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!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
OSCAR : Free Blender 3D fully Rigged Character from Shane Sheils
I present OSCAR, a free Blender 3D fully rigged character I created the other day.
OSCAR is an acronym for Open Source Character And Rig.
Download OSCAR here http://www.mediafire.com/?dcdkxkmtx1f
The armature used to control OSCAR allows a good range of animation and it's really simple to use.
You can download him from the here http://www.mediafire.com/?dcdkxkmtx1f
My only stipulation is that OSCAR or any derivatives you make based on the character cannot be sold as a standalone package or as part of a model collection.
Apart from that stipulation, you can use OSCAR for all your personnal, learning or even in commercial works.
Of course it'd be nice if you let me know where you've used OSCAR!
The file is compressed with 7Zip (which if you don't have you can download from http://7Zip.org. It's the best compression software, by the way).
The file contains a txt document outlining the license and instructions for the character rig.
If you don't have Blender 3D you can download it from here http://www.blender.org
Blender is a free Open Source animation and modelling suite and it's what I used to create OSCAR.
So, anyway, enjoy the character and rig!
http://www.mediafire.com/?dcdkxkmtx1f
NOTE: this is a newer version of OSCAR, with a number of fixes!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Work in Progress: "O.S.C.a.R" - Open Source Character and Rig
Since it's Christmas time, I've decided to give away a 'present' of a free fully rigged character.
He's called O.S.C.a.R - it stands for Open Source CharacterAnd Rig. Cheesy, eh?
He's a big, blue cartoony creature thingy!
I modelled the character a few nights ago and at the moment I'm rigging him. He should be ready very soon.
The model and rig will be Open Source: this means that you can use the character and rig freely. The only stipulation is that you cannot sell the character mesh or include it in any collection of mesh's for sale. the .blend file will contain all relevant information.
I've designed the character mainly for training purposes for Blender 3D users, so that you can practice animation or whatever!
Well, as soon as Oscar is ready I'll make him available for download.
Shane
Dwarfed Films
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Free DVD Burner: DEEP BURNER
The last time I was talking about free DVD burner's was with Express Burn. Now it turns out Express Burn is not exactly free. The download is fully working for 14 days. After that period of time it expires and you are restricted to only buring CD's. It's kinda freeware but actually just shareware. Annoying, but fine if you only need to burn audio CD's.
Well anyway, no need to worry! If you want a completly free DVD burner with no restrictions and compatibility with Windows Vista, you should use DEEP BURNER.
It burns CD's and DVD's but not HD DVD or Blu Ray. But it's stable and very good. It actually looks like the front end of that other freeware burner Final Burn - except slightly more polished and presentable.
Go download DEEP BURNER here.
Remember: it's freeware.
Well anyway, no need to worry! If you want a completly free DVD burner with no restrictions and compatibility with Windows Vista, you should use DEEP BURNER.
It burns CD's and DVD's but not HD DVD or Blu Ray. But it's stable and very good. It actually looks like the front end of that other freeware burner Final Burn - except slightly more polished and presentable.
Go download DEEP BURNER here.
Remember: it's freeware.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Slimmed down Office Hours model
Two new images.
The top one shows the better eye's I made for the character.
The bottom image shows the character after being 'slimmed down' a bit. He was much too fat before and animating him was sometimes tricky. The textures are temporary and not correctly UV mapped.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Top 10 General Tips when making a short film:
Here are some General tips you might find useful (or not) when making a short film. They apply to pre-production, production and post-production. Hey, maybe they even apply to ordinary life too :)
Hwy am I posting them? Well, why not! It's a saturday and I've got the time to type rubbish so there.
These tips are in no particular order and please note that I sometimes don’t follow any of them myself!
1:Love the script: or at least like it or aspects of it such as a particular sequence or character. There is no point making something if the script is crap – it’s as simple as that. Why the hell would you wanna make a film based on rubbish? The writing part is the initial idea, getting what’s in your (or whoever wrote the story) head down on paper. Lots of people say, “Oh, I’ve an amazing idea for a film”. Oh yeah? Well then write it down and see how good it is. It’s surprising how crap your idea can turn out to be when it appears in the written form.If you write your own scripts, put as much detail as you can into them. Vague stuff like “and the man sees a car exit” could have been “the shadowy figure of a man steps out from the doorway and watches as an old fire engine red Cadillac speed away into the low descending fog”. The more detail in the script, the more ideas and visuals will come into your head when it comes time to make the damn film.
A script is hundreds of “amazing ideas” moulded together to form something that will be the blueprint for your movie. Remember, a great script does not ensure a great film. There’s lots of crap that can happen in between to mess everything up!
2:Have limits: this goes for things like schedules and your own abilities. Learn to love your schedule. It encourages you to get things done and allows you to appreciate what progress you’ve made. The same thing goes for the limit of your own ability. If you are rubbish at modelling, then you cannot seriously expect to make that photo realistic Statue of Liberty model you want for your film set in New York. Maybe you should hold back until you are comfortable enough with the whole modelling process. If you can’t rig or animate a sack of flour – let alone a human character – then maybe you should spend a little time learning to do a few ‘easier’ practice tests first.
Know how far you can push the tools at your disposal. Some software can do things they weren’t designed for but recognise that should the software fail, you’ll be right back at square one again.
3:Keep an open mind: Ok, you’re making a fantastic 3D animated short film which is going to win millions of awards and you will become the first short filmmaker to become a billionaire. And you don’t give a damn about anyone else’s work or advice because you are better than all other mere mortals. Hmmmm. Keep an open mind. Watch what others are doing, have den or are starting work on. It’s amazing what you’ll be able to take back and work into your own mighty masterpiece. If you’re doing something in 3D then don’t restrict yourself to just 3D. Look at 2D work, flash animation, and live action. Read books, newspapers, pick a random page on the Internet on a random topic and read that. You might stumble upon something useful that could completely change your thinking/understanding of your film.
4:Be organised: similar in some ways to having limits. Plan as much as possible. Keep a list of things you need to do and things that are done and can be filed away. Know where you can find important files, models, etc and keep them at close hand. Name and label your files appropriately – this is a major issue with editing footage. Make regular copies of all important files and documents. The better organised you are the easier it will be to get things down and if something goes wrong then you should find it easier to retrace your steps and get things up and running again.
5:Know your audience: this is a biggy. Your audience could be the entire population of California, your next-door neighbours cat or simply just your own humble self. Whoever your audience is, you should gear your film towards them. Keeping this is mind when making your film will keep you on track. (BTW, our audience is mainly escaped mental patients and fishmongers)
6:Know what your doing: simple, really. If you don’t know what you’re doing, then nothing will get done. In live action filmmaking you will annoy the cast and crew who will be standing around waiting for your words of wisdom. In solo animation land, you’ll probably just end up staring at your computer screen like a moron. Making a film is all about ‘making’ it. It doesn’t get made in your head. It just doesn’t work that way – well not yet anyway. Learn how to operate the camera, animate a character, and build a scene in your software packages, whatever. You are the driving force behind the film and you need to be the one leading the way, all the time. The main thing is knowledge. If you don’t know what’s going on then nothing is gonna happen.
