First post of 2012

I made some pretty good progress on Axis Mundi today. A little animation, a little filming, and a little compositing. I realize that this is a pretty tame start of the month (even though the month is pretty much halfway over already), but as always, I'd like to remember that a productive streak could be just around the corner.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Productive Procrastination

So I just finished some really productive procrastination. When I was going to be working on a paper, I worked on the walk-cycle and got it to a presentable-enough-to-film-it level. And now I can work on my animations more this week, unless a boatload of unexpected stuff happens, because I just finished the paper! But I think I'm going to go to sleep now.

3/4 of the way there

So today I managed to get the Mesh, and all 64 bones (that's right, I said 64) of the Armature to import correctly into RCT3. But there is a catch. The importer will only accept the armature if I delete all of the vertex groups that correspond to all of my tedious weight painting. So, the model imports, but it is not properly deformed even though the armature is imported with it. The suspicions that I had a few posts ago have now been pretty much completely confirmed; it's the vertex groups. Now I just need to figure out what the heck is wrong with them.

Importing problems

Ok, here's the deal. Two days ago, I went over the model that I have been weight painting and found a handful of mistakes and little things that I fixed. That was good. The day after that, I continued doing the same thing, as well as doing a little animation to test out the model in RCT3. That went well, too. The problem came, of course, when I tried to import the model into RCT3. It gave me the same ping that it gave the higher poly mesh. So to make sure that size wasn't the issue, I took a different model that imports successfully, subdivided the mesh a few times, and then imported that. This .modxml file was 12 MB in size, and it imported successfully. The model that won't import successfully is 5 MB. Clearly, size is not the issue here.

Now, at first this kind of made me regret going back to the lower poly mesh, since it wasn't the complexity that was the problem. However, it was so incredibly frustrating to weight paint the hi-res version that I think it is worth going back to the low-res version just to make the weight painting easier.

Back to our timeline: Yesterday all I did was try and figure out what the importer doesn't like about the model. The only thing I concluded was that since it can't be the size, it must have something to do with the vertex groups/weight painting. However, the Warrior of Light model uses vertex groups to define weights for the various vertices, just like this model. And there are no problems with it. I figure I just have to keep looking and I will find some strange thing that I did that causes the error. That's the nice thing about Blender. It's always something you've done. It may be frustrating, but you can always correct it. However, what's really frustrating is when a program malfunctions, and you have done nothing wrong. Then it's almost impossible to get it working right.

I'm looking at you CryEngine 2.

Sniff

Hrmm... Well, I have been critical of CD5's movies in the past, but not because I thought his work was bad! It was because I thought his work was awesome already, but felt it could be even better. Anyway, this was what happened when I tried to comment on the teaser for Greenhouse: Retaliation:

I understand the feeling of wanting to block out negative noise. A while ago I joined the Blender Artists forums, and posted some stuff from Radical Racer's Run. For reasons I cannot understand (perhaps because I mentioned my model was based off of an old computer game?), the first reply was "So what you are saying is that you didn't make anything?"

I was incensed! So I decided to quit Blender Artists immediately, never to return. I just don't need that skeptical of a community. I understand if CD5 feels the same about me, but I still look forward to seeing his machinima!

Greenhouse: Retaliate

So yesterday CD5, a proliferant RCT3 Machinima creator, announced his newest project! It's a sequel to a machinima he released in 2009 called "Greenhouse." The sequel's name is "Greenhouse: Retaliate." Here's the thread about it on LGMC:

http://gulk.bplaced.net/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=676&start=0

I am very excited about this as CD5 always makes great RCT3 films. Greenhouse was one of his best so hopefully the sequel will be even more amazing! This also energizes me to get working harder on The Battle for Axis Mundi. Knowing that others are creating RCT3 movies too makes me want to work more on my film and make it the best that I possibly can!

Here's to RCT3 film making!

Tongue Twister Tues.... Aw crap, it's Wendsday

I didn't get to do that shot yesterday. So that's what I did today. I did the shot that I said I'd have done by yesterday, today.

Try saying that 5 times fast, haha.

That's pretty much it... I can't give many details about the shot, except that it was pretty short, and required impeccable synchronization between Animated CSOs, and the fireworks mixmaster. We're talking an acceptable margin of error of 1 frame. And I got it in 2 tries. BOO. YA.

