Short Animated Film Needs Actor

Dwarfed Films are producing another short 3D animated film, this time a comedy about a door to door salesman.
The role requires one male actor with a North American accent. We do not require any other actors for any other parts.
The film will be approximately 2 - 2.5 minutes long.
This will be an unpaid position but it is a great opportunity to show your comedy prowess and may lead to future paid work.
Actor will recieve credit and copy of the completed film.
We do not need a bunch of CV's and headshots - but we do want funny, smart people with great acting ability and vocal talents!

TIPS TO REMEMBER:

• When recording, speak across the microphone rather than in to it!
• It's an animated short but we're not looking for comedy/"Muppet-type" vocals.
  
• Don't try to be wacky. Be yourself and follow the direction in the PDF sample.

Requirements:

• You will need an audio recording software program such as Audacity (freedownload @ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ )
• A reasonable quality directional microphone.
• A quiet area to record in.
• A file compression program such as 7Zip (free download @ www.7zip.org) or Winzip or Winrar.

NOTE: If chosen for the role in this animated film, all your future
recordings for the part will be done in this manner – so sound quality
is very important. If your sound output is noisy, crackly or fuzzy please
do not submit for consideration as you will not be selected.


Download the Audition Sample script PDF from here
http://www.mediafire.com/?e2jycdly9nz


If you don't already have a PDF viewer you can download
the free Foxit PDF viewer from http://www.foxitsoftware.com/
or Adobe Acrobat Reader from www.adobe.com/acrobat.

Follow the instructions contained in the sample script.

When you have completed recording, do the following:

• Convert your recordings from .Wav to .MP3 format.

• Add a text file (.txt format or a Word .doc or PDF) including your name and contact details.

• Compress these files into a single .7zip, .Zip or .Rar archive using yourcompression program. FILES MUST BE NO BIGGER THAN 2 MB (Thats 2 megabytes max). Any files larger than 2 MB will not be considered.
  

• Email Dwarfed Films with a link directing us to where to download your file. http://mediafire.com/ provide a free file hosting service.
  

• DO NOT EMAIL YOUR FILE DIRECTLY TO DWARFED FILMS.

• Successful candidates will be contacted after the selection process.

* NOTE: Visit http://www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com for details and advice on
submitting your audition files.


All images, names, “sample script” and “Dwarfed Films” are the COPYRIGHT © of Dwarfed Films 2003-2008.
Unauthorised usage of this documant and any images, names,“sample script”and “Dwarfed Films” is strictly prohibited without written permisssion from the authors.

The 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial

I've made a simple PDF tutorial for using the new Jahka particle system in Blender.
The previous .EXE tutorial I made and provided before on this site was Ok-ish but this new one is far better!
The file size is about 650kb and deals with making basic hair material, emitting hair particles and then rendering layers so that you can render the mesh model and the particles seperately and then composite them later in Blender's sequencer.


Also, this tutorial is based on the latest version of the particle system as used in the Blender 2.45 SVN AAO build available on www.graphicall.org

You can download the PDF tutorial here
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz

Any questions or comments leave 'em on the site.

Shane

Edit 23/Jan/2008: This is a newer version of the PDF Tutorial provided in a compressed .Rar format. It includes more detail and tips.

Edit 03/Feb/2008: OK, here's something I just realised whilst testing the latest Blender SVn Build from www.graphicall.org.
In a note at the end of the rendering section of my "10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial" PDF file, I wrote this:

"You might have a few problems when moving from rendering one layer to another.
For example, during my tests when I'd finished rendering the Mesh only shot and moved on to do the
Hair only, the wrong shot would render. The only way to rectify this was by restarting Blender and
rendering the Hair shot again seperately. A strange bug - probably."

Well, ignore that statement! The solution to this is very simple and I have given myself a slap for not figuring it out sooner.
All you have to do is this:

Instead of selecting the "Single" button in the Render Tab (in order to only render the selected render layer) - don't select it at all.
Just make sure that you click the little correction marker beside your layer name to "disable/enable this Render Layer".
Of course, make sure you only choose the layer(s) you want to render in that particular pass.
That's it. Simple really.

Check it out by doing a quick test by rendering "mesh only" first. Then in render window press J key to view other buffer. Now select a "hair only" render pass and press F12 to render. When this is done, press J key in the render window to compare the two shots by toggling between them.

Now you shouldn't have any problems.

