I have started work on my 2nd short film tentatively titled “Tripping”. I’ve received so much useful feedback from my first short film “Theevan” and realised I made so many mistakes, which is probably why the film is being badly hounded on YouTube! I have no real experience whatsoever in filmmaking and 3D and my goal is really to make this film a little better than “Theevan”. It’s a more a learning process and not really an attempt at making a serious short film.
The film will be a light-hearted comedy about a man who has been offered a job and how he tries not to make a fool of himself in front of his boss. It’s based on a short film I saw as a kid but modified heavily. It should be enjoyable to watch if everything goes to plan.
I will be using Cycles for rendering, Daz3D for the main characters and Blender for everything else. The project will mostly be done in my spare time so I can focus on my Engineering studies. I’m hoping to release the film in 6 months and I’ll continue to post regularly here…
Here are my main characters for the film. I didn’t do any of the modelling whatsoever. They are Daz3D characters which were imported via COLLADA format. I did only the conversion of the materials into Cycles materials.
Next, I plan on rigging the characters and giving them a number of shapekeys.
I’ve now started work on the hotel reception area. This is what I have so far. I still feel like I’m missing something. Apart from the missing humans in the scene, is there anything else I can add to the scene?
Thanks 3DUnlimited! I’ve added in some vases on the counter as well as the wooden pallet things near the counter as well as the sign. I’ve also added in some chairs.
Also, started work on rigging some of the characters and also have used khuuyj’s face bone tool (sites.google.com/site/khuuyjblend/home/blender/script/face-bone-tool) which makes facial rigging of characters easy and quick. Here is samples of the expressions I created in 5 minutes with the boss character:
this looks, pretty good so far, nice characters, visually well realised location. are you sure your the same guy who produced “Theevan”? lol. seriously, you’ve already stepped up a lot from your first film. great work.
^ Lol, yes I made Theevan. I realised how badly rushed that film was. Hopefully now that there’s no deadline or any other requirement, I can work on this project at my own pace!
I just am amazed Theeevan got like 20000 views. How did you pull that off? I have a great respect for what you did – But I can see why it was reviewed like it was. But everyone has to start somewhere. And I agree with Small Troll – you have upped your game. Though this time, skin that is under clothing – get rid of. There is absolutely no need for skin under clothing to be included.
@daren, thanks for the comment! Regarding the views, I actually didn’t do any promoting or anything. Some of the people who saw the film posted it in a number of popular forums such as 4chan, somethingawful.com and facepunch. That’s where most of the views have been coming I suppose. It was discussed quite heavily and even if the discussions were sarcastic and sometimes downright hilarious, I was able to learn a lot what I did wrong.
It’s still a learning process for me though and I’m bound to make more mistakes but I hope can minimize it as much as possible.
With the skin under cloth, this time around I remembered to delete all the vertices that aren’t shown. Thanks for that!
Update: I’ve now finished the rigging of the assistant character and the shape keying is almost nearly done. I’m following the CGCookie tutorial by David Ward to create the shape keys for the face. Still working on the other 2 characters.
Also started work on the interior and exterior elevator scenes. Here are the shots that I’ve made so far with 35 samples. I’ve also played a bit with the compositor. The exterior elevator scene needs more work. It’s missing up and down buttons and lighting I think could be further improved.
yes the light appears to be too strong on the exterior. a;so it is quite a wide shot with a lot of empty space at the walls perhaps move the camera closer so you crop off about half the blankness on either side or perhaps add some subtle interest like pictures on the walls or even a simple litter bin to one side.
also rather than deleting vertices that are hidden under clothing it may be better to use a mask modifier to hide them. because once they are deleted, it will be really annoying if you decide to re use the character in a situation where he needs to remove his clothes, like on a beach. it may not be relevent to this movie but characters should be re useable, like real actors
Now starting work on the exterior of the hotel. I still need to add things like a balcony and a small rooftop as well as some extra elements on the building. This is the starting scene of the movie where the main character walks into the hotel.
Here is another render with some basic outdoor lighting (added the curved part of the building by duplicating the main wall and using the curve modifier)
I’ve now finished the hotel modelling. Added the balconies, rooftop, side part as well as textured the whole building. The image has a bit of compositing also.
You’re firing on all eight cylinders here. Looks good. Surprised to see the portrait beside the elevator unless you want to convey that the character is full of himself, which the portrait elegantly does.
And as far as “Theevan” goes… I just encountered it, and just watched it, and even though it is (as you know) stuffed with technical errors and shortcomings, it is nevertheless a complete film of short-feature length with very interesting story, good lighting (I like the overall and consistent color temperature), creative cinematography and fine editing. It actually lets you look through all the warts and thoroughly enjoy the show, which I just did. :yes:
