Animation Clubs 3rd animation finished. Watch the final film now.
Hey guys,
The Animation Clubs 2nd animation Spooky Nite finished a while ago and we had great participation and made a pretty good little movie. Our first animation (The Final Gesture) was also fun to make but we are now ready to start the 3rd animation so we need your story to animate. The Animation Club for Carrara Users (ACCU) goal is to create a simple complete animation as a group while improving our skills and complexity of animations over time..
I will update this page over the course of the project so checking back to the original post is a good idea. The following is the stages of the project animation we will go through to complete this animation.
Project Stages or Milestones.
1. A story to animate - a simple story is all that is required.
2. A storyboard - This can be text only, sketches or even video if you want. This is a description of each of the shots in the animation describing how you see the shot playing out, this really helps our the animators and gives a clear idea of what shots we need to create the final animation. Here is a link to a blank storyboard created by Antara, and another storyboard optioin. for you guys to use.
3. Modeling- Once we have the story selected we can decide on what models we will need, there will be a list of models that we will need posted here.. We also do have a Animation Club Model Database were you can download models from previous animations , this should grow over time and supply us with models we can use in our animations.
Also, once you are done modeling something you can upload it to this thread, post a link to your favorite file hosting site(dropbox etc.) or you can also upload it to the ACCU's current project models folder. Just let us know when your model is done with a link where it can be downloaded, an image also doesn't hurt to show what the model looks like..
4. Scenes building- complete carrara scenes will need to be done as per the storyboard. This will involve someone putting together the models into one file to create the scenes .
5.Animating- Once the scenes are done people can choose which storyboard panels they want to animate. Members should just say which panels they want to animate and we will keep a list here.
6.Rendering - Once the scenes are animated, the carrara files can be uploaded or the rendered animation can be uploaded. Last time Dart rendered everything.
7. Compositing/sound/editing/credits. - One person will need to get there hands on the Rendered scenes and put the movie together.
8. Final animation posted for everyone to see.
Some of these Milestones will be going on at the same time and overlapping but this is a rough order of the process to create our animation.
SOoooo.... Who has a simple story that they want to see animated. Looking forward to your ideas and lets have some more fun.
Comments
This Post will containg Storyboard info.
We have the following stories to choose from.
1. Okay here is my Horse walks into a bar storyline. from Dart's idea.
2. Stezza's story "Gone To Australia"
3. Tango Alpha's "Lifeboat escape" story
4. zaz777's "I am glad cows don't fly"
We just have to decide which story to do.
Story decided "Gone to Australia". The town is set in the 70 or 80's, so older vehicles etc.
idea
scene 1
Desert Sunrise with a township in the distance
scene 2
zooming closer to the township there is a dustrail moving out of town.. tumbleweeds rolling in foreground
scene 3
moving into main street sees the exiting on masse of vehicles from the town
scene 4
pans across the main deserted street... empty buildings with doors and shutters banging in the breeze.. a newspaper floats by and a coyote is seen in the distance howling
scene 5
Pans to a deserted home.. up the footpath with strewn toys everywhere.. to the front door where a note is seen nailed to it
scene 6
zooms to the note which is wafting in the breeze to read the message .... 'Gone to Australia' .. the coyote howls again..
Modeling Info Page. We will need any model you think fits into an old desert town from the 1980's
Higher Res models
Lower res models
Scene Building Page. -
Animating page- Who is animating what storyboard panel.
A horse walks into a bar
The bartender asks: "Why such a long face?"
LOL
Hey Dart,
This may be harder than it looks . Do you want to do a bit of a storyboard of what shots you want to do with this. Doesn't have to be drawn, a text description of each shot you want would be great. I have my take on this but it would be interesting to hear yours.
I imagine a fella with a horse head on as a dare from his mates outside to go into the Horse Shoe Inn and order a drink...
LOL! No... I was only kidding!!!! :P
I thought so , but it still could work.
Yeah... we could do it... and it would be fun! But I hope that someone posts a nice story instead! ;)
I can ask my daughter if she is up to it.
She is currently taking some online courses but might be interested.
Man, that would be truly wonderful if she could! Could you ask her for us?
Here's an idea:
Scene 1.
Interior. Night. A cafeteria, but the windows are round and small. We're on a ship. Our heroes are sitting around a table, eating & drinking.
The lights flicker. Plates slide across the table & fixtures swing about. Stuff smashes to the floor as the ship sways. A klaxon sounds. Our heroes rise in alarm and rush from the room.
Scene 2.
A narrow Corridor. Pipes etc run along the ceiling. Red lights are flashing, there's chaos. Our heroes make for the bulkhead door at the far end, open it, a deluge of water rushes in.
