Dominance War V - Animation - ishkur13 - God of Resurrection

#1

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Here is the Final.

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Hello everyone

This is my first entry for the Rise of Gods challenge. I am animating the model by foreverendring[font=Verdana] [/font]

The animation begins as we pan across a ravaged battlefield, seeing the souls of the dead rise. They swirl in to a vortex that lifts the lifeless body of the God. The God is ‘reborn’ and falls down to the ground, arches back, and slams his battle axe in to the earth, splitting it open. From the depths of the earth, lost and forgotten souls are unleashed and plunge in to the lifeless bodies of the dead soldiers, resurrecting them to join the God. The God and his army once again are on the move to take revenge.

Here is the first, very rough draft.

#2

Hello everyone, I worked on many aspects of the animation today. Decided to put the weapon on the ground as it didn’t make sense for the God to rise with the weapon. I also wanted to have him take a step, then jump. Since the God has been through this self-revival ritual many times, he knows that his weapon is close. After being lifted by the spirits of the dead, he lands, scoops up his battle axe and plunges it into the ground. I am using a variety of particle systems to help tell the story.

Wondering if it is okay to leave the weapon a different color. The shoulder armor should probably be the same color as the God’s body.

Here is another draft movie. Still very rough. Thanks for watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB–QKONN9Q

#3

Made some updates to the scene, including some warrior gear for the battlefield, a couple lighting experiments, and some timing adjustments. I am animating just a few bones right now, until I get the timing more solid. Still much to do in all areas of the animation.

Here is the 3rd draft movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNZ9Zz_B6fw

#4

Hey Scott, I like your original idea.

Are you planning on adding some geometric indicators for the souls (maybe a rigged deformed version of your dead bodies) or just keep the triangle particles?

Are you going to pose the dead bodies differently or keep them in the forever sleep pose you have them currently in?
An easy suggestion to add variation to the position of the bodies would be to rig one body, then pose it numerous “dead” poses. Snapshot each pose as a mesh and the body will keep the dead pose and you can still re-pose the rigged mesh.

I noticed the timing of the axe looks odd. You may want to consider adding some anticipation to the swing and some overlap of the body’s motion once he slices into the ground.

hope you are able to finish in time. Good luck.

#5

@ theANMATOR2B
Thanks a lot for the feedback and suggestions. For the souls, some geometric forms would be a good addition. I did plan to do more with them beyond a single stream of particles - possibly a couple different systems per soul with a bit more variation in the stream. I also plan to use several more souls for the rising and the resurrection. Currently, I am trying to flesh out the timing and the content, then in the final days, embellish the scene.

For the rising bodies, I plan to improve the mesh and get it out of the stiff pose. After tweaking the mesh, I’ll add a rig and have them lift, resurrect, and get in to a pose, ready for waging battle. I like the production idea of capturing a pose from the rig - this will be great for populating the scene with more souls toward the back. For several key rising souls, I plan to animate the rig to make things more interesting. I think it is okay to use lights for the eyes, so in addition to a glow from the chest area, I want to give the eyes a glow as well.

The timing is very off right now. I may rotoscope some of the movements. The battle axe slam is the key action of the scene. I also may need to set up an IK/FK blend for the right arm. I plan to do several tests of just that part to improve it. I also want to rip open the earth with some flying debris.

For the character, I will first try to nail the timing, then return to animate all the bones. I think morphing is acceptable for this competition, which i hope to blend with the animated bones and add some expression to his face.

Thanks again for the feedback.

scott

#6

Here is a screen grab of the rig.

#7

Sounds like you have some very good plans.

For the rotoscoping are you going to film yourself or do you have some reference??
One of the Conan movies has that guy with the huge battle hammer, but if you used that you’d have to alter the motion quite a bit to get it to look right for the model your using.
Cool idea.

Looking forward to the updates.

#8

@ theANMATOR2B
Hey -thanks for the continued feedback and suggestions. I have yet to film myself acting the part, but I have been jumping around the garage quite a bit!

Got the IK/FK right arm set up, and have rigged the solider body. I replaced a few of the soldiers rising. Also have been working on the camera and lighting. I have added flashes of light for certain key moments, and may make some lightning bolts as well.

Still a lot to do and a lot of adjustments to make.

#9

Here is the 4th draft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2kVT2ZMbI

#10

Hey everyone,
Here is the latest draft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-hOeyg708

I have been working on a wide range of scene elements including the main timing, the rising souls, particle effects and lightning.

#11

Hey Scott the lightning effect you added looks cool.

  • The camera cut when the God is absorbing the green souls seems a little odd to me. It looks like you could keep the same camera through the entire animation and just move the first camera into the position you start the second camera from, as the God is coming to life.

  • The entire animation would benefit from some overlapping motions, but I’m sure your still working on everything so I’m probably mentioning something you plan to address.

Keep at it. It will come together in the end.

#12

Added sound effects and worked on lighting tweaks, the beginnings of secondary movements, and flying rubble. The timing feels pretty solid for the main poses and overall action. @theANMATOR2B - thanks for the feedback. With the main timing established, I can work on the overlapping action.

I typed a final edit list a couple nights ago and will work on knocking out a few edits a day.
There is a lot to do and much fine-tuning ahead. Suggestions and comments welcome.

Here is the latest draft with sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZi3xTEE5Fs

#13

Here is an update to the God of Resurrection animation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-TRGl6WGek

[ul]
[li]Brought the crack out to the cliff.[/li][li]Fleshed out the general number of soldiers for the final risen army.[/li][li]Instead of looking from side to side as they rise, I’d like to have the God raise them with one hand, from his right to his left.[/li][li]Added a 3rd and 4th lightning strike. The overall lighting is starting to come together. With shadows on the lights from hell, the render time is much longer. I’ll do an overnight render soon.[/li][li]Began to add secondary motion to his movements.[/li][li]Worked on many other tweaks.[/li][/ul]
This has been a blast! :slight_smile:

#14

Here is the latest pass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGcq3uxiBV0

[ul]
[li]Added music.[/li][li]Getting closer to pinning down the overall lighting.[/li][li]Added more secondary action.[/li][li]Changed the nature of the God’s movements as the souls rise.[/li][li]Also have a lore page in the works.[/li][li]Killed feature creep - maybe! :)[/li][li]Having too much fun.[/li][/ul]

#15

Here is the latest update.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDp46XIfHUE

[ul]
[li]Refined many scene elements including the lightning and earth ripping open.[/li][li]Added some subtle elements to the environment. [/li][li]Added camera shakes.[/li][li]Worked on the final seconds of the animation as I’ko’néche raises the dead.[/li][/ul]
Thanks for watching.

#16

Hey everybody,
The God of Resurrection had me put together this lore page to tell you its story.
Hope you enjoy!

#17

Here is the final draft before tomorrow’s deadline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK7r9ogt8rY

#18

Here is the final.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl9VM_17SOo

This was a blast to work on.
Thank you Jeremy Gritton for the character model to use.
Thank you DW and CGSociety.

Good luck everyone!

#19

Good job on finishing up! Sounds like you had a lot of fun with it. I dig the lore page you did. Nice touch. This challenge felt more like a painful grind for me, heh. Man I’m glad it’s over though. :slight_smile:

#20

@Gatecrasher - Thank you! I appreciate the thumbs up. These last couple of days were a bit more challenging than the others. :slight_smile: It’s good the deadline has come and gone.