7:Let the style find you: Some people complain that they don’t have a particular ‘style’ or that they wish they had the style of someone else. Don’t go looking for a particular style; let it come to you instead. Style can be mechanical, such as a way of lighting, designing a character, a way of acting. But even these are developed over trial and error. Van Gough had a style. But he didn’t always paint that way; he developed that swirly paint technique over time. Tim Burton has a style, so does Ridley Scott. But in both their cases they sometimes became slaves to the ‘style’, forced to make ‘quirky’ movies – in Burtons’ case – or fill every scene with smoke and neon – Ridley Scott’s case. Style appears when people recognise specific characteristics in your work. Don’t force it; let it come naturally.
8:Challenge yourself: sometimes you put no effort in and you can make something that people really enjoy. Other times you work your fingers to the bone and nobody gives a damn. Making films is not easy. It requires time and effort. As in the examples above, sometimes the effort just doesn’t seem to pay off. But always keep note that no matter what others think of your work, good or bad, it’s only yourself that has to live with the results. Ask any well-known Hollywood director or actor what their own favourite film is and they will most likely praise something obscure and little seen by the public. The effort you put into your film may not always be appreciated by viewers but, just like the Hollywood director or actor, you will always have a fondness for the one that challenged you the most.
9:Remove Negativity: maybe you have some people working on your movie in different capacities. In live action this will be your cast and crew. In animation it might be someone doing the music or modelling something for you. But at the end of the day, the film is yours and you cannot afford to waste time dealing with other peoples egos as well as your own! If someone starts acting in a manner that messes with your head or simply is so error prone that they ruin everything they touch like some form of anti-Midas, get rid of them. You can mess up fine on your own without adding other clowns into the mix. It doesn’t matter if they are a best friend who loaned you a kidney – if they aren’t up to the job they’ve gotta go. Then there are some people who set out to ruin your day. If you are unlucky enough to come across this kind of person then watch out for the warning signs before it’s too late: turning up late; always having an excuse for why things went wrong that they should’ve dealt with; loosing stuff; not paying attention; making up obvious lies. There are millions more clues to spot these ‘types’. Avoid these people like the plague.
Then there are the annoying ones who walk around with a cloud of doom over their heads all the time. They say stuff like “that can’t be done”, “such and such wouldn’t do that” or the most annoying is when they yawn. Why the hell do these people turn up on film sets or want anything to do with filmmaking? Never surround yourself with negative people or situations. They destroy creativity and inspiration. At the same time don’t surround yourself with groupies, either. Praise should only be handed out when something particularly good is done, not all the time. If you feel that you are getting praised a bit too easily then you are not pushing yourself enough.
Avoid stoners, too. There opinion can sometimes be very useful and helpful as they can spot inconsistencies in editing and fine details. But a lot of the time they just ramble on about absolutely nothing and waste time! Would you trust a stoner to fly you in an airplane? The why would you have ‘em involved in your movie?
10:Realise there’s always someone better: No I’m not trying to dampen your spirits, but this is important. Realising that there is always someone better at something than you are. No matter how hard you try and how much you push yourself, you can be damn sure that somewhere out there, in another town or country, is a person who can beat you. Competition is important. If you don’t have true competition then you cannot possibly judge how good you really are. Knowing that there is someone else better than you at particular things help you put stuff in perspective and give you goals to challenge yourself. A boxer who beats every body in his path is only as good as the people he fights. The same holds true for filmmaking. If Steven Spielberg had just sat back and counted his money in the eighties he would never have made Jurassic Park and Schindlers List in the same year. He could’ve made Jurassic Park with Muppet show-style puppets on strings dangling in front of the camera and saved himself an awful lot of work but he looked around, saw people like James Cameron, and said “damn, look how cool those effects in T2 are, why can’t mine be like that?” and pushed the boundaries of moviemaking. Rivalry encourages better work. Embrace it.
10 ½:Never give advice: Ohhh, I think I’ve messed up this one ;)
Hwy am I posting them? Well, why not! It's a saturday and I've got the time to type rubbish so there.
These tips are in no particular order and please note that I sometimes don’t follow any of them myself!
1:Love the script: or at least like it or aspects of it such as a particular sequence or character. There is no point making something if the script is crap – it’s as simple as that. Why the hell would you wanna make a film based on rubbish? The writing part is the initial idea, getting what’s in your (or whoever wrote the story) head down on paper. Lots of people say, “Oh, I’ve an amazing idea for a film”. Oh yeah? Well then write it down and see how good it is. It’s surprising how crap your idea can turn out to be when it appears in the written form.If you write your own scripts, put as much detail as you can into them. Vague stuff like “and the man sees a car exit” could have been “the shadowy figure of a man steps out from the doorway and watches as an old fire engine red Cadillac speed away into the low descending fog”. The more detail in the script, the more ideas and visuals will come into your head when it comes time to make the damn film.
A script is hundreds of “amazing ideas” moulded together to form something that will be the blueprint for your movie. Remember, a great script does not ensure a great film. There’s lots of crap that can happen in between to mess everything up!
2:Have limits: this goes for things like schedules and your own abilities. Learn to love your schedule. It encourages you to get things done and allows you to appreciate what progress you’ve made. The same thing goes for the limit of your own ability. If you are rubbish at modelling, then you cannot seriously expect to make that photo realistic Statue of Liberty model you want for your film set in New York. Maybe you should hold back until you are comfortable enough with the whole modelling process. If you can’t rig or animate a sack of flour – let alone a human character – then maybe you should spend a little time learning to do a few ‘easier’ practice tests first.
Know how far you can push the tools at your disposal. Some software can do things they weren’t designed for but recognise that should the software fail, you’ll be right back at square one again.
3:Keep an open mind: Ok, you’re making a fantastic 3D animated short film which is going to win millions of awards and you will become the first short filmmaker to become a billionaire. And you don’t give a damn about anyone else’s work or advice because you are better than all other mere mortals. Hmmmm. Keep an open mind. Watch what others are doing, have den or are starting work on. It’s amazing what you’ll be able to take back and work into your own mighty masterpiece. If you’re doing something in 3D then don’t restrict yourself to just 3D. Look at 2D work, flash animation, and live action. Read books, newspapers, pick a random page on the Internet on a random topic and read that. You might stumble upon something useful that could completely change your thinking/understanding of your film.
4:Be organised: similar in some ways to having limits. Plan as much as possible. Keep a list of things you need to do and things that are done and can be filed away. Know where you can find important files, models, etc and keep them at close hand. Name and label your files appropriately – this is a major issue with editing footage. Make regular copies of all important files and documents. The better organised you are the easier it will be to get things down and if something goes wrong then you should find it easier to retrace your steps and get things up and running again.
5:Know your audience: this is a biggy. Your audience could be the entire population of California, your next-door neighbours cat or simply just your own humble self. Whoever your audience is, you should gear your film towards them. Keeping this is mind when making your film will keep you on track. (BTW, our audience is mainly escaped mental patients and fishmongers)
6:Know what your doing: simple, really. If you don’t know what you’re doing, then nothing will get done. In live action filmmaking you will annoy the cast and crew who will be standing around waiting for your words of wisdom. In solo animation land, you’ll probably just end up staring at your computer screen like a moron. Making a film is all about ‘making’ it. It doesn’t get made in your head. It just doesn’t work that way – well not yet anyway. Learn how to operate the camera, animate a character, and build a scene in your software packages, whatever. You are the driving force behind the film and you need to be the one leading the way, all the time. The main thing is knowledge. If you don’t know what’s going on then nothing is gonna happen.
