I did a quick search and found it here http://forum.reallusion.com/Topic167578-36-1.aspx As for feedback? The Klingon ships look nice, but not so sure about the cloud - it just looks a bit too solid, like a duvet or something. Still, I imagine gas is hard to do in 3-d modelling.
It suppose it never occurred to you to link your video directly in the post instead of link to another bbs forum which then links to YouTube? I would have offered a critique, but the "take my toys and go home" attitude precluded that.
The movement is nice, the lighting is ok, excellent work on the Klingon photons (but they dont stand up to close ups), the lighting effects on the V'Ger cloud firing and the timing with the musical score is good. Great effort on the V'Ger weapon too, that's a tough one to get and you got pretty close in some shots. The models are all too low poly and cant handle close ups, the V'Ger cloud in particular. The V'Ger cloud cant handle much of anything, its transparency and size are way off so that we see the whole thing in some shots and the poly edges and shapes are clearly defined. It's the thing that makes or breaks the scene, and its a real bugger to model and set up properly. The ships look fine from a distance, but that cloud needs a lot of work. Oh, and contrary to popular opinion the world doesn't owe you anything. If all you want is instant adulation you might want to post elsewhere.
I just saw the thread a few minutes ago... I don't think the Klingon ships hold up on close inspection, neither does the cloud or the digitalizing of the Klingon ships. Looks like a video-game representation of the events from the film. But it's still a Hell of a lot better than I could ever do.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDWgs2cnga0[/yt] A little patience would have been in order on your part. We all have lives outside of this forum. At least I do.
In the immortal words of Charlie Brown: "AUUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!" (remind me never to try a long post on an iPad ) Seeker, yeah, I guess I did come across like that, didn't I? I do apologize to all. Maurice, the link I initially posted (and did not change) was a direct link to my YouTube video. I do not (repeat do not) post links to other BBS's. To me, that is spamming, and last time I checked, that was a bannable offense on a lot of BBS's. I am grateful to those who actually did take the time out to offer their critiques...and yes, every single one of those critiques was spot on. The following is not intended to come across as sarcasm or even sardonism...just simple truth: Sadly, I do not have a render farm of 9 computers with 32GB per unit, nor movie quality modeling and effects apps. My budget just doesn't allow for that at this time. All this was done on one laptop with 8GB of RAM, on a program that only seems to allow for up to 4GB. That said: Yeah, it does look pretty video gamey at times, dunnit? I think, perhaps with the next version of iClone (the app I use to animate my ships) hopefully they'll have more refined texturing allowances. Also, this was shot in 1080p, so a lot is going to stand out. (That's why politicians hate hi-def tvs ) I am looking into getting this program called Hit Film 2 Ultimate, which can do effects light particles, lighting effects, and film grain to see if I can make the videos look a bit more "movie-like". Couldn't agree more, Axeman. I'm glad you liked certain shots, and I do see where other shots could use a bit more love. I'm glad you liked the distant shots of the photon torpedoes, and I am in complete agreement. I need to dull the contast on the torpedoes as they get closer to the camera. I had to make them as a physical (er...read, virtual) prop. Right now, iClone doesn't feature any kind of "bullet" effects app, so I had to construct and animate the props by mousehand. Will look into ways of refining the torpedo effects for close ups. V'ger is definitely a witch to work with. There is a video on YouTube (far superior to mine), by VideoSpaceFX, who managed to get a hold of a very nice looking V'ger cloud. I guess I'm a bit stubborn in that I prefer to build everything myself, even if it is flawed (like my V'ger) Ah...poly count....now admittedly, this is an aspect of Blender I've not quite learned to govern yet. On the Klingon command bowl, I did try to raise the subdivision to a point where there was a nice smoothness to it, but if I cranked it up too far, my poor little laptop (which is actually a gaming rig) would choke. Now my conversion app, 3DEXChange, tends to choke on models or components that reach up into the 4 MB range or higher, so I have to strike that balance of high detailed greebling, and memory. All my ships are built in assembled form in Blender, but then I have to port components of those ships over and reassemble them in iClone. The beauty of it is that if I build the model large enough in Blender, it will simply fall into place in iClone (as is probably the case when cross porting from any one 3D app to another). If you have any pointers on how to govern poly counts (which my Blender books and tutorials I've bought/viewed don't seem to cover), I am all eyes and ears. Oh, ho! (drops a few small rocks into a velvet glove and slaps Axeman across the chops with it) Forseeth! (to be continued...as I don't know the character count liimit on this forum)
T'girl, I strongly debated with myself over creating internal sets and shots for the sequence, but I will be building and using internal sets in future projects. My apologies again to everyone for my behavior. I now know the forum a little better, sadly smelling a bit worse for it. Here is the YOUTUBE link for my video (not another BBS) http://youtu.be/lVFL1GuVuCI
Hi Martok... I think it looks pretty good, especially after looking at iClone, and seeing that it is a real-time renderer, much like a video game engine. My question is this, though... obviously you understand Blender well enough to build nice models, so why don't you render everything there? I bet you would get better quality results, even if it did take longer to render. All of the videos on my site were rendered with Blender, with only a little bit of After Effects post-work. With my work-flow, I usually would set up everything, start it rendering, and go to bed. I even did a lot of that on my old quad-core box, with 3 GB of RAM. -Ricky
Hi, Ricky. Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I need to work more with Blender, and understand "unwrapping" of models, so that I could texture within Blender itself. What I do right now between Blender and iClone is a sort of "pre-un-wrap" (if that makes any sense). Essentially, I build the components in place in Blender. Like the port wing portion, for example.... it is consisted of the port upper section, the port mid-section, the port lower section, and the armor plating that goes on the upper and lower sections. As I import them into iClone, that is where I do my texturing, via UV wraps. Now, one thing really nice I learned about iClone (via the Enterprise refit rebuild that I recently did) is that I can expand the UV map from its typical 512x512 resolution, and bring it up to the dimensions of the shape in question....like quartering on the secondary hull. Then I can apply the texture image onto the UV map, and keep the UV map at its new resolution. The result I get is a clearer image on the component. If only there were quality photographic orthos out there that is at a high resolution per ship side. As it stands right now, my Enterprise's hull lights on the saucer section tend to blur at a distance, when they should look as distinct at long range as they do at close range. You're absolutely right too, about iClone rendering in real-time. I guess that was one of the things that attracted me to it so quickly. And I am hoping that iClone 6 will really ramp up the photorealism capability. But, yes, I do plan on learning Blender far better than I understand it right now. Take care, and thanks for the insights and kind words, Humbly, Martok2112 (Steve) P.S. Awesome avatar you have there. Disney's next movie after "Planes"...."Starships"