Car Crash WIP *Now with Video*
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For those who are interested I made a new post on my blog, "Monday Morning Quarterbacking". It's yet even more pondering about this beast of a project known as Fuel & Fire. This time I consider what I need to do if I were to make this entire project into a "graphical film", much like the animatic in the youtube link in my earlier post.
My post:
http://www.giantmonster.tv/giant/?p=584#more-584I'd welcome anyone to read it and give me any feedback. Seriously, I'd love some feedback - I need feedback. Any and all critique is welcome. This is going to take some deep thinking, experimenting and a lot of research.
An excerpt from my post:
@unknownuser said:
Artistic Considerations and Building this Thing
Artistically this is still an interesting endeavor (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing all this down). So after all of the above, where does this stand?- Visual Details - I haven’t figured out what the final image fidelity will be yet. I do know that the direction I have in my mind will take more time to render. In short, it involves rendering several layers and comping them together into one visual style. That will add more time in Photoshop/Motion/Comp applications. Additional development time per frame is not something I’d like to increase. I’m going to have to research better tools for that, i.e. Shake.
- 3D Layers - part of making this a film would involve some additional layering and 3D camerawork with the 2D images. Another step, that adds more time. This might also force me to render on my MacBook Pro, since the PC version of the SketchUp doesn’t have the option to render an alpha layer.
- Tools - This is going to stress my current toolset. In a pre-emptive strike I’ve already purchased the Final Cut suite. I’ve been planning to do that for a long time now and here’s my excuse. Another piece of software I’d like to learn is Shake and I think that might help in automating the comp time with the layering process.
And in relation to all that I did some experiments with comping renders.
VRay and SU composite:
Podium SU composite:
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that is extremely subtle... but really nice justin.... question is..is it worth the effort?
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I would love to see a pure SketchUp render for comparisson, monsterzero.
and let me tell you, how much I am impressed by your work. such great modelling!!! and I really like the style and flair of your images
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hey, about your question about 3-d printing. unfortunatly, SU cannot send ot a printer because all of the objects are not solid, they are simply made of infinitly thin faces. the printer canot make things that thin, so you would have to export to a solids modeler like solidworks in order to print it. i know, so sad.
i heard of this place in the SF area at the maker faire 2008 called the tech shop. they have everything there to make things. even 3-d printers. you have to pay for it, but you can bring in a flash drive with the model loaded on it and plug it in and have it printed. its pretty cool. they unfortunatly dont have one close to where i live, so i have to drive for quite a while to get there.
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We do 3D printing from sketchup architectural models to a local reprographics shop here in Seattle. They have two options: 1) send them the SKP file and let their technicians tweak it into printable format, or, 2) use an STL (http://rpdrc.ic.polyu.edu.hk/old_files/stl_introduction.htm) conversion plug-in in SU to generate the file ourselves.
3D printers require STL files to print. Sketchup doesn't do this natively, and any conversion can take a lot of tweaking to get right.
On the plus side, the new 3D printers do color and can print your materials and textures directly into the model matrix. You can also create true moving parts if you model the thing in such a way that the pieces are not contiguous.
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Jason,
Yeah, I hear you on that one. I do think it's worth it. I personally like the added shaping the rendering provides. Regardless of what I decide to do, I want to add more tonal range to the images. I'm having a difficult time getting that range from the standard render in SU. This begs some sort of control over lighting, contrast and layers. This isn't going to be an easy thing to do. Most of these test renders are being done with regards to the concept of doing this as a graphic film. As a comic, I can live with my old render style.As for the 3D printing stuff. If anyone can supply direct resources to actual an actual business and talk about how their experience that would be helpful. Thanks!
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yeah...dont get me wrong..it looks awesome... its just the right amount of subtle shading to get it a level above the sketchup images... but yeah, i forget you're changing this to a film now.. so should be fewer frames with more detail, right?
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It's probably more frames with more detail (x30% and 100% respectively). In comics you tend not to show every movement (unless you dramatically want it) and in film you tend to show every important nuance. But in comics most writers do not write for that detail. A good example of that, is during a conversation sequence a comic tends not to have the characters performing complex actions as they talk (of course there are exceptions to this rule) but in a live action film you want your actors to be doing something in the scene to support, add subtext, or just add interest to a talking scene, especially if it's a long conversation.
It's all very subjective and subtle, but minding those things add a lot to any work. Story subtext work quite differently in comics and is difficult to pull off because the transitions and actions and expressions have be shown in frame. In film transitions are a major part of how things are expressed. This can range from scene transitions, to emotional ones. In film you just have so much more to work with. This project is somewhere in the middle of all that since it's still going to be still images for the most part yet, it has to have a sense of movement, emotion and actual timing.
Thanks for feedback. I'm still interested in hearing more. There's just plenty of smart people on this board and I hope I can tap into that brain power.
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yeah..there are.. i wish i was one of them.. lol.
keep amazing us
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Jason don't trip yourself up. I consider you one of the great brains in this forum, and am always eager to read what you have to say.
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MZ Blaster,
... Light it?...
Yeah, baby...
Light it up...
Light it up and run, you monkey monster...
This is a blow out bit of tumble weed.
Back it hard, and blast ahead.
0=00... Yeah.
Durant "one wire is missing" Hapke
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Justin,
I've been watching your work for a while now (since you posted your initial character images). It's very impressive and a testament not only to your artistic abilities, but also to your patience, attention to detail and logical process.
I suspect I can see some of your influences - tell me if I'm wrong:
- Cully Hamner
- Bart Sears
- Geof Darrow
Do any of these ring a bell (only three of my favourite comic artists).
Keep it up - it's cool as.
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Hi Buzzer,
I've seen some of Cully's work, but I don't read any of the books he as worked on. His style sits pretty squarely in the "old/new school" of animation artist I like i.e. David Johnson (aka DevilPig). Bart Sears is the same story, seen his work over the years with JL and Dark Knight.Geoff Darrow on the other hand has been firmly in my "must list" I own most all of his books, own some of his originals, and had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with him (probably more like stalking), Frank Miller and Mike Allred at Comic Con. All the detail I put into my models might be his "influence", however subconscious.
For this project I'd point to; Ron Cobb, Ashley Wood, Bill Barnes, Keith Weesner, Alex Toth, Francois Schuiten, and my good friend John Bell as influences. I certainly have more artist that I love, but those are the ones I point to with regards to Fuel & Fire.
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