Post 2 of March Madness, COMPLETED!

March Madness

Well, it's that time of year again, whether I am prepared for it or not. That's right! It's time for....... MARCH MADNESS!!!! It's time for me to make a crazy amount of posts in one month! I have a feeling that I will break last year's record, considering how I am starting at the very beginning of the month this time. It may very well also help me make faster than normal progress on Axis Mundi, since I am having to post so much! I know it has made a difference today, because I got back to work today because it was the beginning of March Madness!

So, about said progress; as of the writing of this post I have finished one new (animated) shot today. I will probably get another one done tonight, though. Also, the last time I gave a length of time for the film was a while ago, so here's a new one: 4 minutes and 16 seconds.

That's about 36 seconds of new footage from when I made this post, which was the last shot that I did before I stopped filming to do Research and Development on the Animated CSO aspect of the production. So you could say that I have done 36 seconds since January 15th, which is pretty much when I was able to start animating.

Small Progress

I've been making small progress on The Battle for Axis Mundi over the past few days. It's really only a couple seconds in the edited film. I only did one shot today.... but it did take 12 tries to get the timing right. And of course I had to make the animation and particle effects to film in the first place. I guess that one shot per day is starting to be a typical workday for this film.

Excited

Today I got to polish off those 200 frames of animation I was talking about, and I imported them into RCT3 and filmed them. And.... oh man this film is gonna be awesome. I can't help but be excited at this point in the production. I guess that it's normal to be excited when everything is starting to come together.

The future is now

I feel really accomplished today. Why? Because I fixed all of the problems with my imported animations. The Warrior of Light is now 100% ready to kick Evil's butt. He is fully modeled, textured, and rigged, and, as of today, totally bug free. He looks EXACTLY like the peep I chose to play the Warrior of Light. I don't know if I have ever accomplished a goal this perfectly. It works exactly like I imagined. Speculation is now reality. What used to be the distant future is now the very real present.

Back in March of last year, I wrote an post that I entitled "The Future of RCT3 Machinima." By far, it has been my most viewed blog post over the last year (Good suggestion CzWorld!). In it, I talked a lot about Animated CSOs. Basically, I considered them to be the "final frontier" of RCT3 Machinima. At the time, though, I wasn't sure if it was possible to implement animations like I dreamed of doing. Today, I have confirmed that it is indeed..... very possible. The outer limit of what I thought might be possible, is now possible. It's the best case scenario.

Sometime this year, all of this ranting about how awesome animated CSOs are will come to fruition, and I'll release The Battle for Axis Mundi. In the best case scenario the film will be released this summer. Wait, I already said this was the best case scenario, didn't I? Well then, in the best case scenario of the best case scenario.

Back to work

So, since my Christmas vacation is coming to an end, it's time to start working on Axis Mundi again. What I am working on right now is adjusting the brightness of my WOL textures. They look great when I render them in Blender (see here and here) but they are too dark when they are rendered in RCT3 (sorry, no screenshots of that). I am also having a little trouble with my custom animations. Currently, whenever I import something animated, it's size changes to about 3 times what it should be. However, if the model is not animated, then it is the correct size. I have a theory about how to fix this that I will be attempting later today.

In Christmas present news, I got a pair of noise cancelling headphones, and a Blu-ray/DVD of Inception (great film!). I gotta say that I can't actually notice the noise cancelling in my noise cancelling headphones when it is turned on. What I DO notice when I turn it in, is an AWESOME bass boost, and a large over-all increase in the quality of the sound. This is some of the best sound I've ever heard, even outside of headphones. I used them to mull over a rough cut of The Battle for Axis Mundi, and they helped me catch mistakes in the audio that I missed on my computer speakers.

More Blender stuff

I've been working in blender some more, creating assets that I'll use in The Battle for Axis Mundi. I don't feel like giving away everything as I make it, so I'm not going to post pictures of any of these models. Just thought I'd let you know that I was making something. As far as the Warrior of Light goes, I'll work on him some more when these new models start to become boring to work on. But for now, since I've got something new to work on, the newer models are more exciting.

Texturing

I've started to texture the model. It's definitely a learning experience for me, because I really haven't done texturing as serious as this before. Not that this is anything close to professional. It's just more complex than what I've done previously.