7:Let the style find you: Some people complain that they don’t have a particular ‘style’ or that they wish they had the style of someone else. Don’t go looking for a particular style; let it come to you instead. Style can be mechanical, such as a way of lighting, designing a character, a way of acting. But even these are developed over trial and error. Van Gough had a style. But he didn’t always paint that way; he developed that swirly paint technique over time. Tim Burton has a style, so does Ridley Scott. But in both their cases they sometimes became slaves to the ‘style’, forced to make ‘quirky’ movies – in Burtons’ case – or fill every scene with smoke and neon – Ridley Scott’s case. Style appears when people recognise specific characteristics in your work. Don’t force it; let it come naturally.
8:Challenge yourself: sometimes you put no effort in and you can make something that people really enjoy. Other times you work your fingers to the bone and nobody gives a damn. Making films is not easy. It requires time and effort. As in the examples above, sometimes the effort just doesn’t seem to pay off. But always keep note that no matter what others think of your work, good or bad, it’s only yourself that has to live with the results. Ask any well-known Hollywood director or actor what their own favourite film is and they will most likely praise something obscure and little seen by the public. The effort you put into your film may not always be appreciated by viewers but, just like the Hollywood director or actor, you will always have a fondness for the one that challenged you the most.
9:Remove Negativity: maybe you have some people working on your movie in different capacities. In live action this will be your cast and crew. In animation it might be someone doing the music or modelling something for you. But at the end of the day, the film is yours and you cannot afford to waste time dealing with other peoples egos as well as your own! If someone starts acting in a manner that messes with your head or simply is so error prone that they ruin everything they touch like some form of anti-Midas, get rid of them. You can mess up fine on your own without adding other clowns into the mix. It doesn’t matter if they are a best friend who loaned you a kidney – if they aren’t up to the job they’ve gotta go. Then there are some people who set out to ruin your day. If you are unlucky enough to come across this kind of person then watch out for the warning signs before it’s too late: turning up late; always having an excuse for why things went wrong that they should’ve dealt with; loosing stuff; not paying attention; making up obvious lies. There are millions more clues to spot these ‘types’. Avoid these people like the plague.
Then there are the annoying ones who walk around with a cloud of doom over their heads all the time. They say stuff like “that can’t be done”, “such and such wouldn’t do that” or the most annoying is when they yawn. Why the hell do these people turn up on film sets or want anything to do with filmmaking? Never surround yourself with negative people or situations. They destroy creativity and inspiration. At the same time don’t surround yourself with groupies, either. Praise should only be handed out when something particularly good is done, not all the time. If you feel that you are getting praised a bit too easily then you are not pushing yourself enough.
Avoid stoners, too. There opinion can sometimes be very useful and helpful as they can spot inconsistencies in editing and fine details. But a lot of the time they just ramble on about absolutely nothing and waste time! Would you trust a stoner to fly you in an airplane? The why would you have ‘em involved in your movie?
10:Realise there’s always someone better: No I’m not trying to dampen your spirits, but this is important. Realising that there is always someone better at something than you are. No matter how hard you try and how much you push yourself, you can be damn sure that somewhere out there, in another town or country, is a person who can beat you. Competition is important. If you don’t have true competition then you cannot possibly judge how good you really are. Knowing that there is someone else better than you at particular things help you put stuff in perspective and give you goals to challenge yourself. A boxer who beats every body in his path is only as good as the people he fights. The same holds true for filmmaking. If Steven Spielberg had just sat back and counted his money in the eighties he would never have made Jurassic Park and Schindlers List in the same year. He could’ve made Jurassic Park with Muppet show-style puppets on strings dangling in front of the camera and saved himself an awful lot of work but he looked around, saw people like James Cameron, and said “damn, look how cool those effects in T2 are, why can’t mine be like that?” and pushed the boundaries of moviemaking. Rivalry encourages better work. Embrace it.
10 ½:Never give advice: Ohhh, I think I’ve messed up this one ;)
Friday, November 30, 2007
Free Sky Textures from Dwarfed Films
Okay, no need to get too excited!
Here are a couple of sky textures I made that you can use freely for whatever you want.
They are 1280X480 pixels in size and are supplied in a small JPEG file size. I made them in Terragen 1, by the way.
I needed to make lots of differnt sky's for "Office Hours" so thats why I have some 'leftovers'.
Just click on the images and save them to your computer once they load. As I've said, they are very small file size and should load really quickly.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Express Burn: free DVD burner that works under Vista
Yesterday I was trying to back up some Office Hours files to a disc, but I ran into a few difficulties. I was using Windows Vista and was attempting to burn a DVD using freeware program Final Burner. Final burner is usually so reliable - well it is under Windows 2000/XP - but with Vista it just kept failing to write. Annoying.
Anyway's, I went looking on the internet for a Vista Compatible alternative and came upon Express Burn.
It has a nice simple interface, can burn Audio CD's, Data DVD's, Video, and even BLue Ray and HD DVD discs. And it's free! Most importantly it burned those important Office Hours files for me and I intend to keep using it. Maybe you should give it a try too.
You can download it here : EXPRESS BURN http://www.nch.com.au/burn
The people who make this software also do Wave Editor (the free audio editing program), so you can check that out too while you're on their site. Express Burn is not shareware, contains no time-linits or any crap like that, and it's adware free.
Remember to check out the Dwarfed Films Essential Freeware List for other top quality free software recommended by us.
Anyway's, I went looking on the internet for a Vista Compatible alternative and came upon Express Burn.
It has a nice simple interface, can burn Audio CD's, Data DVD's, Video, and even BLue Ray and HD DVD discs. And it's free! Most importantly it burned those important Office Hours files for me and I intend to keep using it. Maybe you should give it a try too.
You can download it here : EXPRESS BURN http://www.nch.com.au/burn
The people who make this software also do Wave Editor (the free audio editing program), so you can check that out too while you're on their site. Express Burn is not shareware, contains no time-linits or any crap like that, and it's adware free.
Remember to check out the Dwarfed Films Essential Freeware List for other top quality free software recommended by us.
NOTE: I just noticed today (Dec/10/2007) that my copy of Express Burn no longer burns to DVD/Blu Ray/HD DVD. As far as I knew, Express burn was "freeware" - with no restrictions or expiry limits. Well, guess what? It does expire after 14 days. This is pretty crappy, In my opinion. You can stil burn CD's but not DVD's. Just wanted to let you know - Shane
Monday, November 19, 2007
Office Hours: female image
Image from Office Hours of "evil" mannequin character.
"Works in progress" are just that - work's in progress, with lots of tweaking and changing of various different factors such as textures (the head will look more distrorted and damaged in movie)
Also the eye's are wrong and hair is not quite right - but lighting is alright!
