Like an electric eel

So... I guess we saw how it went over the past few weeks. Not very many posts, I have to admit. That does not mean I have not been working at all, however. I have animated 94 frames of both characters in The Battle for Axis Mundi since my last post on the 11th. Slow progress, unfortunately. I don't have much homework this weekend, though, so I'm hoping to use it for Axis Mundi. I was able to work on it today, so the weekend is off to a good start.

Oh, and sorry if the title shocked you....

Like an electric eel.

March Madness 2012

It's March again. I think this has been one of the fastest years in living memory. Of course, my memory of past years becomes more and more vague all the time, so I probably said the exact same thing last year. But anyways, since it is March again, it's time to make a bunch of posts and a bunch of progress. Today I am doing just that! I'm glad to say that I was able to work on animating The Battle for Axis Mundi today, and I got 77 frames of animation done, for one character. Still have to animate the other character during those 77 frames.

Also today I remembered how many hoops I have had to jump through to finagle this workflow to the point where it is possible. By that I mean that there are a lot of extra steps to go through in order to animate characters and render them in RCT3. It's making me look forward to being able to do a project where I use tools that were designed to do what I will use them do. So, happy March Madness, and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!

It's goin'

When people ask me how it's going, I like to reply with: It's goin'

Just thought I'd throw that out there. When I come up with an equally witty response to the query: "What's up," then I will let you know.

In Axis Mundi news, It's time for an update on the total length. The film so far is 5 minutes and 20 seconds long. A nice update to go along with this is that every scene in that 5:20 mins has music to go along with it. Music that I actually like and I think fits it pretty well. A couple days ago I had a really nice spurt of musical inspiration, and got that done.

So like I said, the film is 5:20 right now. At this very frame, serious stuff is going down. Blows are being thrown, and blocked, and parried. Awesome stuff like that. The RCT3 engine is taking it all in it's stride. I have not had any problems with the animation functionality of the game. Since the film is building up to it's zenith, soon the final length of the will be determined. I'm going to try and make the craziest, most awesome action scene that I can, until my creative strength gives out and I have to say enough is enough. When that happens I'll wrap the film up.

Oh, and I recently showed what I have so far to another Digital Media professor here at my college. He's a pretty frank guy. I've seen him critique a lot of other people's work, and he doesn't hesitate to tell you if he doesn't like something. He was silent as he skipped through my video. (If he watches an entire 5 minute film, then it's either a huge compliment, or he's just being uncharacteristically patient) and right after it ended he said: "So, I take it you like Dragonball Z." He was right. I do like Dragonball Z. He also told me that the animation was good and smooth, which made me very happy. So yeah. Being a Digital Media student and having access to professionals who can give you critiques is amazing.

Filming by the book

Today I have been animating and filming according to my animatic. Here's me comparing my shot in RCT3 to my animatic, in order to make adjustments:

So yeah, that pretty much explains what I've been doing and will be doing until I get to the end of my animatic. Then I'll just make it up from my head as I animate and film.

In other news, I've received grades for the art and digital media assignments that I posted earlier. The art project (The December Render) got a 97.5%, and the animatic got a 113%. Although, I didn't really get credit for the extra 13%, because that's not the way that the school's grading system works. The professor just happened to have a grading scheme that can go over 100%, because extra credit is built into it. Obviously I didn't really need extra credit, though.

New for me, old for... French people?

I just found a really interesting thread. This thread has only one reply. However, this thread also has to do with my machinima tutorials. Which makes it awesome. And in French. Derp... I mean, the thread isn't french because of my tutorials. It just happens to be on a French forum and I decided to mention that last.

This thread is kind of old, but it's new to me so that's why I am posting it. Here's the thread in butchered English a la Chrome:

And here's the French version for those of you who can read it:

Oh, and here's the link: http://frct3.forumactif.com/t1029-tuto-astuces-pour-creer-un-film-avec-rct3

I love posting stuff about people talking about stuff I've made. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Alignment Issues

Over the past week I've gotten 100 frames of animation done, imported, and filmed in RCT3, and about 100 more animated only. The second 100 frames are proving difficult to import, because there are two different rigs interacting with each other. In theory, this shouldn't be a problem, because I have technically done the same thing in an older shot. When I did it before, though, there was one complex armature and one armature with only one bone. Right now I am trying to import two complex armatures. They don't want to import in the same scenery file, so I have tried separating them, but there are major alignment issues that I have yet to fix. As I write this post, I think I recall that when I animated interaction between two models before, I imported them separately as well. So I should probably focus my efforts on correcting the alignment problems, instead of trying to get both animations to import in the same scenery file.

