me and Andreas cut all the clips together yesterday (except on shot, we put in a placeholder until the last shot was rendered). It went well all things considered, and we've got some ideas to improve the film as a whole already.

When we got to the point of adding music, we first considered to not have any sound at all. We haven't found a lot of fitting music, and what little we had was sparse. It only distracted from the movie itself, when it was only music from time to time. But then we found a excelent track called Shetland. Andreas just put it in, and the track was pretty much timed right to all the action imideatly. the awesomeness is hard to describe.

Now Michael is doing the final rendering and such, and everything should be ready for tomorrow.

We also realized that our movie is quite long 0_0

still not updating enough. even though I really should, as I was told we'll need links to blogposts related to previz work in the delivery come monday.

right now I'm puking up one shot after another to make the previz deadline. It's strained and unfunny (<--might not be safe). In theory I could do all major actionposes, time it right and be off, happily knowing what to do when real animation pushes up.
Thruth is a harsh mistress however, and when working on these shots, it's impossible to feel the animation. I don't know what small actions will break up the poses, cause diffrent timing and change the general of empathy. And I shure as hell don't have time (or desire) to sit and plan these things out.

the way I'm doing it now is simple; put the storyboard in motion and colours, so that it shows the individual situations and jokes of each shot, and take a leap of faith in the direction of timing, so that the previz won't be boring. Let's face it, if the previz is reasonably amusing, we're on to something. If not, we're off. I'm not claiming that "real" animation will turn the story from a crudly drawn penis in a bathroom stall to the roof of the sistine chapel. I am well aware that a previz shows the story as much as anything. But it won't look like a roadkill in July. We'll just have to take the critique on monday with a pinch of salt and realism.

although it might not look like it right now, I have a lot of faith in the story. I just can't whait 'till I get to do it properly.

Maybe I'll update with some pics tomorrow. We'll be finishing the last shots then, and we'll cut it all together on saturday.

Oh yeah, I have but a single link in this post. I strongly DISADVISE to browse through encyclopedia dramatica. For people who're very naive to what freedom of speech really is, it might be permanently scarring... strike that. It is permanently scarring to all people who doesn't realize that noone cares about your opinions, morals or mental health. You have been warned. Maybe way too late, but that's how the internets work.

Most bugs and issiues have been solved over the weekend and today I was able to begin properly on previz work. Right down and dirty with it. It feels good to get some of it done, although I'll admit it, it was a hard haul. I'm haven't gotten into überdelicious animationmood just yet (also, it's previz, not awesome animating). Between that and some pollen allergies thats starting early this year, I'm pretty spent for today. 7 or 8 shots, cannae remember. no pictures for you today, it'll have to whait for another day. The first half-quality renders are looking pretty sweet tho.

If we keep this up (and we will =^_^=) we should be on steady course.

(I have a lot of different pollen allergies, so I've learned to deal. Still, winter is the only time I can feel free from it's horrid grasp)

It might be ignorance talking, but I swear that ToonBoom is way harder to work with than Flash...

http://www.simensasylum.com/ithos/rawr.swf
(rightclick 'n save if the link won't work)

Once again I'm not pleased with this blogs userfriendliness in terms of embedding videos and sich. The YouTube-file worked swell, but thats because they have a link with embedding code for copypasta ready... no Idea how to put in flash files....

Aaaaaand the problems were solved. Jamie figured how bones, skin and riggs in general doesn't take lightly to files with different unit setups. That out of the way, and all characters (crud, well, most of them, we'll have to fix the rest) set to the metric system, things are starting to look mighty nice.

Did some more animation test with the bunny. I have a tendancy to get a bit self-critical about my animation, but Jamie says that this looks just fine.


(I'm giving embeded videos a shot, even though the blog setup isn't particulary videofriendly)
And hey! It worked!


Now I'm going to to prep our environment.

we seem to have some issiues about merging files with different models and bones

The artist within me is restless today. Hear it raaaaaaaawwwrrrr! Had some activities involving storyboards today, and I got creative and "helpfully" came up with two alternate endings to Dopplers animation film.

Anyways, we're starting up with the previz and hitting the first few issues of filesizes and renders. I know it will be sorted out, I just hope it won't be a lasting problem. We need to get going.

As of now, me and Jamie are doing some animation tests. I really want to make some decent animation on the rabbit. Currently I'm considering to re-rigg a bit, add something like a IK to keep the legs from sliding while I move the whole thing. I am perfectly able (harr de harr, I'm novice, if not noobie at animation) to counteranimate every repositioning of the COM, but I'd rather not, as it is rather time-consuming. A l0t of curve-editor work, otherwise it creates a horrible mess of keyframes in the timeline.




Two of our group members are currently incapassitated, due to the sickness and other things. But they'll pull through, and I do believe we'll make the previz deadline. So goodspeed to Andreas and Michael.


And now for something compleatly different! I have recently been able to try out the Touhou serries. And it's just as insanly difficoult as it looks. I have yet to finnish storymode on easy difficoulty.

I had gotten so good at updating, and then swoooosh.... tuesday, the week after. What the hell?

This week we're starting on previz. We still have some modellin, textures etc. to do, but we have to move forth. We's got a deadline for the previz and we have a lot of shots. Still we have a lot of stuph done and the previz will look mighty snazzy methinks.


I guess I'm just bored with just writing aboot the project. I'll start writing about less project related matters, just too keep me going. This way I'll always have something to write about, and if I always write at least a little bit about the project, I get constant update. Problem solved. Needs to be done, large part of the grade.

Just remembered; yesterday me and Andreas joked about switching a crashing sattelite we have in our story, with the Deathstar for laughs, and make it far more epic. It won't happen tho' as it is too corny, not fitting for the story and too much work. Speaking of fitting the story...