Shane
www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com

Blender Approximate AO Build TESTS

Some things I've noticed so far in Blender 2.45 AAO SVN Build:

*Obviously the new "Approximate Ambient Occlusion". Did a few simple tests. No speckles as in ray-traced AO, so more suitable for animation.
As for speed/quality - need to do more tests on it.
There is a noticeable difference in render times when doing simple tests with the included very basic scene of a dome shape on top of a spire with some curved wires sprouting from it. The scene has is lit by a single ray-traced shadow casting Lamp.
In these tests, the New AO renders over 37 times faster than the traditional method. There is a definite lowering in quality in the smoothing from light to shadow, and dark areas appear 'darker' than in the regular AO example. But the speed is a great improvement - particularily for animation.
Haven't tried it with hair particles yet.


The image above shows a comparison between regular AO and the newer type one approximate AO version. The scene is a simple setup with a single Lamp with ray ray-traced shadows enabled. The 'model' is just a couple of simple meshes that I 'discombobulated' and then added a few curves.
Click on image to view larger.

*When adding a plane in front view mode, it is added as if in top view mode. This is not a Bug - go to options window and in "Edit Methods" tab you can alter how New objects are added.

*New sequencer button controls are available in the buttons panel.

*Some nice python scripts added, such as Auto Masonry Script (for making stone walls with windows and doorways); Blender Measurement tool and a few others that could be pretty useful.

*Added a MPEG2 file to sequencer and it slowed everything down to a standstill and became unusable. Eats alal the memory. Something came up on screen about 'failed to make correct lib" or something like that. Just a problem with FFMPEG on this build, I think.

*To go to UV selcet mode you need to enter it by choosing "edit" and selceting "texture" view. It's been this way for a while now in blender builds since official 2.45 version. Annnoying at first but makes more sense when you get used to it. More intuitive.

*Frame/Data stamp buttons are available in Render Buttons panel. Handy.

*Don't know how dependable this version is although it hasn't crashed as many times as the earlier new Particle patch version. Again, will need to use more to find out.

I might add more notes when I try more tests. Or then again I might not. All depends on what way the wind blows, I suppose....

Shane

NOTE:You can download the new builds from www.graphicall.org
Search for the "Approximate Ambient Occlusion" builds or "AAO"

****EDIT: The pciture accompanying this article has been changed from yesterdays. The new image shows a comparison between the 'old' AO and the newer AAO which turnes out (in this example) to be 37 times faster when rendering. Yes, thats 37 times faster!!!****

The 15 essential Freeware Software Programs you should download immediately

The 15 essential Freeware Software Programs you should download immediately:
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It's the start of the year, and what better way to begin 2008 than with a round-up of the best Freeware out there waiting to be downloaded. The 15 programs below are all fully functioning versions of Free software with no expiry time-limits or annoying pop-up ads. They have proven to be reliable and secure - in many cases such as Blender, Firefox and IrfanView they have shown themselves to be outstandingly dependable.
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1: Blender 3D: A Free Open Source 3D modelling and animation software. Import/Export to 3DS, OBJ, LWO, DXF, VRML, Collada and others. Files can be saved in native .blend format which saves all data including animation IPO's, models, armatures, materials, etc.
Softbody and hardbody Physics integration. Blender also includes Game Creation ability and creation of .exe format games.
Inbuilt renderer is very fast and good but Blender also supports other external renders such as Yafray. Very good UV unwrapping abilities. Includes a very competent video/audio sequencer editor that supports FFMPEG and export to many formats. Think MAYA/3DS MAX but with some more extras and zero pricetag! http://www.blender.org

2: The Gimp: Free Open Source image manipulation/editor. Basically a free version of Photoshop! Supports unlimited layers, alpha channels, multiple export formats. http://www.thegimp.org

3: Audacity: Free Open Source audio editor/recorder. Export to Wave, Ogg, MP3 formats. Multiple effects and filters. Rip audio CD's. http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net

4: Psycle: Audio creation tracker. Uses VST plugins. Exports to WAV format. http://psycle.pastnotecut.org/


5: IrfanView: Free Image viewer/editor. Supports multiple formats such as the usual Targa, PNG, JPEG, BMP formats as well as video files such as MPEG, Quicktime .MOV, WMV, etc. Supports creation of .Exe slidshows and presentations. Image editing not nearly as extensive as The Gimp but you quickly crop, resize images with ease. http://www.irfanview.net/


6:Super: Free Video converter. Convert and play many video file formats and convert files to multiple formats such as DVD, MPEG, Quicktime .MOV, AVI, DivX, PSP, iPod, etc. http://www.eRightSoft.com

7: PDF Xchange Viewer: Free PDF viewer/editor. Read, edit and create PDF files the easy way! Faster than Adobe Acrobat. http://www.docu-track.com/

