Yahoo Answers: good site

Now we're not big fans of Yahoo's search engine. It's way too cluttered and busy compared to good old dependable Google. But Yahoo Answers is a great site. Whatever question you have you're bound to find an answer for it there.

Click here to visit the site.

Office Hours: hair again

In early postings I showed particle hair images from the film. Animating particle hair can be a problem sometimes - it is unpredictable and can end up going through the body and other weird effects. I've been experimenting with polygon hair for the female character instead. Polygon hair
is easier to animate and faster to render.
The first two images show dark brown hair from the side and behind. From this distance it looks pretty realistic but up close it still would need a bit of work.
The third image shows a blonde hair style with basic flat lighting. Not bad - but maybe needs more work to stop it looking too "stiff" and static. When animated it moves really well and behaves far better than it's particle hair equivalent.
You can click on the images and view them better but these are only about a quarter the size of what the full rendered versions will be.

Contact Dwarfed Films with any comments/opinions

Office Hours: car model

This is a simple retro 3d car model designed for the movie Office Hours.

Contact DWARFED FILMS here

PC Utilities Magazine Issue#88

The Essential Freeware section on this website hopefully has been of some use to a few of you out there but we highly recommend a UK magazine called PC Utilities. It is a monthly magazine that comes with a DVD of freeware (plus some shareware/trialware) software for windows operating systems.
This months issue, #88, comes with a bumper 4gigs+ of software that will suit your needs for practically every task (well a lot of tasks at least!). It includes everything from Blender(2.43 version - although 2.44 is now out and available from blender.org), Firefox, security software (Ad Aware SE, and loads more), Foxit PDF Reader (better than acrobat reader) and literally hundreds more essential programs in all catagories. If you see it in your local newsagents I recommend picking up a copy and make sure that the DVD is included!

Go to the Dwarfed Films ESSENTIAL FREEWARE

Contact Dwarfed Films

Office Hours: building design

Some images of a high rise building that will be used in Office Hours. I've been modelling quite a few buildings (with Blender, of course) recently, ranging from office buildings to small stores. Our computer is really struggling with the massive polygon counts!
We'll add more images shortly.

You can contact Dwarfed Films here

Lighting render comparison

The attached image shows a comparison of the same scene lit in two different ways.
The image on the left was rendered with a sky dome of hemisphere lights and an area light casting shadows only. The image on the right was rendered using a combination of a small sky dome and ambient occlusion.
The image on the left is better - despite faking global illumination. It also rendered much faster than the ambient occlusion render. The whole point goes to show that "cheating" during the rendering process is the way to go!
You can click on the images to view them full size and compare the important differences between them.

Email Dwarfed Films

Office Hours: street scene tests

Here are two brand new images from 3D animated short film Office Hours.
One of them is late evening still of a partially modelled street rendered using nothing but Ambient Occlusion. You can see that the models look more "solid" than previously which is mostly due to the fact that they don't look plastic anymore!
The other image is a daylight street scene test render. As you can see it's coming along nicely even when lit very basically. This scene features a small sky dome of hemi lights (with specular turned off), a single shadow lamp (only casts shadows) and Ambient Occlusion. It's too bright and there aren't enough areas of high contrast shading - plus the AO samples are much too low - but it is certainly beginning to "feel" like the kind of street we envisioned when writing the script (ie: Edward Hopper-esque; and if you don't know who Edward Hopper is then go here).

More images to follow.

Contact Dwarfed Films with any questions or comments.

Office Hours: ambient occlusion

Here are some images showing the power of Ambient Occlusion in Blender 3D.
In case you don't know, Ambient Occlusion is a global illumination feature that simulates realistic lighting in the 3D scene.
The top image shows the Ambient Occlusion settings used when rendering the attached stills. Click on it to view it full screen size.
the middel and bottom images show renders with and without Ambient Occlusion (AO). Both images were lit exactly the same with a single shadow-casting light but as you can see they look vastly different due to the effectiveness of the AO. Of course using AO results in much longer rendering times but it is well worth the extra effort and time.