I regulary watch "Unskippable" on The Escapist, and their commetary on Onimusha 3 was hilarious. I've never played Onimusha (maybe the first, can't remember), but as I watched, it dawned on me how incredibly retarded the setting was. Of course, the Unskippable crew did their work on pointing out its flaws, but you could always say "Hey, it's a video-game. It's not real!". What dawned on me was the question of how this

got past some storywriter as a very good idea. It's flying murder-stingrays of doom! IN FRANCE! FRAAAAAANNNNCEEEE!!!!

I do realize it's a great way to introduce your second main character, a famous french actor. All props to the guy who got Jean Reno (correctly modeled even, he really looks like Jean Reno) to star in a videogame.

Jean reno with a sword that's on fire ups the awesome-factor quite a bit, BUT WHY FRANCE?! WHY SKELETON-SAMURAIS AND GIANT BUGS, IN FRANCE?!

The gamedirector has at some point not only approved this idea for production, but really thought it was a good idea.

It's rediciously funny, but somehow I don't think those who've worked on the Onimusha serries thought that their games should be this flaky. Japanese games like these (and after checking wikipedia, the other Onimusha games) are usually based around serrious settings. Oh yes, the crazy japanese have a lot of wierd humour. But after seeing a lot of this humour, I think I can go out limb and say that this was a descission made serriously.

Wow, now I've ranted alot. But hey, I made a blogpost. Long post short, I highly recomend "Unskippable", and I don't much approve of the setting made for Onmimusha 3. Props for Jean Reno awesomeness, but still. Damn!

Hopefully I'll update just about everyday from now on (except weekends methinks).
Now, to work!

And suddenly we popped into next week.... this week... whatever : )

As you can see, I've modeled our retarded sheep. It's a bit on the render-heavy side though. Me and Michael (who once again graced my modeled character with some textures and fluff) pondered slightly on the idea of rendering it in a separate layer with mental-ray, as opposed to V-ray. The group has yet to decide on render, but personal it seems to me that it gives decent results. Well see what we'll do.

I had something else to write, but now I forgot. BAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Bunny is now done. Model, texture, rig, skin and all.



Aaaand because I'm an ass, here's some LOLart



Messing with the works of people far more skilled than you'll ever be is always fun =^_^=

Today I finished the Marvelous BunnySlayer!

Michael helped me a lot. Both at texturing and some modeling. As far as textures go, I'm not really any good. Fortunately, Michael knows his way around V-ray, which gives shiny renders. Managed to keep away from turbosmooth, which always makes me happy. Personaly I think it feels like a crutch, and far too many around here are way too accustomed to just slap TurboSmooth on everything to make it look good. It usually works, but still....

Somewhat based on the machete to the TF2 Sniper.
I love the design of TF2, but not exactly what I wanted for this.


The plan now is to continiue the work on the bunny.


Still need some texture. For this pic it just got some rather render-heavy V-ray displacement noise map thingie (Michaels attempt at introducing me to V-ray), and something needs to be done there. Note that on Bunny I've used TurboSmooth :P I use it quite often, I just don't like it.

Today we talked a lot about "floaters" (aka. the noroff class equivalent to freelancers). Our group, GreenSpill, is still a bit unsure about exactly what kind of work we would give them at the moment. But we'll just let it sink in for now, while we're working. Something will pop up soon enough that needs fixing and additional manpower.

The bunny is chugging along, I've gotten to the point where I'm unsure about what needs fixin'... most likely texture, but I still consider it to be in the modelling phase.


=^_^=

I think I'll put in on hold for now, start working on a knife instead. I (and everyone lese on the group) want something a bit more menacing than a knife. At the same time, I don't want the bastard child of DevilMayCry and FinalFantasy swordculture :P

Maybe I'll finaly get a shiny looking render for my portofolio. I have a history of poor renders, not realy my strongpoint.

Started modeling of the bunny we need for several of the shots. Was hoping to use the old Golden Rabbit from SuperMario64 as good reference, but apparently my imagination and nostalgia added some awesomeness to the memory of the model. The actual rabbit didn't look that well when I looked it up on Google.


Alsø, THIS isn't exactly what we're going for. So I'm basically using some sketches I have drawn and some of the storyboard shots as reference and free handing anything else.
It's been far too long since I modeled anything major in Max, and it was never one of my strong points. Combining that with software issues (with my TOTALLY legal copy of 3DsMax), progress is slow. But progress is progress non the less. I'm hoping there won't be too many problems with rigging and texturing due to poor modeling.



I've also realized I sorely need to get into the habit of blogging. It's a major part of credit in this project and it is kinda fun when you get into it. Maybe I'll add some random posts now and again, stuff that isn't strictly project related.
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WARNING; NOT REALLY RELATED TO THE PROJECT:

Aside from software issues, I finally had a chance to finish an experimental drawing of mine this weekend. Nothing extremely Escher, I just attempted to follow the extremely generic guidelines of extremely generic anime and manga. Note; wiki says that Anime is very a varied genre, something I'm very awear of. But still there is a major group that follows the same pathern... just writing this down so I don't get lynched by knowitalls. (Note; I'm being very carefull with the links :P There's a lot of great artists I don't want to call "generic" even though they tend to be :) )

Anyway, I came to the conclution that I don't really prefer to draw like that. I'll have to experiment a little more to find "my" style. Quite happy with the result non the less. But I won't post the pic here though, it's not really siutable for this blog D: But there will be fabiulous prizes to those who can find my second blog, where I post stuff under a different alias :P
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Now, BACK TO WORK!
Motto of the day; If you're still proud of what you did yesterday, you haven't done enough today!