8: Deep Burner: Free DVD burner software. Simple interface but fully featured. Create Data, Audio or ISO DVD's.Create and Print disc labels, booklets or DVD case inserts using a number of presets. More reliable than NERO. http://www.deepburner.com

9: Terregen: free (for personal use only) terrain generator. Creates photo-realistic landscapes and worlds. You can animate the sky, water and camera movements through created worlds and export to .BMP format. These .BMP's can be converted to image sequences using Blender or VirtualDub.Terregen 2 supports import of 3D models in Wavefront OBJ format. http://www.planetside.co.uk

10: Open Office: Free Open Source word processor, PDF creation, etc. More advanced than Microsoft Word/Works/Excel. http://www.openoffice.org

11: PDF Creator: Free PDF creation - as simple as that. Convert any file to PDF format. http://www.pdfcreator.de.vu/

12: 7Zip: Free file compression software. Open .Zip, .Rar , etc formats. Save to .7zip format whcih has advanced compression capabilities.
http://www.7zip.org


13: Voodoo Camera Tracker: Free (for non-commercial use) software for match-moving filmed footage. In human language this means that you can film something using a handheld camera, import the sequence into Voodooo (first you must convert your raw footage into Targa .TGA format stills using the Free VirtualDub program) and then the program will match the camera movements and form a cloud of vertex dots simulating the 3D re-constructed world scene. This data can be imported into Blender from which you can combine your real world footage with artificial 3D objects. You could pay $1000's for a similar commercial program - but why bother when Voodoo does a wonderful job for nothing!
http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de

14: Firefox: Free Open Source Web Browser. Better and safer than Internet Explorer - so much so that the latest version of IE copied Firefox's tabbed browsing. Less likely to catch a nasty virus using Firefox than it's commercial rivals. http://www.mozilla.com

15: Make Human: Free Open Source 3D human model creator. Similar to commercial program “Poser”. Essential for those who are no good at modelling! You can create a realistic human figure by simply moving sliders and pose it. Export the 3D model to Blender in Wavefront .OBJ or Collada format. Previous versions, I found, used a too complex mesh which wasn't particularily suitable for animation (too many vertices). But this latest build uses a lower density mesh while retaining accurately posable edge loops. http://www.daedalo3D.org

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Didn't quite make it....
There are many other great Free programs availbale for download jsut waiting to be discovered. I could not possibly list them all but here is just a sample of some:

Paint.Net: Free image editor/creator. Similar to The Gimp but more simplified and faster. www.getpaint.net/redirect/wp/index.html

Wax: free audio/Video editor/Compositor. Originally a plug-in for Sony Vegas but now can be used as a standalone editor. Lots of different filters and effects. I've found it to be a bit troublesome at times - especially at rendering. Try it and see what you think. The guy who designs it, Satish Kumar, has also created a number of other great free programs such as "Wink" and "WinMorph" featured below).
Go to http://www.debugmode.com and check out this program and more.

Wink: A Free presentation program that records screen capture and exports in Shockwave flash (SWF) and avi format files. http://www.debugmode.com

WinMorph: Free image morphing software. From the maker of Wax and Wink. http://www.debugmode.com

WinDV: Free video recording software for importing DV footage to computer. Fast and reliable. http://windv.mourek.cz/

VirtualDub: Free Video/Audio sequencer editor. Combine your audio and video and exprt to AVi format. Many filters and effects.Very Fast. Main use is for converting recorded to footage to .TGA format sequence for import to Voodoo Camera tracker. http://www.virtualdub.org

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Not Free but Great!

Getright: file download manager. Fully functioning Trial available (which does not expire). http://www.getright.com/

Deep Exploration: 3D Model convertor/viewer. Convert to/from multiple formats with many settings. View and Convert image/video/html/txt files too. Trial available at http://www.righthemisphere.com/dexp.htm. After 14 days the trial version disables save feature but still allows you to open and view all files.

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Free - but be very wary....

Jahshaka: Video/Audio editor and compositor. Free with a well designed interface but very buggy. Crashes an awful lot. Do not depend on this program to get the job done! http://jahshaka.org/

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And Finally for those in need of a complete Operating System to use instead of Windows...

Don't forget Ubuntu - the Open Source operating system! Go to the site and fill in the simple form and you will be posted a CD containing the operating system which you can install on your computer. And it's completely Free (don't even have to pay for psot and packing) ! www.ubuntu.com/

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Think of any software you think is worthy of appearing on the Dwarefd Films Essential list?
Leave a comment on the site

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Shane Sheils and Paula Sheils at Dwarfed Films.

Thanks for visiting the site and hope we can count on you to return again!