"FOR HIRE" - 1 minute Action Sequence

[softdistortion]

Welcome to the collabs.


Looking forward to seeing your stills...sounds like something that could look pretty cool.

[filofilm]

Thanks SOFTDISTORTION.

As promised, below are pics of the Drones:

Stationary Gun Drone
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/Turret_Drone_Sm.jpg

Drone Fighter Jet
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/Drone_demo_2_comp02.jpg

Machine Gun Anti-personnel Drone
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/01_MG_drone_diagram.jpg

Again, these have all been modeled, rigged, textured and ready to go.

More pics to come.

[brazz]

looking good, show us more stuff.

[rafamathard]

i've sent you a email!

[filofilm]

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/242362_10150187611028202_694723201_7056745_7029779_o.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/204360_10150144774088202_694723201_6698429_2136471_o.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/195177_10150144775463202_694723201_6698459_6732603_o.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/191534_10150144771843202_694723201_6698384_8117976_o.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/154294_455731733201_694723201_5676120_3879446_n.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/59251_425191303201_694723201_5124914_6531287_n.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/47968_425197088201_694723201_5125106_56911_n.jpg

[softdistortion]

Wow! love the quality of your props and locations- the still shots look great. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[brazz]

hey, looks great for sure. loved the props. they look too clean though, it would look even more real and cool if they showed wear, scratches, but I´m sure you know that.

cheers,

[rafamathard]

Damn, those look nice!

[filofilm]

BRAZZ, I agree, the props could look more worn. I actually had them designed to look worn but I think more was needed for it to show up properly on film.

SOFTDISTORTION and RAFAMATHARD, thanks! I'm glad you're liking what you see so far.

[brazz]

hello guys.

I´m helping out with animation/rigging for the short.

Here´s a little test I did with the MG Drone. All re-do the rig now, so it makes life even easier to animate.

http://youtu.be/xRNgZw3WFBg

[softdistortion]

Awesome work Brazz!

[brazz]

softdistortion: thanks man.

[filofilm]

Hey Bruno,

Just posted a few clips for you to work with. They are in your DROPBOX.

[brazz]

thanks, will check them all in a bit.

[brazz]

hello. Turret Drone Rig done.

here´s an animation test with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2g2jES6HQ

[softdistortion]

lovin it!....WE WANT MORE!!! :applause:

[filofilm]

Nicely done, Bruno!!

[brazz]

thanks guys, more stuff coming soon. I´m very excited about getting them into the film plate.

it´s my first time adding 3d into live footage, so it´s a nice and fun challenge.

[Frescalus]

Hello to all,

I'm currently working on FX for the current FX Wars here, but after I'm done with that I am interested in doing FX work for this project if there is a need

my website is www.delta3d.com (http://www.delta3d.com)

[filofilm]

FRESCALUS,

Just sent you an email. I'll get some QTs of the edit to you tonight and then we can discuss the sequences after that. From there I'll wait to hear when you are free to jump on.

Talk soon.

[Frescalus]

I just emailed you sir....good to hear from you

[filofilm]

We are making good progress but to continue we are going to need the help of someone with tracking skills. If that is your strength and you are interested in helping out, please reply to this thread and let us know.

Thanks,
Patrick...

[softdistortion]

Hey Patrick, you still looking for tracking help?

[filofilm]

Softdistortion, I am still looking for some tracking help.

[molgamus]

This seems like a very exiting project!
I would love to help out. My main skills are lighting, shading, rendering and compositing.

Edit: I havn't done that much tracking, but if you'll let me I'll give it a shot.

/Elias

[filofilm]

Molgamus, you can participate in any way you please. Shoot me an email and we'll share a Dropbox folder, then I'll get some shots to you.

Patrick...
Email: patrickhurd@sbcglobal.net

[brazz]

Molgamus: glad to see you taking part on the short.

[softdistortion]

OK, will drop a line to Victor @ FXPhd.com and ask if he can send some of his guys over here to help out. ;)

[softdistortion]

FAst reply....Victor's posting a link to your project here on his forums @fxphd...he figures many will be happy to help. :wip:

In case you haven't done it yet, try to shoot a distortion chart grid (full frame shot of regular graph paper will do) for each lens/focal length you used in your shots requiring tracking . Can be done without, but having it will help speed the process for less experienced trackers.

