Signs of Gods Production Log

Update

2012-02-08T00:38:00.001-07:00

It has been a little while since I have been rendering the scene. Right now I'm rendering as saying that pretty much did not show Kayla be doubled jointed. Allow the reason why I've been hesitant to pose and render would do to some of a concentration issues.

However it is at the point Where I'm approaching a flashback and this will require a little more finesse. In the previous episode, a lot of the flashbacks were showing where Kayla was at and where the bad guys were at storywise. This particular flashback will focus on the why Kayla and Morrigan do not get along. This is an integral to focus on how they grow withen the movie.

This update is also using voice recognition. I'm just seeing if it would be easier to express my thoughts vocally rather then typing it. However it needs to give me more than a headache , I'm probably will just type it out next time.

Signs of God Pt 1: Youtube

2012-02-02T13:16:00.001-07:00

The edited version for Youtube and others.

BuzzNet Tags: Animation,3D,Cinema 4D,Poser Pro 2010,Poser Pro 2012,Symphoic Metal Soundtrack

Other changes

2012-02-02T13:09:00.001-07:00

As you may have noticed from the last post I did, there were some changes I made to the production flow using xPresso. However, that was not the only thing I have change.

There are times when I have done a scene and decided to redo it. The bathroom scene is one such case. Here the set from the previous attempt:

BuzzNet Tags: Animation,Skin,Cinema4D

In theory, there really isn’t a problem with it. I couldn’t find the one where I did with Morrigan, but the lighting in this scene seems a little..blah. Yes, GI can improve it, but I have to consider how long it takes to render. On average, I do not like scene that take more than 2 minutes per frame. That was the reason I change to a quad core system with 4 GB of memory..to get away from long per frames. It is also why I like Cinema 4D renderer ..it mixes raytrace and scanline to speed it up. Scanline goes a lot faster than Raytrace, so when an item doesn’t need it (it is really for Transparency, Reflection, Refraction, and another one I cannot remember. So if an object does not need that, it can just be scanned.

One thing apparent in this picture is the light distribution. Not perfect by any stretch, but I placed the lights in positions to try to simulate a one light GI solution.

The biggest thing that should be looked at here is the skin.

If you compare the skin between the first picture in this post and this one: She looks more alive in the latter. The only complaint I had was the armpits, but they are not that big of an issue to reload a figure with correct weight map and hope that she will position the same way.. Yes, I know about the water: it is a hit and miss on my part.

2012-01-11T01:12:00.002-07:00

Working slowly on this segment. The reason for slowly is I am not having one of the best weeks headache wise, and sitting down is..not very comfortable at times.:) Never the less, I produced this using Cinema4D using xPresso. One person is thinking "Hey, this has a very Silent Hill feel to it"..of course, I hardly played those games. Maybe that was just me. And in the nicest way possible, I was told I am a disturbed individual. Woot woot! I am very much sane and all that, but creating disturbing images can be a challenging part in art. If I did what popular culture wanted ,I would get very bored...very quickly.

Where I am with Episode 1

2011-11-22T21:25:00.001-07:00

Name of Set	Animated	Rendered	PostWorked	Vocals	SFX	Music	Video Lock	Audio Lock	Column2	Total
2 Years	100%	100%	100%	100%	N/A	0	1	1	01:00	83%
Terror Open	100%	100%	100%	100%	N/A	0	1	1	01:49	83%
Crime Scene	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	N/A	1	1	01:11	100%
Flight of the Goddess	100%	100%	100%	N/A	100%	0	1	1	00:55	83%
Examine Death	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	0	1	1	03:42	83%
Morning Confrontation	50%	50%	0%	50%	50%	0	0	0	01:30	33%
An Angered Demon	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	0	1	1	01:12	83%
Crescent Moon	100%	100%	0%	100%	100%	0	1	1	02:02	67%

With this type of progress, it might be surprising I am taking a 2 week break. There are few group projects that take some precendence, but I am in a good place now movie wise. When group projects are done, I will have more time to finish up morning confrontation, and whatever left.:)

Optimizing

2011-11-20T15:34:00.001-07:00

One problem I have noticed lately is setting up the animation in Cinema4d. This is even more so with more then 2 characters. A LARGE part of that problem is that the maps are large, which eats up a lot more memory. As I cannot afford to purchase more memory at this point, I am optimizing the characters themselves.

Kayla conducting magic (Poser Cinema 4d Animation)

2011-11-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

2011-11-13T18:56:00.001-07:00

I am coming to a close on episode 1. I am even considering pushing the hallway scene to episode 2 to have some conclusion. Haven't decided yet.

However, one thing I have been doing is re-rendering the diner scene with better lighting. There were also some mistakes in this scene, so I am cleaning that up as well.This scene will be seen in its entirety in both versions..as nothing..scandalous occurred.:)

I have sent out a call for musicians, and I must say I got more than I anticipated. I am going to have to consider each one, and see what the right fit for the movie is.

