Animation Club for Carrara Users - Inspiration Thread
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,210
Hello all,
For several years now, Mike Moir (mmoir) has been helping and inspiring Carrara users to get into aspects of animation - more specifically: getting into animation within a team!
As a member of such a team, each individual may utilize their own strengths and tastes to add to the benefit of the group, which may come in many different forms. Just as a small example, an individual could help in one or more of the following, but help could come in many other ways as well:
- Story Writing
- Story Editing
- Storyboard Artist
- Conceptual Art (2D and/or 3D)
- 3D Modeling
- UV Mapping
- Texturing (Shader and/or Texture Map Creation)
- Rigging (creation of a bone structure and weight mapping)
- Carrara Scene Creation and/or Editing
- Carrara Scene Elements Creation and/or Editing
- Lighting and Shadows
- Animation of one or more of the needed individual shots ("Shot" being an individual clip of animated Scene)
- Rendering of one or more of the needed individual shots
- Visual Effects - Post Work for finished animations and/or pre-production (before render) elements
- Sound Creation and/or Collection
- Music Creation and/or Collection
- Titling and/or other text work
- Editing (Stitching together the individual shots with sounds and music)
But like I said, your help could come in many other forms - for example, one could simply provide opinions or advice on certain topics involved in the making of any of the specific projects being worked on, providing ideas, large or small towards developing a story*, providing honest constructive criticism, posting links to ideas, etc.,
Also, following the actions of the club or, better yet - becoming involved - is a great way to learn new aspects of Carrara that we might feel interest in.
No Experience? That's Great!!! That's what this is for - we all learn together! We have some very experienced users in this part of the forum - many of whom are very eager to help teach others various techniques on many aspects of this whole subject - from modeling to UV Mapping to applying materials to rigging to animation, lighting and rendering, etc.,
A great way to learn is to dig in and gather experience!
Do you have experience in any of the activities listed above? Did I miss an important aspect? Do you have questions about any of this? That's what this thread is for!
Come on in, make yourselves comfortable, and spill your thoughts or questions!
* A club like this could really benefit from a Story Group, if we have any aspiring writers out there
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Comments
All projects have a beginning somewhere. The most recent beginning of this club began with these projects:
A long time ago, Mike has started a similar idea called the Community Carrara Movie Project. Plenty of discussion has evolved around the project and can make for quite an interesting read. A consolidation of this forum's threads for that project is here:
► The Carrara Community Movie Project
Topic Navigation of This Thread
To help navigate through some of the discussions which must take place, I'll occassionally add links to the topics and areas of interest in this post - sort of like a Table of Contents sort of thing. As (and if) the thread grows, I'll likely post copies of the table in more current pages to help those whom follow the thread.
Also check out wgdjohn's thread:
Animation in Carrara - Let's Animate - Q&A - Come One & All
There is also a thread regarding the Carrara Animation Club in the Art Studio forum Here
Update - This has been resolved Here
Some of us are currently in the works of planning a convenient and free method for hosting files for the club, allowing for a depository - a collection - so that various elements may be downloaded for individual projects.
We'd like to store 3D objects, Scenes, Shaders....
We'd need the system to allow for any of our club members the ability to contribute to the collection
Mentioned already are ideas around looking to see if there's such a thing as a group ShareCG membership plan, as well as Google Docs
Any other ideas?
isn't that what Carrara Cafe was for?
You're right Wendy,. ..I think the downloads page over there could do with more stuff, it's a bit skimpy.
maybe a good idea to get hold of jetbird and work out how to add to those.
Perfect!
I would like to contribute there, but Carrara Cafe is the lost cause, I cannot login there or register, gallery I uploaded is gone and JetBird is nowhere to be found, unfortunatelly...
I could help him menage it, all he needs to do is to ask
Bummer. Plus we need to have the ability for anyone to upload whenever. We all have different working times since we all life on different parts of the globe - I think.
Lol, finally, 24 hours later I got email from Carrara Cafe about by request for password change, so I'm in, my previous gallery was all deleted and it is slow as an apple pie
Google Drive has 15gb of free space, I don't know if other people can upload to it or not but I find it convenient so far.
You've gotten further than I ever have. I have managed to sign in there once, long enough to create an account, and have never successfully signed in again. When I try to reset my password it just errors out or does nothing at all. Every couple months I give it another try.
Dart, I forgot to say that your first post here was very good and thorough about what we want to do.
I just created a new folder at google drive and uploaded a file(3dage's creepy tree file) to this folder. If people here want to test this folder and see if they can upload files to it,see the folder and download what is there that would be great.
Here is the link to the folder.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-aBvxIlPU5GWmdaTXNMNmpIbjg
Sweet! It led me to a page stating that I need permission, and asks if I want to send a request - so I sent a request! That's cool!
