Some images of the streetcar model from Office Hours. Top image is a rough render while the bottom image shows the model's polygon count.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
OFFICE HOURS: streetcar model
Some images of the streetcar model from Office Hours. Top image is a rough render while the bottom image shows the model's polygon count.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
OFFICE HOURS: another character
"Not another 3D character from that film Office Hours", I hear you say?
Well this one is slightly different. Why?, you ask. Well it's because this character will only be seen from the back or with his face obscured. (That explains why he has no eyeballs or eyebrows!)
Seeing as he won't be seen properly in the finished film we thought he should have his moment of glory here. The images are open GL shaded screen grabs from the modelling process. Enjoy!
Monday, April 16, 2007
TO SHOOT A RURF: blog update
The TO SHOOT A RURF website has been updated with some all new images.
Office Hours has been taking up most of our time lately and we haven't had a chance to do much with the site until now.
Well what are you waiting for? Get over there now!
Office Hours has been taking up most of our time lately and we haven't had a chance to do much with the site until now.
Well what are you waiting for? Get over there now!
Sunday, April 08, 2007
THE DARKSIDE: on Directors Notes website
On our internet travels we came across a piece on "The Darkside" on the Directors Notes website.
The piece originally appeared in Showreel Magazine (issue 6 - Winter, 2004) and was written by Marvin Belle who now runs the Directors Notes independent filmmaking site.
"The Darkside", directed by Shane Sheils and co-produced along with Paula Sheils, was a very 'interesting' film to make: robbery, homelessness, bizarre accidents, murder (well, ok, maybe not murder!) all needed to be dealt with during and after shooting. We're very proud of "The Darkside" - particularily the visuals and audio. In fact the film features some of our most subtle visual FX work: all scenes featuring grafitti during the film are totally CGI.
The film is pretty much summed up with these choice words from Marvin Belle:
"Marrying his dislike of the corporate office job to an Invasion of the Body Snatchers theme, The Darkside is a classic tale of a free spirit hunted down by a steadily growing body of mindless, conformist drones."
Thursday, April 05, 2007
To Shoot A Rurf: Directors Notes podcast & film screening
To Shoot A Rurf is now available to watch on Directors Notes, the independent filmmaking website. You can also listen to an interview with co-director Shane Sheils discussing the making of the film with Marvin Belle.
Here's a brief synopsis to give you a flavour for the film:
“To Shoot a Rurf” is a surreal 3D computer animated short produced by Dwarfed Films. This atmospheric dark-comedy tells the tale of a drunken man’s attempts to sober up after bingeing on mind-altering drink ‘rurf’. To achieve this he must literally go inside his own head and seek the source of his headaches! The film is written and directed by Shane Sheils and Paula Sheils.
Watch To Shoot A Rurf at the Directors Notes website now!
Click here to listen to the interview, view production stills, early animation tests and lots more!
Click here to listen to the interview, view production stills, early animation tests and lots more!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
OfficeHours: female walk animation tests
Here is a video grab made using Cam Studio ( a free open source video grabbing program) of the beginning stages of animating a female walk cycle in Blender 3D. Whoah, that was a mouthful!
Cam Studio has been added to the Essential Freeware list.
Contact Dwarfed Films here
Cam Studio has been added to the Essential Freeware list.
Contact Dwarfed Films here
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Office Hours: city location
Heres a low angle view of the deserted city street from the film Office Hours.
Obviously it's a work in progress undergoing constant revisions and improvements.
We've also started working on the music and in particular composing the theme music for the movie. Having the music in mind at this early stage helps with the animation/modelling/rigging processes as we can focus on creating a consistent mood throughout the film rather than waiting until the editing stage to piece everything together. Of course lots of the musical ideas will not make it into the final film but will certainly contribute to the final score.
Contact Dwarfed Films here
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Best movies about filmmaking?
One of the best ways to get inspiration and also motivation is by watching a movie set around the production of a movie.
