then make a video of them doing the same things, then finally do it all over again and film it? You'd basically make the movie 3 times.
There has to be a better way. It's a great book though, and it gave me a much better clue.
Have you looked into using morphs? The filmakers behind the short film "The Cathedral" used morphing between two objects to create a really impressive effect of organic columns 'growing' from the floor to the ceiling.
Wow Vue 6 Infinite looks like a pretty nice software to own. Love your production diaries!!! I'm woking On an animation project myself. Here's my first attempt at doing animation long that 20 secs lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEMc1WiXy_Y
I learned alot from making that video and I will do better animation. I plan own working on an animated film all done in Anime Studio! :)
tyler: I wouldn't say that live-action films have less number of steps compared to what you describe of 3D short production - they're just different types of steps. For example, the steps that a live-action film could take is a story treatment, a full length script of the story treatment, script storyboards, an anamatic based off the storyboards, principle photography, and video editing (since I'm not directly in the Film Industry, that's just my interpretation - there could be even more steps than the ones I described!).
I agree that a lot of those steps are unnecessary for when you're doing a film on your own (there really is no need for doing both a 2D animatic and 3D animatic, since you only need one to get the ), but there are some steps (script, animatic, etc.) that are important/crucial to creating your film.
Christina: Nice going. Are your characters full vector or are you manipulating bitmap images from another program. I want to do more with Anime Studio and hope to get back to it soon. It's a different way of thinking and working and has its own rewards.
jasonn: One thing to remember is that in your production it is all about choice. As soon as you assume any step is crucial or necessary you may have limited yourself. We know these methods work, but few know if other methods will work just as well until they have been tried. I have heard of live action filmmakers who give their actors a complete character, with back story and a full life, and then they go with only a basic idea or direction from there and shoot everything improv. When you're not blowing through feet of 35mm film which needs developing, you can try anything, and why not try it?
It's the same as how there are best selling novelists who don't write outlines and don't plan anything, but just get up in the morning and do ten pages per day, or whatever bar they set for themselves. Why? Because they have experience. They don't need to do those things they did starting off because they have 20 novels under their belt.
We must find that process which works for us, but be careful not to hold ourselves back or limit our own creativity.
Full vector,I find it more easier to edit vectors then bitmap.
Terrence: Maybe "crucial" wasn't the right choice of words to use. :P
I didn't mean to imply that certain steps or methods are absolutely necessary to creating a independent film (as I discussed with the example of doing both a 2D and 3D animatic, which I noticed Blogger cut off the end of that sentence -_-). As independents, we have the abilty to experiment and try many different methods of creation: whichever step/process gets the job done, gives us the quality we desire, and does it in the time we need it is certainly the most desireable method/s for the indepentent filmmaker to use.
""As if overnight, they appeared, attaching themselves to the city, growing...."
This reads like a War Of The Worlds quote...
Is that what you're doing?
No, nothing like that. I never read War of the Worlds, but if sounds like that I might be inclined to rewrite a bit. What I am doing is essentially fantasy.
Workflow, and getting into it!!
It's a process and when you start concentrating on one area or one step then you're going to get into your work flow.
Concentrate on the process, you are the production manager and you are the producer, director, assistant director etc...
When you put on one hat keep it on from start to finish. I guess one way to best illustrate this is the screenwriting process.
You are an independent animator and you have an idea, you are ticked off enough to say I don't care what anyone else thinks I am going to do this by myself!!
So you sit down and you feversihly write the script, the first draft is done. You let it sit for a day or two, pick it up again and begin to re-write the things that don't make sense.
You are now finished with the second draft and it didn't take your as long as you thought so now you call up your buddy and convince them to read it, they give you some notes (hopefully)
You have done it!!! you've written your script, you are going to produce this 5 minute animated piece yourself!!!
It felt great that you were able to get into a workflow and get all of these thoughts out the way you wanted them.
Concentrating on your script (workflow - the way you write) is no different from any of the other processes to create your movie.
Of course how you get into the workflow will be different for each task but once you do it once you start to refine the process like normal or you say to heck with this it's too much work or you discuss the process with some friends and somone says why didn't you use hypervoxels in sprite mode or something like that.
Just a thought;)
Tony :)
JAsonN said...
"I agree that a lot of those steps are unnecessary for when you're doing a film on your own (there really is no need for doing both a 2D animatic and 3D animatic, since you only need one to get the )"
Jason,
I have to disagree with the 2d animatic and the 3d animatic part, for the following reasons.
Timing, timeliness and execution...
All of the above deal with how quickly you want to get your project done; you should have a project calendar to deal with the logistics (in this case I mean techniques that you will employ to get your project completed. Whether it is special effects, compositing, editing etc.) A further breakdown would be;
2D animatics made from your storyboards (will take an afternoon to do) this animatic is your timing road map for animating your movie, you now know exactly how long each should needs to be animated, this 2d animatic will also help with timing out transitions. The average transition is 30 sec, which means that you need to add 15 frames on the head and tails of each shot.
Well your sets are already modeled and textured, and lets throw in that the majority of the lighting rigs are done the way you like but you know that you'll revisit those on a shot by shot basis. So lets get to the meat of it.