[filofilm]

Thanks SOFTDISTORTION!!

[softdistortion]

You're most welcome!
Let me know if you don't get a good response after a weeek or so, and I'll give Victor another ping. :)

[molgamus]

FAst reply....Victor's posting a link to your project here on his forums @fxphd...he figures many will be happy to help. :wip:

In case you haven't done it yet, try to shoot a distortion chart grid (full frame shot of regular graph paper will do) for each lens/focal length you used in your shots requiring tracking . Can be done without, but having it will help speed the process for less experienced trackers.

I'm told there is no distortion grid, but the 50mm lens used in my shots doesn't suffer much from it. On the other hand the lack of parallax makes it very tricky to extract depth information.

A good setup my school taught me was to have a lot of tracking markers, measure the set, place a known primitive object in the shot (remember to have a cleanplate). It is also nice to have good reference photos of the set solving the scene from multiple cameras. Some other nice things to have on set is a color chart for white balance, a HDR probe for HDR lighting. There is a lot of things you could put on this wish list but you'll have to work with what you got. :)

[softdistortion]

Just so molgamus..filmmakers with fx shots take note! :deal:
Well, at least the distortion charts are easy.

Tracking makers yeah, playing it safe is what many do- BUT, no use peppering the scene with markers if it's not needed...more work taking them out later! ...experience helps see what's required.

For ref photos, a quick tip is use the same lens focal settings you just shot your scene with (increase shutter speed to reduce blur) and walk around your framed area. Later you can use this xtra footage for refs

A clapper board with a chartback and spydercube attached is nice...If you can rent, or have the $$ - billups VFX charts are nice. :bounce:

HDR is a bit complex for most people...bottom line...get a vfx sup on board early!

[Shameless promo mode on] softdistortion.com offers -nearly free and in some cases FREE- assistance for indie filmmakers requiring VFX support- pre and post. [Shameless promo mode off] :D

[molgamus]

Too many markers is a pain to clean up, at least nine markers should be visible at any given frame. Too few markers could have you spend a lot of time in matchmoving. Keeping the animators waiting. While they animate you could do clean up. Moderation is key I guess.

And in my experience HDR probes are easy to photograph and add lots of realism to the renders.

[softdistortion]

...While they animate you could do clean up.
good point. ;)

... in my experience HDR probes are easy to photograph and add lots of realism to the renders.
Well, yeah, once you know how...seriously though, it's not a one button process. And besides captturing and processing, you need to know how to set it up properly to render accurately.

What school did you go to btw?.... Email and lets chat some vfx if you like> softdistotions AT hotmail.com

**sorry for clogging your thread filofilm.** :blush:

[molgamus]

What school did you go to btw?

I went to IAA - Industrial Art and Animation in Eksjö, Sweden. I did the 3D course and we shared a lot of knowledge with the people doing the compositing course. We filmed our own plates in the chroma key studio, did all the lighting too. The cameras wasn't the best I must admit, it really put a lot of pressure on the compositors. As a 3D artist you did what you could to give them as much time as possible.

As for HDR I think it's pretty straight forward. Shoot a chrome ball in all the required exposures. Unwrap in software of choice or use mental ray nodes like mip_chromeball.
Approach number two; With an SLR with a wide angle lens on a tripod, shot all needed exposures. Then pan and repeat until you have full coverage. Stitch and unwrap in software of choice.

And don't be sorry for clogging up the thread a little, it's good to show what progress is being done. But also show what problems you encounter, that way others can learn. Especially if we discuss what techniques are best for solving said problems.

[filofilm]

No worries, guys, keep the conversation going if you want. I work in VFX and spend most of my time on set, so I'm usually setting up tracking markers (LEDs attached to coin sized cell batteries), getting camera data (lens info, camera height, lens serial numbers, blah, blah) and doing set surveying.

Unfortunately, I'm in Boston and away from a lot of those resources that were grabbed for my shorts (some of which was done badly by someone on set, since I was directing and not able to focus on that aspect of the project). But once I get back to L.A. (end of January), I'll have more of those resources at my disposal.

[molgamus]

LED's and batteries sounds brilliant!

I had my thoughts on a marker like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alba/2505310839/

Did I or anyone else mention set measurements? If not, a laser meter could be useful.

[softdistortion]

In that case....here's a link to the work done on the short movie Portal (http://mad-id.squarespace.com/blog/2011/9/2/portal-no-escape-hallway-sequence.html)
Gives a pretty clear picture of the amount of complications coming from productions not collecting proper data, and not preping their shots for vfx properly.

The work is doable by advanced skill artists, but could and should be made much easier.
If we are getting people inboard to help with no pay, it's a fair consideration IMO.

Your hellers will be happier to work on you next project, and you will be able to use junior skill artists which are easier to find. Artists like the one working this project are either industry pros donating time between work (rare to find). Or they will be hired and unavailabe very shortly.

There are more and more projects like this coming. The directors who understand the vfx side and set up properly will do faster, better work and wll be in higher order for finding assistance. Sounds like your doing it the right way filofim!

Let me know if there is still trackers needed.... I can ask victor to do another callout.

[Frescalus]

I'm glad to see a lot of communication here. This is awesome! I'm more anxious myself to work on this project.

[filofilm]

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/filofilm/photo-12.jpg

Above is an image of the LED tracking markers we use on every film I have worked on. And keep in mind that this is on the studio end of things, so this is extremely common.

The LEDs have been in contact with the batteries for two weeks now, so some are dead and some are just very week.

How this works is that we get the LEDs, coin cell batteries and heat shrink tubing (You can find all of this online, but you can also find all of these at an electronic surplus store. FRY'S sometimes has them as well. But if you need to buy in bulk, then you will need to hit several stores or order online. And however many LEDs you get, be sure to purchase twice that in batteries).

We then cut up the heat shrink tubing to the approximate size of a coin cell battery and place the battery inside.

Then you just need to head them up. We use a hair-dryer or some sort of hot air gun. Some people have used lighters, but I don't recommend that considering IT'S A BATTERY!!! Be sure to do this in a well ventilated area. When the heat shrink tubing heats up, it starts to smell pretty bad.

Once the heat shrink tubing is nice and tight around the battery, you slip in the LEDs, making sure the shorter antenna of the LED is touching the rounded side of the battery and the longer antenna of the LED is touching the flat side of the battery.

And there you go. When not being used, just slip the LED out of the shrink tubing, breaking it's contact with the battery.

You can also attach velcro to these completed tracking markers, which will allow an easy and gentle way to attach them to Green Screens or BLue Screens.

On FAST & FURIOUS 4 we attached these LED tracking markers to the cars as they drove through a tunnel that would later become CG. The cars were marked with green LEDs and the tunnel was lined with hundreds of blue LEDs.

Also, it's worth testing the brightness of the LEDs you want to use to make sure they don't shine too brightly for your camera and lenses. Otherwise you are going to piss off an artist somewhere down the line ;)

Hope someone finds some of that helpful.

[molgamus]

Very neat tracker. I guess they would be reflected in the car paint, would you need to key them out or something like that?

[brazz]

Very Interesting discussion guys.

Neat tracker Patrick, had no idea you guys used that, cool stuff.

I´m wondering how bright they look on footage, you dont happen to have a picture around?

to add to softdistortion text on trying to make it easier to the people involved in coolab work, that´s very true, specially since we all have to work in other stuff to pay for food and rent.

If in the end of the day I can just sit down and animate, having all the resources ready for me to work on, it´s great, I can make the most of those 2 or 3 hours and get things done.

This project has been great in that sense, I just got some tracked footage to work on that works great, I can just reference the rigs in and get cracking.

[molgamus]

This project has been great in that sense, I just got some tracked footage to work on that works great, I can just reference the rigs in and get cracking.

How do we handle scale in this project? By default a maya unit is a centimeter I think. We should establish this quickly! If you scale your animation rigs the renders might look odd.

[RagingBull]

Hey guys,

I need to play 'catch-up' with the thread but I got an email from softdistortion as I do matchmoving, and I'm collaborating with Rik and the guys at the moment (well, trying to, temporarily stuck on somethig :drool: ).
But if I can lend a hand here and there I'd be more than happy to if you guys need it ?

Reel here:
http://vimeo.com/21564836

A really vital thing that's only going to be important IF you still have more shots lined up, a vfx supervisor like softdistortion mentioned (or even getting advice from several people via emails). Apologies if this has already been mentioned several times, no chance to read through just yet.


