Thursday, January 29, 2009

Status update

Concept art - Characters 100%, Environment 100%
Story/Script - 100%
Modeling Characters - Mr Scrim 100%, Ms. Scrim 100%, Flying Critter 100%
Modeling Environment - 100%
Rigging - 100%
Texturing Char - 100%
Texturing Env - 100%
Lighting - 85%
Animation - 5% (15 seconds rendered)
Compositing - 0% (still a lot of testing needed. I want to find a unique look that can be aplied through compositing)

The rendering plan

Ok, so i've been rendering my first animated scene. A total of about 15 seconds. Each frame is 1920x1080 (1080hd). Im pleasantly surprised with the render times so far. Heres the plan as things get more congested. I have 4 computers to render from.
1) Quad core 3.0ghz, 16gigs ram 2) Dual core 3.0ghz, 8gigs ram 3)Dual Core 2.8ghz, 6gigs ram 4) Dual core 2.8ghz, 4 gigs ram (laptop)
Unfortunately, I do not have a render farm setup. I may look into trying to set up a render farm, but i think I will need some expensive gear, so that may be out of the question. Right now, all of the setting up is going through 2 USB switchable external harddrives. This is annoying, but its the easiest way to transfer files without spending a bunch of money.
Like I said, right now, things are going smooth. With that said, it is the least populated scene that im rendering, and im rendering it on my most powerful computer. We'll see if I can pull this thing off with this set up.

Peace,
Eric

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

still


I forgot how crappy videos look on this thing, so heres a still form the animation. This is before any kind of compositing.

First look at animation

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Animation Has begun

So, last night I officially began animating my first scene. Its a scene were Mr. Scrim in up in his wind mill looking out at the stars with his telescope. Ive decided to render everything at HD1080. Thats a super high resolution for a 1 man short (atleast super high for the detail I have). This is going to absolutely kill me at render time, but I figure if Im taking my time, mine as well get a high resolution out of this. This will also make the film much more editable in the end.
So yay, animation time!!!!!!!!


-eric

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

update - jan. 14 2009

Concept art - Characters 100%, Environment 100%
Story/Script - 100%
Modeling Characters - Mr Scrim 100%, Ms. Scrim 100%, Flying Critter 100%
Modeling Environment - 100%
Rigging - 100%
Texturing Char - 100%
Texturing Env - 95%
Lighting - 75%
Animation - 0%
Compositing - 0%

Dig the rig

So, I've spent the past couple weeks finishing up the rigs for these 3 characters. Rigging is the one aspect of visual effects that I have ignored the most. Im happy to say that the rigs ive made so far hold up great. Leaps ahead of the work I did on my last film. Spending more time rigging and weighting will definitely save me time in the future.
I look to start animation within a few days. This is a huge milestone for the project and Im glad Ive made it this far without going insane =)

Thanks for reading!

eric

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Final Character Designs




Friday, January 2, 2009

Let the animation begin!!

The deeper I get into this project, the more excited I become. I've officially finished all the environments and characters, and its time to finally start the long animation/rendering work.

I really want to be completely done by the end of march. That gives me a good 2 months to animate this. Very doable in my opinion. I'll keep you updated!