There are quite a few good ones such as "Day for Night" by Francois Truffaut and "Living in Oblivion" but by far the best and most accurate depiction of the filmmaking process (in our opinion) is "Dangerous Game" by Abel Ferrara. If you haven't seen it you should certainly check it out as it gives the most honest and true vision of the making a live action film.
Are there any films out there relating to the making of a 3D animated film?
There are quite a few good ones such as "Day for Night" by Francois Truffaut and "Living in Oblivion" but by far the best and most accurate depiction of the filmmaking process (in our opinion) is "Dangerous Game" by Abel Ferrara. If you haven't seen it you should certainly check it out as it gives the most honest and true vision of the making a live action film.
Are there any films out there relating to the making of a 3D animated film?
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Office Hours: custom bone facial rig
A small GIF animation of custom bone facial rig setup in Blender 3D for the film OFFICE HOURS.
Contact DWARFED FILMS here
Fixed email link
The email links to DWARFED FILMS have been fixed!
This problem affected around half a dozen previous posts. We hadn't noticed this error until today when it was quickly rectified.
So you can contact DWARFED FILMS here
This problem affected around half a dozen previous posts. We hadn't noticed this error until today when it was quickly rectified.
So you can contact DWARFED FILMS here
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Office Hours: textures
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Essential Free Software: has been updated
The heading says it all. The Essential Free Software list (posted a few days ago on the site) has been updated with direct web links to make it even easier for you to get your hands on some of the best filmmaking software out there!
Here are some useful sites to find free software:
www.sourceforge.net
www.majorgeeks.com
Each lists an extensive range of products. Source Forge has lots, but the site isn't the easiest to navigate as it has so may programs in development as well as completed.
Major Geeks is best place to start for beginners and those in a rush! Its listing is pretty much clean of spyware/adware compared to some other sites.
Contact DWARFED FILMS here
Here are some useful sites to find free software:
www.sourceforge.net
www.majorgeeks.com
Each lists an extensive range of products. Source Forge has lots, but the site isn't the easiest to navigate as it has so may programs in development as well as completed.
Major Geeks is best place to start for beginners and those in a rush! Its listing is pretty much clean of spyware/adware compared to some other sites.
Contact DWARFED FILMS here
Office Hours: exterior locations
Here are more images from Office Hours showing location design. They show a deserted city street and an animated gif showing the location as a 3D wire frame.
Contact DWARFED FILMS here
Monday, March 26, 2007
Office Hours: interior location design
Some more location stills from OFFICE HOURS.
Minimal textures and lighting at this stage but you can see how it is progressing.
more images very soon.
Contact Dwarfed Films here
Office Hours: modelling a simple building facade
Here is a brief gif animation showing the process of modelling a very basic building facade.
The array modifier in Blender allows very complex models to be composed. You simply model a particular section of the building and then use the array tool to make duplicates in any direction. Ideal for making complex multi-storey office blocks.
Contact Dwarfed Films here
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Announcement
We noticed that the site was beginning to take a bit too long to load properly so to speed things up for viewers we now only display around 15 posts per page.
Make sure to check our older posts on the blog archive because you never know what you might have missed!
Also we're considering the idea of doing some short tutorials, so if anyone out there is interested be sure to let us know. The tutorials would cover everthing from 3D animation/modelling to live action filming and everything in between.
The idea came about when we were thinking of releasing a DVD of To Shoot A Rurf which would include a few different commentaries covering all aspects of production and post production, test footage and a copy of the open source software Blender 3D amongst other goodies. The idea is still in it's infancy but could be a really cool project.
As always you can contact Dwarfed Films here or simply leave a comment on the site.
Make sure to check our older posts on the blog archive because you never know what you might have missed!
Also we're considering the idea of doing some short tutorials, so if anyone out there is interested be sure to let us know. The tutorials would cover everthing from 3D animation/modelling to live action filming and everything in between.
