3 Day Cinematic Challenge! Again!-WINTER Challenge- Post your ideas

#1

Way back in (early) 2012 there was thread asking what could be done in 3 Days.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=1032207

The resulting discussion was fantastic, and it prompted some of us to see what we could come up with in 3 days.

Dutchman created this short called EVA

Xharthok created a very funny short called The Invasion!

And I did one called The Box.

I learned a lot while doing this, and it was a lot of fun to see how much juice I could squeeze out in a little less than a weekend of available time!

I would love to do another one of these short challenges, and with the constant discussions around IP Development going around I thought maybe others would be interested as well. No dates set, no themes, just a discussion about if people want to be involved.

#2

Sounds great! but I’d be busy this weekend :frowning:

#3

OK I can help under the fxwars forum.I am coming back from vacation tonight.

#4

It doesn’t have to be this weekend. We can chose another date, or just have people start whenever they want and see how far they go after 3 days!

I can just really say that I learned a LOT the last time I did it. Keeping a strict deadline like this forces you to push yourself and find faster ways of doing things. Its quite an enlightening experience!

Roberto, you are WAY better at setting these things up. I definitely defer to your judgement!

#5

Definitely watching this thread with interest.

#6

Would anyone like to suggest a topic? Or we can just have a free for all? :slight_smile:

#7

Sounds interesting, and I’d be willing to try.

#8

Sounds pretty cool!

#9

No theme. Just how cool can you make something in 3 days. I remember this thread. I loved what some of ya’ll did. Somebody asked if it could be done and ya’ll answered the question. That was cool!

#10

Count me in! :slight_smile: Last time was fantastic.

      Was a very good Exercise. And it evolved in a small IP for me, which I will reveal in more detail later this year in the IP Thread. 
    Here's a Pic (WIP):
      [[img]http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r613/Xharthok/Spheres.jpg%7Eoriginal[/img]](http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r613/Xharthok/Spheres.jpg~original)
      
     
      I think the topic of the Challenge should be more on the vague side, so  people can transfer it better in their respective medium or genre of  choice. Last time was "the Box". Worked perfectly.
      
      Topic suggestion:
      - "Detached"
      - "0.5"
      - "Flowerbed"
      - "sober Bloodbath"
  
  Next weekend I'm busy too, but the following weekends would be cool.
#11

OK guys help me with the rules…

#12

Well I suppose the general idea with the challenge is to

A) See what you can do in 3 days.
B) Learn new skills and faster ways of going about things.
C) Actually FINISH something!

So many people start projects without ever finishing them - they get bogged down in the details, and having a super short deadline like this FORCES you to figure out where to draw the line and move on!

For rules I would say:

Anything goes. Premade assets, purchased assets, DAZ models, motion capture, live action, compositing…you have to use anything and everything at your disposal to create something. This could be the perfect opportunity to pull out that old human model you have on your PC and do something with it!

The ‘cinematic’ has to tell a story. Doesn’t matter how crude, simple, or complex - but there has to be some sort of story in it.

Minimum of 60 seconds long. Can be longer if you want!

Any resolution, as long as we can see whats going on!

Timeline - 3 days. I think its best to run this over a weekend - so Friday Night, Saturday, Sunday - upload on Monday Morning. That gives a half day on Friday (night) and Monday (morning), and 2 full days on the weekend.

Do these seem fair to everyone?

#13

Thats completely bad ass man! I loved your characters - Im so glad you did more with them!

      - "Detached"
      - "0.5"
      - "Flowerbed"
      - "sober Bloodbath"

I love them all. Im happy with any of those!

#14

Instead of whole 60 seconds or more complete cinematic why not more “3 Days cinematic shot”.

The problem with doing quantity in 3 days it that it will look pretty rushed from all points. If people focus all their attention in one interesting/epic shot that should look like it’s part of a cinematic then that shot would look better, presentable and usefule in a portfolio. Imagine someone has a great character that raises his sword and in the background there is a whole army chanting. Or a single car chase scene, or a castle reveal shot with a bird flying towards it or things like this.

Make it simple but make it better. Just my 2c.

#15

You mean just the audio of the army chanting right? After all, they’re only getting 3 days. :beer:

#16

3 days of full time work would be 8-10 hours per day working (not including rendering).
So, in total, it’s 24-30 hours of work.

Do we have to make this within the exact 3 days, or we can extend it for few weeks, working every day just a few hours?

Anyway, good idea, I’ll try to participate.

#17

I love projects like these. Over the years we did several similar challenges in house here at Maxon. The last time sadly it was only me and one colleague, we did this within 24 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8yNq8ZPuss&list=UUUC07LIz2XdeOoV97NJd1YA

#18

I think doing it in 3 connected days and as “full” cinematic,
is really what the exercise is all about.

Its not about making a portfolio piece,
and I don’t think anyone expects you to do so either.

But doing it this way forces you to make instant decisions
and take different roads than you would normally take.
It also forces you to really think about your personal workflow,
and how to get the most out of your time at hand.

That’s my take on it anyway.

Also, don’t underestimate the value of time.
Having time passing before you pick up a piece of work again
makes you look at things in a different light, and rethink your perception.
This is true in both art and music production.

edit: Also, one shot can in theory be a cinematic.

#19

If you can get across a ‘story’ in that one shot - then that’s awesome! There aren’t limits for how many shots, or what makes a cinematic a cinematic. I think that a shot of a character raising his sword in the background with an army chanting sounds awesome! Or a car chase! Or castle and bird! If thats the story you want to tell - then do it!

The idea is really to do as much as possible in as short a time as possible.

I would think that something like this could spark something else - something that you would want to put more polish into. Something like Xharthok’s awesome idea - taking what he did under those constraints and expanding on the idea after the fact. It can be SO easy to get completely bogged down in the details or something - doing a ‘3 Day Challenge’ will strip away the need for those details.

As for spreading the 3 days over a week - I’m actually fine with that. There aren’t any prizes or voting right now - so as long as you work within the 3 days its all good. Ill personally be focusing on 3 consecutive days because honestly that’s all I can afford to do! And it will be awesome if I’m working parallel with people who are also posting WIP’s in the forums under the same crazy constraints!

The point isn’t really to do one highly polished portfolio piece…its to be insane and see just what you could get done in 3 days!

#20

Pretty much all of this.