Image is about 1/4 size of full renders (Hi Def: 1920X1080)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
American Movie: watch this movie
Over the weekend I watched a few movies on telly - most crap or so bad there good. Take "Earthquake" for instance - what the hell were they thinking back in the 70's: Victoria Principal with an afro?!, Walter Mattheau as a jive talking pimp??!!!, George Kennedy as a cop???!!!He's too fat and slow to be a cop, let alone Victoria Principal's love interest!
Anyway, I put on a video (yes I still use video), a documentary I love called "American Movie". It's about a freaky dude from Wisconsin tryin' to make a feature movie called "North Western" but before that he has to complete a short he's been working on called "Coven". Real thrasy, cheesy yokel horror stuff: brilliant!
If you don't like documentaries, it doesn't matter. If you hate movies about the making of movies, that doesn't matter either. "American Movie" is great because it has great people in it and its very funny. The lead is Mark Borchadt, a mullet wearing film obsessive who his brother described as being a potential serial killer! Marks divorced Swedish mother and stern father are also in it, so is Marks best friend who is a complete tripped out recovering pill popper! Best of all is MArks grandfather, Bill, who spouts wisdom every so often amongst the other nonsense that pops out of his mouth.
If you haven't seen American Movie, you should. It's one of the truest depictions of independent movie making and human nature I've seen made. I had an earlier posting on films about filmmaking and I think I forgot to put it on the list. It should be - and at the top.
Anyway, I put on a video (yes I still use video), a documentary I love called "American Movie". It's about a freaky dude from Wisconsin tryin' to make a feature movie called "North Western" but before that he has to complete a short he's been working on called "Coven". Real thrasy, cheesy yokel horror stuff: brilliant!
If you don't like documentaries, it doesn't matter. If you hate movies about the making of movies, that doesn't matter either. "American Movie" is great because it has great people in it and its very funny. The lead is Mark Borchadt, a mullet wearing film obsessive who his brother described as being a potential serial killer! Marks divorced Swedish mother and stern father are also in it, so is Marks best friend who is a complete tripped out recovering pill popper! Best of all is MArks grandfather, Bill, who spouts wisdom every so often amongst the other nonsense that pops out of his mouth.
If you haven't seen American Movie, you should. It's one of the truest depictions of independent movie making and human nature I've seen made. I had an earlier posting on films about filmmaking and I think I forgot to put it on the list. It should be - and at the top.
Office Hours: corridor shot
A corridor shot from Office Hours.
The image is very small but if you click on it it will get a little bigger(but not much).
We felt that earleir versions of the corridor were a little "uninteresting" and bland. I've made the corridors and settings much narrower, darker and moody. Steam will fizz out from vents and little extra atmospheric touches like that.
Keep tuned to the site for more
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
New Image from OFFICE HOURS film
Here is a brand spanking new image from Office Hours.
Click on the image to view it larger. The picture has been reduced by 50% compared to rendered version.
Leave a comment on the site.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Some Terregen renders
Here are some renders done using TERRAGEN 1 that I thought I'd stick up on the site to show anyone unfamiliar with this great piece of software what it can do. These renders of landscapes were created entirely with Terragen and required very little effort to achieve some good looking results. Terragen 2 is in testing stage at the moment (as I've mentioned in a previous post on this site) and includes many more features such as 3D cloudscapes, .obj/.Lwo import options and more sahder tools to create even more realistic landscapes and even entire planets. But Terragen 1 is faster at rendering and to be honest Terragen 2 - at the moment - is a little glitchy and slow. For the moment I prefer Terragen 1!
Lets look at a few images I made with Terragen 1 (with no extra photoshop-like touches):
This is a weird looking landscape I made in Blender. It's deliberately strange looking, by the way! Check out the water. Looks good, eh.
Heres another landscape. Again some nice looking water. Remember Terragen can make animations so you can do flyovers and fly-pasts and the like....
Here's an image that reminds me of my home country Ireland. Gentle rolling hills, grass, ehm, that's pretty much it...
Heres a Himalaya type Everest view of a snow covered mountain. Terragen's sun settings and cloudscapes can all be animated so you can have the scene animate from day tyo dusk to night if you want!
Terragen is for "Non Commercial Use Only" and can be downloaded for free. Also check out Terragen 2, which is still in it's pre-release version.
Comments on the site please!
Lets look at a few images I made with Terragen 1 (with no extra photoshop-like touches):
This is a weird looking landscape I made in Blender. It's deliberately strange looking, by the way! Check out the water. Looks good, eh.
Heres another landscape. Again some nice looking water. Remember Terragen can make animations so you can do flyovers and fly-pasts and the like....
Here's an image that reminds me of my home country Ireland. Gentle rolling hills, grass, ehm, that's pretty much it...
Heres a Himalaya type Everest view of a snow covered mountain. Terragen's sun settings and cloudscapes can all be animated so you can have the scene animate from day tyo dusk to night if you want!
Terragen is for "Non Commercial Use Only" and can be downloaded for free. Also check out Terragen 2, which is still in it's pre-release version.
Comments on the site please!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
OFFICE HOURS: Hair (Again!)
Well by now I'm sure you know how much I like the new Jahka particle system in Blender. It really is a good as I've made it out to be. Hair modelling was always a pain but now it's become something I like doing!
The image above (which is a zoom-in from a larger image, by the way) shows the old and new particle systems side by side. The hair on the characters head is Jahka stylee. while the eyebrows and beard are the old method. Kinda obvious which looks better, isn't it? :)
One thing though that I've noticed from trying out the experimental particle build of Blender: the little button in UV options which you normally click to make all selected polygons the same type (ie; alpha enabled, or nor, etc) isn't there. Kinda annoying, but you can always do that stuff in the regular version of Blender and then import it back into the experimental build by appending...
Oh, and by the way if anyone can't find the UV mode in the experimental build it's accessable by selecting "Edit" mode, then in the little box beside it where you change view modes, just select "Texture Mode" icon. It's actually much more user friendly that way than the previous versions.
Leave any comments on the site.#
Monday, October 15, 2007
Terragen 2
There are lots of great freeware and open source software programs out there jsut waiting to be downloaded but in my opinion there are just a handful of excellent professional programs. Blender 3d is one of them, Audacity, Psycle and IrfanView are others but one of the the most accomplished is a program called Terragen.
Terragen is used for the creation of photo-realistic landscapes and aerial flyovers. It's been around for a number of years and many updates have been added to make it more feature rich and stable. The image above was made by me (Shane Sheils) a long while back while testing out Terragen 1.
But for a while now the developers have been working on Terragen 2.
Terragen 2 is a massive leap forward in terms of functionality and capability-wise. The interface is better organised (although newcomers will be pulling their hair out in frustration trying to figure out what the hell is happening!) and features a node system (which users of high-end 3D applictions and Blender 3D's node editor will be familiar with), animation intergration and most importantly "planet creation". The last point is the most intriguing thing about Terragen 2. In the original Terragen you often came across horrible glithes if you moved your camera viewpoint a certain level abouve the landscape - the ground seemed to just end and fade off to nothingness. Terragen 2 has overcome this by allowing procedural planet textures: put simply you can create an entire planet surface, zoom out as far or zoom in as close as you need and it will render perfectly. Well thats the aim at least.