The idea came about when we were thinking of releasing a DVD of To Shoot A Rurf which would include a few different commentaries covering all aspects of production and post production, test footage and a copy of the open source software Blender 3D amongst other goodies. The idea is still in it's infancy but could be a really cool project.
As always you can contact Dwarfed Films here or simply leave a comment on the site.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Essential Free Software
NOTICE: Click here for the Updated 2011 List of Dwarfed Films' Essential Free Software.
There are some incredible programs out there for creating/editing/viewing/manipulation of images and audio. Even better is the fact that a lot of these programs are freeware or open source. At Dwarfed Films we use certain open source products like Blender 3d and The Gimp every day so we've decided to include a list of software that other filmmakers might find useful.
The following programs are the equivalent (and in some cases superior) to many commercial products so don't let the "freeware" tag scare you off!
Some of these programs are a lot less cumbersome and processor intensive than their commercial rivals and are suited to specific tasks. Many of them have very small file sizes because they don't come bundled with tonnes of tutorials and manuals.
Also this is a rough list and certain products may have been forgotten or excluded for other reasons and website names may be incorrect or have changed too.
Look up these programmes on www.google.com
******************************************************************
Essential Freeware or Open Source Software:
Note: items marked “*” are frequently used by Dwarfed Films.
*Blender 3D: Open source (freeware) 3D modelling, animation, sequencer for windows/mac/linux/etc www.blender3d.org
UV Mapper: Freeware UV texture unwrapper for 3D models.
Plant Studio: Freeware creator plants and leaves. Expots to .OBJ format.
*The Gimp: Open Source image editor that is just like photoshop www.gimp.org.
*Irfan View: Freeware image viewer supporting practically every format from .png to .mov. Find it at www.irfanview.com/
*Paint.Net: Similar to The Gimp but easier interface and it also loads much quicker. Supports layers and a whole range of effects. www.getpaint.net/index2.html
*Voodoo Camera Tracker: Freeware camera tracking software. www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/download.html
*Terregen: Freeware landscape creator for making stunningly realistic landscapes. www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
*Terranim: Freeware plugin for terregen that makes animations of created landscapes.
*Landformer: Freeware landscape map generator for use in Terregen
Win DV: Freeware tool for importing/exporting footage from DV camera to computer. windv.mourek.cz/
Super: Freeware video converter for conversion to avi/mpeg/wav/mp3/swf/ogg/mobile phone/etc and vice versa. www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
*Audacity: Open Source audio editor and recording audacity.sourceforge.net/
*Quartz Audio Master Freeware: Free version of audio/midi editor www.digitalsoundplanet.com/SoftwareHouse/Products/Audio_Master/Freeware/freeware.phtml
*VM midi keyboard: Freeware virtual desktop midi keyboard www.granucon.com/vmk.html
*Psychle: Freeware audio sampler/sequencer psycle.pastnotecut.org/download/files/docs/psyclemidi.html
*Audio Grabber: Freeware audio recorder/convertor/ripper. www.audiograbber.com-us.net/
Hammer Head Rhythm Studio: Freeware drum sequencer. Download available from DOWNLOAD.COM
Groove Drum Station DT-010: Freeware drum sequencer. www.d-lusion.com
Shittalker: Basic text to speech program. A bit dated now but still funny. www.unaesthetic.net
*Open Office: Open Source equivalent to MS Office, but far superior. Can write direct to .pdf format. www.openoffice.org
*Wink: Freeware tool to create presentations in .swf (shockwave flash) or .exe (executable file) format. Records mouse movements and allows you to edit this into a tutorial demo. www.debugmode.com/wink/
*Cam Studio: Open Source screen-grab utility that records video/audio to .avi or.swf format. Pretty much similar to Wink except for the .avi capabilities. Very useful.