Scene 3.
Exterior. Night. Lifeboat. Lots of sea spray, debris etc The ship is leaning perilously. Our heroes climb inside the lifeboat, release the lines and it drops to the foamy water below.
Scene 4:
Exterior. Close up on boat bobbing on calm sea. Camera pulls back to reveal empty ocean.
Scene 5.
Exterior. Day. The boat washes up on a sandy shore. Our heroes climb out. They are safe.
--
Inspired by Tintin cartoons over the years, the shipwreck scene from Life of Pi, Titanic etc. I've kept it vague so there's plenty to flesh out: who are the characters? Are they crew? passengers? prisoners even? What kind of ship? Fishing boat, tramp steamer, cargo ship, liner, warship? (Or spaceship even?)
Might be a bit long to do in one week, so easy enough to split into scenes and do them one at a time. There's also scope to insert extra cutaways - storm, bits of falling rigging etc...
Hey Tango,
Nicely explained story . It looks very technical for us to do (several people , flowing water etc.) but it would be fun to try. If we don't get a simpler story very shortly(by tonight) we can start with this story.
It is nice to keep things moving quickly so the story should be decided upon quickly.. We can have a vote maybe between the Horse Bar story and your Sea escape story.
Right. Just scene 1 seems more involved than what our other ones were! :)
Does sound fun!
It would certainly take a long time to do... but I love it!
Maybe a similar idea, but in space - so no rushing water? Escape pods instead of lifeboat, and the slight alterations required therein?
The first animation I ever did was based on a bad joke/poem a clown mimed at a rodeo I went to. I did it with paper and an 8mm movie camera.
My interpretation of it wasn't long enough for the few minutes of film, so I improvised and added some other stuff to the end. It should be much easier to do with the resources available today, .
I have no idea about any IP issues with the poem, it certainly isn't mine. I assume it was an old joke when I first heard it too many decades ago.
idea
scene 1
Desert Sunrise with a township in the distance
scene 2
zooming closer to the township there is a dustrail moving out of town.. tumbleweeds rolling in foreground
scene 3
moving into main street sees the exiting on masse of vehicles from the town
scene 4
pans across the main deserted street... empty buildings with doors and shutters banging in the breeze.. a newspaper floats by and a coyote is seen in the distance howling
scene 5
Pans to a deserted home.. up the footpath with strewn toys everywhere.. to the front door where a note is seen nailed to it
scene 6
zooms to the note which is wafting in the breeze to read the message .... 'Gone to Australia' .. the coyote howls again..
Okay here is my version of Dart's "A Horse Walks into a Bar".
1. Scene opens showing a close up of a sign that read “Jackson Junction ahead”. The camera rotates to the left showing a desert landscape with sun blazing in the sky and a small town in the distance. A cowboy on a horse enters scene from bottom left and proceeds towards the town.
2. We see a closer view of the town with a large arched gate in the foreground saying “Jackson Junction” and the horse and cowboy ride through the gate. The town is a typical cowboy western town (1800's), sheriffs office/jail , post office, church,hotel, supplies store and of course a saloon. A few horses can be seen at a watering trough, old people on rocking chairs and a few tumbleweeds set the scene.
3. We see the Saloon and its front swinging doors , the camera zooms in towards the doorway of the Saloon. When we get fairly close we see just the feet of the cowboy hit the ground as he gets off the horse . He proceeds towards the doorway and the scene ends before he gets to close to the entrance
4. Scene opens with a close up on the swinging doors as they swing open. A patron on the left side is startled and looks at the camera with a shocked look on his face. The camera then focuses on the bartender behind the bar who is trying to fix his spectacles. When the camera gets very close to the bar the bartender looks up (not wearing his glasses) and says “What can I get you and why such a long face” to the camera.
5. The camera then switches quickly to the bartenders viewpoint and we see a close up of the horse at the bar with confused patrons behind him.
The End
Guys it is great we have serveral stories to choose from, we just have to decide which story to do. The choices are:
-Gone to Australia by Stezza
- Lifeboat Escape by TangoAlpha
- I am glad cows dont fly by zaz777
- Darts, A horse walks into a bar or my story above.
Let's hear which one you want to do... I am leaning towards Gone to Australia myself.
My daughter indicated she could do up the storyboards if you are interested.
That one sounds good to me to.
But say, TangoAlpha, if we don't do yours as a club project, would you mind if I did it on my own?
Hey Stezza, What time or era are you thinking of here?. 1890's or 1970's . Would there be cars or conestoga wagons leaving town?
