LOR LAB MOVIES -- Quick little tests and experiments
February 21 2005
Facial
Animation test...
This model has been sitting around for four years, maybe five years.
I felt like I needed to do another facial animation test. This is all
done with morph targets, no facial bones. I think I'm done with making
facial bone systems... too much work. Making morph targets is fun too.
I'm still going to work on this when time permits, I'd like to tighten
the sculpts on the some of the "Yous" and "Ohs"
and the forehead needs more muscle definition and not so much on the
wrinkle creases.
Guess what movie I took the sound from. Not that hard to guess.
February 16 2005
Holly and I have a new video camera. A Sony HDR-FX1 HDV. Very nice!!!
I'm doing a lot of experiments to figure out how we are going to make
our next video project in both HD and DV rez. Here are some experiments.
The footage of my fathers grapevines are recorded and captured in 1080i.
The task was to find an output pipeline from HD to DV. The goal is to
record and edit a project in HD in anticipation of next years HD DVD
players and still have a great looking DV version for today's DVD players.
raw HDV capture still HDV
Still with effects
Movie 640*368 14megs
This movie was run through After Effects because of it's most excellent
pixel scaling, and straight forward output methods.
February 6 2005
I have been doing some experiments using a program called Max/MSP by Cycling 74. This is a midi/audio visual programming tool that lets you build midi/audio devices using patch boxes and other tools.
This experiment was all about getting midi information from a sequence into 3dsMax to drive animation.
First, I play a midi sequence from my sequencer into Max/MSP and capture the notes along with velocity, channel number, and time placement into a text file. So we end up with a text file that is a collection of number arrays such as
61 30 2 47
61 0 2 58
64 30 2 58
64 0 2 70
56 30 2 70
--(note,velocity,channel,frame)
Then in 3dsmax, using Maxscript I read in this text file and for each line of text I do something with the values, like rotate a key from a piano into the down position at the right frame and set keyframes.
The result is just fun to look at. A virtual player piano.
Movie segments
Moonlight Sonata
Jesu, Joy Of Mans Desiring
February 3 2005
Rings, a fun visual eye treat.
LOR Volume Three production is now underway. Here is my production
diary.
January 5 2005
Quicktime 6meg
The beginnings of the first shot. These mountains are lit with a fRender
sky light. Then I bake the lighting into a lightmap texture. This makes
the rendering go much faster as well as avoiding any grainy jitter from
the skylight. There are 5 layers in this scene so far. I may still remake
the mountains in the foreground. I really like the snowy cold feel.
I want to have this panning shot feel like I'm starting way up in the
cold desolation and end up in the warm greenery. I would like to place
some clouds up and around these cold mountains, but I kind of like the
clean air as well. Not sure yet.
January 1 2005
Big Render Small
Render
I have begun to make some new landscapes for LOR V3.
This scene is using fRender for sky lighting. 3 differnent layers.
I still have a series of mountains to place in the far back.