www.camstudio.org/
*Foxit PDF Reader: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Better that Adobe Reader. www.foxitsoftware.com
*PDF Xchange Viewer: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Again better than Adobe Reader. www.docu-track.com
*7Zip: Open source compression software. Much better compression than winzip/win rar etc. Supports all compression formats. www.7-zip.org/
*Mozilla Firefox: Open Source web browser. Far more secure and user friendly than Internet Explorer. www.mozilla.com/
*************************************************************************************
At Dwarfed Films we don't just use freeware. The following are some of the best commercial products out there. You might wonder why we haven't included Final Cut pro, Adobe After Effects, Avid or indeed the free learing edition Avid Free DV? Well the reason is that these programs get the job done without too much fuss and without wasting too much processing time and they are very stable (crashes are generally rare).
*Magix Movie Edit Pro: Video editor. Renders on the fly so gives fast playback when editing which is very important! Newer versions handle .png / .tga formats which is suitable for compositing. Trial Versions available but you would need broadband connection. www.magix.com
*Sony Vegas: Video editor. Fast, lots of FX and extras. Supports .png / .tga formats. Trial Versions available but you will need broadband connection to download.
*Deep Exploration : The best 3D model viewer. Made by Right Hemisphere. Also renders and exports to variety of formats. Very useful to find stuff on your hard drive when in a rush. Trial Versions available. File size approx 15mb. www.righthemisphere.com
Reaper: Audio editor (also includes video playback) with layout that would be familiar to users of Sony Vegas. Trial Versions available. File size approx 8mb
FSF/UNESCO Free List: A list of freeware compiled by the UN. Click here to visit the site
Light Links: This is a bit strange but it's religious site offering freeware! You can ignore the christian preachy stuff and check out the free software links on the left hand side of the main page. Click here to visit the site
As always you can contact us here
Or you can leave a comment or any other links to free software that you think others might find useful.
NOTICE: Click here for the Updated 2011 List of Dwarfed Films' Essential Free Software.
There are some incredible programs out there for creating/editing/viewing/manipulation of images and audio. Even better is the fact that a lot of these programs are freeware or open source. At Dwarfed Films we use certain open source products like Blender 3d and The Gimp every day so we've decided to include a list of software that other filmmakers might find useful.
The following programs are the equivalent (and in some cases superior) to many commercial products so don't let the "freeware" tag scare you off!
Some of these programs are a lot less cumbersome and processor intensive than their commercial rivals and are suited to specific tasks. Many of them have very small file sizes because they don't come bundled with tonnes of tutorials and manuals.
Also this is a rough list and certain products may have been forgotten or excluded for other reasons and website names may be incorrect or have changed too.
Look up these programmes on www.google.com
List compiled by Shane Sheils and Paula Sheils of Dwarfed Films.
www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com/
Contact us
www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com/
Contact us
******************************************************************
Essential Freeware or Open Source Software:
Note: items marked “*” are frequently used by Dwarfed Films.
Animation/Modelling Tools
*Blender 3D: Open source (freeware) 3D modelling, animation, sequencer for windows/mac/linux/etc www.blender3d.org
UV Mapper: Freeware UV texture unwrapper for 3D models.
Plant Studio: Freeware creator plants and leaves. Expots to .OBJ format.
Image Editor Tools
*The Gimp: Open Source image editor that is just like photoshop www.gimp.org.
*Irfan View: Freeware image viewer supporting practically every format from .png to .mov. Find it at www.irfanview.com/
*Paint.Net: Similar to The Gimp but easier interface and it also loads much quicker. Supports layers and a whole range of effects. www.getpaint.net/index2.html
Visual FX Tools
*Voodoo Camera Tracker: Freeware camera tracking software. www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/download.html
*Terregen: Freeware landscape creator for making stunningly realistic landscapes. www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
*Terranim: Freeware plugin for terregen that makes animations of created landscapes.
