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3D Modeling Adventures

February 25th, 2008

Exterior.jpgModeled by Jill M, Tony B and Tyee

Producer Confession

I wanted to lay out a confession that I have fallen grossly behind in most the administrative aspects of the film since the beginning of the new year.  The public website as well as the Story Reel Development site are in need of update and many of our members are still waiting for a copy of the Story Reel Version 0.2 draft on DVD.  My excuse is two fold.  First I’m in my busy season at the day job.  Second, we are making good progress on the next version of the Story Reel, but I have been putting time into that at the expense of routine business. 

3D Modeling Adventures

Five of us are meeting once a week to collaborate on 3D modeling and animation being used for the next version of the animatics.  The usual suspects, Wally, Jill, Jason, Tony and myself.  We are takling the 3D animatic process one scene at a time and have chosen Scene 2A to start with.  The scene is a flashback to Dominic shaking down Brothus in his nightclub.  The storyboards depicting the action were done by a talented artist, Dave J, over a year ago.  The production design for the sets were developed by Jill M, Christy S. and myself.  Concepts for the warddrobe were developed by Jill and the color scheme came from Tony B. 

The storyboards as they are block out some key concept frames but the detail blocking and camera angles for all the shots in the scene are missing and will need to be re-worked.  I’m contemplating trying this on the fly once we have the 3D assets complete rather then going back and sketching in more 2D boards, but we will see how it goes.  Armed with the other assets, production designs, wardrobe concepts and color schemes we have been modeling the set, set dressing and related props.

We are near completion with having basic low polygon models for the set pieces and will next focus on getting 3D puppets with wardrobe that is a likeness or has the look of our official wardrobe designs.  We aren’t going to spend time on making our puppets look exactly like we expect in the final film, because they will be replaced with live action actors anyway.

After that we will apply basic, fast rendering materials/textures to the models that utilize the color scheme for the scene.  Then we will Layout all the models and block the shots.  Each shot will be animated seperately.  Each shot will also be seperately lit, the camera angles set and then rendered.  Finally the shots are edited together to create the scene.

Two thousand eight… should be really great.

February 15th, 2008

FleeingPlutonians.jpgPlutonians Fleeing Averon Prime

 Too Far Gone_New.mp3 Music and Lyrics by Christine Long.  Arrangement by John Centrone.

Well, we actually got a draft of the Story Reel completed and distributed internally to our cast and crew.  We are working on producing shorts from the Story Reel that can be shown on this website and YouTube publicly.

An update is way overdue. Although I’ve been busy with the day job, and handling a move to a new house, our team has continued progress on the Story Reel.  I will get back into the habit of posting here.  We appreciate those who have stayed in touch in spite of the dry spell.
  
Here is what has been going on.
Story Reel Version 0.2 was shown and handed out at our January 5th annual meeting. 
Our primary goal for the next five to six months is the development of a 3D animatic version of the Story Reel to replace the current 2D version made up of storyboard panels.
We have switched from holding weekly editing meetings to doing weekly collaborative 3D sessions.  A small animation studio has been put together in my new house with five computers for our team to work on building the 3D elements for the next version of the Story Reel… and we have a full house every week. 
We also continue working remotely with artists on unfinished wardrobe designs and Story Reel color schemes.  There is an on going need for production design illustrators and story artists as concepts get changed or developed further.
The Story Reel has served its purpose in proving out the execution of the script and its now time for another script revision based on what met my vision for the film and what fell short of working out.  A revised script has been drafted and will be used for the next draft of the Story Reel.