Progress

2011-10-15T22:02:00.001-07:00

Here is Madison approaching a bit of her demon form. One thing that Cinema4d does not allow is for me to keyframe texture maps (or at least 10.5 doesn’t), so I had to get a little creative here. I first opened a luminence channel on her eyes, and then added a glow. Was this in the script? No..well, the fact she is part demon ..that in the script, this particular segment, no. Imagine if this was live action. The makeups, the latex, the contacts, and of course the Adobe AE to make it more..omnious.

This particular image came out well in a Depth of Field perspective. We have enough distance between Kayla and Madison, so I could shift the focus.

Technically, I did not HAVE to use volumtric light here, but I didn’t think it could hurt either.

Creating Brigit

2011-09-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

The lighting kind of stinks in this one, but it was a test shot. This is Brigit for the movie (Yes, the goddess of motherhood, witchcraft, and home). Although the script was written, rewritten, and redone a total of 12-13 times, there was one consistent factor: I needed Brigit to appear as a crone. The rational comes from that Madison was a goddess/demon..they don’t age..or they don’t age significantly. Madison may have grown into full grown woman, she will remain that for eternity. Technically, Brigit could remain like that as well, but she has the same trinity of forms as I read about all Celtic goddesses: The Maiden, The Mother, the Crone. One thing I learned from human observation: some choose to hate what cannot be explained.

Another way to look at it is a comment from a poster on facebook in regards to reboots of comics. “They should be chronologically so old, they should not be appearing as they do.” The only exception in the Marvel universe would be Wolverine because of Celluar regeneration. But it kind of brings home the thought I had about Brigit raising her daughter appearing as a mortal. If Brigit never appeared to age, she would have one of few options:

1. Move from town to town to avoid suspicions.

2. Face the suspicion and bring the whole Salem witch trial hysteria back.

3. Or age herself to appear consistent with someone who is chronologically has a 24 year old daughter.

I think the first option tends to be weak. I saw it done in Twilight, and I am going “If you are doing that, than why appear open to the public? A lot of effort...” Storywise, the first option can be challenging to sell, and there needs to be extenuating circumstances. Someone is living as a protected witness, or they are hiding from the <choose a person to hide from>. In the end, this can make the younglin distant and such. Asides from witness protection, this sometimes only works if the person is alone and doesn’t lay down any roots. Remains mostly off the grid, which I found confusing with the Twilight series.

One way I would describe Madison is that she is like a Pitbull (or any other “vicious” dog they labelled over the years). She has the opportunity to be the nastiest creature to walk the earth, but it depends on the upbringing that shapes her attitude and restraint. By having a supportive mother who allowed Madison to establish roots, and belong with certain portions of the community, it helps avoid the potential that Madison’s demonic side could present. So option 1 is out.

There really isn’t a reason to explain the story problem with number 2. It would have the same impact as number 1. Madison would grow cold, callous, and think less of humans.

The third option seemed the most rational course to take. Someone walks into a shop, and sees Madison and Brigit, they can be seen as mother and daughter..rather than looking like sisters. While many seem to confuse my mom being my sister (I look a little older than I am, and she looks younger than she is), it depends on the community how this perception would be. The one thing that was stressed when I was at Target “Perception is reality”. She could take a risk of looking like Madison’s older sister, but she decides it is better risk management to maintain her crone form to protect her daughter from otherwise conservative small town folks.

So when I saw Ida by RebelMommy, I got it. It made the almost perfect figure I needed to sell this.

Switching

2011-08-27T13:33:00.001-07:00

I probably recently mentioned I was considering on going to Adobe Production Premium CS5, and I have committed to a subscription. Previously, I was using Sony Vegas 9, and probably will still use it for certain occasions (the trick is not what tools you have, it is how you use them.)

The biggest deal with getting into Adobe is the amount of integration. Vegas is a compositor, but it has it limitations to what it will do. If I wanted to split a rendered image up into say 4 passes and modifed them: there wasn’t an easy way to do it. Whereas Adobe After Effects is designed to do that.

So if you are wondering “Well, why didn’t you get Adobe After Effects”, and that is a fair question. One of the biggest reasons is integration. Also I had the ability to get the video clips into Photoshop for some manipulation. With AE, Photoshop, and Premiere, it would have came close to 129 dollars a month for a subscription…so getting Production Premium for 93 is a better deal..and it is a lot better than an outright price of 1,666.00.

Right now, I am working on the title sequence again. I had change the story a LITTLE from the original script. It sometimes happened, and fortunately no additional dialogue needed..but I wanted to tie in Rite of Passage with the current state Kayla is in.