*Landformer: Freeware landscape map generator for use in Terregen
Win DV: Freeware tool for importing/exporting footage from DV camera to computer. windv.mourek.cz/
Super: Freeware video converter for conversion to avi/mpeg/wav/mp3/swf/ogg/mobile phone/etc and vice versa. www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Audio Editor/Sequencer Tools
*Audacity: Open Source audio editor and recording audacity.sourceforge.net/
*Quartz Audio Master Freeware: Free version of audio/midi editor www.digitalsoundplanet.com/SoftwareHouse/Products/Audio_Master/Freeware/freeware.phtml
*VM midi keyboard: Freeware virtual desktop midi keyboard www.granucon.com/vmk.html
*Psychle: Freeware audio sampler/sequencer psycle.pastnotecut.org/download/files/docs/psyclemidi.html
*Audio Grabber: Freeware audio recorder/convertor/ripper. www.audiograbber.com-us.net/
Hammer Head Rhythm Studio: Freeware drum sequencer. Download available from DOWNLOAD.COM
Groove Drum Station DT-010: Freeware drum sequencer. www.d-lusion.com
Shittalker: Basic text to speech program. A bit dated now but still funny. www.unaesthetic.net
DVD Tools
EXPRESS BURN: Excellent, Freeware DVD/CD/BlueRay/HD DVD burn sotware that is 100% compatible with Windows Vista. Nice clean design and the best DVD burning program we've yet seen. Choose this instead of Final Burner! Download it here http://www.nch.com.au/burn
DVD Shrink:Excellent and versatile Freeware tool for copying DVD's and compressing them so that they can fit on a standard DVD-/+ disc. (NOTE: Copying a commercial copyright-protected DVD may be done for personal use only). www.dvdshrink.org/
Final Burner: A great Freeware CD/DVD burning program like Nero (the program - not the Roman emperor). Small download size (about 2mb) and with a user friendly interface. Recommended (Note for personal use only). http://www.protectedsoft.com/
Final Burner: A great Freeware CD/DVD burning program like Nero (the program - not the Roman emperor). Small download size (about 2mb) and with a user friendly interface. Recommended (Note for personal use only). http://www.protectedsoft.com/
Presentation Tools
*Open Office: Open Source equivalent to MS Office, but far superior. Can write direct to .pdf format. www.openoffice.org
*Wink: Freeware tool to create presentations in .swf (shockwave flash) or .exe (executable file) format. Records mouse movements and allows you to edit this into a tutorial demo. www.debugmode.com/wink/
*Cam Studio: Open Source screen-grab utility that records video/audio to .avi or.swf format. Pretty much similar to Wink except for the .avi capabilities. Very useful.
www.camstudio.org/
*Foxit PDF Reader: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Better that Adobe Reader. www.foxitsoftware.com
*PDF Xchange Viewer: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Again better than Adobe Reader. www.docu-track.com
Compression Tools
*7Zip: Open source compression software. Much better compression than winzip/win rar etc. Supports all compression formats. www.7-zip.org/
Web Browser Tools
*Mozilla Firefox: Open Source web browser. Far more secure and user friendly than Internet Explorer. www.mozilla.com/
Operating Systems
Linux Ubuntu: Open Source (ie: FREE) operating system that is updated every 6 months. Has received a lot of very good feedback and reviews and is considered to be more secure that Windows. Comes with software such as Open Office, etc. Can be downloaded from the site or you can apply to receive a copy by post for free! www.ubuntu.com/
*************************************************************************************
Good Commercial Software Products:
At Dwarfed Films we don't just use freeware. The following are some of the best commercial products out there. You might wonder why we haven't included Final Cut pro, Adobe After Effects, Avid or indeed the free learing edition Avid Free DV? Well the reason is that these programs get the job done without too much fuss and without wasting too much processing time and they are very stable (crashes are generally rare).