I mean, we don't want robots or any walk of life from who knows where screwing up your drive, right? If only club members have access (aside from downloading via a public link), that should be perfect, don't you think?
Thanks for being willing to be the guinea pig!
Thanks - I'm glad. Now I just hope it sounds interesting enough to generate some interest! ;)
Mike, I needed to create an account for Google/Drive in hopes of getting the file. Did that but somehow it thinks my email is at GMail. Perhaps it created a GMail account for me also... then it still said I needed Permission so I expect you will be getting an email, possibly 2, to grant me access. Thought I'd better warn you.
Okay , I sent the permissions to the 2 of you. If this is all that needs to be done then that is okay. If you want to upload a small test file to this folder that would be great.
Mike, Just uploaded my signpost without the tmap... just plain white sign. Let me know if it shows up.
access request sent Mike :)
Well done for setting that up .
I'm like most of you when it comes to the Cafe,. Loging in was an issue,. Jetbird was very helpful,. but,... i gave up.
for me, this is the home of Carrara,.even though it's neglected and lives under the stairs.
It's a nicely laid out forum, relatively easy to navigate,. although i'm just realising that "messages" can be viewed using the little cog (top right) in the forum pages,. ...not in my account inbox,. anyway,. now I know,. learning all the time.,... and apologies to anyone who sent a message and got no reply.
Works!!! I've just uploaded the rigged version of FithElement's Kitty! ;)
Please (someone without permissions granted) try this link to see if you can download FifthElement's Cat
I get a "No Preview available" warning from the link, but yes, I can download it.
Sweet. Dropbox does the No Preview thing too... as long as we can access the files is the important thing! ;)
Happy = Me!!!
Thanks TangoAlpha! I appreciate the test!
S/hes a very cute kitty.
Absolutely! I still haven't tried playing with it, but I will very soon. I might even use him in my production. And I'll definitely give FifthElement credit any and every time I use any of his wonderful works of art - and that goes for everyone. I love having this kind of talent on my side!
I'd like to also go back and include the stuff from the CCMP, like Mike's rigged guy, 3DAGE and Roygee's watches and such... I don't want to overstep my bounds or pile in stuff that isn't necessary, so maybe we should just use it as we 'need' to for now - after all, it's not my account.
Hey guys,
For the people who are testing the google drive Test folder could someone with permissions try and create a new folder within the test folder . If this is possible I think this is a viable option to host our assets ,15gb is a fair size and we could always create a new gmail address and get another 15gb. I wasn't planning on using my own google drive for this , just testing it out to see if it was viable with my google drive.
So, should I sign up for a gmail address for the ACCU? If you guys think it will work I will sign up and set up the page. Let me know.
Im re-thinking./
maybe all we need is to have our own personal spaces (what we have now) with dropbox or google drive,. but we can simply collect all the links to those assets in one page within the forum ,.. I'm not sure if that's viable, or just an admin job for some unlucky sod,. since (i think) only the thread creator can edit the thread.
a thread with all the links to all the assets, would need to be updated after every project.
3dage, Google docs wasn't bad and is similar to what you are saying . For the bang animation that we did a couple of months back everyone put there models in the hosting site of their choice and we collected the Links on a bunch of Google Doc pages. Anyone could edit the page to add links etc. I will post a link to the page in a bit if you didn't see it before, you should still be able to add,edit what is there. .
Okay , here is a link to the modeling assets page that we had. You(anyone) should be able to add links to their models.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14GRcN5l7Tg_LuxUq4eeNHRspzwnMjw2_mLfdyzRhWVk/edit
Thanks Mike,. :)
that's what i was after,. you've got it aleady,.
sorted.
To test, I've just added a new folder: "Environmental Props"
It worked. I was going to drag in the Creepy Trees and the Signpost, and it'll let me do that. But then anyone with a current link address to the item would then have a broken link. But it does work and, like all of the Google stuff I've tried, is pretty easy to work with ;)
Cool, Now we need someone to come up with a list of folders that make sense and well thought out. It sould be easy to locate anything quickly if one looses there way. Hmm... can subfolders be created also... excuse me I too often get carried away with subflolders. If a folder structure is created it should be rather easy... similar to Carrara but not as complicated as some DS catagories. Something simple would be "Transport" which would have subfolders for Land, Sea and Space. Perhaps there might be another folder for stuff to use in a future project... "Prop Room" or "Pantry" for things either not used in a project.
I'd better stop myself before I start to ramble.
VFX INSPIRATION - A YouTube Playlist
In my pursuit to create my own animated productions I've been studying various related fields - since I'm trying to do all of this all by myself, with only occassional help from actors and professional studio recording and stuff like that.