Just a quick note on the LED's that filofilm pictured.
I also have used the same things when needed, as they are STUPENDOUSLY useful but what I did with my ones is paint, black acrylic around the underside and edges. So only the light would come from the tip. It'll just help as you won't get light spill from the LED's, painting out a few small green lights is easily done. The slight downside is that you need to ensure they are pointing in roughly the right direction :D

PM/Email me if you need help :thumbsup:

[molgamus]

Smart thing painting the leds, I think black electrical tape might also work?

[RagingBull]

Smart thing painting the leds, I think black electrical tape might also work?

It should do, maybe black gaffer tape will be easier as it's more sticky.
That's probably what I would have tried, although only minor chipping of the paint has happened.
So definitely worth a shot. :thumbsup:

[softdistortion]

Nice info on the LED markers filofilm.

I was wondring how they would work on a high reflective surface like a car...havent seen FF4, so maybe you guys worked the led glow into the final look...but if removal is required, the back paint idea is pretty smart. thx RagingBull/Rob

Rob's a great tracking talent...snap him up quick guys.

Seems nobody from Victor's classes are showing up? Shame...must be a slow bunch on this term. :D

If you're crunched for tracking, I can try to do a few shots to pitch in a hand...once you get your data together it should make it easier to squeeze it in and help out. :buttrock:

[RagingBull]

Seems nobody from Victor's classes are showing up? Shame...must be a slow bunch on this term. :D


I'm a perpetual student with fxphd but I've not noticed any posts by Victor not for a few days or so, and definitely nothing relating to this thread (afaik).
I've just emailed filofilm to find out some more details in the mean time. :thumbsup:
(probably a better response if Victor posts a thread compared to a student I should think)

[softdistortion]

Just sent him a reminder to post...I think he's sitting at home with a broken foot...painkillers might be affecting his memory. :)

[molgamus]

As we havn't discussed scene scale yet I would like to emphasize the importance of it. No set measurements have, to my knowledge, been provided. The tracked cameras and surveyGeometry should therefore be scaled to match the drones, which I assume are built to scale. This becomes very important since the renders should composite with live action plates. Eg. the rendered motion blur should match the motion blur of the plate!

I don't have the models, but I understand that Bruno do? It would be great if we could determine what scale we are working in. I would suggest that one maya grid unit is equivalent to one decimeter.

On a different note, how are shots executed? Some shots are being animated as far as I understand, when do they go into light?

[brazz]

molgamus:

How do we handle scale in this project? By default a maya unit is a centimeter I think. We should establish this quickly! If you scale your animation rigs the renders might look odd.

When I rigged the drones, I didin´t change the units. The default must be centimeter.

The drones can properly scale as well. I´ll put the rigs in dropbox so that filo can make it available to you.

It´s my first time animating to live action footage, so you guys will have to guide me in on any necessary issue ;)

As to update on what I have done so far on the project:

- rigged the drone that hovers and the 4-legged drone. Made some quick animation tests with them, you can see it in the back pages on the post.

- Worked with filo on some layout for the shot, how many drones will be in each shot and how they´re placed.

- I was sent some shots tracked to place some drones in and made previews for filo

- Next step is coming up with cycles for the hovering drones based on filo´s guidelines. I should have some cycles by this coming week.

-------

Right now the shots I have are not animation intensive, the drones will be hovering about in their places, surrounding the girl.

Filo, have you found help for texture/render and compositing?

[molgamus]

For me, it would be easier if you scaled the provided trackings to match the scale of the drones. When animation is done, the scene with a now correct camera, would go into light and render.

It would be fun to see some WIP animation in this thread to show progress!

If I remember correctly I mainly signed up for light/render/comp, and now when we are two people doing matchmoving. Maybe we could get some shots through the light, render and compositing pipeline while still providing shots for animation. What do filofilm has to say about all this?

[softdistortion]

Hey guys, Victor forgot to post and just did on 3 tracking classes in the fxphd forums...so now hope to see some response.

Hey Brazz what needs texturing? Maybe I can help out on that...I wanna see this film get done! :bounce: :bounce:

[brazz]

Molgamus: Isn´t easier to just scale the rigs? instead of the cameras, tracks.

distortion: Filo will have to get back to you on that, don´t know much about the texturing side of things, I was asking that myself because I saw some textures on some of the files filo sent me.

