Lighthouse (short film)

[ZanQdo]

Amazing quality, rendering is great and the sound helps a lot, also great animation most of the time :beer:

5 stars! I hope you guys do more stuff like this

[Silverwing]

Wow his was amazing. The story was a little short, but the overall
quality was just amazing. Stunning work there. All was very well lit
and animated and the compositing was very good too. Thumbs up!
5* from me!

[HairyBouy]

Well done guys,

Good to see some quality commercial work done with Blender!
Autodesk should be scared...

Keep us updated with more Blender jobs :)

HB

[ccherrett]

Well done! :)

[BubaBrown]

Very very nice, amazing compositing! Five stars form me!
Interesting that once again Blender was used for such studio/team work. I guess it is really becoming a valid member of standard 3d studios tools. I have recently started to use and learn it and have to say it is really great (mainly it bundles all needed production tools, including compositor and editor).

[jamespstevenson]

Enjoyed this short!

In particular, the refraction in the glass of the bulb housing and the composition of the little town behind the lighthouse. The lighting of the coastal scene in the opening shot also works very well. Good stuff!

[endi2]

5 stars!
Frontpage mateial I think.

[Anil-Kapoor]

Great work . Looks good overall. Nice ending too.

[Mazer]

Very good ;) Front page please

[Satwinder]

Really nice short film warm storyline and beautifully lit :) nice characters

[Filsd]

Again, Congratulations to all the Team!
And thanks to all additions to Blender. :)

[BubaBrown]

Front page, yes, yes yes!

[liquidik]

Another great work Matt.

I think you should really write something about the integration of Blender in a mixed pipeline. Importing models should have been easy. How well displacements from Zbrush work in Blender ?

The rig also seems pretty advanced, with all those seamless switches. Any info on those , expecially the IK/FK one ?

Cool work

Gian

[RobertoOrtiz]

Wow great work!
Plugged!
Could you tell us a bit more about your pipeline!
-R

[benytone]

hehe... nice story :thumbsup: 5*

.

[XminusOne]

Nice work, I too am interested in the pipeline.

[fktt]

Yip, would like to hear more about the pipeline! :D

5* from me.

[Leionaaad]

I am downloading it as I type.
Only one thing regarding the screenshots: The guy looks very much like the old man from "Elephant's dream"

Edit: I watched it, I was mistaking. These people with sideburns look tend to look alike in my memory.
I liked the ending. Nice work

[Vladius]

Wonderful!)

[Wahooney]

I just got and watched the TD Reel and after picking my jaw up from the floor I can confidently say, Fan-bloody-tastic!!!

The rig is frightening, the comp work is top notch and the sooner I apply that ocean sim patch the better :)

56 seconds left...
31 seconds...
16...
8...
3...

Top notch! With a great message :)

Bravo!

:thumbsup:

[PaLantir]

Simply Amazing!
That show no matter what software are you using because if you got talent you can do what you want.

And you guys got a lot of talent. Congatulation!

Can't wait to see more from you.

Bravi!!

[ivanisavich]

Wonderful work!

Blender is VERY quickly becoming a real bit of competition to all other mainstream apps...this is the proof in the pudding.

[jhasse]

very nice, love the enviroment good job

[AVTPro]

Best written story I have seen in an animation in a long time.

Excellent execution and animation.

Nice sound too.


Congratulations.

[Pyro_Monkey]

Awesome to hear all the positive feedback!
I did the rigging and most of the animation.

The rig also seems pretty advanced, with all those seamless switches. Any info on those , expecially the IK/FK one?

The rig was a lot of fun to put together. We we're able to get hold of some of the great modifiers developed from Big Buck Bunny before the official 2.46 release, such as the mesh deform, bone heat weights and multi modifier option. Which made deforming the various elements (skin>glove>shirt>jacket...) and wieght calculation alot smoother and eliminated alot of intersections.

The IK/FK switching was adapted from the Pocoyo rig from http://www.malefico3d.org/blog-en/?p=22 so credit to where credit is due. Everything else was done with Blender's Constraints and Shape Keys.