I've been trying out a version of Terragen 2 and am still trying to get to grips with the new functions, layout and options. Camera Viewpoint takes a little getting used to (Terragen 1 used an overhead pointer-like camera positioner, Terragen 2 uses a "through the lens" viewpoint to focus). Main annoyance (as with the first Terragen) is the render times. They can take absolutely ages to render. It renders what looks like a black adn white "starfield" before getting on to rendering the actual image, piece by piece. This is a non-commercial version of Terragen 2 so render size is limited to a maximum of 800X600 or something like that. (at least they have a pause button now, so you can pause the render if you need to rather than abandoning it midway through).
What use is Terragen 2? Well if you can put up with the loooong render times you can create photo-realistic natural scenes, background mattes, and it even now has Lightwave/Wavefront object integration , so you can add trees, buildings, spaceships, whatever to your scenes (again, rendering with these would take a very long time). A while ago we had an idea for afilm set in the far distant future. i was waiting for Terragen 2 to be released because I based alot of the story around the idea of using it to create plaents and landscapes, etc. I was hoping Terragen 2 would be a fater renderer than Terragen 1. It's not. it's way slower, but combined with Blender 3d, I think we can make something pretty amazing looking featuring these two excellent programs. Stay tuned!
Download Terragen 2 fromthe Planetside website.
Leave any comments on this site.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Basic NEW particle System Tutorial
Following on with my tests with the great new particle hair system I thought I'd put together a simple basic tutorial on how to use it for anyone out there not familiar with it.
The file is a .EXE executable that you can download from here or
http://www.mediafire.com/?8kmmr0yanud
The file is compressed with 7Zip. You can download 7Zip free from 7zip.org.
(Note: this is from Mediafire.com upload site. The previous crappy upload site failed)
The file is a .EXE executable that you can download from here or
http://www.mediafire.com/?8kmmr0yanud
The file is compressed with 7Zip. You can download 7Zip free from 7zip.org.
(Note: this is from Mediafire.com upload site. The previous crappy upload site failed)
Or even better yet, Download the NEW 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial (Jan 2008) provided in PDF format. It covers the basics of particle hair creation, hair material and render layers.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz
Once downloaded, uncompresss the file, then just select the file and follow the on screen instructions to move through the images and descrpitions - it's as simple as that. To exit the tutorial press the escape "ESC" button on your computer.
Below is an image created using the new particle hair system. Click on the picture to view it large. The hair literally took about 20 seconds to make. It's rough but it does go to show how siple the new Jahka particle system is to work with.
Again, download the BASIC JAHKA PARTICLE HAIR TUTORIAL from here.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz
Once downloaded, uncompresss the file, then just select the file and follow the on screen instructions to move through the images and descrpitions - it's as simple as that. To exit the tutorial press the escape "ESC" button on your computer.
Below is an image created using the new particle hair system. Click on the picture to view it large. The hair literally took about 20 seconds to make. It's rough but it does go to show how siple the new Jahka particle system is to work with.
Again, download the BASIC JAHKA PARTICLE HAIR TUTORIAL from here.
Download the NEW 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial (Jan 2008) provided in PDF format.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz
Any questions or comments post 'em on the site.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjdnjllzotz
Edit 23/Jan/2007: This is a newer version of the PDF Tutorial provided in a compressed .Rar format. It includes more detail and tips.
Any questions or comments post 'em on the site.
Monday, October 08, 2007
OFFICE HOURS: Blender Particle hair
Here are some images with descriptions regarding some tests I've been doing with the latest version of Jahka's particle system for Blender 3d.
Stying 3D hair has been made a whole lot easier with this version.
Click on the images to view them full size with detailed descriptions and advice.
You can download the experimental version of Blender 3d here.
Or you can download the latest stable version of Blender (v2.45) from it's homepage.
Email Dwarfed Films or leave a comment on the site
Friday, October 05, 2007
Blender 3D - experimental particle version
Ok, yesterday I downloaded an experimental version of Blender which is still a work in progress. The reason I wanted to get my hands on it was for the new particle system. And although it's a little buggy and tends to crash quite a lot, the updated particle system looks really great!
On Office Hours I experimented with lots of different ways of "doing" hair and if you look back over previous posts( by hitting "hair" or "particle hair"in the TAGS) you'll have seen the various tests I've tried to acieve a believable - though not necessarilt realistic - look. The female chracter in Office Hours has been proving a problem in the hair department. I've tried particles before and then reverted to UV mesh-style options. So far I have'nt been satisfied with how it looks. From some angles and with certain lighting it can look and move alright but it is a really difficult thing to get just the way I want it to be.
So back to the Experimental version of Blender. In previous and the current stable official release of Blender, hair is formed by using curve guides on a mesh that has a number of particle effects applied to it. To get a vaguely real-looking hairstyle can take anywhere from 6 to 20 curve guides and an awful lot of time twaeking and testing. Also - and this is a major downer - the hair must be split up into different groups such as "left side", "right side" and "fringe", and each of these must be kept on seperate layers. This is because the curve guides affect only the layer that they are on, but it means that you can end up wasting at least 2 or more layers just for hair - and Blender offers 20 layers (This may seem a lot but whenyour animating a character in a scene and the scene has lots of locations and cars and other objests which each need their own seperate layer for easy access it can become very annoying).
The new particle system uses a different method. You physically "comb" and ""cut" the hair - a bit like the "Sculpt Mode" modelling tools added a couple of releases ago. This is a more intuitive way of "making" hair. You push, pull, comb and chop the hairstyle you're looking for. I'm testing it out at the moment to see if I can make better hair for the female character in the film. Early tests have proved hopeful but I gotta keep trying to make her hair work.
Ok, at the moment it is buggy and prone to crashing but this is a major strp forward - in my humble opinion - for Blender. Modelling hair is one of the most hardest things to do in 3D animation and at last the workload of Blender users may just have gotten a little more manageable!
Email Dwarfed FIlms or leave a comment on the site here
On Office Hours I experimented with lots of different ways of "doing" hair and if you look back over previous posts( by hitting "hair" or "particle hair"in the TAGS) you'll have seen the various tests I've tried to acieve a believable - though not necessarilt realistic - look. The female chracter in Office Hours has been proving a problem in the hair department. I've tried particles before and then reverted to UV mesh-style options. So far I have'nt been satisfied with how it looks. From some angles and with certain lighting it can look and move alright but it is a really difficult thing to get just the way I want it to be.
So back to the Experimental version of Blender. In previous and the current stable official release of Blender, hair is formed by using curve guides on a mesh that has a number of particle effects applied to it. To get a vaguely real-looking hairstyle can take anywhere from 6 to 20 curve guides and an awful lot of time twaeking and testing. Also - and this is a major downer - the hair must be split up into different groups such as "left side", "right side" and "fringe", and each of these must be kept on seperate layers. This is because the curve guides affect only the layer that they are on, but it means that you can end up wasting at least 2 or more layers just for hair - and Blender offers 20 layers (This may seem a lot but whenyour animating a character in a scene and the scene has lots of locations and cars and other objests which each need their own seperate layer for easy access it can become very annoying).