[molgamus]

The models were built to scale, I think it would be wise to keep them that way. Therefore the world should scale to match. The camera information is only estimated, guessed, it moves correctly to the footage and surveyGeo. But one can only guess the scene scale when no measurements are given from the set. So please match it to the drones as they decide the scale of everything else.

For continuity the models should be the same scale in all the shots, then we can expect what the render should look like in all shots. Just my 2 cents.

[RagingBull]

I can confirm posts up on fxphd as well now :thumbsup:

[softdistortion]

Thanks for confirming tat Rob...I owe Victor some footage. :)

Brazz- thx...will await filos return.

[filofilm]

Sorry for disappearing on you guys. The film I'm working on (the job that pays the bills) just started shooting, so I'm on set more, which is interfering with me getting my own stuff done :)

That said, MOLGAMUS, I just put the rigs in your Dropbox.

There is a temp texture for the Hovering Machine Gun Drone. A completed version should be ready within the next week. I do have a textured version of the Fighter Jet Drone that is seen in the beginning few shots..

SOFTDISTORTION, Any help you can offer is (as always) GREATLY appreciated.

Here's what I think I should do for now; start a DROPBOX folder shared by all of us. That way we can share information more quickly and I won't be the bottleneck. I know it isn't a foolproof process by any means, so I'll take any other recommendations for efficiently sharing information / files.

Let me know what everyone thinks.

[brazz]

All good for me Filo.

I´ll have some cycles done this week.

[filofilm]

Awesome, Bruno!

[softdistortion]

Dropbox works great. We keep assets foldered and sequentially named for each update and add info on what we did in a revison text file with the date and filename as the header.

So if I was texturing the Jet Drone I'd have a main folder named Jet Drone the sub folders with the Mesh, texture files, refs etc. also animation folder would go in there.

I'd use a naming convention like>

jet_drone_txtr__dif_001_sd_09_12_2011.jpg

name of asset_texture_channel_version_my id_month/day/year

Also we need a clear list of what needs doing. Your last post sounds like texturing is now covered?
And for tracking...raging bull and I are offering...do you still need clips tracked?
Did you get the data for lens etc yet?

All the best while on set.
sd

[filofilm]

Hey SOFTDISTORTION,

Sounds good. I'll create a folder today. Send me your email address so I can add you to the shared folder. Currently, I have three people helping with tracking (including Raging_Bull), but I could always use more help to keep things moving fast.

I have yet to have the lens data due to the fact that I am stuck in Boston for work. But I will put an email out to my DP and get some info from him.

[softdistortion]

email> softdistortions@hotmail.com

[filofilm]

Hey guys,

Here is a quick link to 2 back-to-back shots that one of our team members has done. I don't recall his CGSociety name, but I refer to him by his first name; Rafael. He's kicking ass and almost has both of these shots @ 100% completion. He's close.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWGhxs5Mr5w

[filofilm]

SOrry guys, video was screwy so I took it down. Will fix and repost.

[evolutie]

Hi guys,

I have volunteered for tracking and compositing.

Since the 2 GB diskspace that dropbox offers isn't enough for the videofiles/image sequences, I can also help out with some serverspace that can be accessed via sftp.

http://xkcd.com/949/

chrz,
evo

[softdistortion]

Re organization-

Collabunlimited.com was built for collab projects like this and I'd like to also offer it for your project-

It requires registration to keep out spammers etc. but it's free of charge otherwise.
There is a forum that would allow each item being worked on to have it's own section with followup, image uploader, file and vid embed, link etc.

Use this link HERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/?idFriend=1) to get to the site, then click "Join Now" link in top right of mainpage to get in.

Soon as we see you or team sign up, will upgrade to team membership with all access.

FAQ is HERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/forum/Collabunlimited-Members-FAQ-and-HOWTO-group-0.htm)

[filofilm]

Hey SOFTDISTORTION,

Just signed up as "FiloFilm".

[brazz]

Hi SD,

I have also signed onto the site. Nickname is brazz as well.

[softdistortion]

Ok Guys,
Upgrades are set so you have full access.

To save you time there's a project section ready for your use HERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/grp.php?action=group&ID=23)

Forum is at bottom of your project page or you can direct link LIKE THIS (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/forum/-FOR-HIRE-1-minute-Action-Sequence-0.htm)
Added a updates thread and set it to sticky so it stays at the top.