Testing

2011-08-12T02:27:00.001-07:00

As someone so used to vegas and sound forge, adobe has presented some challenges in the trial. However...I am seeing unqiue advantages

Improving

2011-08-10T09:01:00.001-07:00

One thing I find exhilitarting about doing animation projects: learning new things. For starters I couldn't figure out how in the world to populate objects into particles. After finally using google..I figured it out and applying it to a special effect within the rendering program itself. Wee! The next thing I will be learning is using adobe illustrator files for..text inside the program. In the long run..hoping it would improve a few things

Crescent Moon Scene

2011-07-30T16:37:00.001-07:00

This scene is actually progressing a little better than I thought it would. Aside from a lighting correction I want to do for 90 frames (out of 304) in one clip, it is actually turning out quite nice. Right now in Poser, I have a 558 frame (roughly 18 seconds) I am tweaking with hair movements and eye-movements.

Ideally, I would love to have breathing, but the clothes that Madison is wearing doesn’t have inhale. While there are tools that take care of that, it kind of gets messy sometimes.

The biggest challenge here is resources. In one part of this clip, there were 3 Victoria 4 and one Michael 3 Lo-Res (or Michael 2 Lo-Res, I don’t remember). The memory count went up to 2 GBs. Youch.

I am thinking I am going to re-do the bathroom scene due to lighting inconsistencies. I have not decided yet.

Some..shots

2011-07-02T17:58:00.001-07:00

sidewalkAlley

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Been busy making new scenes and getting them through. Of course, on occasion, I do an occasional pinup, and here is one using Victoria from the movie.

I am trying to ax murder my computer

2011-06-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

While it’s not obvious in the picture, there were quite a few high-res figures in. I still really don’t understand Daz3D reluctance to make low-res version of these figures..the characters in Rite of Passage turned out mostly all right (if you didn’t notice it, yes..they were low-res version of the Vicky 3 and Mike 3 characters with a few exceptions.

Anyhoo, this is a scene where I got a damsel trapped in a corner…by three football player looking guys (sorta…).

AGH!

2011-06-21T04:48:00.001-07:00

As a person with a technical background, the last thing I like is for things NOT to work. I have officially had it with Poserfusion just causing Cinema4D “Not Responding”…so..I just started seeing what I did with previous scenes without that plugin installed, and going from that point. My biggest problem before was the lighting I did with the bathroom with poserfusion I had the way I liked, and forgot how I did..well…got that fixed and re-rendering. Also re-rendering a problematic clip as well.

Oh no I said too much…

2011-06-21T04:46:00.000-07:00

Actually, that is just from an REM song. >.>

Did complete one third of a set of scenes. Not so sure about lighting, but I have the original Pzz (the files that contain the animations themselves), so I can re-render them at a later time while I decide.

One of the things that held me back this week was trying to get every done without pushing myself too much. I found out what happen when too much happens at once (trip to the ER). However, I am making progress regardless.

And yes I do change the songs once in awhile..now listening to New Divide to get my mood pumping.

Getting back to business

2011-06-05T22:20:00.001-07:00

Either the blood clots are resolving, or I am managing to work around them. Currently have 1 minute and 15 seconds of continuous footage for this scene I have stopped doing a few weeks ago. Progress, and hoping to get more progress down soon.

A mild delay

2011-05-08T12:54:00.001-07:00

Someone mention “I am taking my time with the movie.” Wellllll…I am the type of person who likes to get it done right. If I am “blah”, it won’t happen. What’s going on? Well, I couldn’t do anything between April 29th to May 6th due to hospitalization. Blood clots in my head and all that. This leads to the problem. The location they are (right now only partial and not in immediate danger so long as I take the correct meds) in prevent spinal fluid from absorbing properly…imagine the pressure being caused. This causes me to lose focus, and that is what I need to animate. Right now, I am…good. I am re-rendering a scene because I forgot to put the tattoos on prior to rendering (if I had been paying attention like I should, it wouldn’t be a problem.) I do plan to animate soon though..

Back to..umm..can’t say work;)

2011-04-17T13:04:00.001-07:00

It is Sunday..I don’t WORK on Sundays. But I am back to rendering at least..showing a towel clad demi-goddess….

Where I disappeared…

2011-04-02T13:57:00.001-07:00

If anybody tried to contact me in the last..oh say…few weeks and did not hear from me, I have been out of comission. I have finally open Poser again after experiencing problem with my health, and going to attempt to pick up where I left off with a scene I started.

Troubleshooting…ugh

2011-03-06T21:04:00.001-07:00

Apparently, they do not feel I troubleshoot enough at work. It took me awhile to figure out this problem because there was not an OBVIOUS issue stated. Hopefully, I do have it fixed and can start rendering scenes again.

Progress…

2011-02-19T17:38:00.001-07:00

I think I am just about at the point where a particular chapter is completed for the movie. Right now, doing a quick test render to see how it looks..and then go into final render. After that, the chapter known as thrown out is complete.

Creeper Bathroom Bird!!

2011-01-31T11:02:00.001-07:00

Sometimes birds are useful..:)

What can I say..

Testing Talk Designer

2011-01-24T18:23:00.001-07:00

Using Talk Designer

For the longest time, I used to use Mimic to get the voices into the character. However, like all external programs for Poser..this can be..a bit tedious. Upon finding a file that would be a good map for Talk Designer, decided to give it a try.