The new particle system uses a different method. You physically "comb" and ""cut" the hair - a bit like the "Sculpt Mode" modelling tools added a couple of releases ago. This is a more intuitive way of "making" hair. You push, pull, comb and chop the hairstyle you're looking for. I'm testing it out at the moment to see if I can make better hair for the female character in the film. Early tests have proved hopeful but I gotta keep trying to make her hair work.
Ok, at the moment it is buggy and prone to crashing but this is a major strp forward - in my humble opinion - for Blender. Modelling hair is one of the most hardest things to do in 3D animation and at last the workload of Blender users may just have gotten a little more manageable!
You can download the experimental build of Blender with the particle hair system here.
So far it is only available for Windows operating systems I think.Email Dwarfed FIlms or leave a comment on the site here
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
False credit on IMDb for Night Falls
Scanning though I.M.D.B( the Internet Movie Database) I came upon something odd.
For our Dwarfed Films moveie "Night Falls", somebody had added their name as a credited "colorist/dailies". A Subsequent google search revelaed this person's name again credited as "dailies" on Night Falls.
Now either this dude is getting confused with working on another picture or he is just a bit of a chancer! I have never heard of this person i n my life. They never worked on Night Falls. Night Falls didn't even have a person for "dailies" or a "colorist". I edited the damn movie myself on my computer!
Again, this could be an honest mistake, but it may not be. I've had idiots pretending to be part of films before and even using the Dwarfed Films name, saying that they worked for us! Piece of advice - don't lie and pretend you've done something you haven't, you will always get caught out eventually and be made look like a gimp.
For our Dwarfed Films moveie "Night Falls", somebody had added their name as a credited "colorist/dailies". A Subsequent google search revelaed this person's name again credited as "dailies" on Night Falls.
Now either this dude is getting confused with working on another picture or he is just a bit of a chancer! I have never heard of this person i n my life. They never worked on Night Falls. Night Falls didn't even have a person for "dailies" or a "colorist". I edited the damn movie myself on my computer!
Again, this could be an honest mistake, but it may not be. I've had idiots pretending to be part of films before and even using the Dwarfed Films name, saying that they worked for us! Piece of advice - don't lie and pretend you've done something you haven't, you will always get caught out eventually and be made look like a gimp.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
OFFICE HOURS: what's it all about and other useless details!
Hi, I’m Shane Sheils, co-writer/director of Office Hours.
Hmmm, that kinda sounds like something Troy McClure might’ve said on The Simpsons!
Anyway, I thought it’d be “nice” to fill you in on what’s the story on Office Hours and really what the hell this whole filmmaking fuss is all about.
Well first here’s a bit of background info stuff.
It all began with To Shoot A Rurf. Well actually it started before that, but those other films were really just test runs and mainly dipping our toes into the animation water.
When I say “we” I mean myself and Paula Sheils, my co-writer/director/composer/producer/etc, but unfortunately I’m the idiot that is in charge of the animation and visuals. The reason? I have the “background” in animation and I can draw “good”. The thing is, I “studied” Classical Animation – which, in normal human language, mean’s 2D hand drawn animation like the old Disney stuff before Toy Story came along. I was a crap student. I never completed any assignments, I fell asleep in class and I hated it. Why? It was boring as hell, that’s why! I didn’t like being told what to do. Drawing should be fun and done for enjoyment. C’mon, it’s about using the right hand side of the brain – it’s not meant to be wasted on tedious repetitious lines and squiggles. Heres the thing, most animators end up doing the crappy work that people who watch movies don’t notice. Who the hell would seriously want to be the guy/girl that cleans up the lines on drawings all day? It’s not creative. It’s no different than dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s”, the kind of work even the most uncreative pencil pushing office worker could do. Do I sound bitter? Heck, yeah! Classical animation robbed me of my love of drawing and I wanted out of that place fast! I also studied live action filmmaking – which I was much happier and better at – but live action equals money. I like films to look great, ye’ know sweet visuals, moody lighting, great locations, blah, blah. All that generally requires money, and anyone that knows me or has visited www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com or www.toshootaruf.blogspot.com, well you should know I’m a big believer in “cost saving measures”. Oh and live action also throws up the problem of dealing with stupid people. I’ve been pretty lucky that most people I’ve had dealings with were nice and tried hard, but there are always a few gimps that can mess up your whole day by doing stupid crap or simply just messing you around!
They say never work with kids or animals. It should really be “don’t work with gimps”. Myself and Paula put 100% into whatever we do and in return we expect at least the same in return. Some times that just doesn’t happen. Gimps create problems for you to deal with. Live would be much nicer if all the gimp-bags of the world were stuffed in a sack and dumped in the nearest river. I salute all the gimps that have crossed me – you will never get the chance againJ. Word of advice to those who are starting out in filmmaking: believe in what you do, trust your instincts, don’t get too comfortable in what you do – always be aware of what others are trying, learn from not just your own mistakes but other peoples mistakes too. Vary your interests. If you wanna do some animation stuff, don’t turn your back on live action, books, magazines, newspapers, and all the various pictures, photo’s, drawings and visual stuff out there. Slip a little of your personality into your work. Don’t be a carbon copy of somebody else. Put a little bit of your character into your movie, it could be anything like a hobby or a way of thinking or talking or acting, just do it. Can’t afford expensive equipment and tools? Don’t make excuses; just find a way around it. When we were planning a live action film called The Darkside, we didn’t have a camera, lighting or anything. Everything just fell into place, as if by magic. Remember, expensive equipment didn’t exist years ago and amazing films were made. Those guys just did their best with what they had, used their knowledge to find cool ways to do cool things that had never been done before. The same goes for story and plot. If everybody wrote and made the same films, the world would be a very dull place. Sure there are rules for story arc and all that kinda thing but rules exist to be broken! Don’t make the film others want to watch, make the film you wanna see. If others dig it, then great; but accept that your film may only find an audience with a few people. Shorts, in particular, are a tricky thing to work with. They are supposed to be a way to present and try out new ideas, but mostly they just turn out to be mini rip-offs of other feature length movies or TV dramas. And the people who watch shorts can vary from drunks in pubs, eager to laugh at anything remotely funny, to pretentious twats waiting for a literary reference to some boring old dead guy who wrote poncy poetry!
To do the films myself and Paula wanted to make we simply couldn’t achieve it properly in live action-land.
Attention turned towards animation. So I come full circle again to the animation “thing”. Ah, but this time it was different, now we were in 3D animation time. Yeah, but that 3D stuff is pretty costly, isn’t it? It is if you’re a rich idiot. I’m a poor idiot. I discovered the wonder that is Blender3d (www.blender.org), a free 3D animation programme and sequencer with advanced texture unwrapping and a fantastic in-built render engine. I’ll say it again – Blender 3D is FREE. That’s 100% free, not shareware or one of those featureless demo programmes that expires after 21 days. And it’s very reliable and dependable. Again, if you’ve visited our Dwarfed Films blog, you’ll have heard plenty about Blender as well as lots of other essential freeware programs for video/ audio/image editing. We even have an Essential Freeware List on the Dwarfed Films site with links to all the software.
Ok, if you’re still reading, then great – I appreciate your time – but you’re probably still wondering what this has got to do with Office Hours, or what the hell I’m even talking about. Be patient, we’re getting there.
