Render render render
Posted by Marius Oberholster on Thursday, March 3, 2016 Under: WIP
Hey all!
Today's post is absolutely loaded with renders and a video or two and we talk about dialogue! haha.
- 7 Chamberlains
Let's kick it off where we ended last week - modeling! When I posted last time, with each post, I wondered how many chamberlains the king actually had attending him. And oh yes, there were 7. It's in the first chapter of Esther and I was like NOOOOOOOooooooooo.......... Haha. By this time, I had already modeled one and GOD insisted from the start of it, that I make a time lapse - my guess is someone had to see the process for another set of projects HE has someone working on, so here is the time lapse for the very first chamberlain!
The other 7 are all variations of this one. I was so thankful GOD allowed me to do that, because quite frankly, I cannot spend 2 days (not the whole day, but it took two day's work time for me) to make this guy (with all the renders and so on) and then do 6 more. I was cringing inside at the thought of having to do that!! hahaha. HIS faithfulness allowed me to make his fellow servants from him and here they are!
(They are not shocked about something, haha. Its easier to access some of the mouth's geometry when it's open like this)
Their placement was also an issue. The king's room is so small because of all the pillars that there is no room for 7 people at the same time. I placed three outside of the palace, chatting and the other 4 inside the king's room. These attendants were often sent around to get things for the king and convey messages on his behalf - like when they were sent to get Vashti and when they were sent to collect Haman for the banquet.
- Lighting the opening scene
That brings me neatly to my next point - the lighting outside! Since it is night, it's usually pitch black outside - at least in the city. In the country, you can sometimes see quite well, since there is nothing by the moonlight and nothing to really block it - especially when it's full moon and there are no clouds.
I went with that paradigm so I can show the complex (there really is no context for it other than introducing location), but I ran into a few issues while trying to light it:
- Too much environment lighting (caused the blue light to be flat)
- Too little light on the toon layer (main light, not environment)
- Too low contrast in the shadows.
Just to show you what needed to change, here is the before and after:
I just posed them to look like they are busy talking about something. In the opening you barely see them. You mostly see their shadows, but if I add movement to them, odds are you'd look at them, instead of the windows with the orange glow. A little cliche, but it's so subtle, you may even miss it.
The opening scene is purely a location shot from above, focusing on the palace where the king lives within Persepolis. So the bright blue moon light really enables you to still see the architecture to a certain extent - but I'm keeping that for a surprise :D!
- Persian
Now I had a bit of an issue here... I don't know Persian, at all. I've asked GOD for the gift of tongues in the context of earthly languages for the sake of reaching more, but still waiting for it to manifest. So, for the time being, I was lead to Google Translate. Not perfect, but I've gotta trust that the people who speak it, value their language and accuracy for translations to Persian, Farsi and so on. Now I really fell in love with the text. It's so pretty!! The scroll work and the patterns - just artistic in every letter! Absolutely beautiful.
Why Persian? Because it is Persia, and secondly, I wanted the scroll to reflect the most likely font that they would use. English in times new roman is not gonna fly, now is it? hahahaha. Not a knock on English or Times New Roman as a font, but it just doesn't fit into the context.
Since I didn't want to take the chance of cussing at someone in Persian, I refrained from taking the route of gibberish in a Persian font and went for a translation of Esther 6. The names did not all translate and there are some KJV words that did not translate either. So, I changed Chamberlain to Attendant and I changed Hasted to Hurried. The names were in the beginning and the end of the chapter, so those I could throw out and title the section: A quote from the book of Esther. This all just to make the scroll look more convincing!
Here is what it looks like with the king and the chamberlain reading to him:
- Haman walking
Of course, as Haman was on his way to see the king, he need to walk and he needed to be in the scene. So, guess who got animated this week?! hahaha.
