Sunday 9 May 2010

TV, Film Clubs, and being Judgemental

This week I discovered that the TV show I was filmed for in France last October is available online. The programme is called Tracks, and airs on the Arte channel in France and Germany (and dubbed accordingly). Tracks did a report on machinima and came along to the Atopic Festival in Paris to find out more about it. You can watch the report here (hope your French is good!). I make an appearance at the 7:30 mark, and they also show a little clip of Clockwork.
Also this week I've been asked to join the judging panel for a machinima competition which will begin in August. I'll post more details about it nearer the time - isn't it time you entered a competition...? Some desirable prizes will be on offer!
My next real-world screening is organised by the Winchester Film Society on Thursday 20 May. I'm not 100% sure of the format yet but I expect I'll do a little introduction and Q&A.
Then, on Tuesday 13 July the Bracknell Film Society will include Clockwork within the programme. I'll be there too, and I'm looking forward talking about machinima and showing the movie.
Progress with iClone has been painfully slow. The software tantalises me with what it is clearly capable of, but I'm finding it really difficult get my head around. It would be great if you could just lift that engine and give it to the Moviestorm guys sort out. I have issues with the overall workflow which is confusing, and I find that the walk animations are sometimes really poor - the characters seem to moonwalk over the ground, sliding along as if they were on skates. I've also found it to be a bit buggy - I've had characters walking in endless circles when all I asked them to do was follow a path.
As I'm finding it all so difficult I am asking myself why I'm bothering. I think the reason is because of the fantastic facial animations that iClone has. Now, if Moviestorm had that (and water, and more morphable characters, and better shadowing) there'd be no need for iClone in my arsenal. Without those features I'm not sure what more I can really do with Moviestorm (without my movies looking like every other one I've done. And everyone else has done) but I don't have the time in my life to learn iClone to the level that would be required.
I'm at a cross-roads.

5 comments:

  1. Or a roundabout? So many choices in machinima, but none stands out as the be all and end all.

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  2. "the walk animations are sometimes really poor - the characters seem to moonwalk over the ground, sliding along as if they were on skates"

    The animations are fine. You need to turn down the walk speed.

    "I've had characters walking in endless circles when all I asked them to do was follow a path."

    I've not had that, but I'd imagine iClone probably auto-joins a circle path, to make a loop.

    "the overall workflow which is confusing"

    It takes some time to learn, sure. A month or more, not just a few days. It's like Photoshop in that respect, and just as deep. But there are an excellent and full range of video tutorials, and a full 500 page manual.

    "I don't have the time in my life to learn iClone to the level that would be required"

    Have you looked at the free Muvizu?

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  3. Congrats on the interview. I wish I knew French though. Glad you are on a panel judging machinima, so at least there will be some class choices for the competition. Good luck at the Bracknell Film Society showing. Wish I could come along and show support.

    Re: Iclone impasse. I hear what you are saying and it is hard to give advice. I knew IC will be growing enormously in the next year with the IC7. There are also some very good tutorials being offered by a pro at the Reallusion site (can't remember his name right now) which might make the difference. Sometimes a program can be very good, but the way the workflow is laid out may not work for you. I'd say give it more time, but if it continues to frustrate you it may be time to move to something else.

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  4. If you can find a way to get it cheap (any way you can qualify as a student? OU counts) you might want to look into Motionbuilder. Primarily intended for use with motion capture, but there are a lot of libraries of animations out there.

    It's what I'm using right now, obviously, and it's really quite impressively flexible. You'd need to pair it with a character generation tool, but I believe it talks to Poser pretty well.

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  5. Good suggestion Hugh. I think Motionbuilder is what Tom Jantol uses for his amazing movies. I was so impressed with his stuff that I checked it out. I think it had a £4k price tag IIRC. Ah well, maybe one day...

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