hilscreate.blogspot.com: February 2009

What I tell myself everyday.

To all the people watching, I can never ever thank you enough for the kindness to me, I'll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask is one thing, and this is.. I'm asking this particularily of young people that watch: Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism - for the record it's my least favorite quality, it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen." - Conan 'O'Brien

February 23, 2009

Blend shape notes.

Before anything, freeze the base geo and delete history. make sure its at world space.

blend shapes things to note.

1.) Do not smooth the object before doing the blend shape
2.) Make sure to rename the blend shape geo before applying the blend shape deformer.
3.) Do not delete history on the geometry after the blend shape deformer is applied. But u can do it before.
4.) Do not rotate or scale the blend shapes geo on a object level and never freeze transformation.
5.) Do not delete faces or vertices from the blendshapes.
6.) Do not freeze transformations on blend shapes. You can freeze before the blendshapes are created, however once the target shapes are created, do not freeze transformations on the base or target shapes. If not the base will fly back to the origin when animating.
7.) When defining a blend shape, the base shape must be selected LAST.

February 18, 2009

animation notes for oneself.

1.) key frame the key poses 1st. then the 2nd motions.

2.) try to keep the keyframes for the key movements of different relating joints on the same key frame. (Note down the key frame numbers).

3.) Only after the key poses are established, then work on the 2nd motion.

4.) little pauses in the animation. inbetween keyframes is good.

5.) What the character is thinking at each key pose.

6.) remember, there is follow through in animation. it is not one pose to the next, to the next.

February 8, 2009

good cg creation links.

http://www.cgsharpe.com/?cat=20

http://www.cgsharpe.com/?p=55 (Maya / Mudbox: Street Cop Workflow by mashru mishu)

http://student.vfs.com/~3d68max/ingridwip.html (making ingrid bergman by max wahyudi)

February 6, 2009

independant animated movie links

Doing some research on different film maker's experiences while making their own movies... just a few links for further reading.

http://leoanimation.blogspot.com/

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=689065&goto=nextnewest

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=663849&highlight=film+marketing

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=692957&goto=nextoldest (killer bean by jeff lew)

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=723127&goto=nextnewest (MeetMeline.com)

February 5, 2009

film marketing...

doing some research now for some kinda of promotional ideas for the animated film...

for no budget, facebook and youtube seems to be the places to promote the trailers and posters. Plus CG talk and cg websites.

From http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/19/090119fa_fact_friend?printable=true

"Modern campaigns have three acts: a year or more before the film débuts, you introduce it with ninety-second teaser trailers and viral Internet “leaks” of gossip or early footage, in preparation for the main trailer, which appears four months before the release; five weeks before the film opens, you start saturating with a “flight” of thirty-second TV spots; and, at the end, you remind with fifteen-second spots, newspaper ads, and billboards. Studios typically spend about ten million dollars on the “basics” (cutting trailers and designing posters, conducting market research, flying the film’s talent to the junket and the première, and the première itself) and thirty million on the media buy. The hope is that a potential viewer will be prodded just enough to make him decide to see what all the fuss is about. It’s the “belt and suspenders and corset and parachute harness” approach."

“We have to yell loud and long enough to perfectly inflate the balloon on the day of release—and yet not so loud that we pop it.”

So even if got no money, the idea of using the 3 act ideas can be applied to the animated short.

Interestingly, there have been many recent Hollywood promotions of the web that haven't initially mentioned the name of the film ("Cloverfield" and the recent efforts behind "Quarantine" come to mind). Doesn't calling attention to the movie to early hurt the chance for the promo to go viral? Could it still work with a slate at the end for the film's website?

I will sound out my stratgey in a later post.

for now some links...

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-marketing2.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/filmmakingguidemarketing

http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=671&ltype=Special%20Features

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/

diverging edge loops

often I have to diverge or redirect edge loops by re-organising the topology of a geometry.
this is a really simple one that I just realised after a lot of convoluted clickings.. gr....