Some re-rendering was in order

2010-12-31T18:59:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you discover way too late that the lighting doesn’t work with the filter you wish to use. For instance, Jason shirt was “shiny” or “glaring” or something. So I moved the lights and re-rendered, and it came out like this.

Filters Lovely filters

2010-12-21T11:00:00.001-07:00

One thing that I always worry about is post-work. The image above is straight from Cinema4D. It may not be bad, but it is still something I am going “Umm..need post work” There is color correction, and I have tried multiple times to use it to no avail.

Here is a picture after the postwork filter has been applied (Color Fixer Plus from NewBlueFx, set to vibrant). It just brings the colors of the scene out a little bit, and adds a little contrast at the same time. Plus it does wonders on her skin.

Turn of her Head

2010-12-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

One thing has become very clear lately. No matter how good you become at any particular thing: there is always room to explore, improvise, improve, etc.

One thing I constantly try to do improve my animation, and I thought of that why I was combining the poser Pose tools and timing. Will I run into times when I think they may be working too much like a robot? Possible, but I think that is the challenge that will keep me animating.

Final product

2010-12-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Fixed the problem

2010-12-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

Enhanced GL viewing of the scene

Although the video doesn’t appear clean or nicely rendered, it does give me a little information. Had it not been for this type of rendering yesterday, I wouldn’t have notice some defects on the waitress arm upon importing. Of course, this did mean I had to correct or fix it somehow. I managed to do so by importing her back in as a character rather then part of a scene, and applying a pose to her to get her animation back.

The funniest part is how WMV handled the transparency of the waitress dress. Now, I am unsure (nor do I wanna know) why there is transparency in the dress, it did make things a little uneasy when the WMV rendering left her breasts very viewable.

Right now, I am rendering this scene out. I think eventually I will get the farm back up and it won’t be too much of an issue. It has been 14 minutes, and only 39 out of 275 have been rendered. This makes videos like this VERY helpful for two reasons.

1. I can quickly see any mistakes. The crack skin would have been an eyesore, and something I would kick myself for not catching before.

2. It also gives me footage to put in Vegas. Let say I was saving up the rendering, and just wanted to ..you know..put the movie together as a rough draft. This would at least allow me to put the vocals in and think about music and what not.

Next up…naked redheads in the bath being taunted by the goddess of war..or..maybe I should just finish up this scene..

Diner

2010-12-18T22:46:00.001-07:00

Video file from…my Poser

After doing this particular scene over again, it still not showing up properly in Cinema4D. Need to troubleshoot it, but I like how the motion for Jason (guy in the blue shirt) and his corresponding waitress is interacting.

Some more animating

2010-12-15T20:31:00.001-07:00

Did some work tonight on this scene. Although I only did a minimal amount (122 frames), I tried some new concepts. Before I was a big believer in dials, but with the usage of limits..I found using the mouse tools to be a little liberating.

Heh..

2010-12-12T06:04:00.001-07:00

It can turn out quite interesting when I discover (rediscovered?) something that would be useful in Cinema4D. I already knew how to make title safe and action safe borders (which don’t show up in renders). However, one challenge I did run into was seeing where where 1280x720 ended and the rest of the screen began. Renderwise, it doesn’t make a difference. The black portions in this picture are not rendered at all in the end,.

It does make a difference when you are trying to set the scene up. While yes, I do use the title safe and action safe areas to keep the shot the way it is supposed to be, but the black areas can help in cases where I can determine what part of the scene I want to cutoff.

In the case of “But you are shooting using title safe and action safe?”, that is only important with televisions and maybe a few computer monitors if you play it full screen. Otherwise, Youtube and other services will play this video without Title Safe and Video Safe in mind. So all the tools I can use to properly stage the scene is always helpful.

Back..

2010-12-11T18:15:00.001-07:00

As I was feeling a little better today (not by much, but definitely an improvement), I started to work with Poser a little. Recreated Morrigan and Erin a little.

One might consider “Why don’t you render these in Poser for the movie?” For practical purposes, I like using Cinema4D for rendering. For still shots, I find Poser to be very nice with selective render studio and such. Other then that, I don’t like Poser lights because I cannot set them up as easily.

However, the scene I was working on prior to my Windows taking a little bit of a dive is now being processed and going to relight it. After that, it is progressing from that point.

Hmm..

2010-12-05T16:30:00.001-07:00

Well, it appears as I took a slight break from animating. Most of it was due to lack of motivation and feeling blah. Given how it is approaching the Holiday season and iOS 4.2.1 came out: I have been out of the loop for a little bit.:) However, I am sitting down to do a little animation to get back into it..hopefully..:)

Good news

2010-10-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

In a few moments (or a few days), I will begin animating the rest of the first scene of the animation. Now, this is obviously not the first scene I worked on, but it will connect into other scenes. I estimate by the time I am done with rendering the entire scene out, I will have 6 minutes of continuous footage completed. Now, this doesn't exclude the fact I have 9 minutes and 22 seconds worth of footage already.