Animation Weekend

I managed to make 240 frames of animation this weekend. Exciting times! Maybe the film will start really moving along now. And as far as the texturing goes, I am getting used to the way that it looks, and I actually think it is quite close to what I had imagined it would look like in it's final form. By the time that I finish animating this shot and film it in RCT3, I probably will not have any doubts about using it as the final texture. Sometimes I'm not sure whether it is good or bad when that happens. By "that," I mean the phenomenon where I make something, don't really like it, but I don't change it for a long time, (possibly because I can't [like this instance]) and then later on I decide to keep it that way just because I have gotten used to it. In the worse case scenario, that would be blinding myself to how cruddy a portion of work is, and in the best case, it doesn't really matter and by letting go of my perfectionism I save time. I hope this instance is the second one.

Clear to proceed

I am tentatively proceeding with the animating and filming of the rest of the scenes for The Battle for Axis Muni. The model that I was texturing is presentable, so instead of spending hours agonizing over how I can't get it's texturing to look better, I am starting to animate it. After all, I can always fix the textures later if I feel like they absolutely need to be improved.

Your News, Sir

A while ago I mentioned how a machinimator named CD5 was coming out with an awesome looking machinima called Greenhouse: Retaliate. Well, it's out now and it turned out just as awesome as it looked. Watch it here.

In Axis Mundi News, I have finished unwrapping my model onto the UV plane, and now it's time to start texturing. To help me kick-start this process, I've baked an ambient occlusion pass onto the mesh to give some parts it more depth. Hopefully I can add enough to that so that it doesn't just look like a boring typical-3d-model thing.

College

So I moved into college today. Besides that I worked a little bit on some music, because that's what I felt like doing after I got back from doing all the college things that I felt like doing. I have a little longer, so I might work some more on figuring out what is wrong with my vertex groups. We'll see how that goes. I will probably post immediately once I figure out what's wrong.

Call me Michelangelo

So I continued weight painting today. I am at the point where I realize there is no more to do technically (Every bone in the armature will deform the mesh pretty much correctly) but for some reason It doesn't feel like it should be done. I guess I will just keep posing it until I am satisfied that no more adjustments need to be made. And I probably should import it into RCT3 for goodness sakes. I keep saying I'm going to do that but for one reason or another it never happens.

Rigging

Today I got into the meat and potatoes of rigging, i.e. weight painting. It's a lot more time consuming painting this model than with the Warrior of Light, because it has so many more vertices. But I really like how it is looking so far. I can't wait to get it fully rigged and textured; I think that there's a lot of creative stuff that can be done with the animation of this model.

Mysterious Silhouette

Got to model some more today. I'm going to import what I have so far into RCT3 so that I can get a feel for what it looks like in the game engine. After I rig it, that is. I haven't textured yet; I want to make sure I like how the mesh deforms before I go to a bunch of trouble getting the UV mapping just right.

And now you get to see a small preview of this model that I have been working on for all this time:

Yeah, I know, you can hardly see anything at all, but I still don't want to give away the best parts of the film before it's done. I would suggest clicking on the image to view it in fullscreen. You should be able to make out more of the mysterious silhouette that way. Hope you like it!

One of those

You know those posts where I say a bunch of words but none of them ever tell you anything at all besides the fact that I am alive and working but who knows when the heck I'll be done? Yeah. This is one of those. Well, here it goes:

I've been working on The Battle for Axis Mundi today. Mainly modelling. Nope, sorry, not gonna give you any screenshots.

That was it. Congratulations, you may in fact be reading the most uninteresting blog in the universe.

Actually trying to make progress

Continued getting ready to proceed with filming today. I.E. getting RCT3 files onto my laptop that I need for filming. Of course, that didn't take very long; my main obstacle is still modelling. Soon, though, I might start texturing! Yes, it's getting that close! And after I finish modelling, texturing, and rigging I'll start animating the most important scenes in the film! Huzzah!