One of these fairly recent studies was Visual Effects for Filmmakers, which I'm still studying at the time of this writing.
As a fun bit of inspiration to help keep my inner gears working smoothly, I've started compiling a playlist on YouTube of various documentaries and featurettes regarding How Movie Magic is Made. While it may not all relate directly to the art of Visual Effects*(see below), I've still decided to call the playlist: "VFX Inspiration", but it could easily be changed to Filmmaking Inspiration or something similar.
How I use the Playlist
Although we can easily just click on Play All, YouTube playlists can be started anywhere within the list, and cycle back through to the beginning once the end is reached. So I often just open the list by clicking the title of the list instead of clicking the thumbnail or the Play All button, and scroll down to the subject that is on my mind at the time. Sometimes I'm not sure where I want to start until I browse for a while.
Once I get to where I want to start, I get my Carrara machine rendering, get my household chores done, grab some snacks and a beverage, and click on the feature I want to start with.
Conveniently, when the currently watched show is not in Full Screen mode, the list appears on the right so we can click on other chapters at any time. I mention all of this because some of the videos in this playlist are feature movie length - over an hour. So sometimes it's nice to skip over those. I keep those in the list because I really like the inspiration and education I get from watching them.
So if you're in the mood to watch some Behind the Scenes filmmaking techniques, get your Carrara machine rendering its batch queue, finish your chores and supper, grab some snacks and a beverage, kick back and enjoy some VFX Inspiration!
* Visual Effects are created in Post Production while Special Effects are performed during the filming process. How does this relate to us, in Carrara? I woulld say that Visual Effects' definition remains the same - effects created in Post, while Special Effects would be rendered animation footage. Some special effects might take place directly in the same renders as the scenes they belong in, while others might be rendered in Alpha or some other separate render process to be applied in Post, using Vissual Effects techniques. So while the filmmaking industry does have a clear definition between the two, Visual Effects and Special Effects can often rely on each other to get the job done.
ILM - Industrial Light and Magic - Creating the Impossible
A six-part series, this documentary hears from several top filmmakers regarding the creation of ILM and how it changed the industry of making films
Movie Magic - A Discovery Channel Series
The first episode aired in 1994 - I currently have 18 episodes in the list. It's a wonderful show covering a vast variety of movie making effects and how they're made. Being from that era, this is still mostly relying on actual film shot from cameras, making it very interesting to see how differently things had to be done. These concepts really help to illustrate how we can do things digitally - the exception being that we have it much easier and more cost effective by far.
The Harryhausen Chronicles
Ray Harryhausen - the Master of stop-motion clay miniature animation. This six-part series is truly a delight to watch. No tweeners in this old-school technique, which is still quite popular today, even by young artists pursuing a life as a filmmaker. This series is like a stroll through a fantasy film museum! ;)
There are a few more series of behind the scenes features and techniques as well as Making Of featurettes for specific movies, like Jurassic Park, Terminator, Game of Thrones, Avatar, and more.
VFX for Anonymous
This is a really short (6 minutes) stroll through the GPU-produced Visual Effects of the movie: Anonymous - all done in Fusion, then owned by Eyeon software, now BlackMagic Design, whom offers personal versions of the software for free!!!
This short video is truly awe-inspiring and just plain stunning. But it also shows how we can truly make our own movies using Carrara - even though they're not.
I have a few Star Wars things in here, though I've tried hard to not go overboard. I know I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but I watch their behind the scenes literally all the time. So I've only included a few that I feel are incredibly valuable and interesting for this topic.
The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Panel
This discussion panel from SW Celebration Europe 2016 is highly entertaining to me. It goes through so much thought process and methods of determining how to and what to do when creating art for movies from concept to production. These folks truly are the greats!
Star Wars Within A Minute
This awesome documentary takes us on a jouney through what it took to make less than one minute of footage in Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. From start to finish, through each department - all the people neccessary for a scene which literally only lasts less than one minute in the theater! Again... this is the real deal. These folks are great at what they do - like Star Wars or not!
I'll likely be adding more to this playlist as I find cool new pieces. I've seen a LOT of different videos along these lines. Some of them are great, but I just didn't want them in this list for some reason or another. I have other playlists already made, others that I haven't made yet, and I also see playlists that are already made and save them so they can be found in my Playlists section at the bottom.
My Beautiful, Wonderful, Treasure of a Wife likes watching good ol' regular TV. I'm not entirely sure why I don't care for it, but I don't. So I gather these resources and watch this stuff instead - all in the direction of going from knowing absolutely nothing about filmmaking to actually feeling comfortable with the idea that I'll be producing my own shows very shortly here.
So when I'm just kicking back - relaxing, more times than not it's from one of my many saved or created playlists ;)