13 minute BSG animation

Fretslayer · August 24th, 2009, 09:01 PM

So here it is.

I didn't want to post the link in my other thread because I didn't know if anybody would see it there. If you're looking at this and you've not checked out my other comment, please take a look at it as it explains what this file is.

I know it's a WIP thing but since this video file is abandoned it's not ever going to have more progress, so in a way I guess it's both a finished bit and a WIP.
LOL!

Ok a couple of things again.
I know it's rough but I almost no experience in animating when I made this.
Also I did this before I had After Effects so the composite stuff isn't that great.
There are a thousand flaws and I know them all very well (LOL) and that is part of why I never thought this file would be seen outside of my little group of friends who I have doing the voice acting for 'BSG-3D'.

I had to use WMV compression on this in order to make is so that the ppl I needed to show it to were able to view it without needing to download a codec. When I compressed it to WMV it knocked the audio off a bit which is really only noticeable during speaking scenes but it also hurt the video quality a bit. This video isn't meant to be placed next to something where somebody (or team of somebodies) did a professional job.

I'm just one guy with one computer.

Again, I had no plans on sharing this but after a couple of friends kept poking me with a stick, I broke and so here it is.

I hope you are entertained and I assure you that when 'BSG-3D' is done and ready for me to share, it's going be awesome. So think of this sort of like a 'demo tape' of an album.

Enough of my blabbering.
Here's a link to the file.
I couldn't upload it to YouTube because it's over 10 minutes in running time.

https://www.qdrive.net/download/shar...bxsGdN3tnD4rpX

David Kerin · August 25th, 2009, 04:08 PM

Hey there Fret...

Downloaded and looked through quickly before leaving for work this morning. That was great! We need more BSG fanfilm projects out there. Love the slow motion/segemented fall of the warrior at the end. Have to watch it again now that I don't have to run off to work. This kind of stuff gives me more excitement and encouragement to finish my project. That's one of the things I've loved about Fleets, the sharing of creativity helps spark ideas in your own mind and get you pushing forward. At least that's how its been for me.

Gotta get me some of those 3d glasses too! I have FIOS so I'll check into ordering some.

gmd3d · August 26th, 2009, 01:54 AM

just DL it ,.. great work and nice to see a model of mine been used / thanks for that

Gerard

Kronus · August 26th, 2009, 07:22 AM

What a great fan film! Dude, I know there are imperfections but it is still a great effort. It is fan films like this one that inspires lunk heads like me to get to learning more about my animation programs and get mine out there too.

Man, why can't I hit that lottory so I can get the time to do something like this?! Sheeesh!

Well I am glad your friends put a laser to your head and made you post this.

Darrell Lawrence · August 26th, 2009, 09:43 AM

Pretty cool

Regarding the credits- That Viper reminds me of H Gibbons Viper. Probably his.

Fretslayer · August 26th, 2009, 01:16 PM

I've been sitting on this thing for a couple of years.
Going back -n- forth over if I should release it or not. I mean, I know it has some serious issues and really, I didn't think it was worthy of putting out there. This is literally what I cut my 'Carrara Teeth' on. I had almost no idea what I was doing.

The total time I spent on this was roughly 5-6 months. At the time I hadn't been thinking and as a result I was rendering to video file instead of image stream. That is why some of the shots are 'clunky' when it comes to the pixels. I didn't have 'Crossdresser' during part of that and that's why there are shots where ppl are wearing just leather jackets and not Warrior's BSG jacket. My figures were made from the Daz M3SR2 and the P4 jacket didn't work on it. Eventually (as you can see by the final few shots) I was able to convert the P4 jacket to work with an M3 figure.

Most (about 80%) of this was done in Carrara Pro 6. The exploding ships were done in Max with a mesh-bomb and a few other shots were done in Lightwave.

Since I didn't have anything that looked like the landing bay of a Basestar I used a mech-factory.

I think it worked. LOL!!!

The good thing is this - From what I learned by doing that old project I've arrived at the place where I am today and my current animations are a 100x better than this. I mention that because I am currently working on a 45 minute aniated BSG short that I'll be releasing in two versions. Version 1 will be standard. Version 2 will be 3D and if my test shots are any indication, it's going to be a killer.

Here's a real short version of the story - While fleeing Cylon tyranny (still!) the fleet finds itself in an area where a star goes nova. The radiation from that event causes problems aboard the agro-ship and the food supplies rendered poisonous. The Galactica sends out scouts to locate fruit bearing trees and animals. It's during that time that some of the scouts find a hidden human town on a planet. The Colonial pilots end up loading up their shuttle with the goods and an interesting new piece of hardware they received from a group of locals. On their way back to the Galactica they're jumped by Cylons, the shuttle is taken aboard the Basestar and the shuttle crew thrown into the clink. That is when the shuttle crew discover there is a large number of human hostages on board. The shuttle commander breaks out, makes his way back to the shuttle and contacts the Galactica. During the conversation a plan is hatched to use the device from the locals (which turns out to have an EMP effect) and a rescue mission is set up. For the rest, you'll just have to wait.

Thanks to each of you for taking the time to view the file and post some feedback.
It really appreciate it and as much as it might be cool for the model builder to see their model used, it's that cool for me to have you say I did good with it. So, Thanks.

martok2112 · August 26th, 2009, 05:29 PM

Dan, that was cool as hell!

