some wishes for animation :)

[epinox]

well let me first present to you my first animation

http://rapidshare.com/files/22789518/villa.avi

The most needed request of mine is the output images in tiff format. I tried a lot but i couldnt extract the alpha(Also gave a lot of time renaming them with the numbers at the end for numbered stills [god bless rename programs :P] ) from the origional render in Adobe Premiere.

I didnt suceeded in putting a background for my animation for inside. Since i couldnt used alpha i paint bucket'ed all of the outdoor scenes frame by frame with gray...


ps for Joe; waitin for the animation bug to fix for the fast renders with secondary bounces :P It would be faster and more natural when it fixed (lookin forward to it :P)

[dalomar_cg]

Re: some wishes for animation

First I want to congratulate you on getting this animation done. I know you've put a lot of work into it, and there have been several issues along the way. Its done, so now all thats left is to do it again . Just joking on that one, but animation is allot of fun so I'm sure you'll be doing more in the future.

So now to the nitty gritty. First of all you could use either Targas or Pngs as both of those formats support integrated alphas. I don't think the tiffs are a bad idea, but there is a solution in our current setup. Also I'm sure vray saved out all the alpha channels as a separate file. In after affects (and maybe premiere I'm not sure) you can load that sequence and then use that for the alpha rather than painting it yourself. I guess your not too familiar with video editing, but a little time in learning how to comp in an alpha sequence is probably time well spent.

As far as the video itself there are a few things that I think could be improved. First of all, did you use Gamma correction for you sequences. I ask because the shadows are very dark, and using Gamma correction would help that. If its just because of the lack of secondary bounce, the that is understandable. With the video as a whole, I think having the whole animation as one camera path is not really working well for several reasons. First of all because the whole movie is one path there are several times when you fly though things like doors or walls. This isn't really good, and generally should try to be avoided if possible. It you had a series of paths you could have one path come up to the door, and another pick up just on the other side for example. Secondly, having one hole sequence also can be very disorienting when going up stairs or turning around in a tight room. The camera has to make a lot of quick sudden moves to get out of those situations which takes away from the space that you just saw. Besides if you cut those out, then there are less frames to render. Also having different sequences allow you to make the spaces flow together. Rather than having to watch the process of moving from place to place, you can just be there, and this will help the spaces of the house seem more cohesive.

Doing the movie as separate paths is going to be a bit of an undertaking. First of all each path is going to require a separate file. And second your going to have to take some time to learn a bit more of premiere. Simple transitions (fading from one sequence to another) are actually pretty simple, so it won't take that long and it will be much better for it in the end.

Lastly I think you need more pages. Because those are the only way you can control the camera movements, the more you have the better off you will be. Start with the most important ones and add more as you need to refine the movements. Some of the movements are just a little to jerky.

Good job and I'm sure this won't be the last animation you'll do. I would like to know some of the render times for each frame, and about how many frames the sequence wound up being. Also were there any crashes or anything?

[epinox]

Re: some wishes for animation

well firstly u are right about making seperate paths and putting them all together with transitions: i will definetly try that next time

The doors and sudden changes of the direction of movement were not easy on the eye; i should have put more pages as you said.

render time for each frame generally variated from 1 min to 2.5 min changing due to the complexity of the materials my pc needed to render. I created an irmap with main lights and then created irmap of lights with less intensity; after i just merged them with the program you sent(thanx )

I used 20 frames per second (my standart:P) I think it is total 2 min animation. I rendered the animation in 4 different parts (you can notice that the roses on the back of the villa suddenly become floverless :P at one point) The reason for 4 parts was that at some point TEMP folder gets full and sketchup gives an error and shuts down the aplication with an error message (maybe you can add a "clear temp folder" option at the error message for continuing the render- i know i ask to much )

I think adobe premiere provides less options when compared with adobe after effects; so i will try and use after effects (if it is installed at my university's computer lab ) I used premiere once to rotoscope my lightsaber before putting together this animation...

One thing i tried for nearly a day was to make the door open when i aproach the entrance but i couldnt do it so due to the lack of time i just went trough the main entrance :P

the exterior of the villa is rendered without saving a irmap(and without shadows because of the darker corners you mentioned)


Thanks for helping Dalomar
I couldnt do the video without your help
Onur


ps. hitting the door and going trought the wall upstairs became an funny mistake in my animation. every time i show it to someone, they lean their head in order to avoid hitting the door :P

[dalomar_cg]

Re: some wishes for animation

One thing i tried for nearly a day was to make the door open when i aproach the entrance but i couldnt do it so due to the lack of time i just went trough the main entrance

The method that I showed you actually won't work for moving geometry, so that fact that you couldn't get it to move is actually a blessing in disguise. If you had there would have been artifacts like crazy.

ps. hitting the door and going trought the wall upstairs became an funny mistake in my animation. every time i show it to someone, they lean their head in order to avoid hitting the door

I tilted my head too. ;D

[epinox]

Re: some wishes for animation

The method that I showed you actually won't work for moving geometry, so that fact that you couldn't get it to move is actually a blessing in disguise. If you had there would have been artifacts like crazy.

Yeah i know; the irradience map wouldnt have the calculations. I would render the openning of the door apart from the whole animation with single map mode on and then i would insert it while editing the video

I tilted my head too. ;D

that makes 13 with you :P