Group is set to allow any of your team to invite other members on the site, so new team members need to sign up and then get invited. This means no one can read your info unless they are on your team.

This can be opened to anyone joining, but I'd suggest you leave it as it is. That way you can keep your details private until release. Use CGsociety for any info/promo you don't mind letting go public.

Add new forum threads (using the "New Topic" button top right of the forum pages) - for animation texture or whatever you need in a separate thread.

Let me know if you need anything or have any issues.

[brazz]

great stuff SD.

[softdistortion]

Glad you like it Brazz.
Should mention, there's also a journal/blog each member can use to track any wips, info or whatever they want.

Here's mine for ex> LINK (http://collabunlimited.net/network/blogs/posts/softdistortion)

Recently I am using it for feedback on our scifi script deadwait. The cool thing is that any feedback also gets sent to me via email so I have a separate record I can keep on my handheld without needing to copy paste!

[molgamus]

Hi guys,

I've also been pretty busy the last week, but some fresh new tracks will be out very soon!
Is there any way to monitor tasks and progress? Preferably on a shot basis! :)

I received some rigs today, does this mean that we don't establish any world scale? I think it would be a problem when doing any FX work. Also, as mentioned earlier, camera attributes and shading attributes will be arbitrary. Which is very bad.

I also have a concern about color conformity. Are there any color references from On Set? My mind fails me, was there a chrome ball/environment map captured or not? What colorspace was used, what settings was used on the camera? Saturation/White balance/Sharpening etc? Also, what colorspace and bit depth are the textures in? I'm asking this now, because it will cause a heap of trouble down the line if we don't sort these things out early.

Finally, are we using cgtalk or collabunlimited to communicate? I'm confused

[brazz]

Hey filo, where´s that movie sample you linked to a few posts back? You said the video was weird on youtube and took it out, I was curious to see it hehe

[filofilm]

MOLGAMUS,

We are going to use Collabunlimited. Sign up and let us know your username so we can add you to the group.

I have some mirror ball photos for lighting reference, but the guy that took the photos didn't zoom in as much as I had hoped and requested. But I will post all of them as soon as I make sense of how to privately post things on Collabunlimited.

Speaking of which, SOFTDISTORTION, if I upload videoclips and have them as only viewable by "friends" will it be seen by the group and no one else?

Let me know and I'll start uploading stuff.

Patrick...

[softdistortion]

There are two options to keep videos private and in high quality.

1-We use Vimeo for HD uploads and set them with a password. Then
follow this HOWTO (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/topic/Posting-with-video-embeds.htm) vid for embedding in the group posts.

You can select who you give the password to so only the people who need to view it can get access. For anyone else it just comes up with a "private video" notify like THIS (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/topic/Shot-Ideas.htm)

2-Upload your clip to the "Shared Files" section HERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/asharing.php?action=upload) . You can use AVI, MPEG, etc or zip sets together. You can also set "access levels" in the upload panel.

If you select "friends" access then anyone you have added to your friends list will get access.
So if you only add your team members, then yes it is private to that group.

A more flexible approach in choosing who sees what, would be to password the files and only give the password to those people you want to have access.

There's a bit a a curve to get things rolling, but I'll try to do whatever I can to help make it painless as possible. :)

feel free to let me know whenever you need anything.

[softdistortion]

Is there any way to monitor tasks and progress? Preferably on a shot basis! :)

You guys can split the shots up in the forum.

[filofilm]

SOFTDISTORTION,

Would you recommend splitting each shot up as a New Topic?

[softdistortion]

Sure, you can do that.

Once you get a feel for the basics, you can also add just about anything that has an embed.
Like on my profile page I have Ustream and chat setup. Also a custom fileuploader that only friends can use.

[brazz]

thanks sd, having a proper place to kick this off is great.

[RagingBull]

Just checking in.
Have I missed something as I cannot see the group at the mo on collabsite.

[brazz]

yeah, it says the groupe is hidden.

[softdistortion]

Hi Guys, now we know group security works. :)

Till Filo gets back I'll answer this one I guess.

Login at the site and check your Mail>Invites.
Rejoin the group and things should be back to normal.

Needed to transfer he group controls to Filo, and that requied creating the group anew and copy psting the info across to the new one. Als requires everyone to rejoin.

thx
sd

[brazz]

done. thx sd.

