Idea for a fan flim/animation. Requesting help.

[Soran77]

Hey guys,
I'm a regular on the fan art forum,

I have this Idea for a fan film/animation to pair along with the Axanar Movie. It will be a short film, 20 mins tops. Here is my idea.

When the Axanar battle starts, the klingons begin there attack, they are flooding the system with ships. A small celestial body in the axanar system is where this takes place, with only 5 ships defending a small mining outpost. These ships are old, But the commander of the task force is a seasoned veteran. When the battle begins the commander sens out a couple of bait ships to draw the klingons in.. as they come in following the two bait ships he puts something over open comm frequencies. It's the trooper overture, and the klingons can hear it, confused they continue their advance. Mean while the commander has a surprise waiting, when the song hits a certain note 8 more ships appear and flank the advancing klingons. The battle is intense, and in the end the task force destroys 5 D4 cruisers.

What do you think? I can build the ships in sketchup, but I need help with interior animations/ voice overs, and space animations.

 

[Karzak]

 

[Soran77]

Yes it sounds dumb, but the idea had been in my head for a while :P

 

[Maurice]

So you're going to do your own version of the Axanar battle, unrelated to the other film? Is that the idea?

 

[Bixby]

You do realize a 20 minute animated film takes an experienced crew about 9 months working full-time, right? By one person, you're probably setting yourself up for a commitment of a few years...

 

[Barbreader]

What type of animation do you have in mind? There are simple engines, like Go!Animate, there are machinima productions, there are more complex engines, and there is original 3D animation, and there are undoubtedly dozens more. Simple 2D animation using an existing engine will still require a huge amount of work building characters and backgrounds, but the 3D would be much more work.

If you want it to be somehow interrelated with the live action Axanar fan film, I strongly suggest you just work on the backgrounds and characters until that film is released, so you can interact with the 'facts' in it.

 

[northstar]

Sorry, but this sounds like a joke to me.

If it is not - write a script first. Then rewrite it. Then rewrite it. Inbetween, try to model a decent ship in Sketchup. Then throw it away, get a real 3D program and learn that. After a few months of learning you might be able to build a real decent ship.

 

[Kor]

A couple ideas: First, do a solid story treatment with a good narrative structure, and develop it into a script. Also, make sure it's about people and not just ships (make the audience care).

Or you could do the whole thing as an abstract "Samurai Jack" kind of thing purely for visual effect. Twenty minutes would be a bit much for one battle, though.

Kor

 

[Soran77]

Well I've never done a fan film before.. So I'm New to it.. Wow, the people over in the fan art sub forum are a lot nicer.. But you know, I'll leave you to your exclusive club and stick behind the scenes building the models..

 

[Soran77]

Sorry, but this sounds like a joke to me.

If it is not - write a script first. Then rewrite it. Then rewrite it. Inbetween, try to model a decent ship in Sketchup. Then throw it away, get a real 3D program and learn that. After a few months of learning you might be able to build a real decent ship.

Please tell that to warped9. I'm sure he can school you, sketchup is a real 3D modeling program, some amazing stuff comes out of it.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Stick in there Soran77. I'm afraid I can't help when it comes to animation but if you ever do this I'll be happy to volunteer to help with voice work.

My advice to you, is focus on crafting an interesting story and work from there.

 

[Kor]

Well I've never done a fan film before.. So I'm New to it.. Wow, the people over in the fan art sub forum are a lot nicer.. But you know, I'll leave you to your exclusive club and stick behind the scenes building the models..

I don't think anyone was trying to make you feel personally excluded.

Perhaps certain comments could have benefited from a little more tact, but that's typical for an online forum.

Many times an idea for a fan movie production is focused on the technology, visuals, and gadgets, rather than the story, which is at the very heart of this kind of creative endeavor.

When I was studying TV production in college, we would come up with all this great, cool-looking stuff we wanted to do with the camera and in editing. But the professor would always stop us and ask, "What's your story?"

If brilliant visual concepts are developed first, and then a story is put together as an afterthought to join the visual sequences together, the narrative will suffer. It's interesting on a purely visual level for about two minutes, but it doesn't make for a story that people care about and want to keep watching.