So in a nutshell, it's coming right along.:)

another segment done

2010-10-03T17:24:00.001-07:00

One thing I had recently began doing with my scenes is labelling them. For instance, this is part of the segment “Examine Death” that includes a scene in the morgue and a few more..rather gruesome scenes. Maybe the best way to explain this would to call them chapters like on a DVD, which is essentially why I did it this way.

It pleases me to say that “Examine Death” is complete as far as animation is concern, and the rendering will be complete ASAP. It is actually something of a good accomplishment.:)

Some good old fashion

2010-09-23T01:40:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you find inspiration in the wildest places. For awhile, I had trouble with figuring out how the heck I was going to do Amy’s office. Originally, I had this office set that required me to rig the camera a certain way. I was fairly certain I would have gone made. I saw this office a while back, and I am almost kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner.:)

On top of that, I have been creating the mimic files so I can get this scene animated. These two pictures were done in Poser, but they will be rendered in Cinema with some nice results.

Fixed the Site

2010-09-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

Added a few things to the website. For starters, there is now music that was composed by me for your aural pleasure. You can find it under media.

Now, there has been a video portion under media, and that portion was fixed. One thing I didn't like about the component was how "icky" it made the next back etc. So with a component that allows me to use Youtube url, I posted videos that way, and it looks a lot cleaner.

Casting

2010-09-19T04:34:00.001-07:00

Finally catching up on casting. I was going to take care of it yesterday, but other things intervened.

A few services came in handy for this process:

1. Mandy.com: I originally posted a casting notice on Indieclub, but got zero response. So I posted on Mandy.com, and kicking myself for not going there originally.:)

2. Yousendit.com: Helps with sending files over the internet. Sometimes, email just doesn’t like attachments that are big, so this does help with that matter. Keeps things organized as well.

3. Docusign.com: This service is a godsend. One thing you want to avoid is lack of paperwork, but the last thing I want is a lot of papers filling up my office. By creating a digital signature on a document, I can store it without killing any trees.

Now onwards to..animating .:)

Update 9/15

2010-09-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Checking out some plug-ins for Vegas, I found some nice ones that enhance the overall picture. This one is an example of color enhancement, and it does add to it. Will have to explore this a bit more.:)

Revisions

2010-09-04T22:49:00.001-07:00

Along with the casting notice, I also made a change to one of the characters. I wanted her to seem like a nice looking elder type woman, and this manage to capture that essence nicely.

Bathtime

2010-08-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it is plain to see I am starting to feel better. You know I am well when I am putting redheads in a bathtub.:) Anyhoo, the one thing that is an emphasis in this case is the expressions. One thing I have been working on lately is to get the appropriate expression on the face since it does tell a lot about the mood of the character. For instance, this scene gives the feeling that exist between her mother and her.

The scene was setup using Poser Pro and then taken into Cinema4D. One thing I tried using was the foam from MostDigitalCreations.

Technorati Tags: Daz3d,Poser Pro 2010,Victoria 4,Cinema 4D

State of the Movie

2010-08-26T15:05:00.001-07:00

I cannot think of the last time I posted something, and I haven't checked yet. I have been SLOWLY working on it, but nevertheless working on it. One thing that has gotten in the way yet again is health. You hardly feel inspired to do his best work when he feels like ultimate crap. High is a different story.:)

Let it never say that Renderotica does not provide some inspiration. The following set is by using Davo's Dungeon Set 3 and 4. This was not originally conceived in the script, but something I thought of later on down the road. Also this ties together a relationship between what Kayla's says to someone and this clip. Given how much time I have on my hands at the moment, I will try to do some animation work for the movie.:)

New Scene

2010-06-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

I have been slowly moving along. A lot of it has to do with school work, and some have to do with just work. On this quiet saturday, I decided to work on the scene with victoria in a lot of trouble. I think I got the outfit and lot down..just need to fill the scene up a little more.:)

Things..

2010-05-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

Been a couple weeks since I work on something productively for the movie. Part of the problem was the fact I was doing school assignments (despite the amount of bullshit in them. Action plans? Office 2007? Pfft..I know how to use them).

Anyways, I started working on the crime scene that starts the actual narrative (the others were in the beginning credits). One thing that helped (and inspired me to do this) was It's A Crime . This particular set was something I have been looking for, and it helped build this scene up.

The scene was a little difficult cause it involves the subject of impalement. It was something different from my norm, but came up with the idea "How can we make this a bizarre killing". Slasher flick style stabbings/slicings been done before..so this was the result of some brain storming.

On a bus

2010-03-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

What I have been working on..and currently rendering out.

Dream Sequence

2010-03-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

Probably one of the more difficult animations I put together then depicting Kayla's first execution.

One thing I was worried about was tying in the sequence right so it flows. I am going from the Morgue scene with a vic to where the vic was initially tortured..then flow the scenes..and then another sequence I need to do so Kayla can abruptly wake up. Not as easy as it looks, but I am up for the challenge.:)

No virtual girl was harmed in this production

2010-03-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Torture porn became a thing of the earlier last decade, and could technically apply here. Hostel is a famous example, although I can safetly say I only saw both movies once.

The one clear difference is any sign of torture is actually minimal, and with a story in mind. I mean what kind of story was involved with a woman laying beneath a naked woman, and using a scythe to cut her to be soaked in blood?
This animation took a few hours to design, and I may need to correct the hair. Yes, I did do a previz, but it didn't show the hair fully..for some strange reason. The hardest part was the blowtorch. In Rite of
Passage, there were a considerable amount of post-effect fires. A lot were due to the lack of internal effects.

In Cinema4D, it does come with a package call PyroCluster and particles. Today, I decided to give it one more go round, and this was the result.

Progress

2010-03-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

After a few days of feeling meh, I am finally back to animating. Right now, I am sequencing together some scenes into the same clip.>:) Essentially, I am going to have one master clip, and then going to fade in a few smaller ones. For instance, Kayla sitting in a cold alley is the master, and she looks to a right..I fade in her at a strip club..or something like that.:)

Also looking to raise funds to get more out of Cinema4D. I have created a page at Indiegogo to help with this cause.:)

Updating

2010-03-10T11:39:00.001-07:00

Managing to update my version of Poser to 2010. Lately, I have been
using Poser 8 versus Poser Pro due to performance enhancement, and
features. Now I get to play with 2010...and wonder if they listened to
us about network rendering ...who knows.:) We will find out in an
hour.

At least this will help me escape the troubling thought I am on a liquid diet.

Revising the script

2010-03-09T11:33:00.001-07:00

On the outside, someone might go "What kind of idiot revises the
script after you started the production." There is some relevant truth
to this, but in this case it was just something I thought of. At work
(the evil 4 letter word), I get an hour for lunch and it takes me at
least thirty minutes to get home. So I can get ideas on the fly.
Yesterday, I decided to make a still of Madison and make her naked.
. A conversation came to point that Kayla
could do strip poles, and that got the gears going..and how we could
make it flow better. On my way home, I thought of another scene that
could use the same thing, and made those revisions this morning.
On the bright side, it will be easier to execute then what I had
planned earlier.:)

Working..

2010-02-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

I finally got some stuff done for the first sequence in the Jason and
Claire scene, and I am prepping tonight the second portion. Not sure
how far I will get into it. Haven't been having one of my better weeks
lately, but hopefully with some luck..I will be fine.

The look

2010-02-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

A little screenshot with what I am working on. Getting the lighting right is always the toughest part.

Victoria Walters..

2010-01-18T13:33:00.001-07:00

Spent some time making this girl..or remaking her a bit.:) Wanted to
go for innocent school girl, and I think I pulled it off.

Jason's room

2010-01-11T16:51:00.001-07:00

In this scene, we see Jason confronting his sister Claire..so tried to make it bare as possible..but added a bed, clock, and a picture of his parents.:) Now to animate this scene.

Vocals..

2010-01-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Vocals Done:

Amy, Female Deputy, Claire, and *drum rolls* Jason.:) Worked this afternoon to get them completed.

Hmm

2010-01-10T08:49:00.001-07:00

Yes, the infamous hmm.

I was playing with two things this morning..the first one was the scene with kayla with the short hair..and the other was testing sound design. My plan is to have at 5.1. If you are going "Why not 7.1?", the answer is rather simple: Vegas Pro 9 can't do it natively.:) Now comes the part of "How are you going to do 5.1?"

Now there are two ways I can literally do it..

1. Sit here and play and level the sounds out, but everyone knows I have grand difficulty doing that due to deafness.

2. Allow Cinema4D to do a majority of the sound work. What you see in the picture is 5 mics (with a .1 mic) and a speaker. In this fashion, I am "rendering" sounds..it takes the proximation of distance between speaker and mics..and renders seperate files..and I get it..*drum rolls* 5.1 sound with labels of which goes to which. Before you ask, I am going to test to see if more then one speaker will be able to play sound..and if it can.. woot!

Interesting

2010-01-10T04:02:00.001-07:00

Ran into http://www.spatialview.com/en/cinema4d while browsing the web, and it looks interesting. Unsure if it is worth it all, but 3D effects rendered out. Pretty sure I won't do it, but thought it was interesting.

Updating Madison

2010-01-09T12:28:00.001-07:00

Today it was Madison's turn to get updated, and I like how she turned out.:)

Finalizing character.

2010-01-08T17:45:00.001-07:00

One thing that occured to me.. PoserFusion version always looked better then straight import, and uses the same stuff that Interposer would..so I am making presets so I can load them. Pretty soon on the site, I might have costumes for the final costumes for most of those characters (some just have one..>.>)

Now for something complete different.

2010-01-08T10:18:00.001-07:00

I have thought long and hard about this, but this seems to be the best look for Kayla. Among other reasons, the hair gives a nice hard edge look..:)

Hmm..