3D animatics, by doing all of the 3d animatics for your movie (subsituting lores characters)you can now concentrate on camera angles and camera moves. This process will help you fly through that portion of the animation process. So now you've completed the 3d animatics, you could easily replace your 2d animatic pics in your NLE with the low res 3d rendering to give you a hybrid temp movie to show a work in progress, but more importantly you can now concentrate fully on the characters in your movie! Making sure to add in all the sublte moments we the audience expect from you the animator.
All I am saying is that the value of those 2 processes should not be overlooked. Can you make your movie without them, yes! will it make it easier without those two processes? maybe it just depends on how you want to get into your workflow.
I'm a list person, I find that when I make a list for my projects I usually stick with it and then get the project done; unless paid freelnace work comes along well then everything else goes out the door because I gotta eat and I need to keep my 3D fix going ;)
Just a thought :)
Tony :)
Tony: These different approaches make a lot of assumptions about what the project is and they may not apply across the board. While the steps of doing 2D and 3D animatics have their value, the type of project they are being used on makes a huge difference in their effectiveness.
Clearly the 3D animatic stage would be pointless on a completely 2D anime film, Flash animation or Aime Studio project, so I won't talk about that, but if you look at my previous work, even though 3D graphics are certainly used, they are used solely as a means to acheive what is essentially a 2D film.
Another scenario worth mentioning would be that 3D animatics for timing and execution would be a moot point if the show is built around motion capture. For example, the guys who worked to bang out so many episodes of Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles and Max Steel, aside from not having time to contemplate 3D animatics, had their timing and execution dictated by what the actors did on the motion capture stage. This brings up another method of work. You can treat 3D animation, in this sense, exactly like a live action production, with a principal photography stage, then a post production phase of the project.
If you're doing a film more along the lines of a Pixar workflow, I can see the 3D animatic having the most power. The question I would then ask, is why do the 2D animatic? If you can do them in one afternoon and have it all cut on the timeline in your editor, that could be a very powerful step. I know I can't do that. I tend to spend too much time on each board or do multiple boards per scene and thus couldn't do more than a couple minutes per day. In fact, if my characters and sets are already modeled, I could do final shots faster using Poser, Lightwave or any 3D app.
Tony, your project is not as easy to acheive as what I do. From the look you have, there's no way around it. What you recommend is probably the best way to proceed to realize your short film. When I talk about what steps are or are not necessary, I suppose I should make it clear that I am, first and foremost, talking about my project, which, when all is said and done is meant to play as a traditional 2D anime show. And the process by which I get there can, in my view, literally fall into the realm of creating manga, in almost every way. And when I create manga, I jut do it. I start on the first panel and just draw.
Terrance Said...
"Another scenario worth mentioning would be that 3D animatics for timing and execution would be a moot point if the show is built around motion capture. For example, the guys who worked to bang out so many episodes of Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles and Max Steel, aside from not having time to contemplate 3D animatics, had their timing and execution dictated by what the actors did on the motion capture stage. This brings up another method of work. You can treat 3D animation, in this sense, exactly like a live action production, with a principal photography stage, then a post production phase of the project."
Terrance having worked on those two shows myself, I can attest to how we did it. Some people may or may not have worked with 2d animatics (I did, they were of course provided to me the animator) some people may or may not have done 3D animatics (I did, based on the storyboard animatics) that we did have to turn into Sony.
As for the motion capture we always had more and always had to trim it done for the shot.
I suppose I presumed too much as I am strictly a 3d guy (who would also like to be a 2d guy one day).
Yes motion capture did dictate the length of the shot but we still had those two elements for a variety of reasons. Primarily communication. Most of the directors I worked on for Troopers had a 2d animation background and were new to 3d; while Max Steele was all based on the experience that most of us learned from Troopers and the team from Netter Digital.
The workflow is always going to be different for whatever medium you the artist chooses to work in.
Techniques for painting in oil are different than painting in acrylics.
How you use conte crayon is different from how you use chalk to create your art.
Terrance you mentioned that you worked at UFO, I too did a stint there and we had no storyboards most of the time. In fact most of the time the VFX supervisor did the boards themselves as well as an animatic. sometimes it was a 3d animatic to help the shot progression.
Regardless of anything else the topic here is getting into your workflow and that is always going to be different for everyone and I couldn't agree with you more on the aspect that across the board those techniques will or will not work, it just depends on your project and what medium you chose to tell your story in.
Also I may have stated the simplicity of doing a 2d animatic in an afternoon, however I was preuming that the 2d artwork was done on a computer and you could simply import those frames into your NLE with your audio scratch track, not to mention the fact that I did mention a five minute film not 22 minutes or 30 minutes or longer, as that certainly would not be possible.
Just a different perspective. I'd write more but I'm off to go see the Fantasic Four!
Thanks
Tony :)
Regarding the issues of doing both 2D and 3D amimatics, Terrence more or less summed up my thoughts on the matter.
Again, I'm not saying that those processes are unimportant or insignificant - however, for the independent animator, to do two similar processes (let's be honest, the only principle difference between a 2D and 3D animatic is the medium which creates it: the purpose of both is essentially the SAME thing) when you only need one for your purposes is something that is [what I believe] a waste of time and effort that could have been spent elsewhere.
Well, I'm back from the Fantastic Four movie, though I won't spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it. I thought the effects were astounding! Nature effects I believe are the hardest to do.
Cheers
Tony :)
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