Narrative structure is vital to making a compelling and entertaining piece, whether you are producing a feature film, an hour-long TV episode, a live-action vignette, a documentary, an animated short, or a commercial; or writing a novel, biography, short story, etc.

It's easy to overlook these things out of sheer joy and enthusiasm for the production tools and process. A craftsman undoubtedly loves the process of crafting. But the tools and processes shouldn't be the main thing; they should be focused toward realizing a story that has already been well-developed.

Kor

 

[USS Intrepid]

Nicely put Kor. Wish I'd said it as well.

 

[Barbreader]

Well I've never done a fan film before.. So I'm New to it.. Wow, the people over in the fan art sub forum are a lot nicer.. But you know, I'll leave you to your exclusive club and stick behind the scenes building the models..

You chose to ignore my question, and focused on other comments, so I can only offer you the most general kind of help.

If you've never done a fan film before, you might find the collection of links under Section 1, Making Fan Trek, useful: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/249.html . Some of them are links to particular threads in this forum. Some of those threads are more oriented toward live action films, but some of the advice is universal.

When the film is released, if you are so kind as to contact me, I will add a link to it to my collection of links to existing, ready-to-watch Star Trek Fan Films at Star Trek Reviewed, and even give it a Headline to draw attention to its release.

And FYI, they some of the people here are very helpful, but some are here to enjoy throwing muck. I think you'll find that the helpful people are worth the wade through the muck.

 

[Butch]

Animation is a tricky affair, especially 3d animation. As stated, you first have to decide exactly what type of animation you want to use. There's a few choices out there and that is going to determine how long it's going to take to make a film or episode if you decide on a series.
Using some of these animation software programs requires not only building sets and ships, but making your character models. On many, you then have to key in the movements, step by step. There are some alternative programs but many don't have the ability to mod your characters. Go-Animate no longer carries the Trek characters and others such as the one I use, no longer releases a version that you can mod.
Using 2d animation is easier to use and there are many programs that you can mod your characters. As stated previously, in any case, time will be a factor.
A story line as stated is needed that will capture an audience. There has to be a reason for tuning in. Piggybacking on an existing fan made show might be welcomed so you might want to check with those producing the show.
That's my 2 cents from a hobby animator.

 

[martok2112]

The program I favor for CG animation, iClone, has a pretty intuitive means of animating.. you can lay down paths before animating, or you can position your prop or character at key points and then create a path from that, then add in animation as necessary.

Also, iClone has apparently really improved on its light sourcing capabilities, and the results I've seen from other users have been pretty breath taking. Still not Pixar quality, but damn good still. iClone animates both characters and props, and has a pretty fast render time, even in 1080p output. I'd look into this program, Soran. It's what I've used before, and what I'll be using when I get my new computer.

 

[Barbreader]

If you are still here, I will also mention that you can set users on block. I can attest that once you are sure somebody's most useful remarks are no better than failing to launch a meaningless attack, you can improve your experience by blocking them.

 

[Butch]

I forgot about iClone.... I always get that and, I think it's Poser, mixed up. I had looked into iClone years ago and was scared away with the tasks needed to move a character. Is it Poser that the characters look like they worked out in the gym?

 

[martok2112]

iClone's characters improve with each generation. And their custom character creator for iClone 6 PRO looks like an advanced version of something inspired by video games that let you mold the look of your character.

You can have well built characters, average builds, overweight builds, and everywhere in between it seems.

iClone's animation system also, at least to myself and to other veteran users, is pretty intuitive. There are also tons of premade animations for the iClone characters that you can modify and save as a new animation, if you don't feel like creating a brand new animation. Also, iClone supports mocap via Kinect. (You have to buy an add on for it--besides the Kinect)-- but I've heard decent things about it.

iClone can also use characters made in DAZ 3D.

 

[Butch]

Interesting, thanks for the info.
I've been using Xtranormal for my little hobby production and it would be prudent to have a back up software to use down the road. I had looked at quite a few and the learning curve seemed very long back then. We're talking 4 or 5 years ago, which in software terms, is a life time.
Again, thanks.