M dot Strange's Heart String Marionette Teaser
HEART STRING MARIONETTE teaser trailer #1 from M dot Strange on Vimeo.
I posted one of this guy’s youtube videos a few months back. I found his site through searching for 3D tutorials on youtube/google. M dot Strange has almost finished his 2nd feature 3D animated film and has published his first teaser trailer for the new film online today. Check it out.
You can also watch his previous film, ‘We are the Strange‘, in it’s entirety on youtube. Impressive.
Other Workings and Youtube Account
This is from another project not Porbeagle as there’s no guns in the script. This was created by creating a path in Illustrator then using the lathe tool in 3D and texturing using only the built in gradients and noise for bumps which I’m pretty happy with. I copied from a photo and think I’m definitely getting better at texturing from playing around a lot, which is a bit of a relief.
So I started a new Youtube account the other day. I’ve made a start uploading some of my videos from Qemic.com (just looking for all the big files on other hard drives). i’ve always had a scepticism of youtube, and a hypocritical one too because I regularly watch videos there, but a scepticism about publishing videos there. I never thought that the sort of abstract video experiments I had been making were a bit too out there for 14 year old myspace kids, and really couldn’t be bothered with the hassle. I’m trying to broaden my mind as suspend judgement before using it for a while as there is some great content on youtube and great content that is solely on youtube.
Here’s my channel, please subscribe or friend me: Qemic Youtube
Also earlier in the week on the train home from work I had a story idea that I liked and scripted 9 pages of that story upon arriving home. I think it’s quite good, very different from Porbeagle, it’s more of a black comedy and the dialogue’s a bit snappier. It’s been good practice for the first week of May which is my writing retreat week (and birthday) at my caravan to tune up everything.
Plodding along and new deadline's set.
So I’ve had a decently productive weekend. I managed to do some big edits to the script, including one of the scenes (a dialogue one) that I wasn’t very happy with. I’ve been watching a lot of odd and unconventional movies lately I want to try and take inspiration from those and make the script as a whole more ambiguous and open to interpretation, or just maybe not hammer the plot points so hard, let there be more of a subtle experience to it all. So the current draft I was working on is now done and I just want to look at the script from some other perspectives and see how I can really make what I want, something that I could still be proud of in 20+ years. This next draft will be the one where I’ll be going over with a fine tooth comb and asking myself what I want and don’t want, what is my goal and intention for the story and getting there. I’ve set a deadline for May 8th for that draft. Once that draft is complete I’m going to move forward with both showing the script around to a select few and creating the animatic as I wrote earlier.
This weekend I’ve also been keeping up with more 3D tutorials and putting into practice some of the things I’ve learned, mainly modelling and concepts to do with modelling, getting comfortable with starting with a primitive shape such as a cube and turning it in to a set piece, or anything imaginable. There’s this tool called Zbrush which is a modelling application that I’ve seen a lot of lately, it allows for really easily creating characters, props and so on that can be imported into your 3D program of choice. I saw this cool mini tutorial which shows how you can set up different facial expressions inside of Zbrush and then link them to sliders inside of Cinema 4D. Now as a workflow of creating expressions and phonemes. It really looks achievable with a little bit of upfront effort and basic learning of Zbrush. I think I’m getting to the stage where I put the lessons into practice and create from scratch a simple 3D character that can do basic things such as walk and talk and render out a short 30 second test clip. I think I need that exploration and practice as a jumping off point. Things can be made gradually and in an ‘as they’re needed’ situation, when a scene calls for a prop or an ancillary characters (not that there’s too many of each) they can be made when needed and a lot of animation can be produced beforehand with what is already at hand. It’s cool to learn about cheating too, for instance, I’m not gonna waste time modelling an entire object if I only ever see the said object from one angle, this can really cut down a lot of wasted time and detail on something that is never seen by someone other than myself.
Blender 2.5 Beta
I’m sure at some point you’ve come across Blender being mentioned on some website at some time or another. You may have even downloaded it run it and not much further than that. I personally think the idea behind Blender is incredible, I mean it’s free, open source and it’s up there with many of the other 3D softwares that are usually upwards of £2000. It’s very dense, can match the features of most but unfortunately the thing that has always been a stickler for many people is that it’s really difficult to use. I used it for 3D text etc… for uni projects a few years back and even used it for a match moving project but I always forget how to use it if I don’t use it for a while.
I noticed the other day that over at Blender.org they have a beta for 2.55. So I downloaded it not expecting much difference from the one I already have installed, but wow, it’s looks to have had a complete overhaul, at least interface-wise. It instantly looks alot closer to the stye of other 3D softwares such as Cinema 4D. Over the next few days I’m going to look into videos of animating characters in various 3D software packages, see if it’s actually a viable option for me. Other wise, I’m going to revert to my original plan of 2D animation using Animate Pro and After Effects.
Resident Evil (Game) Remake 2002
A week’s gone by and I’m still very much looking into the potential of using 3D for the entire animation process. I need to weigh up the pros and cons of each possibility whether it be 3D, 2D or hybrids. The reason for this question now is because 2 years ago when I made the decision to use 2D in a faux 3D world was because ‘true’ 3D was way beyond my ability at that time. It’s still a little advanced for me, but overall I’ve improved so much in using 3D softwares on a daily basis, really beginning to feel comfortable working 3D and understanding lighting, rendering and modelling better each day. I feel like an intensive study and trial and error over a few months could get me to a level where I could pull it off. Plus everything id project base. If I was to create the entire film in this way I would get better and better the more I work on it, and previous scenes can be easily updated to keep the quality consistent.
Watching The Polar Express for the first time today reminded me of the Resident Evil Remake opening video. I remember being blown away seeing this for the first time, I loved the realism the colour and mood from it, it was the first time I saw the potential for 3D in more darker stories. I’m still very impressed with it. I may have to pull out my Gamecube and relive it once more. I remember the whole game being very beautifully coloured and textured. Very cinematic.
Luckily for me, the majority of the script (as it currently stands) is very feasible to create in 3D. For instance, alot of indoors a lot of dialogue and action is very to the point for the most point. There are some definite stand out scenes though which are very minimal in the film’s timeline which will be an absolute nightmare to animate in 3D. The one I’m thinking of in particular is very visually appealing and interesting and I don’t want to settle for something easier on it. Obviously an idea would be to leave these last scenes to last (which I will whatever process I use).
I’m going to look into the potential of hiring someone to create the characters (rigged) for me so I could just drop them into scenes ready to animate. As I’ve mentioned before I have a modest cast of characters in the film so it seems like an actual option for me. I could design the drawn turnarounds and work out the colours etc.. beforehand and hand over to the experts to conform to an industry standard 3D model. I’ll inquire this week.
Send me an email if you’re a 3D character modeller/rigger, or know of one.
