Bible Animations

   Now there is something everyone can relate to in some way. I've had a serious struggle with this over the Christmas and new year. I was really really irritated by how little I got done and felt like it would take me 10 years to finish at that pace and GOD showed me that the days I chose to do certain tasks were out of wack and not only that, but watching a lot of videos online also stole hours, along with Facebook news feed scrolling. I'm not saying those things are bad, but I am saying that if they start knocking productivity, you really need to start taking some extra measures to ensure that you stay focused. Even checking e-mail every 10mins can be a problem.
   The solution GOD gave me was to close the browser when I don't need it or need to use it. And when I'm supposed to be modelling or animating, I certainly don't need to be scrolling through the news feed on facebook, hahaha, or watching hilarious videos.
   In addition to closing the browser, I am actively pursuing more rest as well. Since I do a lot around the house and cook, I can't just sit all day and work, like in an ideal environment. For me to get done what I need to get done, GOD has even had me go to sleep earlier (about an hour most days) and one day this week, I even took a short nap. Rest is crucial to balance, especially when working on huge projects that you want to get finished as quickly as possible. Like Jeff Henderson said: "Rest and trust go together." I have to trust that GOD knew about how long this would take before I even got started and that HE has allotted time for everything and that it will finish on time. I do, I really do. My flesh just sometimes wants to go into panic mode as if HE didn't, haha. That's exactly why we need self-control!

- Acknowledge the LORD in all thy ways
   This is a very important topic for me. GOD has taught me so much and I am so blessed to get to share these things with you guys (like the tutorials and the above section on rest and balance for example). When you are on an emotional high about what GOD does in your life, it's very easy to give HIM the glory for it all, but when the feelings kinda mellow, it becomes something that you have to choose to do. HE has not reduced the amount of things HE's taught me and lead me to do, but I have failed to give HIM the credit and now I know why. So, just to be clear, anything that works out on this project, is all GOD. I am telling you, I am not the brains of this movie - GOD is. The global texture on the goats - HIS idea. The scene shrink with an empty - HIS idea. The weight painting on the characters using edit mode - HIS idea. Etc. The list goes on. Anything you learn and see from me, is not me, it's JESUS.
So I want to encourage you, when you come down from that high and GOD literally has you choose to acknowledge HIM in what you do (asking and giving HIM credit), you will get to give HIM the glory by choice. Choose to! :D

- Outfits
   Onto the vlog itself, haha. I did a lot of research concerning the outfits in Egypt and like I mentioned previously, they often didn't have bottoms or any clothes whatsoever. So in keeping things family friendly, yet still as accurate as I am enabled, the outfits are much more modest. The Egyptians had both full outfits as well as the non-outfits, so there is still accuracy to what they wear in this.

- Faces
   The faces did not change much, because honestly, you won't really see the faces as the focus. They are what is known as extras. Larger adjustments are what matter the most. Small details, though noticeable, are secondary, so I still gave some attention do it, but not excessively.

- Particles
   Probably the only way to distribute characters over a large area in a practical way are particles. I remember the work for Esther also involved particles for the city (for almost everything). And the sheer amount of people and objects you have in the scene, make it impossible for you to manually place and move them - unless you have a small army of animators and computers that would make mine look like a calculator, haha. Consider using particles in a static format or boid particles if you are doing crowds or large scale environments, so you can do more with less!

- Adjustments
   Like I mentioned in the video, the Nile scene only got some spots for the goats and cement where the Egyptians citizens would live. Not a whole lot for the scene, but I also added the particles for the characters. Just need to add the characters, haha.

- Some notes and considerations
   While just walking and talking to GOD about the project, I mentioned that I am probably going to have to get the scenes broken down into smaller pieces for practicality. Think of the Nile scene for example. It is way to big and has way too much detail for me to have everything there, including the fields. It's just going to slow down the render times. I would have to make multiple small areas for the shots that are needed and use big scenes like that to introduce locations. This will keep render times as low as possible.
   Another thing, in a similar vein, was something I believe GOD showed me for the fields. See, the fields contain a ridiculous amount of detail. LOD dictates that whatever you don't see, you don't need and it can therefore be thrown out. Now what GOD showed me was the camera going over the fields (very low, like just above their growing level) and as the camera passed, they would vanish. That means that they are no longer taken into consideration for shadows and geometry, etc. Which means, higher levels of detail per shot and still faster render times overall for great quality. Needless to say, I am very eager to follow that approach and honestly, I don't know how practical it would be at this stage, but it sure is one amazing amazing idea! Thank YOU LORD JESUS!!

   Of course, I still need to do the Hebrews as well and I hope to finish the Egyptians today and add them to the scene, but like I always tell my parents: "One piece of craziness at time." hahaha. In the video, I had my foot in my mouth (edited out) where I said I still had to make Miriam and (here's what was cut out) that I'd probably make Aaron, even though I may not have a direct role for him (end of cut with a massively epic facepalm!) hahahaha. We all have our moments!