[brkn]

Hi dudes, thanks for the kind words!

About the pipeline... It's pretty simple really, Tristan generally works in Max and Zbrush, so when doing the models, he'll export an OBJ which gets brought into Blender. In the case of the cliff, the client approved the look of it in Zbrush so rather than bothering with displacement, we just exported a 200k poly mesh with a normal map and used that directly.

Within Blender, everything's linked and instanced (the models, the configuration in a set, the materials, the character and rig setup). It's like xref in Max but a lot more powerful since any bit of Blender data can come in linked from an external library file (including animation curves and actions, and abstract groups of objects).

So for example in the lighthouse lens room shot files, we have a linked group of objects for the main set coming from a library that contains all the models, materials etc in a group. In the shot file itself, this group just appears as one block, un-editable. Then we have a linked group for the character, which has all the models, materials, hair, and rig, and that rig can be posed and animated via a proxy. The main rig and character data remains in a single library file, but the animation data - the poses and curves themselves, reside locally in the shot file. Also, the lens itself is treated like a character, with it's own rig that lets the lighthouse keeper open the door, pick it up, etc.

The upshot of all this is, that everything's instanced cleanly. If we want to change the position of a prop in the set, or add or remove objects, we change it once in the library file, and it ripples through and updates in all the shot files that use it. And we can do this with the entire character setup too. We can change the models, hair, rig, whatever in the character library, and it updates throughout. So if Jeremy needed to add extra controls to the rig, or fix something that's deforming incorrectly, he does it once, then it updates for any animator to use in the shot files.

This also makes it easy working with models coming in from outside. If we need to change a model, we just bring the new OBJ into the library file. Especially with characters using the mesh deform (http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/mesh-deform/) system, where it's only the low-poly deformation cage that's rigged up to the skeleton, most of the time it's just a matter of bringing in an updated model to the character library, clicking a button to re-bind it to the low-poly cage, and it's ready in all the shots.

cheers!

[LetterRip]

Congratulations Matt and the rest of the Pro Motion team (and others involved), great story, and excellent job on the artistic and technical details.

LetterRIp

[animking]

Yep! we all need to know about the pipeline, and some advanced tutorial for blender.

Great JOB.... :thumbsup:

[Victariand]

Very nice work, the story was well done and well executed.

[BubaBrown]

Awesome to hear all the positive feedback!
I did the rigging and most of the animation.



The rig was a lot of fun to put together. We we're able to get hold of some of the great modifiers developed from Big Buck Bunny before the official 2.46 release, such as the mesh deform, bone heat weights and multi modifier option. Which made deforming the various elements (skin>glove>shirt>jacket...) and wieght calculation alot smoother and eliminated alot of intersections.

The IK/FK switching was adapted from the Pocoyo rig from http://www.malefico3d.org/blog-en/?p=22 so credit to where credit is due. Everything else was done with Blender's Constraints and Shape Keys.

Thank you for some basic information on rigging. Unfortunately one needs good knowledge of python evidently to implement this IK/FK switch. Is there any tutorial?

Thank you very much.

PS: It would be really great from you guys if you make some in-depth making of concerning your pipeline (I guess mainly non-Blender users are curious how blender can be used with Z-Brush or Max etc.) as are usually published in 3d websites.

[brkn]

Hiya, about the pipeline I'm not sure what to add. Do you have any specific questions about the process?

cheers

[mastajappa]

Technically very wel executed. Not a great story to my taste but it looks and animates very nice.

[VictorSantos]

Pretty cool work! I'm making a short film a lil' bit similar to this one with 2 classmates, it's our school final project It has another style and the story is different "The lighthouse and the stars".

Nice coincidence.

:)

[StuDogg]

really good watch. really liked the shot where the lighthouse keeper has a moment of realization. the subtle movement in his face was excellent.

Well done

[DogBreath]

Nice work, I enjoyed watching that, good visuals, some small touches that got the interest immediately were the noise from the pub, slamming the window, and knocking the book as he went for the stairs. Thanks for the rig BTS vid and the pipeline breakdown, very interesting process.

The ocean looked great.

[SandroP]

Great work!

-S-

[iluvgfx]

Really impressive artwork guys. And Matt, thanks you for the pipeline explanation.

:beer:

[FreakyDude]

This also makes it easy working with models coming in from outside. If we need to change a model, we just bring the new OBJ into the library file. Especially with characters using the mesh deform (http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/mesh-deform/) system, where it's only the low-poly deformation cage that's rigged up to the skeleton, most of the time it's just a matter of bringing in an updated model to the character library, clicking a button to re-bind it to the low-poly cage, and it's ready in all the shots.


Congrats! dowloading now, will watch it soon, or later at home.

Question though, when you import an obj or whatever format to update a mesh for an object or character that is rigged (and has vertex groups, instead of (or maybe in addition to) a meshdeform modifier,) how did you had to go about updating/transferring the vertex groups? And in case you used shapekeys, what about updating/transfering those? Or didn't you used any shapekeys and only or mostly meshdeforms?

Eeeeh, maybe I should watch the TD short first....
Stills look very good.
Good job guys.

[=LuxX=]

ow my this looks reaaaaly nice... the only thing i dont think realy fits in the still is the light of the light house... it looks kind of wierd. but the rest in that picture is just awsom!

[kogden]

Great stuff!

I had one other question, you said the deadline was "tight"......how long was it?

Grats to everyone who worked on it!

[noizFACTORY]

I enjoyed the film and really loved the lighting and rendering bit. It had great atmosphere and mood to it. The story served its purpose and really fit well into such a short time frame.

Its unbelievable what you folks are doing with open source software. Congrates to everyone involved! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

-Sachin

[madm4tt]

Short but well made!!

Great atmosphere, my compliments...

Bye

[MARTSMONDE]

Excellent 5 stars
Blender power :beer:

[Mataii]

hey! very good work! :) :beer:
Hope to see more of your great blender work guys!

[toontje]

Very enjoyable! It was a nail biter and the happy ending is very original. Cool townsfolk by the way, all very distinct.

The animation is top notch, very believable. Nice establishing shot. The cheesy camera chase is very effective in this situation, it amplifies the sense of urgency. Rendering wise it is one of those Blender productions that is real crowd magnet. Love the chromatic dispersion.

[SergeantOreo]

That was absolutely incredible. Congrats to Promotion Studios and insert-name-here
company for a job well done! When the old man broke the light, I was almost positive the ship would hit the rocks.

Some questions for you Matt. How long did the ocean simulations take to do? Can you talk a bit more about the process and how you set it up, and maybe some advice for how users can make their own ocean. And just so you know, I have seen Hamed's page, but it only showed options, and not the actual steps. Here's the link for anyone that wants a little more info on the ocean tools. http://en.blender.ir/pivot/entry.php?id=21#body

[jazzroy]

really nice!
well done matt (and teammates).
i loved the skin of the lighthouse keeper!
i dare to point some crits: the eyebrows could be a bit softer, the rocks in the water are someway plastic.

great job also with the new ocean simulator. how did you mix up the particles for the water?

[Pyro_Monkey]

Question though, when you import an obj or whatever format to update a mesh for an object or character that is rigged (and has vertex groups, instead of (or maybe in addition to) a meshdeform modifier,) how did you had to go about updating/transferring the vertex groups? And in case you used shapekeys, what about updating/transfering those? Or didn't you used any shapekeys and only or mostly meshdeforms?

The way it was all set up was that the Mesh Deform was applied to the body, arms and legs and the Armature deformed the hands, feet and head. the bone heat weigths worked so well that i didnt need to tweak the weight painting on the hands or feet. The Head took a little bit of tweaking, and of course the shape keys.
As far as making it easier to swap models, you would have to redo the shape keys and tweaked weight paints, but the bone heat and mesh deform are all calculated, so its just a press-one-button-and-its-done job.
If it was all one mesh, the MDef areas would be seperated by a vertex group. but again if the model was replaced you would need to redo the shape keys. However if the model was only changed within blender it would ripple throughout the keys and weights.

