Rain Problems

Here is a combination of two seperate shots I have produced recently. I thought they may flow better when together, otherwise there is no indication of where the camera is in relation to the scene.

Or rather, this is where I would post the video, but it isn't working for some reason.

I haven't done much though. My week has been preoccupied with sorting out problems related to this rain malarky. I hate it. It's causing so many problems but is unfortunately really necessary. Oh well. To work I go!

It's raining, it's pouring...

Trying to get my head around making rain. It is taking up sooo much of my time that it isn't even funny anymore! Seriously, there are so many issues involved here, and this is just for one shot. I need to copy and paste this for the next ten scenes!

Sigh.

Orb

Remember the old version of my orb at the centre of the dome? It's meant to look all technical and complicated. For a while I was thinking of adding a texture to make it look like it has lots of wires.

Now I think its just easier to make the wires:

Tadaaaa!

I think it looks better. And I added the middle bit myself on a whim.

Still Working

Still working away on scenes. Getting renders done as I sleep, but they are exported as tga files so its hard to see how they look.

That is all.

Chase scene sooon...

Started animating the jump and fall, but I do not like the timing. It needs to be spaced out more...

A bit like this. Plus I want him to get up and run too, so here he is!

Catch The Bomb and Miss

Ok so this is a slight edit on the timing....

And it leads into this:

The bomb lands on the floor and has grown wheels. One of the edits on the first video, besides the slower speed, is the addition of the wooden plank appear already. I need to add Happyman falling to the floor now.

CATCH THE BOMB!!

Uhoh a bomb!!

Catch it catch it catch it!!

This is the real time version, but I want to slow it down as a slow motion jump.

Like this:

Rendering

No movie clips to upload today, for the past week or so I have been trying to get my first two scenes complete in time for rendering, which I want to begin as soon as possible. I am finally ready to render now, my first scene that I have posted here in the past finally has a textured background (which took ages to load into every scene as I also had to replace the characters with their smaller file size counterparts that are already being used in scene 3) and I have also created an intro scene, which consists of exterior shots of the dome with people seen walking towards it. obviously I don't have the crowd of people I once wanted, but what I have will do considering the small amount of time I have left.

Having issues with the rendering though. Even though I am ready, the university computers are not. They are having network issues and 3DS Max shuts down whenever I load up a scene.

So it may be a while before I am up and ready to go.

What on Earth? Part 2

ooooo...kay!

So, I've been returning to scene 1, adding the new background and replacing the characters with smaller file versions and loading the presaved biped movements onto them. It's been going fine so far, even with random lighting problems.

But what is going on here???

They're meant to be facing each other. And their teeth are meant to be INSIDE their mouths.

Entry Allowed

Ok, so I can begin putting lights on these scenes now.

This is the card scanning scene again.

But it's way too bright!! What's going on?

Turns out, because I imported the barrier into this scene fully textured, I need to re-exclude it from my massive lights which are only meant to light up the sky and the do

me. Ok, no problem...

Better...

But the timing needs altering...

And here is my playing with the initial lighting to get the strength of the light right. I wanted it bright, but not too bright.

Experimenting

Some things I am playing with for overall improvements. Look, a sky! and also a skyline. Either black or faded, I think I'm gonna go for black.

Also added some texture to the barriers, cos they were looking quite dull.

Finally, playing with that lighting, because it was far too dark in that scene I showed before. How much lighting though? Too much and I get massive unwanted shadows. Not enough and you can't see what is happening. So, it's a balance thin...

What????

Too bloody light now!!!

Something is going wrong here.

Need to look into it before I can continue...

So I rendered out a scene to see what it looks like with textured background and textured suitcase.

2 hours of rendering whilst I was at work. Result?

Too dark.

Sigh.

That's okay, I'm adding an extra light as we speak!

Bomb and Suitcase

Okay, so here is the proper bomb scene now, as you can see I have included the reaction of Happyman, as next he jumps t the rescue, to touch the bomb and turn it into something safe.

I'm taking a brea

k for the moment, gonna go back and sort scene 01 and 02 out properly, so I can get that rendered as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it turns out that the untextured suitcase in all my scenes can't just be textured with a click of a button. I have to go through all 46 shots I have made so far and add a UVW Unwrap map to every suitcase. Sigh. Fine. I'll do it.

But on the plus side, look! Textured suitcase. Doesn't it look better?

And...

Umm.... Well it kinda looked like a dinsoaur...

And so the many cylinders turn into a bomb. Oh no! SO here are two renders of the bomb I made to see how it was looking. And here is the more final version, except that I am making a few changes to it AS I SPEAK

Making Lots of Cylinders

Making lots of cylinders. Rendered this out to look at the speed, and it's a little fast. Lets see what its like slower...

Much better, but the arm should move more when he points. Gonna change that and get to work on animated the rest of the boy

Still playing. I'm worried I may have to change the pose...

Yatta!!

He makes a cylinder! Hoorah!

This gave me many troubles too, although I like the knuckle clicking, I was unsure how to get there from being hit in the head. I think this will work, I'll know more when it is all together.

Another slight change, more rotations on the cylinder and slight alterations on the hands.

How to Imagine A Cylinder 3

Here are the changes I said I'd make.

How to Imagine A Cylinder 2

Making a Cylinder, slight changes now.

Hope its a bit better.

Although I don't like the wagging, I may get rid of this.

How to Imagine A Cylinder 1

This scene is taking me far too long! So many problems.

Right, I want to change how he pulls the slides down. Its the same way he always has before, but he is more desperate now, so perhaps if he grips it tight with his fist as he pulls it down. Also, his body moves up and down too much, so I need to change that too. His hand is supposed to be holding his face kinda thing, but moves away last second so that needs changing. And I'm not even that sure I like the whole sliding hand thing. I don't know, I'll come back to that if I have time. What else? Finish the pose for making the cylinder, and move on FAST! It's March, so I'm running out of time! Come ON!

Buzzsaw Finished

Final Buzzsaw version. Done.

Buzzsaw Two - Timing

Playing with timing some more. More of a delay.

And even more of a delay. I think I like this the most. I may delay it more and add a reaction. Looking at it now I'm thinking it needs correcting. If the top falls off in a delayed way, then it will fall differently.

That's better.

Buzzsaw One

Ok, so here is the buzzsaw finally. He makes it, it cuts the chair up. Don't like it, gonna play around with the timing...

Slight change. The chair had its visibility keys in the wrong place, hence why the chair flashed. Also, I delayed the chair falling apart just a little bit.

Reflections

Hey look, I've made the bowling ball all shiny and reflective. It makes it a tad more realistic, thank you Mario for showing me how.

How to Imagine A Cylinder

Okay, I'm getting to the point where Unluckyman makes the bomb. Happyman is meant to be panicking by this point, but I just can't get the scene to look right. The jacket is all screwed up, and I don't know what to do with that hand. What can I do with it??