[softdistortion]

Great Brazz! :)

Filo might still need to resend his friend invites for "friends only" file access when he gets back from the set- then the transfer should be complete.

Was my slip in creating the group for Filo...being too helpful :hmm: ....which would be ok, except in this instance he couldn't get control of the group emailing functions with me having created the group.

Now he can save time and email all group members with one click.

I should mention, all of you have been given team membership level, so if you want/need to make a separate group, say for tracking specific discussions etc you have access to do it.
*Let me know if we missed adding anyone to team level member...or if there's anything else you need.

[molgamus]

The collab sits works fine for me!
I think it would be great to have weeklies in The wip thread. Then we could discuss as a group what needs to be done the following week. How does everyone reel about this?

[rafamathard]

I think thats an awesome idea molgamus.

[softdistortion]

Hey guys.
If you decide you want to do a weekly meet (check with filo), we can set you up with vid conference at collabunlimited.
------------
Will start a support thread in the team forum so filo and the team can let us know if there's anything you need or are having issues with at the site.

One item already mentioned is if you are sharing files with over half a gig (500meg) of data- split them into folders less than 500 meg and name them as a series. so filename_pt001 filename_pt002 etc. when you are grabbing files, just make sure you get all parts, unzip them and move them to one folder.

[filofilm]

Hey guys,

I just uploaded Shot FH2_200 for SOFTDISTORTION to work his tracking magic on. THis is also a good way to test if the sharing is now working.

Let me know, because if this works and the file is usable, I will upload every shot this way and create a thread on the forum for each shot so each shot can be discussed there as it progresses.

[filofilm]

Okay, still seem to behaving problems with uploading and sharing files on Collabunlimited.

SOFT, give me your email one more time and I'll create a shared Dropbox folder for me to send shots directly to you.

[molgamus]

I'm a fan of the dropbox solution. FTP would also be good, but dropbox offers automatic backup which is very neat.

Could a dropbox module be built into collabunlimited? There is no point of re-inventing the wheel! :D

[softdistortion]

Okay, still seem to behaving problems with uploading and sharing files on Collabunlimited.

SOFT, give me your email one more time and I'll create a shared Dropbox folder for me to send shots directly to you.

Sure, it's softdistortions AT hotmail.com

I should have asked this earlier before suggesting use of the shared files section- how many gig total are we looking at for the clips requiring team access?

Re uploads issues.
When you get an extra sec, could you check suggested solutions to see if that fixes things, if not, please post your issue in the support thread started in the For Hire team forum.

[molgamus]

I recall from memory a clip of almost 600 frames with a size of about 800mb.

The big issue is the cg renders and comp renders. About 10-15mb * # of passes * # of frames. And on the compositing side of things there is just a sequence of 1500 frames at about 12mb/frame.

The sum of these numbers are the required disk space needed for every version. I would estimate that we'll do 10 revisions, so multiply by ten. (You would need twice as much if you want backup, and yes you do!)

Buying a computer with a couple of 1TB drives to act as a file server is one solution if you would want everyone to have access. Also requires a strict file structure and naming conventions. But until we really need such a solution, I think dropbox is sufficient.

[filofilm]

Hey SOFT,

I check out the suggested solutions and am giving them a try. I file shared "FH2_200" for everyone on the team to see if they could access it. See if you can.

[softdistortion]

Molgamus- thx.


Filo- hmmm, no joy. but I'm getting the "friends only" popup..
dropbox is fine too if it works for you guys.

[molgamus]

Just had a thought.

The most popular way to share files today is torrents.
They don't have to be public, a torrent per shot would be one way to share the footage.

[brazz]

good idea on the torrent.

[filofilm]

SOFT, I sent you a "shared folder" request from Dropbox a couple of days ago. Did you not get it?

[softdistortion]

No, I didn't...figured you got tied up on set.
Emailed you-

I'll be away till monday... will check email mobile as much as possible.