(You would not believe how horribly he walked - NEVER animated a walk cycle from only the side. It is a very bad idea, hahaha)
- Audio recorded
The dialogue was also recorded this week. It took a day or two to get things the way I wanted them, but it was certainly worth it. For the sake of not spoiling everything, I have not uploaded it (also due to it's size), so you're gonna have to wait and hear, haha.
Initially, I wanted to use a voice changing plug-in to alter my voice to sound different, but even the best one I found online that I had access to, had a weird frying fade the more the voice is changed. This is mainly due to the formant of the voice. The way a voice sounds. For example, men and woman can speak on the same note and sound different. That is called the formant or timbre. Because of the frying, I couldn't use it, BUT, I still used the changed voice as a guide to change my own voice as I spoke (of course, used a little pitch shifting in Audacity as well).
It turned out well for me and a friend on FB also listened to it (someone who is not afraid to tell me if something isn't good or working right) and he likes it too. Of course, as the voice behind it, you still kinda struggle with that feeling of "Is this really good enough or am I gonna look like an idiot?", hahaha. Just gotta trust GOD to help you hear what I was really trying to convey, haha.
And finally, I am very glad to say that even with the audio, I was able to lipsync some of the dialogue already and start rendering it. With the opening scene and some of Haman rendered so far, I already have about 30 seconds worth of footage. Yey! :D
GOD is awesome!!!
I leave you guys with the last frame from the opening sequence:
(Depending on your screen, this might be too dark or too light, but I've found the way I adjust my screen, this should look good on most screens)
And that's it for this week! Lots went down, as you can see, haha.
I tell you what, I think I am the enemy's second least favorite person atm, hahaha. Pray pray pray! I need your prayers for the project to be successful and completed and our family need them for provision. Thank you always for praying!!!
Do you know JESUS yet?
Have a great one and GOD bless!
Today's post is absolutely loaded with renders and a video or two and we talk about dialogue! haha.
- 7 Chamberlains
Let's kick it off where we ended last week - modeling! When I posted last time, with each post, I wondered how many chamberlains the king actually had attending him. And oh yes, there were 7. It's in the first chapter of Esther and I was like NOOOOOOOooooooooo.......... Haha. By this time, I had already modeled one and GOD insisted from the start of it, that I make a time lapse - my guess is someone had to see the process for another set of projects HE has someone working on, so here is the time lapse for the very first chamberlain!
The other 7 are all variations of this one. I was so thankful GOD allowed me to do that, because quite frankly, I cannot spend 2 days (not the whole day, but it took two day's work time for me) to make this guy (with all the renders and so on) and then do 6 more. I was cringing inside at the thought of having to do that!! hahaha. HIS faithfulness allowed me to make his fellow servants from him and here they are!
(They are not shocked about something, haha. Its easier to access some of the mouth's geometry when it's open like this)
- Lighting the opening scene
That brings me neatly to my next point - the lighting outside! Since it is night, it's usually pitch black outside - at least in the city. In the country, you can sometimes see quite well, since there is nothing by the moonlight and nothing to really block it - especially when it's full moon and there are no clouds.
I went with that paradigm so I can show the complex (there really is no context for it other than introducing location), but I ran into a few issues while trying to light it:
- Too much environment lighting (caused the blue light to be flat)
- Too little light on the toon layer (main light, not environment)
- Too low contrast in the shadows.
Just to show you what needed to change, here is the before and after:
I just posed them to look like they are busy talking about something. In the opening you barely see them. You mostly see their shadows, but if I add movement to them, odds are you'd look at them, instead of the windows with the orange glow. A little cliche, but it's so subtle, you may even miss it.
The opening scene is purely a location shot from above, focusing on the palace where the king lives within Persepolis. So the bright blue moon light really enables you to still see the architecture to a certain extent - but I'm keeping that for a surprise :D!