So, like I’ve said, we did a few shorts, mainly as testers, using Blender 3d to see how the whole 3d thing might work out. This lead to To Shoot A Rurf. Visit www.toshootarurf.blogspot.com or www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com to find out more about this film and lots of images and background making-of stuff. For those too lazy to bother checking out these sites right now I’ll just say that To Shoot A Rurf utilised everything I NEVER learned from college life all those years ago. Yeah, It’s true, I learned nothing, nada, zilch. To Shoot A Rurf was a complete course – self taught – in 3D animation. In the previous shorts I’d handled lighting, camera work and basic texturing fairly well( My experience in live action lighting and camera work slightly helped but 3D lighting is more complex than the real world lighting situations). What I learned –through trial and error – on To Shoot A Rurf, was delicate character animation, cloth animation, fluid animation, physics animation setups, particle effects such as smoke, complex UV mapping, particle hair and lots of other stuff. It was a real learning experience – maybe no different than most self-taught users of Blender – but it was also one of the most rewarding filmmaking experiences I’ve had. Literally every day I learned something new. The picture edit and composing the music and all the other elements on To Shoot A Rurf was very enjoyable.
Actually To Shoot A Rurf is probably my favourite film. It is totally mad, utterly surreal and it has a quirky sense of humour running throughout it’s 8 and a half minute running time. I just watched it again today and I was struck by a number of things. The lighting is fantastic and the mood is set up right from the opening shot. The music, which Paula and I composed and performed, is great. The music accompanying the singing Rurf, Rurfetta La Fey, is like a gonzo version of a John Barrymore Bond theme. The liquid metal mirror snake is cool. It’s hard to believe that it was an afterthought that I decided to add to the movie because I simply wanted to animate a mirror snake! Ya see that’s the cool thing about making movies – anything is possible and you can add cool stuff just because you feel like it. Now I admit To Shoot A Rurf might not be to everybody’s taste. Maybe it’s a bit too “out-there” or seen as experimental.
Now we come to Office Hours, which will be a more “logical” picture. The story is far more straight forward, for a start.
The script was written by myself and Paula a few years back. It was originally planned to be a live action short but the To Shoot A Rurf lesson showed that it was doable in 3D. The story tells the tale of a lonely office worker who falls in love with a mannequin head he discovers in a trash can outside an old back street lady’s fashion shop. After his cruel boss gets killed in an accident, he digs up her body and steals it – taking it back to his office cubicle where he stitches his beloved mannequin head to the decomposing decapitated body. A freak-lightening storm brings the mannequin to life where it goes berserk and tries to kill the man who must fight for his life against the bizarre zombie.
It’s a romantic/comedy/zombie movie, all very tongue in cheek. To Shoot A Rurf (TSAR) was very surreal and weird. Office Hours is weird but in a less “mondo bizarre” way. Plus Office Hours looks way better than TSAR. Office Hours is being rendered out in hi-def format, the characters and backgrounds are more realistic and highly detailed. Actually realistic is not the right word for the characters – they occupy a place in between cartoonish and realistic.
Lots of tests have taken place for every aspect of the picture, and they need to: rendering at full scale can take a long time. 3D animation is more enjoyable to do compared to classical hand drawn animation but it can still be a pain! Working on To Shoot A Rurf, for example, thought me a lesson in using strand particle’s for human hairstyles. The particle hairs would sometimes react weirdly to movement giving the impression that the lead characters hair was alive! Also during rendering I noticed that depending on the camera lens used (yes-3D animation uses camera lenses just like live action filmmaking) and rendering size, the character would sometimes appear to be balder or hairier in certain sequences. Irritating stuff that only becomes obvious once a sequence has been rendered out – thereby wasting a lot of time on re-renders and fix-ups. Cloth animation also proved dodgy. Blender doesn’t have a dedicated cloth animation system but instead I used “Softbody” settings. These control the elasticity and fluid-like motion of an object and by tweaking you can achieve acceptable cloth like movements, except sometimes it doesn’t work out how you want it to. The lead character in To Shoot A Rurf magically opens his hand (after being attacked by a “liquid metal” mirror – don’t ask, just go check out the film instead!) and finds a mini version of himself standing in his palm. The mini character is wearing a tuxedo jacket on which I applied a cloth-like modifier. Sometimes it moved nicely, other times it behaved erratically and went “through” the characters body or stretched weirdly. Trial and error, people, trial and error is the only way to get through awkward situations! Office Hours will present as many hurdles to cross and lots of technical difficulties, but it will be worth it in the end!
So stick with the us and follow the whole process of the making of Office Hours by visiting this site www.officehoursfilm.blogspot.com or our main site www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com.
Hmmm, that kinda sounds like something Troy McClure might’ve said on The Simpsons!
Anyway, I thought it’d be “nice” to fill you in on what’s the story on Office Hours and really what the hell this whole filmmaking fuss is all about.
Well first here’s a bit of background info stuff.
It all began with To Shoot A Rurf. Well actually it started before that, but those other films were really just test runs and mainly dipping our toes into the animation water.
When I say “we” I mean myself and Paula Sheils, my co-writer/director/composer/producer/etc, but unfortunately I’m the idiot that is in charge of the animation and visuals. The reason? I have the “background” in animation and I can draw “good”. The thing is, I “studied” Classical Animation – which, in normal human language, mean’s 2D hand drawn animation like the old Disney stuff before Toy Story came along. I was a crap student. I never completed any assignments, I fell asleep in class and I hated it. Why? It was boring as hell, that’s why! I didn’t like being told what to do. Drawing should be fun and done for enjoyment. C’mon, it’s about using the right hand side of the brain – it’s not meant to be wasted on tedious repetitious lines and squiggles. Heres the thing, most animators end up doing the crappy work that people who watch movies don’t notice. Who the hell would seriously want to be the guy/girl that cleans up the lines on drawings all day? It’s not creative. It’s no different than dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s”, the kind of work even the most uncreative pencil pushing office worker could do. Do I sound bitter? Heck, yeah! Classical animation robbed me of my love of drawing and I wanted out of that place fast! I also studied live action filmmaking – which I was much happier and better at – but live action equals money. I like films to look great, ye’ know sweet visuals, moody lighting, great locations, blah, blah. All that generally requires money, and anyone that knows me or has visited www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com or www.toshootaruf.blogspot.com, well you should know I’m a big believer in “cost saving measures”. Oh and live action also throws up the problem of dealing with stupid people. I’ve been pretty lucky that most people I’ve had dealings with were nice and tried hard, but there are always a few gimps that can mess up your whole day by doing stupid crap or simply just messing you around!