[Zendorf]

Beautiful work all round guys! Great to see this level of work done by a small studio in Sydney, especially done with an OSS app.

We use C4D and Maya at Beyond, here in Sydney, but I have been slowly adding Blender to my workflow. Love the fluids, sculpt and compositor especially but am really keen to get to grips with the CA tools. The mesh deform, bone heat weighting and xref tools are all enticing.

Must say that the F-curve editor(ipo window) , Z-up co-ordinate system and camera navigation have been offputting for someone used to other 3d apps...but these are sure to improve in time!

After seeing the open gl shot on the making off video, would really love to know what sort of playback speed you were getting with all these characters in the viewport? Or are they baked meshes?

Cheers...

[brkn]

Yeah that shot with all the people does get slow in the 3d view, that's why they're separated on to layers. What you see in the reel with the preview level grass and all the characters enabled plays back at only a couple of frames per second on this geforce 8600. They're not cached, they're all characters, linked in from a library again, being deformed by armatures and mesh deform on the fly. Also with them, they're all sharing action cycles from a library file, applied and looped on paths in the shot file, so changing the walk cycle just involves a few tweaks in the library, then it ripples through to all of them.

[mstram]

What happened to the link to the movie?

I was downloading it on my snail-like dial-up connection, then it quit, and I see that the original post was edited and the link removed.

Mike

[RafiS]

One of the best animation short films I've seen in a long time. Technically really well done.

[Larry_g1s]

Very neat. Used Blender huh? Man, that app. sure is getting some nice exposure.

[Mactaveous]

Nice work, Thank you for the break down squence. :applause:

[travishowe]

Brilliant! Fantastic, simple story that gets everything across so well in a bearable amount of time! This is an excellent piece! You should all be VERY proud!

Congratulations!

[tommy5]

Awesome! Great story. Great CA. Great sound. Great short!

[FalseCathedral]

ah! fantastic! beautiful beautiful work. thanks a ton for the breakdown too...it shows how much work really goes into something like this (aside from how good and polished the finished short is). The shaders were totally most excellent. So much atmosphere...I really could feel the mood and environment.

i do have one small crit, the beams from the lighthouse at the beginning seemed a bit too intense or too saturated, maybe a little bit cartoony? I'm not sure...but i still loved watching it.

[golly]

Yeah sorry about that high res link, the agency (understandably) requested that all viewers be directed to the Responsibility Project webpage, so I took it down asap.
I do understand why since they've funded the film and should see full benefits of the web traffic it generates.

Nonetheless, the film *should* be making its way around the film festival circuit, and all personal bias aside, I can honestly say it looks amazing at full res (HD). Rich and warm. We can't wait to see it up on the bigscreen ourselves.

One thing about the tools we used. It's not *really* that important to broadcast that it was a Blender project, since it's not the tool, its the artist, but I can't deny we had a great experience with that pipeline.

I decided to push the project through Blender because of our experience with the community and its unmatchable support. We literally had some bugs that we solved while we waited. And any serious problems we came across were ALWAYS solved within a day.
Just astounding.

That being said, it was delivered under the exact same pressures/deadlines/artistic requirement as anything else. Yes of course there were production problems, but NONE of them couldn't be resolved how we or the client wanted.

Put Blender in front of a 3d artist who loves to pull things apart, and they'll have the ultimate sandbox for tools and technique. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

[Thaller]

Congrats to all at ProMotion Studios!
You've come a long way from your Gecko Bridgestone TVC's...
I enjoyed the short, actually wanted to see more.
Nice mood with the lighting. Fluid looked nice and stylised as well.
Well done!

All the best,
Damien Thaller

[Blackrainbow]

WOW, 5 stars work!