- Persian
Now I had a bit of an issue here... I don't know Persian, at all. I've asked GOD for the gift of tongues in the context of earthly languages for the sake of reaching more, but still waiting for it to manifest. So, for the time being, I was lead to Google Translate. Not perfect, but I've gotta trust that the people who speak it, value their language and accuracy for translations to Persian, Farsi and so on. Now I really fell in love with the text. It's so pretty!! The scroll work and the patterns - just artistic in every letter! Absolutely beautiful.
Why Persian? Because it is Persia, and secondly, I wanted the scroll to reflect the most likely font that they would use. English in times new roman is not gonna fly, now is it? hahahaha. Not a knock on English or Times New Roman as a font, but it just doesn't fit into the context.
Since I didn't want to take the chance of cussing at someone in Persian, I refrained from taking the route of gibberish in a Persian font and went for a translation of Esther 6. The names did not all translate and there are some KJV words that did not translate either. So, I changed Chamberlain to Attendant and I changed Hasted to Hurried. The names were in the beginning and the end of the chapter, so those I could throw out and title the section: A quote from the book of Esther. This all just to make the scroll look more convincing!
Here is what it looks like with the king and the chamberlain reading to him:
Ironically, you don't even see the text specifically, but you can tell that the text flows from right to left and I still have the option of including a shot with his hand crossing some information, so the text is essential. And modelling all the other scrolls was a big thing too, hahaha.
- Haman walking
Of course, as Haman was on his way to see the king, he need to walk and he needed to be in the scene. So, guess who got animated this week?! hahaha.
(You would not believe how horribly he walked - NEVER animated a walk cycle from only the side. It is a very bad idea, hahaha)
This walking shot, is like an insert when the king hears footsteps and asks who is in the court (the open living space just outside his room). Naturally, I don't think I'll be using the whole 17 seconds, because I think it's too much, but it does give me space to cross-fade and still have smooth motion.
The dialogue was also recorded this week. It took a day or two to get things the way I wanted them, but it was certainly worth it. For the sake of not spoiling everything, I have not uploaded it (also due to it's size), so you're gonna have to wait and hear, haha.
Initially, I wanted to use a voice changing plug-in to alter my voice to sound different, but even the best one I found online that I had access to, had a weird frying fade the more the voice is changed. This is mainly due to the formant of the voice. The way a voice sounds. For example, men and woman can speak on the same note and sound different. That is called the formant or timbre. Because of the frying, I couldn't use it, BUT, I still used the changed voice as a guide to change my own voice as I spoke (of course, used a little pitch shifting in Audacity as well).
It turned out well for me and a friend on FB also listened to it (someone who is not afraid to tell me if something isn't good or working right) and he likes it too. Of course, as the voice behind it, you still kinda struggle with that feeling of "Is this really good enough or am I gonna look like an idiot?", hahaha. Just gotta trust GOD to help you hear what I was really trying to convey, haha.
And finally, I am very glad to say that even with the audio, I was able to lipsync some of the dialogue already and start rendering it. With the opening scene and some of Haman rendered so far, I already have about 30 seconds worth of footage. Yey! :D
GOD is awesome!!!
I leave you guys with the last frame from the opening sequence:
(Depending on your screen, this might be too dark or too light, but I've found the way I adjust my screen, this should look good on most screens)
And that's it for this week! Lots went down, as you can see, haha.
I tell you what, I think I am the enemy's second least favorite person atm, hahaha. Pray pray pray! I need your prayers for the project to be successful and completed and our family need them for provision. Thank you always for praying!!!
Do you know JESUS yet?
Have a great one and GOD bless!
In : WIP
Tags: god jesus holy spirit blender esther 6 kjv animation wip progress haman video persian chamberlain
Hey all! I've been doing CG work full-time since 2011. GOD has been with me, supported me and taught me all the way. HE tells us to do all things as unto the LORD and that is my goal. I do whatever I believe the HOLY SPIRIT is leading me to do and it's not always easy, but it's always worth it to be obedient!
JESUS is awesome!! If you don't know HIM yet, follow the link above!