They say never work with kids or animals. It should really be “don’t work with gimps”. Myself and Paula put 100% into whatever we do and in return we expect at least the same in return. Some times that just doesn’t happen. Gimps create problems for you to deal with. Live would be much nicer if all the gimp-bags of the world were stuffed in a sack and dumped in the nearest river. I salute all the gimps that have crossed me – you will never get the chance againJ. Word of advice to those who are starting out in filmmaking: believe in what you do, trust your instincts, don’t get too comfortable in what you do – always be aware of what others are trying, learn from not just your own mistakes but other peoples mistakes too. Vary your interests. If you wanna do some animation stuff, don’t turn your back on live action, books, magazines, newspapers, and all the various pictures, photo’s, drawings and visual stuff out there. Slip a little of your personality into your work. Don’t be a carbon copy of somebody else. Put a little bit of your character into your movie, it could be anything like a hobby or a way of thinking or talking or acting, just do it. Can’t afford expensive equipment and tools? Don’t make excuses; just find a way around it. When we were planning a live action film called The Darkside, we didn’t have a camera, lighting or anything. Everything just fell into place, as if by magic. Remember, expensive equipment didn’t exist years ago and amazing films were made. Those guys just did their best with what they had, used their knowledge to find cool ways to do cool things that had never been done before. The same goes for story and plot. If everybody wrote and made the same films, the world would be a very dull place. Sure there are rules for story arc and all that kinda thing but rules exist to be broken! Don’t make the film others want to watch, make the film you wanna see. If others dig it, then great; but accept that your film may only find an audience with a few people. Shorts, in particular, are a tricky thing to work with. They are supposed to be a way to present and try out new ideas, but mostly they just turn out to be mini rip-offs of other feature length movies or TV dramas. And the people who watch shorts can vary from drunks in pubs, eager to laugh at anything remotely funny, to pretentious twats waiting for a literary reference to some boring old dead guy who wrote poncy poetry!
To do the films myself and Paula wanted to make we simply couldn’t achieve it properly in live action-land.
Attention turned towards animation. So I come full circle again to the animation “thing”. Ah, but this time it was different, now we were in 3D animation time. Yeah, but that 3D stuff is pretty costly, isn’t it? It is if you’re a rich idiot. I’m a poor idiot. I discovered the wonder that is Blender3d (www.blender.org), a free 3D animation programme and sequencer with advanced texture unwrapping and a fantastic in-built render engine. I’ll say it again – Blender 3D is FREE. That’s 100% free, not shareware or one of those featureless demo programmes that expires after 21 days. And it’s very reliable and dependable. Again, if you’ve visited our Dwarfed Films blog, you’ll have heard plenty about Blender as well as lots of other essential freeware programs for video/ audio/image editing. We even have an Essential Freeware List on the Dwarfed Films site with links to all the software.
Ok, if you’re still reading, then great – I appreciate your time – but you’re probably still wondering what this has got to do with Office Hours, or what the hell I’m even talking about. Be patient, we’re getting there.
So, like I’ve said, we did a few shorts, mainly as testers, using Blender 3d to see how the whole 3d thing might work out. This lead to To Shoot A Rurf. Visit www.toshootarurf.blogspot.com or www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com to find out more about this film and lots of images and background making-of stuff. For those too lazy to bother checking out these sites right now I’ll just say that To Shoot A Rurf utilised everything I NEVER learned from college life all those years ago. Yeah, It’s true, I learned nothing, nada, zilch. To Shoot A Rurf was a complete course – self taught – in 3D animation. In the previous shorts I’d handled lighting, camera work and basic texturing fairly well( My experience in live action lighting and camera work slightly helped but 3D lighting is more complex than the real world lighting situations). What I learned –through trial and error – on To Shoot A Rurf, was delicate character animation, cloth animation, fluid animation, physics animation setups, particle effects such as smoke, complex UV mapping, particle hair and lots of other stuff. It was a real learning experience – maybe no different than most self-taught users of Blender – but it was also one of the most rewarding filmmaking experiences I’ve had. Literally every day I learned something new. The picture edit and composing the music and all the other elements on To Shoot A Rurf was very enjoyable.
Actually To Shoot A Rurf is probably my favourite film. It is totally mad, utterly surreal and it has a quirky sense of humour running throughout it’s 8 and a half minute running time. I just watched it again today and I was struck by a number of things. The lighting is fantastic and the mood is set up right from the opening shot. The music, which Paula and I composed and performed, is great. The music accompanying the singing Rurf, Rurfetta La Fey, is like a gonzo version of a John Barrymore Bond theme. The liquid metal mirror snake is cool. It’s hard to believe that it was an afterthought that I decided to add to the movie because I simply wanted to animate a mirror snake! Ya see that’s the cool thing about making movies – anything is possible and you can add cool stuff just because you feel like it. Now I admit To Shoot A Rurf might not be to everybody’s taste. Maybe it’s a bit too “out-there” or seen as experimental.
Now we come to Office Hours, which will be a more “logical” picture. The story is far more straight forward, for a start.
The script was written by myself and Paula a few years back. It was originally planned to be a live action short but the To Shoot A Rurf lesson showed that it was doable in 3D. The story tells the tale of a lonely office worker who falls in love with a mannequin head he discovers in a trash can outside an old back street lady’s fashion shop. After his cruel boss gets killed in an accident, he digs up her body and steals it – taking it back to his office cubicle where he stitches his beloved mannequin head to the decomposing decapitated body. A freak-lightening storm brings the mannequin to life where it goes berserk and tries to kill the man who must fight for his life against the bizarre zombie.
It’s a romantic/comedy/zombie movie, all very tongue in cheek. To Shoot A Rurf (TSAR) was very surreal and weird. Office Hours is weird but in a less “mondo bizarre” way. Plus Office Hours looks way better than TSAR. Office Hours is being rendered out in hi-def format, the characters and backgrounds are more realistic and highly detailed. Actually realistic is not the right word for the characters – they occupy a place in between cartoonish and realistic.
Lots of tests have taken place for every aspect of the picture, and they need to: rendering at full scale can take a long time. 3D animation is more enjoyable to do compared to classical hand drawn animation but it can still be a pain! Working on To Shoot A Rurf, for example, thought me a lesson in using strand particle’s for human hairstyles. The particle hairs would sometimes react weirdly to movement giving the impression that the lead characters hair was alive! Also during rendering I noticed that depending on the camera lens used (yes-3D animation uses camera lenses just like live action filmmaking) and rendering size, the character would sometimes appear to be balder or hairier in certain sequences. Irritating stuff that only becomes obvious once a sequence has been rendered out – thereby wasting a lot of time on re-renders and fix-ups. Cloth animation also proved dodgy. Blender doesn’t have a dedicated cloth animation system but instead I used “Softbody” settings. These control the elasticity and fluid-like motion of an object and by tweaking you can achieve acceptable cloth like movements, except sometimes it doesn’t work out how you want it to. The lead character in To Shoot A Rurf magically opens his hand (after being attacked by a “liquid metal” mirror – don’t ask, just go check out the film instead!) and finds a mini version of himself standing in his palm. The mini character is wearing a tuxedo jacket on which I applied a cloth-like modifier. Sometimes it moved nicely, other times it behaved erratically and went “through” the characters body or stretched weirdly. Trial and error, people, trial and error is the only way to get through awkward situations! Office Hours will present as many hurdles to cross and lots of technical difficulties, but it will be worth it in the end!
So stick with the us and follow the whole process of the making of Office Hours by visiting this site www.officehoursfilm.blogspot.com or our main site www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Office Hours: more street location stuff
Two new images from Office Hours, the film directed by Shane Sheils & Paula Sheils and produced by Dwarfed Films.
Both are of the same street scene, except the bottom image features a couple of cars.
Click on the images to view the images larger. Pictures are at 1/2 scale.
Email Dwarfed Films or leave a comment on the site.
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