Salesman Short film: new image and details

New image form our latest short.
Named "Mr Humpfninkel's Sales Technique", the film follows the disastrous adventures of salesman Mr. Humpfninkel (pictured) as he goes door to door trying to sell vacuum cleaners.

The movie is quite obviuosly a demented comedy!

More images and details to follow shortly.

3D World Magazine DVD films

Busy making our comedy short film at the moment and have’n t been posting as much as we’d like to lately.

Image to and further details to come!

Anyway, we’ve been looking at the “Indie 50”, the DVD of short 3D animated films, which came with this month’s 3D World Magazine.

Highly recommend checking out the magazine and the enclosed shorts.

Lots of variety: the good, the bad and the downright ugly!

I won’t mention the bad ones – it’s all personal choice and opinion, I suppose – but I will recommend the ones that really impressed both myself and Paula.

“The Itch” – comedy genius.

“The Last Knit” – excellent.

“Birthday Boy” – academy award nominated short which I’m sure many of you will already have heard of.

“Ego” – absolutely amazing animation.

“The Wolf Man” – hilarious and completely bonkers!

There are others that impressed in terms of visuals and ideas (such as Tim Tom, Dragon Slayer, After You and a few notable others) but the ones mentioned above are really top quality.

Hey, don’t trust us – go judge for yourself by checking out these films online or borrowing a copy of the DVD from somebody. Or you could stop being a miser and actually purchase a copy of 3D World Magazine!.

Using The Gimp on Windows Vista

Anyone who intends to use The Gimp on their new Vista computer may become frustrated when they can't get the program to launch and it just seems to hang for ages trying to load fonts. Many will grow impatient and throw their computer out the window. Some may even curse The Gimp and refuse to use it on their lovely new machine.

But fret not! The solution is simple.
The problem lies somewhere in The Gimp trying to access Vista's fonts when it first loads. All you have to do is wait a few minutes (varies, but should take no more than 5 minutes) and The Gimp will load up as good as new. And don't worry, after this initial long loading time, The Gimp is set and ready to load up almost up really fast the next time you start her up.

Shane
www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com

PS: I had this 'problem' a few months back and wouldn't use The Gimp on Vista. Instead I started using Paint.net.
Paint.net is really good but it just doesn't have all the image editing abilities that The Gimp has.

Short Animated Film Needs Actor

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

TIPS TO REMEMBER:

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

Requirements:

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

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


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


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

Follow the instructions contained in the sample script.

When you have completed recording, do the following:

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

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

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

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

• DO NOT EMAIL YOUR FILE DIRECTLY TO DWARFED FILMS.

• Successful candidates will be contacted after the selection process.

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


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

The 10 Minute Blender Particle Hair Tutorial

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


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

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

Any questions or comments leave 'em on the site.

Shane

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now you shouldn't have any problems.

Shane
www.dwarfedfilms.blogspot.com

Blender Approximate AO Build TESTS

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shane

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

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

The 15 essential Freeware Software Programs you should download immediately

The 15 essential Freeware Software Programs you should download immediately:
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It's the start of the year, and what better way to begin 2008 than with a round-up of the best Freeware out there waiting to be downloaded. The 15 programs below are all fully functioning versions of Free software with no expiry time-limits or annoying pop-up ads. They have proven to be reliable and secure - in many cases such as Blender, Firefox and IrfanView they have shown themselves to be outstandingly dependable.
***************************************

1: Blender 3D: A Free Open Source 3D modelling and animation software. Import/Export to 3DS, OBJ, LWO, DXF, VRML, Collada and others. Files can be saved in native .blend format which saves all data including animation IPO's, models, armatures, materials, etc.
Softbody and hardbody Physics integration. Blender also includes Game Creation ability and creation of .exe format games.
Inbuilt renderer is very fast and good but Blender also supports other external renders such as Yafray. Very good UV unwrapping abilities. Includes a very competent video/audio sequencer editor that supports FFMPEG and export to many formats. Think MAYA/3DS MAX but with some more extras and zero pricetag! http://www.blender.org

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Not Free but Great!

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

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

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Free - but be very wary....

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year!

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

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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 ;)

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.

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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.

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!

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.#