Nice set pieces. Especially loved that first transport we saw with the off-set cockpit.

Great work! And kudos to everyone who created the models.

Titon · August 27th, 2009, 06:09 AM

Great job on this.

It was fun to watch.

gmd3d · August 27th, 2009, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titon

Great job on this.

It was fun to watch.

yes I totally agree having the character elements lifts it above only Space scenes (Which are normally great of course as that all I have been able to do)
almost started biting my nails near the end

Well done Dan.

monolith21 · August 28th, 2009, 12:47 AM

That was fun!

billy-home · August 29th, 2009, 02:24 PM

Great stuff, that's the first time I've ever seen my Centurion animated, you seem to get him to move pretty well considering how badly modeled the legs are, I really need to update the legs, to make walk cycles a bit easier to make.

Cheers

Billy

Fretslayer · October 30th, 2009, 09:07 AM

First off, thanks people for having a look at this.
It's pretty rough in some areas but it was my fist crack at it.

The "BSG-CG3D" is going to flat out whomp this thing into the cyber-dirt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by billy-home

Great stuff, that's the first time I've ever seen my Centurion animated, you seem to get him to move pretty well considering how badly modeled the legs are, I really need to update the legs, to make walk cycles a bit easier to make.

Cheers

Billy

Thank YOU for building and sharing the mesh.
I've had no real issues with it regarding animations.
It's a real nice mesh and takes to my walkcycles quite well.
The only thing I'd change is to make that cloth morph-able so it can remain on the mesh during the walk and not have 'poke through'.
Other than that, Dude - that Centurion rocks. Really.

For 'BSG-CG3D' I'm using it again as well as Dodger's one.
I like to use stuff made by as many artists a possible so that I can show off the hard work the model builders put into their meshes. Its my way of giving something back the the community - if that makes sense.

I have a live action-Cg project that I'm wrapping up soon (hopefully!) and then I'll be free to go back to 'BSG-CG3D' and if all goes well, I should have a trailer cut within the next couple of months. When I am ready to do that, I'll do my best to contact each of the artists who's work I've used and let them see it first.

Again, thanks and all of that stuff!

billy-home · November 11th, 2009, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fretslayer

Thank YOU for building and sharing the mesh.
I've had no real issues with it regarding animations.
It's a real nice mesh and takes to my walkcycles quite well.
The only thing I'd change is to make that cloth morph-able so it can remain on the mesh during the walk and not have 'poke through'.
Other than that, Dude - that Centurion rocks. Really.

That's another thing I need to fix, the back cloth is actually dynamic, but it doesn't seem to work properly, or at least I don't seem to be able to make it work, (I'm not very good with that side of Poser), and takes way too long to set up for animating, what I should do is make it conforming instead, with a big enough margin of space so there isn't any poke-through, and while I'm at it update those horrible legs, I'm glad you like it anyway, and are getting some use out of it, in fact, I've got a bit of free time over the next few weeks, (fingers crossed), I might just try and fix those problems, after all, after the amount of time I spent making the armour, and all the help folk gave me here with reference images, it would be a shame not to fix the problems that were left.

Cheers

Billy

Gold Cylon · November 28th, 2009, 11:17 AM

That was great. I just wish I knew more of the story line in what this mystery cargo is, but I am sure we will find out in time....I hope. Also the Warrior getting the rifle butt in the head was great. Had me laughing a bit. I am also glad you extended the eyes opening, and closing a few times. I didn't get it at first. Over all I like what you did, and how you presented it. Can't wait to see more.

Fretslayer · November 28th, 2009, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gold Cylon

That was great. I just wish I knew more of the story line in what this mystery cargo is, but I am sure we will find out in time....I hope. Also the Warrior getting the rifle butt in the head was great. Had me laughing a bit. I am also glad you extended the eyes opening, and closing a few times. I didn't get it at first. Over all I like what you did, and how you presented it. Can't wait to see more.

The animation (as it was presented in this old version) went through a bunch of revisions. It started off as just a simple shuttle launch/destruction to the bit with 'the package'. In the 1st version the package was an Alien egg (with facehugger ready to go all spidery on the Cylon lizardy-people-things) and then it ended up having BSG toys in it (which starts a fight with the 3rd centurion who gets stuck with a muffet toy) - From there the story took a serious turn and remains there still.

I don't want to say too much about it since it is going to be the backbone story for 'BSG-CG3D', however I will say this...

100% of the story will be 'new' animation and not one shot from this old abandoned version will appear in the final edit.
The shuttle commander turns out to be quite important.
The package contains an item of great power which will threaten the entire Cylon race.
Starbuck, Apollo and Boomer are the main characters.
...and Part of the fleet does not survive the story.

The project will be released in 'episodes'.
It will be 6 episodes, each of which will run 5 minutes.
The episodes will be released every other month over at BattlestarFanFilms.com

Once the final episode is released, a "Director's Cut" will be released which will take each 5 minute episode and extend it to 6 minutes, there will be an additional 6 minute episode edited into it and the entire thing will run as a single film instead of episodes.

Also, I am going to try and release it as 2 versions.

Version 1) Anaglyph 3D using the magenta/green glasses.
Version 2) Standard CG animation.

It is an ambitious project?
Yes.
Is it going to really happen?
Yes.

And it goes without saying (here at least) that every artist who's model is used in the film will be given full credit for their work and sites such as this one will be listed in the Thank You section of the credits.

Cool?