[kangdanlin]

hi,
i saw that you used zbrush and blender together.....i am struggling myself to learn how i can integrate those 2 programs, and i dont seme to get it quite right...so far i managed to export from zbrush to blender with succes, but i didnt make to export from blender to zbrush...can you give me a tip about what i am doing wrong?....i am new to 3d , and i have been searching for this type tutorial but i havent found any
thanks

[gustapo]

hi,
i saw that you used zbrush and blender together.....i am struggling myself to learn how i can integrate those 2 programs, and i dont seme to get it quite right...so far i managed to export from zbrush to blender with succes, but i didnt make to export from blender to zbrush...can you give me a tip about what i am doing wrong?....i am new to 3d , and i have been searching for this type tutorial but i havent found any
thanks

Try exporting your models in .obj format

http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/ZBrush_to_Blender

[kangdanlin]

i tryed that, but it doesnt work...i try to save it as obj, but it always saves it as xxx.obj.blend
from zbrush to blender i managet to export, but it doesnt work from blender to zbrush
thanks gustapo, i will see that link :)

[LetterRip]

Don't do 'save as' do 'export'...

LetterRip

[kangdanlin]

it still doesnt work....maybe there is an error into my sistem, i think i will try an older version of blender
thank you for your fast reply

later edit: hehe, it works now, i just reinstaled blender and now is working, finally i am happy

[MrKennedy]

Oh wow, I didn't even notice this made the front page till now. I was the character designer on this project.

[golly]

Oh wow, I didn't even notice this made the front page till now. I was the character designer on this project.

Really? Now there's a small world for you.
We haven't met, but love your work. Design obviously morphed during production (with Ming's approval of course) but the overall feel is still there. Nice job dude.

[MrKennedy]

It looks great! You really captured the face too. This is the first time since college that I seen something I've worked on cg animated, and it looks fantastic! It was great working with Exopolis on this one.
Really? Now there's a small world for you.
We haven't met, but love your work. Design obviously morphed during production (with Ming's approval of course) but the overall feel is still there. Nice job dude.

[Bandolin]

As great as the animation was, I'm really liking the pros talking to each other about it. As a hobbyist it really gives me insight on how the CG world operates.

[antimatter289]

This is a great short story with meaning, as well as great animation and effects. It hits home to me this week, as our basement was flooded on July 1st (Happy Canada Day to us!), and we had some neighbours that we didn't even know come and help us in our time of need.

Great animation!
5 stars.

[FadeX]

Definitely very nice. I enjoy how the emotion is portrayed through the animations, the sense of urgency and relief. I really like this short.

[Mazer]

Oh wow, I didn't even notice this made the front page till now. I was the character designer on this project.
Any chance we can see the 2d concept vs Final result ? It woud be interesting :)

[rambamm]

Hi all
Had a few people inquire about it, so here it is. Some designs we were given versus the 3d we produced. I do need to thank the creative agency for making our job so much easier by being so thorough with their design process. Their work was just beautiful.

http://www.promotionstudios.com/files/Lighthouse_cliff.jpg
http://www.promotionstudios.com/files/Lighthouse_keeper.jpg
http://www.promotionstudios.com/files/Lighthouse_village.JPG
http://www.promotionstudios.com/files/Lighthouse_office.JPG
http://www.promotionstudios.com/files/Lighthouse_machineRoom.jpg
http://www.promotionstudios.com/files/Lighthouse_lantern.jpg

[DogBreath]

Interesting to see the comparisons, lots of mood in the colour of the concepts, and a different focal length, did you change those things for continuity or some other reasons. Thankyou for posting these.

[golly]

The designs weren't really ever supposed to be storyboards, just indicative of the mood and colour we needed to achieve. So yes, camera angles and focal lengths change to suit each shot.

We started with very rough storyboards but we developed a 3d blocking animatic quite quickly which was very helpful for everyone to lock down shots during that inevitable to-and-fro between us/creatives/clients.

cheers
James

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