I was only thinking that because I could simply use store-bought content, making it easier to do.
Hey crew, what would you all think about doing this one (TangoAlpha's story) as more of an ongoing, longer timeline project? Certainly wouldn't have to use purchased content... I have some ideas for doing the rushing water scenes as well as ocean spray and such... as well, I think it might even work well being converted to Sci-Fi - in space sort of thing... just thinking aloud again ;)
...or am I just muddying the waters at this point?
Another idea is that, perhaps we could save the story for use in a future project. I really like it. And if so, I could even start working on some of the elements in my spare time (like that really exists)
Or perhaps even SteamPunk?
Speaking of which, I'm being a bit tied up lately, but I'm 100% on board with this. If I'm needed for an answer or whatever, give me a nudge in my PM, which (usually) sends me an alert e-mail ;)
Also, I have some great desert wind dust techniques using volumetric clouds ;) I'll try and pop some stuff like that into our assets for download
Doing some really fun stuff right now for my own production right now - utilizing my Carrara beast PC. I was thinking earlier that doing that might get in the way of being part of this - but I think they might just work together quite well.
I can certainly see how using purchased content in club-related activities can become cumbersome - not being able to include any of it in shared files.
But if I'm going to be the render guy again, and one of the scene-builders has them too, we could use the Sheriffs Office, Mercantile, and Undertakers buildings I just got in the free PC+ bundle this year. (?)
Again... thinking aloud.
But if we'd prefer building the stuff ourselves, I'd also love to help build some buildings. In fact... I like that idea better already ;)
Even if we do use content buildings, we can all build some (those who want to) to increase the size of the city for the approach, right?
Hey anyone and everyone... are you going to join in on this one?
There's lots of fun stuff to chose from doing! And it's really fun, I think!
As a member of such a team, each individual may utilize their own strengths and tastes to add to the benefit of the group, which may come in many different forms. Just as a small example, an individual could help in one or more of the following, but help could come in many other ways as well:
But like I said, your help could come in many other forms - for example, one could simply provide opinions or advice on certain topics involved in the making of any of the specific projects being worked on, providing ideas, large or small towards developing a story*, providing honest constructive criticism, posting links to ideas, etc.,
Also, following the actions of the club or, better yet - becoming involved - is a great way to learn new aspects of Carrara that we might feel interest in.
No Experience? That's Great!!! That's what this is for - we all learn together! We have some very experienced users in this part of the forum - many of whom are very eager to help teach others various techniques on many aspects of this whole subject - from modeling to UV Mapping to applying materials to rigging to animation, lighting and rendering, etc.,
A great way to learn is to dig in and gather experience!
Do you have experience in any of the activities listed above? Did I miss an important aspect? Do you have questions about any of this? That's what this thread is for!
Come on in, make yourselves comfortable, and spill your thoughts or questions!
Dart, I will be glad to contribute any model I'm capable of creating.
...and you're quite capable!!! You prove it time and time again!
Modeling Objects in Carrara - Q&A - Come One and All
You'll see. One day I'm going to get you to animate something! ;)
Oh... and don't you do custom fonts and stuff too?
Can you make stuff that looks like the letters are made out of wooden planks? I don't know anything about font creation, so forgive me if that's a really nutzoid question! LOL
I'll have to give the wooden planks idea a try... never thought of that one. I can create a few font characters fairly quick... I'm very slow at creating fonts which contain the full character set with kerning pairs. Kerning pairs takes a while to adjust how one char is spaced +- to another.
Oops... thanks for the compliment on my modeling. I am getting better but often seem to end up with something I don't want.
Since week 2 I've been watching videos on animating and hope to be able to help in that area... no idea of how soon though.
Yeah, Yikes!
Nah, just what we'd need for the title, I'd imagine. Something that goes along with whatever genre/era is decided upon ;)
So should we start trying our hands (Mice, actually) at making some distant, low-poly buildings?
Maybe a tumble weed or three?
Oh... Cactus! We need Cactus!
Oh poop. Getting ahead of ourselves. We still need to figure out exactly what we're doing, eh?
Time for this one to hit the hay anyway.
30 frames left... can't actually crash until I see the results! Dart's screeming in to the rescue in his Bug (by DZFire)! Thing's got working independent suspension! I love this thing! I have a few of his vehicles (CR2 - I'm still too scared to get a DUF-Only one) and want to collect the rest of them - again... only if they have a CR2 version - or Carrara gets a new DUF update... either or ;)
He's (DZFire) got the headlights on this thing modeled to spec, I think. The reflectors are perfect, so I made them reflective and lit 'em up (night scene) and they look freaking REAL!!!