*Magix Movie Edit Pro: Video editor. Renders on the fly so gives fast playback when editing which is very important! Newer versions handle .png / .tga formats which is suitable for compositing. Trial Versions available but you would need broadband connection. www.magix.com
*Sony Vegas: Video editor. Fast, lots of FX and extras. Supports .png / .tga formats. Trial Versions available but you will need broadband connection to download.
*Deep Exploration : The best 3D model viewer. Made by Right Hemisphere. Also renders and exports to variety of formats. Very useful to find stuff on your hard drive when in a rush. Trial Versions available. File size approx 15mb. www.righthemisphere.com
Reaper: Audio editor (also includes video playback) with layout that would be familiar to users of Sony Vegas. Trial Versions available. File size approx 8mb
Freeware Websites
Major Geeks: Safe and secure freeware software arranged into various categories. Click here to visit site
Sourceforge: Directory of open Source projects with downloads. Not the best laid out site in the world but you can find programs of all types for all formats. Click here to visit the site
VST4FREE: Site offering free VST plugins for creating and editing music. Use the plugins alongside other free audio creation software such as Psycle or Reaper. Click here to visit the site
PC-Utilities: Website of the PC-Utilities magazine. You can directly download software in various categories. Click here to visit the site
Wikipedia: The Wiki list of Free/Open Source software. Click here to vist the site
Major Geeks: Safe and secure freeware software arranged into various categories. Click here to visit site
Sourceforge: Directory of open Source projects with downloads. Not the best laid out site in the world but you can find programs of all types for all formats. Click here to visit the site
VST4FREE: Site offering free VST plugins for creating and editing music. Use the plugins alongside other free audio creation software such as Psycle or Reaper. Click here to visit the site
PC-Utilities: Website of the PC-Utilities magazine. You can directly download software in various categories. Click here to visit the site
Wikipedia: The Wiki list of Free/Open Source software. Click here to vist the site
FSF/UNESCO Free List: A list of freeware compiled by the UN. Click here to visit the site
Light Links: This is a bit strange but it's religious site offering freeware! You can ignore the christian preachy stuff and check out the free software links on the left hand side of the main page. Click here to visit the site
As always you can contact us here
Or you can leave a comment or any other links to free software that you think others might find useful.
NOTICE: Click here for the Updated 2011 List of Dwarfed Films' Essential Free Software.
Office Hours: even more particle hair
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Directors Notes interview
Dwarfed Films recorded an interview with Marvin Belle of Directors Notes earlier today.
Directors Notes is a great website dedicated to the work of independent filmmakers.
Each week a director discusses the making of their particular film which is then put on the site as a podcast.
All round nice guy Marvin Belle, who runs the site, is a writer who ran the Directors Notes section of Showreel Magazine and edited the UK Filmmakers Bulletin for Shooting People.
Directors Notes is a great idea and Dwarfed Films were only too happy to discuss the making of To Shoot A Rurf.
The interview should hopefully be going out in the next few weeks. We'll keep you posted.
Directors Notes is a great website dedicated to the work of independent filmmakers.
Each week a director discusses the making of their particular film which is then put on the site as a podcast.
All round nice guy Marvin Belle, who runs the site, is a writer who ran the Directors Notes section of Showreel Magazine and edited the UK Filmmakers Bulletin for Shooting People.
Directors Notes is a great idea and Dwarfed Films were only too happy to discuss the making of To Shoot A Rurf.
The interview should hopefully be going out in the next few weeks. We'll keep you posted.
To Shoot A Rurf: Final Cut screening
To Shoot A Rurf is screening next month, Sunday April 01st, at Final Cut Brighton.
Final Cut is a great event organised by Richard Harris and they have always supported Dwarfed Films, so we like them :)
For more information check out it's website finalcut.gb.com/month.html
Final Cut is a great event organised by Richard Harris and they have always supported Dwarfed Films, so we like them :)
For more information check out it's website finalcut.gb.com/month.html
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