United3dArtists Archive

So this is what I've been working on...

Two motion graphics, good pay, short turnaround, lots of 3 hour sleep nights (cause I have a parttime second job). I chose to do this all in trueSpace this time. Motionblur added in post, rendered at 2.2k to then get 720p frames. Found a faster way to resize everything with lanczos, using Virtual Dub. Animation in TS is fast and simple, Clinton's interpolator is a godsend, and well.... seeing the end result in the viewport is nice.

Characters are rigged in TS, but I didn't put much time in them, they are not good for full on animation, and right now I'm still not sure how animation in TS would work with rigs... but for motion graphics, so far it's fun and easy...

I completed one of the two animations, I have one more to do by tomorrow morning... after my second job this morning I'll work another long haul till 3 am, then... hopefully it will be done then...... lots of cocacola for the sugar and caffeine..

Test Render


Animatic

Pretty cool! Never would have guessed trueSpace was used.

And Blender 2.73 with the new grease pencil was used for the animatic. My amazing sketching skills really showcases how amazing it is! hehe

But yes, what you see in the video is pretty much what you see in the viewport of TS. It only takes about 10 seconds to render out an image 2.5K (2560x1440) on my 1 gig video card..

I was supposed to deliver today, so they have it tomorrow morning.. I'm going to have to pull an all-nighter to pull this through! After finishing one, I lost inspiration for the next, so, I'm working on it now.....

Want to see the first one? Still has little details I want to fix, but getting there!

If I didn't already know you did it in trueSpace I would have thought you did it in a more 2D oriented application like After Effects.

Like the cat in the poster - "Hang in there!"

DID IT. Delivered. Second wasn't so good, and I forgot (neglected) to add some power point like parts... but all went well! I got the first payment already, best paid stressful sleepless nights I've had!

I prefer doing my 2D in 3D software.. I know.. silly. I just like rotating around the graphics... peek what's behind the layers.

ITS BSC (first video)


ITS GESTION (second video)


Things I learnt about this project - motion graphics in TS can be fun. The alpha channel in the D3D viewport is odd when close together (will forget or glitch the z-depth). Additive tracks - I don't understand them very well yet. Always have an animatic before production - it saves time and headaches. My Ultrashader is too heavy for hundreds of objects. TrueSpace can be great for motion graphics. I need to learn how to make motion graphic tools or systems for TS - might save time. When working with others, confirm and double confirm what everyone is doing early on.... (had an audio mishap that had to be fixed a couple of hours before the deadline!) Sleeping 20 minute naps, even just often.. can help someone get by on not 3 hours of sleep a day. Coca Cola works better than Coffee. Popcorn is great for all-nighters. Better be prepared with papers than to get a deal and have to run around getting them.

Motion Graphcis - can be a good source of income - business' love them.

Excellent! And congratulations on making enough money on this too. You got it all right. From the way the characters and items move, arrangement on the screen, timing, colors ... it all looks pro. And done when you're half asleep!

Your work is inspirational to those hoping or dreaming of doing CG as a job. (I miss Prodigy. He did architectural renders for freelance work.)

I'm still curious about why the paperwork/bureaucracy was needed. Since that is a big factor you need methods to deal with it. Think of several strategies you can use to deal with that on future jobs. Avoid jobs that encounter troublesome govt./regulation/bureaucracy.

Finis wrote:Excellent! And congratulations on making enough money on this too. You got it all right. From the way the characters and items move, arrangement on the screen, timing, colors ... it all looks pro. And done when you're half asleep!

Your work is inspirational to those hoping or dreaming of doing CG as a job. (I miss Prodigy. He did architectural renders for freelance work.)

I'm still curious about why the paperwork/bureaucracy was needed. Since that is a big factor you need methods to deal with it. Think of several strategies you can use to deal with that on future jobs. Avoid jobs that encounter troublesome govt./regulation/bureaucracy.

Thanks Finis. That means a lot to me.

I hope you get some work in CG also! Prodigy has gotten more into web-applications and other apps at the moment, a lot less architectural things - from what I know. Also, he as a family! I didn't know that. Every now and then I see what's he's up to on Facebook.

So.. thanks everyone, I think you all liked it, from reading another thread - it seems to be have been labeled pro! *chuckles to himself*

It wasn't too hard, I guess I'll upload the scene and maybe.. try get more into video tutorials. I still haven't found a good screen capture system I like that records very well..

I hope to do more motion graphics in TS, or learn another software that does it well, like Blender or Softimage (ICE and some of the motion graphics tools are amazing in that one).

Who knows! Maybe I'll develop TS for motion graphics. Heh.

Now.... the paper work was due to the payment, being large - I'd have to pay taxes. So I needed to be registered to local social security and a pension system. All of which I wasn't - cause I prefer to live here as a foreigner.. but to my dismay they couldn't pay me like that, and needed local documentation - of which I didn't have at the time. So now I'm registered as an independant entity, pension, social security and as an independent entity. The beauty of living in another country - being registered to it.

Weird being legal.

Decided to share the scenes with you, so you can take a look at the Fcurves I used to animate it, the basic rigs, the images, and the way I used trueSpace for 2D motiongraphics! Alot of the text is frozen already, but they were made in the software. The scenes are heavy cause I used my Ultrashader (for no reason)... realized it logs up heavy. I tried to keep all graphics at 1024x1024 to facilitate the graphics card and UV process. I realized some of the larger graphics may have been better at 2048.

The key light has a copy with no shadow, as a fill light. It's at quite a high setting now, due to.... being rendered off... so.. yeah, enjoy it. They are a mess, made with little time.. but hopefully it makes sense.

I got constant (ambient at 100%) going on, and a half constant (50% ambient, 50% diffuse) to get a semi constant color with shadows catching abilities.. just a little trick I did..

The benefits of doing motion graphics in 3D (minus the animated vectors) is 3D motion of your graphics and/or the ability to have dynamic lighting in your scene.

ITS - GESTION - final
Download Scene File

ITS - BSC - final
Download Scene File

Enjoy.