This is another excellent tutorial from Small W Studio with a Halloween slant, because the topic this time is Film Noir. He covers a number of different aspects of the CGI 3D animation process, but the two I got the most out of were resources and techniques for building the set, and using lighting to set the mood. The later is particularly important for Noir, since it is all black and white, and what is in the spotlight or in the shadows helps advance the story, not just create the atmosphere. This particular tutorial was created for the Reallusion iClone software suite, but the principles and most of the resources will work with any 3D modelling and animation package you have. That includes free projects like Blender and DAZ, so don’t think you have to pay an arm and a leg to get creative and make your movie.
I wish I had permission to post the winner’s images here, because they created some amazing places. You will have to visit E-On Stoftware’s 3D Environment Competition Winners 2014 to see them, but they are worth your time to check out. They were all created using VUE Infinite, the professional environment creation software suite from E-On. When I say professional, I am not kidding; check out their 2013 customer showcase video below to see just how many times you watched their product in a movie that year. But while their top of the line software is a bit pricy they have a full range of VUE 3D creation products including versions that range from VUE Pioneer priced at FREE up to versions priced to $500 for those of us not trying to create a feature film. And even the free version comes with full support including an active community, also priced at free.
The AnimeUSA con this past weekend was a lot of fun, even though the folks organizing it waited until the week before to announce the full schedule. They also abandoned the Guidebook app in favor of something I could not get to work on my iPad or iPod Touch, any of my Android tablets including my Nook (which will actually run the 3D graphical app for Second Life), or any of my computers. Because of some strange formatting that apparently required software to display it properly that I didn’t have, the PDF version of the schedule only allowed you to see what was scheduled on Thursday. I ended up having to track down the printer-friendly version of the schedule on their web site, print it out, and mark the things I wanted to attend with a Sharpie; how 20th century! It didn’t really matter, since the people who were doing all the different parts of the program worked their butts off to make sure their portion was done properly. Bottom line, a good time was had by all, thanks to the individual contributors and the wonderful attitude all the attendees carried with them everywhere they went. This matches the original concept for the event; BY Otaku, FOR Otaku. Most of the professional level guests were from Japan or the Left Coast companies who bring their Anime/Manga products our way. I loved the panels the Voice Actors put on, with the Inside The Voice Actors Studio segment perhaps being my favorite. The Cosplayers were fully represented and owned the hallways, and the panels I managed to attend were excellent, both Fan and Pro run.
I tried to take notes at the various panels, but was usually too busy enjoying them to remember to do so. Perhaps I can remember enough about some of them to post a few notes here. There was so much going on that most hours I had to pick between 3 to 6 things I wanted to attend that were scheduled at the same time. For those wondering, that is me in the picture taken at the con, holding up the sign for next year’s event, and wearing my Planet Tokyo shirt. Note that the shirt does not refer to the Puffy AmiYumi song, but to the radio show by Willow Leafstorm on Krypton Radio, Sci-Fi for your Wi-Fi.
3D printing is some amazing technology, usually done using some pre-processed plastic as your source material, but it doesn’t have to only use that media. Here is what one guy created using the basic principles but a different set of tools and sand as his source material. What source material would you select, and what would you create out of it?
Low-fi Sci-fi lives, as this wonderful little clip from China makes abundantly clear. Ai Wei Wei, the iconic Chinese dissident, becomes a mysterious figure in this short film from Jason Wishnow set in a dystopian Chinese city of the near future. THE SAND STORM (沙尘暴) should at least teach a bit about water conservation in a Mad Maxian kind of world. This was a kickstarter project meant (as near as I can tell) to be a test platform for a feature length film, but it didn’t pull in the support it was hoping for once the original backers saw the end result. I am of two minds about this, since I thought the production quality was excellent, but I have also seen all the Mad Max Wannabies I will ever require in my life. So I will withhold judgement for now, and keep my eyes open for the next Ai Wei Wei story, and hope for something a bit more robust in the next iteration.
THE SAND STORM (沙尘暴) from jason wishnow on Vimeo.
Wonder what the technology you are going to be able to buy and use 3 to 5 years from now might look like? Visiting the SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies exhibit each year should give you a pretty good idea, and this year there are a few particularly interesting ones collected on this video out of the 26 on the floor. The annual event ends today, and I wish I could have been there; perhaps next year. The other SIGGRAPH paths I enjoy are the Art Gallery and the Studio, so I am also including their trailers for this year.