Woops. Almost forgot about one of our newest team members…
Mic Riddle joined us around Sept. 10 to take on the modelling work for Rio’s signature statue that we feature prominantly in s09.
After a just a short amount of time (but a LOT of coffee), Mic is nearing completion of the model:
Hey guys (& girls?), how are you doing…? Still on the run? All the enormous amounts of work look very awesome! I just can’t wait for the final movie of your team…! 
Why is this forum so very dead, the last couple of days…? Is everybody being hard at work at the challenge, or is nobody anymore participating…? :shrug:
In every case I wish your guys very much good luck!
-Gijs
Sorry we’ve been so silent lately. We havn’t given up we have just been busy busy busy working on things to finish this up. 
I’m sure Nick with post an update as he gets some free time.
heh heh. Yeah, I’ve been wondering much the same thing. 
We’re neck deep in renders and revisions now.
Gonna come right down to the wire I think, but we’re in it.
Didn’t really plan on posting much more unless there were questions or requests.
Hope all is going well your your entry.
Yours, the Weather Blenders, that Africa News project, Snow Globe, and several others look really really good based on the early posts.
Hope to see everyone’s entries submitted.
Good luck to all !!
Yup, we are all deep into last minute work. The pieces start coming together one after the other now 
Great work people…
The voting thread will go up this Friday, so if you wish to tweak the entry you have until then.
-R
Great short…
just wanted to extend an invitation…
FXWARS BIG FREEZE : TO ALL PARTICIPANS: Post here a video your Best Shot(Video Promo)
-R
One of our original mirrors has gone down and is now redirecting hits to the (now throttled ) Pennsylvania server.
Here’s an additional mirror for our 960x540 sorenson version that should be a bit faster:
http://www.pxc.muc3-austria.com/public/TEAMRIO_FXWARS_960x540_sor3.mov
We hope to have an additional mirror online later today.
Thanks for all the interest!
Two more mirrors thanks to Timon Royer:
http://www.timon-royer.com/TEAMRIO_FXWARS_960x540_sor3.mov
http://wp1015193.wp006.webpack.hosteurope.de/TEAMRIO_FXWARS_960x540_sor3.mov
Thanks.
Hey guys,
I must say…this was one massive conglomeration of hard work and talent from all of you! Just seeing the number of people listed in the credits at the end was enough for me to realize how much of a nightmare this thing must have been to organize efficiently.
I really liked the “satellite camera” shot of the storm, the “wall of cloud” shot (as the snow rushes over the city) and the swinging gondola shot (looked great). The fact that you also took the time to go out and film a couple of actors to be included in the final video was also great as well, and added that nice “lifelike” touch to the whole animation. The final “money shot” at the end (with the camera sweep around the statue) was quite amazing in itself! Having that bit of parralax between the statue and the background really helped to “fool” me into thinking that the background wasn’t just a matte painting.
Now…on the downside…there was a shot of the 2 actors “trembling on the ground” that I felt was unecessary…and some of their reactions looked a little too fake for my liking…but that definitely didn’t ruin the rest of the video for me
Overall…you get a big A!
Wow. Thanks for such a favorable review.
Coming from one of the true masters around here that really means a lot.
Since Roberto emphasized the requirement for live action shots so much in the original rules and discussion for this challenge, we actually started our planning with those and worked a story around them.
The first story iteration had them in a car, but that introduced a few too many challenges for this schedule, so they were moved into a hotel room, but then that was a little too boring and they weren’t in enough “danger”, so they ended up in a cable car, which really worked out nicely since it was also a good, distinctive landmark in Rio. With those four shots planned and scheduled for shooting (100% greenscreen) the rest of the schedule and “story” was wrapped around them.
Organization turned out to be one of the more “routine” parts of the project. Everyone really stepped up to the challenges involved and stuck to their promises throughout the effort. After a week of brainstorming the story/shotlist, we crashed out the animatic the following week. With that roadmap in hand, it was pretty easy to point to each element needed and check them off as voluteers stepped up for assignments.
The biggest challenge seemed to be in the home stretch. We started rendering well over a week before the deadline thinking that was a comfortable headstart, but a few snags with some of the more complex renders and comps meant that the last shot in was rendered just a few hours before the deadline.
Anyway, thanks again for the kind words and constructive feedback.
Good luck!
LOL if it was I didn’t see or feel any of it on the way
Pretty much as Nick said. I would add what was missing…the confusion over how the pieces fit together and individuals place’s within. I think the key is everybody knowing the pipeline, workflow and each other well enough to be able to take solid steps forward with confidence that the system/team can support anything that may come up. AND it did for many of us LOL
In the end personally don’t care about the outcome of the competition, because this was one of those very very very rare projects where a group of people just came together (in fertile ground-have to add that) and made it happen. It was a great joy and priviledge. To be part of that group and the greater group who both attempted and succeded at this challenge.
My hat’s off for everyone’s efforts
WDA
Ivanisavich, thanks for the kind words. Actually, organizing the whole thing was no nightmare at all. We started out with a smaller team and got the basic pipeline nailed down pretty early before starting to work. As the scope of the project grew and new (self contained) tasks were defined we could draw talent from an amazing pool of volunteers. Sure there were bumps along the road but none that caused serious headaches.
Beeing on that team was a great experience for me and there is so much I take with me that I know I’ve already won
Cheers,
Martin
Just as an interesting note…
Some behind-the-scenes photos from our shoot ended up in the current issue of 3DWorld. Tim Dobbert from The Orphanage was on set with us and the photos used in his article on Matchmoving were taken during our Big Freeze shoot.
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