Contact Dwarfed Films

Office Hours: street scene models

Two new images from Office Hours which show some of the smaller buildings to be used in the street layout from the film. These buildings are have more of the gritty/run-down kind of look that we're after. The previous buildings didn't have much character but these have a more lived-in look.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Email Dwarfed Films

Office Hours: smaller buildings

Work in progress image from Office Hours of some buildings. Until now the attention was on designing and modelling big office building locations but they wouldn't look "big" unless there were small builings located around them. The only way to create a realistic type street scene is by looking up lots of reference images. We don't want all the buildings to look too similar but we also don't want them too have radically different designs either.
By the way, those weird looking drainpipes in the picture are being replaced with some proper looking ones!

Contact Dwarfed Films

DVD/CD burning software

What is it with burning software? I don't know how many times a DVD burn has failed or been unable to "write short lead out". It is so annoying!
I used to burn DVD video files with Magix. Trouble was it kept failing even when the program was reinstalled a few times.
Then I started to use Cyberlink DVD which worked alright for a bit (even though the DVD designs layouts were basic) until it too started acting up.
Well now I only use Ulead DVD Workshop for burning video DVD's and (so far) it hasn't let me down yet. And it's fast!
Now, burning a data CD/DVD used never be an issue. I was using Nero for that and it was pretty reliable. I'd put the occasional bad burn down to a faulty disk. But again recently Nero has been causing problems - bad file writes and sometimes even causing the computer to crash.
So the solution: a freeware program called Final Burner. It is only about 2mb in size, has a funtional layout and most importantly is very reliable. Here is the what the makers say

FinalBurner is a freeware alternative to expensive CD and DVD burners.
Its users will benefit from the opportunity to create data, audio,
and video disks and burn them onto any type of media, such as CD R/RW,
DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD DL. No tedious or confusing configuration needed.
You just select a few main settings and start burning. FinalBurner's
artificial intelligence will find the perfect recording balance.

Final Burner can rip from CD's, burn DVD video and data CD/DVD just like it's expensive commercial rivals. The protected soft website offer other programs and some of them are commercial or "pro" editions with extra features but do yourself a favour and just go for the freeware versions. (Note: Final Burner Free is for personnal use only).

Download Final Burner here.

OFFICE HOURS: office location pics

Some very "moody" lighting going on in these pictures, I think you'll agree. Or maybe just "very dark"!
Top image is a wide shot of the office location interior. The middle image shows a noticeboard (if you squint a lot you might be able to make out that the notes pinned to the board are actual pages from the office hours script). And what about the bottom image. Well, it's a machine thingy.
Keep vsiting the site for more pictures and stuff.

Contact DWARFED FILMS

SCI-FI film in the works

Yes just like the heading says, we have been doing the groundwork for a science-fiction fantasy film - all of this on top of the continuing work on OFFICE HOURS.

The Sci-Fi pic is in a very early pre-production stage but we can confirm that it will be a live action short film with extensive C.G.I visual FX.

The film is set in the not too distant future and will feature a post apocalyptic world and fantastic machines. All vehicles, buildings and locations will be computer generated while the actors and certain props will be real.

We've been doing some greenscreen composite tests and so far we've been impressed with the results. Dwarfed Films have dabbled in merging C.G.I and live action before but we've never considered doing a project of this scale until recently. Also we've never made a science fiction action film before despite threatening to make one for years!
So when does it happen? Well we're still busy with Office Hours but, as I've mentioned, pre-production testing has already began on the film. There's a lot of work to do yet!

Ok, all this might sound very vague at the moment but trust us when we say that this is gonna be something really special.
So stay tuned to the site for more info on this and our other films.

Contact DWARFED FILMS

OFFICE HOURS: graveyard exterior location update

Some updated images from the graveyad location.
First two images show the graveyard on an overcast day and night-time. The lighting is temporary and needs lots of tweaking and adjustments. The same goes for the textures which are not quite right yet.
The bottom image shows the 3D layout of the scene with sky dome.
More to come!

Contact Dwarfed Films

OFFICE HOURS: exterior location test

Test render fo exterior graveyard location from 3D animated film OFFICE HOURS. Gravestones in images are currently just basic cube shapes used as layout for proper modelled headstones. The grass is made up of about 30,000 particle strands.
More images to follow.

Contact Dwarfed Films

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.

Email DWARFED FILMS here

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!

Contact Dwarfed Films here

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!

TO SHOOT A RURF blog

Email Dwarfed Films

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."

You can view the Directors Notes feature here

You can also check out "The Darkside" on IMDB (internet Movie Database) here

As always you can get in touch with Dwarfed Films here

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!

Contact Dwarfed Films here

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