Let us know also if you still have access to the camera and lenses to shoot gids or if you need one of us to do it...if we do it could help to get lens models if possible. thx

[filofilm]

Hey Soft,

No, I won't have access to the lenses until I get back to Los Angeles. If, for some reason, someone has those lenses and was willing to shoot a lens grid for me... well, I'd probably love them :love:

[RagingBull]

Hey Soft,

No, I won't have access to the lenses until I get back to Los Angeles. If, for some reason, someone has those lenses and was willing to shoot a lens grid for me... well, I'd probably love them :love:


Same here -especially for the zooming :eek:

[softdistortion]

Hope to get some distortion charts today- not knowing model will use what we have for now as a start? More details in this thread HERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/topic/Lens-Information.htm)

Also added HIREZ PDF distortion charts in the Shared files section of collabunlimited.comHERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/asharing.php)
They are set to public acceess so anyone can grab them to look at and use. ;)

Also some more info on the file storage and transfer issues dealing with huge files that need to be accessable 24/7 to all members of the team for the duration of a project. TEAM (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/forum/For-Hire-0.htm#topic/Dropbox-FTP-and-file-naming-conventions.htm) / PUBLIC (http://collabunlimited.net/network/blogs/entry/Ideas-For-Massive-file-transfer-requirments)

[brazz]

hey guys, I just checked the site again and saw all the topics already being covered there.

sorry for just seeing this now, I kept looking at the the group page, but down there it listed that there were no topics, then I looked at the link to go directly to the group forums and saw the topics.. my bad.

I´ll catch up on the forum now. cheers.

[softdistortion]

hey guys, I just checked the site again and saw all the topics already being covered there.

sorry for just seeing this now, I kept looking at the the group page, but down there it listed that there were no topics, then I looked at the link to go directly to the group forums and saw the topics.. my bad.

I´ll catch up on the forum now. cheers.

Apologies about this guys, Marco caught this issue and gave a good report on it...thx Marco!...we all need to bookmark a direct link to the group FORUM (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/topic/Animation-.htm#forum/For-Hire-0.htm) until support gets this issue fixed.

* the mainpage has been altered to show 12 latest forum posts (Registered members only see this) in right column...not perfect, but also a bit of help till it gets sorted.

[brazz]

thanks SD, added the direct link to my favorites.

guys, I have also created a topic named Animation that needs everyone´s inputs, so I can start animating on the scenes.

[softdistortion]

NP Brazz. if you direct link using THIS LINK (http://collabunlimited.net/network/groups/forum/topic/Animation-.htm#forum/For-Hire-0.htm), it should give you the latest posts listed chronologicaly.

Uploaded a small, hopefully somewhat useful start for the distortion charts HERE (http://collabunlimited.net/network/asharing.php?action=show&id=43)

Partial set for 16mm-35mm includes straight and angled grids @ 18mm/24mm/30mm/35mm

Also 50mm grid shot straight on.

[softdistortion]

Hi guys,
Wanted to let you know we're going to provide FTP file access for your team to keep things moving- later we'll slowly introduce our torrent solution and I hope some of you will still help test it and have feedback.

Filo has all the required login info - I'll let him pass that on when he's ready.

We're using a fairly beefy dedi-server - lets see how it handles what you guys throw at it.

sd

[brazz]

great news sd, thanks.

[filofilm]

Hey Soft,

Still can't seem to access the ftp site.

[softdistortion]

Hi Filo,
***EDIT- SEE NEXT MESSAGE***

Until we find the cause and fix encryption login, the only option I see right now is to use regular FTP, since it's working for you.

***EDIT- SEE NEXT MESSAGE***

[softdistortion]

Filo- Sent another email with a possible fix. :wip:
Let us know if that gets you in with encrypt.

[softdistortion]

FTP is online and uploading nicely by the looks-

Added Elias' CG model turntable to collabunlimited mainpage.
NICE stuff Elias! :buttrock:

[softdistortion]

Added a new Main Menu category named SHOTLISTS -
For Hire's shotlist Doc is in the drop down.

Looks like it could be a keeper for all projects to use in future (thx Marco for suggesting it) .

[softdistortion]

Just a heads up- you all seem busy with the files atm. So main site server for collabunlimited will be getting maintenance.
FTP will be unaffected

[filofilm]

I uploaded a WIP from Elias under the newly formed WIP folder on the FTP. Check it out there or here:

http://youtu.be/3B06RbYQn08

[brazz]

did you mean Bruno hehe

going to work on your notes this week.

[filofilm]

LOL! Yes, Bruno! Sorry! I'm working on little sleep... yes, that's my excuse :banghead:

[brazz]

no worries my friend.

[softdistortion]

Latest "FOR HIRE" WIP frontpaged at collabunlimited (http://collabunlimited.com)