2010-01-08T08:17:00.001-07:00

Anybody who knows me well knows I say "Hmm" a lot.:) I went through http://www.most-digital-creations.com/, and found some interesting additions. Well maybe not the hair..I got that a short while ago, but I think I like this version of kayla..short hair works for her. Funny story..Kayla in the comics I wrote (which the story is based on) started with short bob.:)

Update Date: New Set created.

2010-01-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

There is a scene that calls for a church, and found this one on content paradise. A few lights, and it works well.:)

Playing with Ambient Occulsion

2009-12-30T14:02:00.001-07:00

Testing AO in Cinema4D. I am highly considering still faking global illumination as much as possible. Test 2 and 3 took 10 minutes to render the frame, whereas the first one only took about 2 minutes? I am not seeing any real significant difference other then deeper shadows by the door frame.;) .. and I think there is a way to fake that..:)

A nice Cinema4D shader

2009-12-25T13:46:00.001-07:00

One of the things I was worried about for this scene is how to depict the jail cell, and still have Jason see the action from behind. One way I COULD do it is to animate the scene, and put the animated scene onto one of the monitors. Well... unfortunately, I am lazy.:) I would much do it on the same scene. As I was browsing the internet for enDOFin (which I will purchase in the immediate future), I ran into this nice little shader. Essentially, it takes the output from any camera and puts it on the material. In this little jail picture, you are seeing one camera looking into the monitors with two seperate cameras being linked into the monitors as it renders. Pretty cool.:)

http://www.blackstar-solutions.de/en_c4dcamshader.php

Happy Holdidays and progress

2009-12-24T10:48:00.001-07:00

Finished up animating a 10 second sequence that should prove interesting. Most importantly, I utilize the scripts I designed to solve a particular. As I may have mention before, Cinema4D doesn't recognize Poser Magnets. The obvious solution is PoserFusion, but involves loading poser into Cinema (ew..too many resources). So I learned a little scripting and made these series of four to make Victoria 4 work properly in Cinema4D. Now to build the same tool set for micheal 4..hmm...:)

Testing hair / using features to make certain changes

2009-12-21T17:15:00.001-07:00

As I progress to making Signs of God, one thing I always wanted to do with Kayla..is try to make her resemble her mother a little. A goof from lack of earlier research, her mother does indeed have black hair. Which isn;t a bad thing >:) However, Kayla is known for being a redhead..but thought it would be cool if I added some hints of black hair. To do that with current hair requires modifying the hair pack...and if I am not sure, that can be disasterious.:) So I used a feature in Cinema4d called Fusion to spread a gradiant of the color black throughout the hair and this is the result.

Interesting..

2009-12-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Ran into a slight problem with doing one scene. I originally composed it to be woman lying in the middle of the bridge with a truck driving up, but when you consider the opening sequence... it doesn't quite match. For those not on Facebook and saw the video, the opening sequence were very nasty way of dumping bodies..so to have the body just lay in the middle of the bridge didn't work with that sequence. So...I improvised.:)

Final Crime Scene opening sequence now done

2009-12-18T17:53:00.001-07:00

I started rendering the pictures yesterday, and got to sequencing the way I would like it today. If I recall correctly, I got over a minute done.;)

Second sequence rendered

2009-12-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

With the second sequence down, that is 34 seconds of the movie already accomplished. Now before, I had 2 minutes of it done, but felt that those sequences 1. needed to be redone and 2. Told too much too soon.

On top of that, I decided to make the title card for the movie..it is still a work in progress, and if anything like Rite of Passage..it will change 8-10 times.:) However, it is at least a step forward.:) Now onto the third and last victim for the sequences prior to the crime scene.

:)

2009-12-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

It would help if the picture attached.

Second part of opening sequence animated

2009-12-15T21:54:00.001-07:00

After some rendering and creating, you would think that was the hard part. Actually, it was timing it all out to a good rhymn. Not sure if I am 100% satisfied with it, but it looks nice enough at the moment.;) Here is the girl appearing in that.

First Sequence Rendered

2009-12-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Just got the first part of the opening titles done, and now onto the second victim.>:)

First Sequence

2009-12-15T07:26:00.001-07:00

Since this first sequence will have a voice overlay over it, I can do this without any dialogue per say. Originally thought of purchasing AfterEffects to do this shot, but Cinema4D has the power to put things on planes and move them..so, thought "Why not". So far, I am playing with how I want to do it. Just need a morgue shot for this girl, and the first sequence is done.

Updated the Website

2009-12-14T14:06:00.001-07:00

As a few people may of noticed, I have been working on updating the website a little bit. First with a color scheme change, and now there are two lists. The first one is the cast list which shows some of the characters involved. The second one is a casting list which I will use to post on a casting board.

Also updating some photos so they don't look quite so "distracting" with the black background. The file size per picture did increase with each transparent png, but not significally more so that is a good sign.

