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StormCel Animation

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ErikAtMapache

Hello,


My name is Erik Brewer and I am starting a new company which produces science fiction stock video footage, and I thought you folks might be interested in what I have.

Please visit my web site at http://www.StormCel.com

My first product line is StormCel Animation Sci-Fi Videos, Volume 1 which is a series of computer generated video clips of spaceships and spaceship interiors intended for use in movies. The clips are short and designed to be strung together to make a longer story (i.e. show clip of flyby as movie opens with narration of captains logs, cut to interior shot, etc.). An example movie using clips from Volume 1 is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Ekps4m7vE

I also have free samples in the download section of the web site for your use. From time to time, I will create new free clips to download. I just added a nice shuttle explosion to the download page.

This is a new product line, and I would appreciate getting any feedback that you have (good and bad). I am also interested in what you are looking for in the special effect stock footage area for use in your movies.


Thanks

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
Erik,

You have an interesting endeavor here.

First, the good. Most everything is going CGI. The days of models and motion controlled cameras like Lucas used in the original Star Wars films are all but gone. Your interest in CGI and the practicing of those skills will pay off in the long run. Keep at it, although you may do better getting commissioned work as opposed to selling pre-rendered footage.

Now, you are not going to like this, but since you asked for bad also, here it goes. Many of your models are incomplete. There is very little detail in the texturing. And in your example clip, the particle system you used has stars floating in front of the ship (unless that was just meant to be space debris?). No high dynamic range, bloom effects for engine glow, shader routines for surface properties and atmospheric effects...

The trend in film and television (Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica) is photo realism, and what you have is like watching early video game cut scene footage. Even games can render more believable scenes these days in real-time (at much higher resolutions than 720x480).

I know this is not easy and quick to create. My career for the last 10 years is specializing in applications engineering supporting computer graphics rendering hardware for video playback, content creation, gaming and professional 3D workstations. I know what happens behind the scenes and how time consuming it can be. But audience expectations are high.

This screenshot is from a game due for release this year (cut scene footage rendered in real-time):

27508.jpg


Compared to your pre-rendered footage:

DemoPreview3.jpg
 
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Some of your interiors have promise, but for my work, I would need to have models because when I put a live video clip in a CG environment, I need the live action to cast shadows on the model, and I need to be able to control camera movement.

Doug
 
Thank you for your input. I actually appreciate the bad news a lot because it tells me more about what needs to be fixed and improved.

As to your advice Vince, you bring up an excellent point, and I am working to improve the quality of the models, textures, and so on.

For your point Doug, I am undecided about generally releasing the models. I would need to see how many people really want them, technical details such as file formats, etc. However, if you shoot me an email at StormCelAnimation@verizon.net with details about which models you like, I'll see what I can do for you.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
Just curious, but what software are you using and what are your system specifications?

Real-time game engines can only go so far, but even the crippled game engines are getting very good as graphics hardware gets more and more powerful as the above screenshot demonstrates. This is where the pre-rendered or frame by frame rendering can be your edge in that you can get considerably more details and include radiosity calculations and raytracing.

Wait until you see what AMD's next generation graphics cards can do in real-time.

Here's a teaser:

AMD Real-Time Cinema 2.0 Demonstration
 
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My setup is not especially powerful yet. I run Truespace 5 on a Toshiba Satellite notebook with 1 gig of ram.
I plan to upgrade sometime this year.

BTW, the demo in your link is very slick.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
ErikAtMapache said:
My setup is not especially powerful yet. I run Truespace 5 on a Toshiba Satellite notebook with 1 gig of ram.
I plan to upgrade sometime this year.

BTW, the demo in your link is very slick.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
Click to expand...

Don't let your system dissuade you. My first 3D animation rig was an 80286 with a math coprocessor running 3D Studio 2.0. It took it 4 hours to render a single 640x480 tru-color frame (24-bit). A 60 second 320x240 animation took days. :lol:

Ever play around with Blender3D? It's free and open-source. I am learning both Blender and Maya (among a billion other things about independent filmmaking).
 
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I've played with Blender a little bit. It seems to give nice output, but the interface is a bit odd. I like Truespace enough, but it always seems to have stability problems. I'm thinking that my next software package will be Softimage or Lightwave, which both give nice results.

I hear you on the render times. Even on a more modern machine, I sometimes have render times of 15 minutes a frame.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
Erik,

I'm using Lightwave3D these days. I had learned Blender3D pretty well (I agree the interface is strange, but once you learn it, it's a fast modeling tool). Some bloke talked me into buying Lightwave so we could work together on a project. I spent a bazillion hours learning Lightwave and to date, I don't think I've done one thing I couldn't have done with Blender3D.

Don't let Blender's interface frighten you off ... Lightwave is just as bad, and it costs a lot more money!