But for the rest of today I will be working at my regular job :(

Oh and I had a great vacation last week. That's why there weren't immediate updates after I said I was actually working :D. Yes, I'm actually going to start working now!

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!

Rigging

I have been rigging the Warrior of Light today. He is almost fully rigged and ready to be animated. I just need to do a little more weight painting. I also worked some more on my other assets that will remain a surprise. I don't feel like screenshots, sorry.

Chunk

I got to spend a good chunk of time on Axis Mundi today. About 4 productive hours. I bagged a few shots and recorded some dialogue. So it was pretty good.

Yep.

A History of RCT3 Machinima

OK, so I feel like I am off to a bad start with my March Madness postings, seeing as how it has been 2 days since I announced it, but hopefully I can make up for the lost time, eh?

So, this post is titled "A History of RCT3 Machinima," because I wanted to talk about the early days of RCT3 Machinima: how (and where) it all started, what it was like back then, and what it has become today. Here we go!

The earliest true RCT3 Machinimas were before everyone posted their videos on YouTube. The Atari forums were at that time the main venue for RCT3 Films. Video authors would share their creations via download links! Yeah, I know, it sounds like a hassle, right? Well, it apparently was not too much of a hassle for all of the people who left positive feedback! Some of the RCT3 Machinimas posted in the Atari forums around 2005-2006 have the most insanely positive reviews that I have ever seen. The Atari community really had a passion for these RCT3 productions.

A separate outgrowth of RCT3 Machinima has occurred in the past few years with the popularity of YouTube. YouTube superseded places like the Atari RCT3 Forums, because it provided the all-in-one ability to distribute and discuss videos. Here Death Parks and Peep Bowling videos found huge audiences. Millions of people watch, rate, and comment on these popular videos. However, the same passion abundant found on dedicated message boards like the Atari forums is missing, due to the somewhat shallow nature of these videos, and more importantly, YouTube its self. I am NOT bashing coaster crash videos (heck, I have made them myself). But the fact is that mowing over people with derailed Roller Coasters does not stimulate the kind of intense discussion and careful critique that would be more suited for, say.... short films.

Now introduce RCT3 Machinima to YouTube. RCT3 Productions published on YouTube tend to get much more exposure than if they were only posted for download, like in the olden days. On the other hand, they also tend to get less detailed reviews, because of the aforementioned "shallow" nature of Youtube. Youtube comments are also limited to 500 characters or less. That's not very encouraging to those wanting to deeply critique a film, is it?

The natural solution to this problem is to post your videos on YouTube AND share them on forums. Unfortunately, for the past few years this revelation has evaded me, and I have used YouTube as the only place in which I post my videos. Fortunately, a very small band of YouTube RCT3 Machinimators have taken residence at LordG1gabyt3's RCT3 Machinima community, which has started to provide the kind of deeper discussion that filmmakers long for. Of course, the Atari forums are still a great place to post Machinima creations as well.

Now let us consider how RCT3 Machinima has progressed technically since it's conception at the Atari RCT3 Forums. The best works of those days came from BitterJeweler, Klinn, Vodhin, and DarkSim, among others. For the most part, these tended to be lacking in detailed stories; they were definitely Machinima, and were definitely very creative and technically amazing (for their time). However, many only had general themes. One exception to this was the nearly 30 minute Machinima "A Midsummer Nightmare," which I believe was a collaboration between Vodhin and DarkSim. This had a plot and voice acting, but was only semi-entertaining, in my opinion. Some modern RCT3 Machinimas, such as "King Kong" by Birou006, blow the classics away in technical terms. The modern trend is also to include more complex story lines. I have always wondered what creators like BitterJeweler would do if they used the kind of techniques found in these more modern Machinimas, but I suppose that this scenario is a pipe dream, since most of the classical creators have been dormant for some time.

This may seem like a fairly fruitless rant to some, but I personally love the way in which RCT3 Machinima has matured, and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the classic RCT3 Machinimas of yesterday, and my hopes for the exciting advances of the RCT3 Machinimas of tomorrow.

If you have anything to contribute to this "History of RCT3 Machinima," as it were, or if you feel I have made any inaccurate statements, or left out some important point, please feel free to leave your comments. I believe that the encouragement of the community is the greatest tool we have in our quest for creative awesomeness!