Also got my render computers back up and going, and soon will have my stuff to get the speaking parts into poser working again.:)

Well..

2009-11-18T11:28:00.001-07:00

Been a long time since I posted here. For good reasons but I have been working on getting the casting down before going into animation.:)

Never Stopping

2009-05-14T15:40:00.001-07:00

In any movie, you are always going for a certain look. Then again, I got someone who always like to say "It is dark and Gritty", but I like to say that I am experimenting on looks.:) Right now, I am working on improving the skins by using built-in Cinema4d technology. Will it work? Who knows..:)

Rock N Roll

2009-05-08T13:29:00.001-07:00

Somedays I am too much of a technician. I ran into a Snag with Interposer Pro (no fault of the developer). Basically, the way a function works in Poser is much different then Cinema. However, I did manage to find a workaround.>:)

To the right is the ALMOST pic of Madison Cabot. So far, people are saying hearts are racing. Good, my intention.>:)

Working on animations as long as I can hold.

Kayla Wakes up

2009-05-04T16:28:00.001-07:00

As you can see, some production work is being done. I would consider this the "Pre-Render" because she needs hair developed..but otherwise, the motion and camera angle is good.:)

First segment animated and rendered

2009-05-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Literally, the first 2 minutes of Signs of God has been animated and rendered. Now, I am not into doing it all in order, but this was the one sequence that will be musically driven. It will introduce one facet of the story that will trail into the second scene.:)

Status on Signs of God

2009-04-24T21:04:00.001-07:00

Minus the hair, this is essentially the main character of the animation. According to some, she is incredibly hot and I would definitely agree. Laura (gypsyangel on renderosity) is responsible for the texture and character.:) Hongyu is responsible for the outfit.

The following is occurring:

1. I need to outsource the hair. I am having difficulty creating the hair, and feel maybe someone else can design it to look like gorgous hair rather then messes. The hair you see in this picture is static, and I would like to use dynamic.

2. Need to cast Kayla. I am thinking for the sake of sanity, I will cast for all three films. How? Still figuring out.

3. Need to cast the rest of them as well..:)

4. Will check with the devil to see what is occurring with the Rite of Passage music, and eventually ask if he is interested in providing music for the other two films.

5. I had a fifth point but forgot.:)

On our way...

2009-02-15T02:53:00.000-07:00

First character design (Kayla) has been done. Now we need to do the costumes for her, but that is consideribly easy. The hair on her is custom designed using the hair module for cinema4d.:) Next I am going to test it dynamic system to ensure the style stays there.:)

Script Completed

2009-02-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

Aside from peer review, the script is done. It has been rewritten about 4 times, revised about 10 times, and finally feel it is a good strong story. Zhura is a good tool to use, and now I have transferred the script to Celtx to start the next stage of preproduction.

Began a little work on it

2008-12-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

With the animation being done for Rite of Passage, I have started to do a little animation for Signs of God. However, I will not be able to do much until I get the hair module, and I think i can at least do the opening credits.;)

Ahh-Yah.

2008-12-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

Production has been a little slow on Rite of Passage, so I haven't done much for Signs of God in awhile. I have, however, been looking at different type of texture maps and design for girls for the movie.:)

No Surrender

2008-11-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here is another picture of Madison I did as a concept.

A few things are happening:

1. I am getting closer to wrapping up Rite of Passage so I can fully engage in pre-production of Signs of God.
2. I am using tools such as Celtx (http://www.celtx.com) to help along the way.
3. I am going to try to use more resources then just me to animate this one.

New Set created

2008-07-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

This is the Morgue Scene. As I probably stated earlier, this is going to get a lot grittier. My current production plan is this: it will be 1280x720, will involve Cinema4d, and too much pepsi;)

Got the Core - Yep..

2008-06-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

I have been playing with this packaged for the last few days, and I must say I like the results. I am still learning it, so it will be awhile.:) However, if you want to see what being done...check out Kayla and Morrigan (if you checked before 6/21/2008)

Made a decision

2008-06-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

After considerable debate, I have purchased the core product for Cinema4d. If things go well, this is what Signs of God will be animated and rendered in.

Great news...

2008-05-15T00:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't forgetten about Signs of God yet. I am just trying to figure out what package I would want to do this in. Right now, Carrara is the most availiable one, and Cinema4d also caught my attention, but the cost of ownership may be a little steep.:)

Pre-Production Starts

2008-04-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

A lot of people may think I am crazy to start preproduction before Rite of Passage is done. Especially since this is the sequel. Well, I will not give any spoilers to Rite of Passage other then this takes 2 years after, and I am going to use what I learned in Rite of Passage in Signs of God.

I am considering what tools I want to use:

1. Carrara - this was the workhorse of Rite of Passage, and it is a decent program. However, there are some limits.

2. Cinema4d - this is consider a higher end program, but it is pricey.

Either way you look at it, we are looking at outdoing Rite of Passage in the audio/visual department. Also, the script has been written, so just fine tuning it.