Doug
 
That's very interesting about Lightwave.

Have you used/worked with Softimage? The nice thing about them is they give you license for two render nodes out of the box.

P.S. I have been improving the model used in the example above for the past couple of nights, and I hope to post an example this upcoming week.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
Lightwave3D and Blender both allow unlimited render nodes. It's been some time, but I think I had an easier time setting up Blender for a network render than Lightwave. With Lightwave, you have to deal with plug-ins and shared binaries, but they've made it a little easier with Lightwave 9. I still don't think it was worth the time I spent learning it. The purchase price is trivial compared to the month or two of lost productivity.

For that reason, you should stick with what you know, unless there is a good reason to switch.

Doug
 
Erik,

Regarding your models; I didn't contact you because I'm not actually in need of any CG models at the moment, and when I am, they will probably be specific room interiors. If you didn't want to sell a model, and I wanted it, you'd have to be willing to render out very specific sequences, and possibly a shadow composite run. The reason I learned to do this sort of thing at all was because it's so hard to get someone else to do exactly what I need, when I need it. I practically live at my computer, so the last thing I want to do when my work is done is spend another 14 hours modeling some stupid set. It's all great fun, when you've got nothing else to do, but I'd prefer to be mowing my yard with a push mower than sitting at my desk for an entire weekend.

Doug
 
Hello All

Taking input from this forum, I've been working on improving the detail in the models for the past couple of days. Although it's still a work in process, here's what I have so far (with the original model for comparison).

Models.jpg

Models2.jpg


Let me know what think.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.


p.s. Doug -- I had to mow my lawn running on Saturday to beat the rain.:rolleyes:
 
Erik, the model is ok if the camera doesn't get too close to it, but you're probably going to have to UV map some hand painted textures onto it, and the lighting needs to be more realistic (radiosity?). Finally, your glass can't look like white patches. There needs to be something inside, so the camera can zoom onto the bridge. Then again, I'm not sure a warship would want to have glass panels on the bridge.

You do realize that a detailed model of this size can take months to finish. If I were making a sci-fi movie, I'd do distant shots of the ship with stark, space lighting (there is no sky in space, so shadows are very dark), then I'd spend most of my time on the interiors, where the story would play out. I hate to say it, but even if someone pays you a good price for your models, you may still be one of the lowest paid workers in the world, at around $0.05/hour. ;)

Doug
 
Your model does look cool, but it still has a ways to go to get to believable realism. It almost looks like a lego ship since the colors are uniform and repetitive. It's the tiniest of details that can fool the eye and the mind, and like Doug mentioned, this task on a ship that size could take months.

Yes, most space scenes you see are high-contrast, single light source (e.g. from a sun). Then you could get reflected light from planetary bodies or nearby ships (or moving source lighting, say, from laser or energy blasts).

Here's a quick and dirty Truespace tutorial I found that shows the infinite, single light source to give you an example:

http://members.aol.com/mjx1936140/tutorial/page1.html

So I just spent the last couple of hours scouring the web, looking for individuals who do what you're trying to do and wanting to do (I hope you already shopped the competition), and found this guy (image below). This is the level of realism you should ultimately strive for. It has depth of field simulation, motion blur, photorealistic models, realistic lighting, atmospheric effects - many, many elements:

sh_final02.jpg


http://www.lightworx.co.uk/images/sh_final02.jpg

I was also shocked at how many free 3D meshes are floating around out there now. I love the internet. I wish I had these kinds of resources when I first got interested in this stuff.

This looks like a very interesting place to hang out among like-minded sci-fi 3D modelers: http://www.scifi-meshes.com/
 
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These are excellent suggestions. I'm checking out the Lightworx sight now.
I like the idea of the images inside the glass. I also still have a some work to do on the textures. In the example, I just used the default lighting, which does tend to make things look a bit flat.

I plan to post another model update in a few days.

Again, thanks for your input.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
Hello

I have placed a new video clip called Warp Attack on my website. Feel free to download it and use it in your movies

Visit www.StormCel.com and go to the Download page to get it.

This clip does not have the improved model I have been working on (still in process), but I think you will still enjoy it.

As always, I welcome all feedback, good and bad.

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
Latest Model

Hello All.

I have finished updating the model I've been working on, and I thought I would post it so you can take a look. I've worked on improving the geometry and textures, and I will start rendering some test movies this week. When I'm done, I'll post a test movie on my www.StormCel.com website. As always, I welcome all comments.

HeavyCruiserMk2.jpg


As an aside, I have put up a second website that will focus on free video clips for download. Since I am rebuilding some of my models, I have a series of clips that I no longer plan to include in the next CD. I would be glad if someone would like to use the movies in their project(s).

The address of the website is:

http://scifivideoclips.googlepages.com/



Thanks

Erik Brewer
Mapache, Inc.
 
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