Here's a screenshot from blender:

There are still a few kinks to work out with the bit that you see here. This process is going to involve a lot of tweaking.

Oh, and yesterday when I said that it was the last day that they were accepting entries for the SCAD contest, I meant today.

Another update bites the dust.

RCT3 Animation Demonstration

As I said in my last blog post, I have managed to import Animated CSOs into RCT3. And while it is great to see even just a simple little thing like the green ball swinging back and forth, I want to emphasize how useful Animated CSOs can be for much more complicated animations and models. That's why I made this video yesterday. It shows how you can create your own character designs, and fully animate them. I am proud to say that this video only took me a few hours to make, from initial idea, to uploading to YouTube.

The Future of RCT3 Machinima

I hope that you have all enjoyed March Madness! Sorry if it didn't seem "Mad" enough, but at least I have set a record for the most posts in one month on my blog! I haven't gotten to work any more on The Battle for Axis Mundi since my last post, so no new info on that, but I think I will take some time and talk about the future of RCT3 Machinima, as aptly requested by CZsWorld.

Currently, what I am striving to achieve is what I believe the future of RCT3 Machinima to be. Namely, I want to utilize custom scenery, custom fireworks, and green screening, to the point where RCT3 is mostly just a rendering engine for various particle simulations and 3D animations. Once we get to this point, the only thing separating RCT3 Machinima from true Hollywood films will be rendering capabilities, quality music, quality actors, etc. But basically, it might be possible to get any shot you could possibly dream of-rendered in RCT3.

That's a pretty good summary of what I believe might be possible. Now let me break it down into why I think these things.

1) The only limitations to RCT3's FCR Editor is that it cannot tilt or zoom. Shaky-cam shots are possible through manipulation of the coaster-cam, so that almost covers every camera move imaginable. A lot of the time, I'll be watching a Pixar film, and the camera movement feels jut like it would if the shot had been produced with the FCR Editor.

2) Since RCT3 is designed to let you do most kinds of terra-forming, you can create whatever landscape you need. Granted, there might not be as much detail as might be desirable, (pebbles, grass, and other small objects come to mind) but it basically gets the job done.

3) Particle effects can be used to create many special effects, and can also be used to add atmosphere to sets. Fog, smoke, waterfalls, starscapes, even (theoretically) snow can be created with the Advanced Fireworks Editor.

4) Green screening can be very effective and useful in RCT3, and is yet another tool that can help to create spectacular sets and effects. However, the usefulness of green screen for special effects and moving otherwise static objects may be made obsolete if you consider the possibilities of the next section. For this reason, I think it is more appropriate to use green screens for set backdrops.

5) Since it is possible to import custom made 3D models into RCT3 (custom scenery), you can create whatever set pieces you need for your film. There is also animated custom scenery, which has the most potential, and is also what I am most speculative about. In theory, animated custom scenery would enable you to bring any character that you can create in a 3D program into RCT3, and have it do whatever actions you wanted. This would open up a whole slew of possibilities. The problem is that I have yet to import my first animated CSO into RCT3, and I also have no idea if RCT3 would be able to handle complex animations, which would be necessary in order to make really good films.

Those are the techniques that I feel compose the core foundation for the "future" of RCT3 Machinima. I'll list them again, just to be painfully clear:

Camera movement

Terraforming

Particle effects

Green screen

Custom Scenery & Animation

I underlined animation because it has the most potential. To help you understand what I hope to achieve with animated CSOs, take a look at this film made with World of Warcraft. The film is composed of custom animations by the filmmaker, and it really speaks to the power of importing animations instead of relying on what the game provides. I am not sure if this level of animation can be imported into RCT3, but it would be a shame not try.

Now to tie in all of this speculation with the reality of today. I consider The Battle for Axis Mundi to be the cutting edge in terms of green screening and particle effects. Technically I used a green screen in Mechanics Vs. Aliens episode 5, but the level at which I did so is far less impressive than what is in Axis Mundi. Same thing goes for custom particle effects. I used them briefly in MVA ep. 5, but they are basically the backbone of the action in The Battle for Axis Mundi.

There you have it. That's how I see the future of RCT3 Machinima.