Awesome
Keep posting, I will spotlight your project next month.
And for all participants, I NEED 20- 30 sec TRAILERS for your projects. I have been invited to a a panel about indie projects at SIGGRAPH about the IP club.I want to present your projects to the crowd.
Easy enough for game and animation projects, perhaps… I’ve no idea how a trailer for a webcomic would work. Maybe a “Hi! This is my comic” video, but the camera and I don’t exactly get along. 
Which kinda explains why the guys who have fit your bill are guys “between jobs”.
You’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way and go door to door on the internet to find someone.
I assume you’re paying of course?
You can still shrink it some more… At it’s most extreme? ONE character… fighting in a city made really out of 2 or 3 re-instanced buildings (rotate for variety)… and make instead a bunch of little tanks and planes and helicopters…
Sure… that’s probably not the concept anymore… but you need something that “goes over the hill”… Something to show people.
Also I was thinking you could go with “Ultraman faces”… basically simplifying it to a hard surface model/helmet design.
Even the girl can be done this way as with below’s Threezero redesign for Aphrodite from Mazinger Z:
I’ve been doing the door to door internet style for years now. I get models but half finished ones where guys say “Hey I just got a job at (insert awesome studio here) and I can’t work on the project anymore”
City backgrounds and such are not the problem. I model props myself with ease and also use pre-made like Stonemason and even try to fit the scenes to what I have vs what I need.
Like one scene was supposed to be at a Comic Book Convention well I changed it to being at an ohnsen(japanese bathhouse) because I found a really detailed ohnsen model.
So I make adjustments like that.
Props are not the problem. It is the character models. I got props, premade and personally made and can easily get some done quickly via architectural modelers I find here and there.
The reason I went to “I Love Kaiju” is because the great amount of “normal” human characters. I’ll be using Hiro 5, Michael, ETC all morphed out. You can actually get some decent results. It is with the more customized characters that is the problem. I guess you can say I’ve been working my way around that recently. I think organization is the key. We shall see here shortly.
Plus the whole thing is all inclusive of Mecha and such but that is down the road. I think Mecha are the hardest thing to model personally. But reevaluating some things is in order for sure. I might have to skip “I Love Kaiju” for now. We’ll see.
And for all participants, I NEED 20- 30 sec TRAILERS for your projects. I have been invited to a a panel about indie projects at SIGGRAPH about the IP club.I want to present your projects to the crowd.
By when?
@ilovekaiju: First of all, I have to say that I think I can have a lot of good advice for what you want to do because your thing is primarily sci-fi and there’s going to be some big action pieces. So there is a tangent between what you do and what I’ve studied doing.
OK, what we really need to do right now is get an inventory of what it is you DON’T have, but is essential for the concept.
You need to know exactly how many of these pins you still need to knock down.
Everything else you already have, keep that to yourself. Those are ready assets.
I’m aware that some of it may not be textured or something. But if you at least have the models in your hands - you’re somewhat there.
Now ALL THAT aside… on a side track:
This is exactly why I have been asking if you would consider a move to Giant Robots rather than organics. Basically renaming the concept to “I LOVE GIANT ROBOS” (the use of the word “Robo” is intended as “Japanese slang”).
I am working on the assumption that what you DON’T have are all the “Super Characters” and “Super Giant Characters”.
You can probably still have Kaiju but if possible they should also be “Hard surface Kaiju” (eg: Giant rock/crystal monster).
The tactic here is to play the concept to what you are already good at (turning all the super characters into solid props moving by armature).
I’m basing this suggestion from your own report below:
So if this is an emergency. That’s what I’m suggesting.
You can still get a lot of spectacle in there and “Kaijuisms” with modern FX if you’re open-minded about it:
Also something to be said for “cheating all your organics” as done in this video:
The organics are imperative to the story. 3 of the actual characters are all Kaiju themselves.
One is less organic like the Ultraman.
I think really step 1 is to get a really good generic face for the anime style characters, male and female. The body I’m sticking with Genesis build.
The story has tons of mechas but they are not in the first scene. Since this is serial in nature I’m starting out the first scene pretty easy.
First scene is of the fight between the 2 guys in the concept artwork. It is a scene where Milton the purple ranger and Gold Red King the team leader. Milton “dies” in the scene. Bascially Milton was on the team and for some reason turned on the team. He has a final showdown with the team leader. Think when the Green Ranger vs the Red. This is where the story starts. The organics are necessary but only down the road. I guess right now I’m looking for the faces and outfits for the main characters.
I love those videos you showed. It was inspirational.
I think I will have to recheck my assets and try to do this trailer that he Roberto was talkinga bout.
Not to discourage you, but you have to really think very hard about this, especially if you’re going it alone (or if there will only be a few people to help you). The truth is that the secret to getting good animation or VFX are established in two things:
Asset creation and Rendering are the two main “time drainers” and you are currently experiencing the former.
The thing is you can’t begin any testing, or hope to iterate any image sequences until you have the assets. The more assets there are, and the more complex they are, the tougher you will have it.
What I’m saying is, there will be MORE battles up ahead than just getting past making your organics. EACH one of them will have to be fine-tuned to a certain standard across the board, and that’s effort PER organic character. Not just when they’re standing still (ie: Modeling/Texturing) but more so when they are all in action.
And that does not count yet iterations you will have to make for editorial purposes (ie: “Does a scene not work?”, “Is this the right cut?”, “Is the pacing right?”)
All I’m saying is that you have to appreciate the entire scale of the mission to make this picture and you have to “pick your battles”.
Personally I’m not sure it’s worth it to force the number of characters. I’d go as far as to make a “Primer Story” rather than the main one - basically a “test bed story”… instead of the main one you want to do if it will help you gain experience.
No one has asked you this: But does this concept call for spoken dialogue? Because you have to note that at places like Blur, facial acting and spoken dialogue were the subject of an entire project in and of itself (ie: the Face Robot project). Also you have to note the short film LE GOUFFRE did not tackle spoken dialogue because it’s really a big leap.
Again: Pick how many enemy hordes you want to fight against in your “debut match”.
You can always attack “the full monty” at a future time with what you learn from previous efforts.
That’s a question best answered by yourself: Will you be happy that all the characters have identical faces? Will this be a solution you can build on for the future, assuming the project is a success? Or is this really a solution you will discard later on?
Would you consider the possibility of spinning off a Mecha Episode as the first thing you do? Wouldn’t be the first time. Remember even George Lucas decided it was better to start STAR WARS with Episode 4.
Again, personally, I’d shy away from something as difficult as organics and a death scene for something so new. Especially if the scenes in question, to deliver some of the ideas you mentioned about Milton and the betrayal, require dramatics or spoken dialogue.
It’s not that it cannot be done. It’s just from the fact that you’re going it alone, and there’s so many things that have to be considered: VFX, Color Scripting, Animation, Render Benchmarking, Viewer Testing, Planning for Iteration Feedback Loops…
I just don’t think it’s the right idea to get caught up trying to win one foothold on a beachhead without regrouping first.
But, at the end of the day, it’s your concept. Just wanted to help.
Good luck. :arteest:
CGIPadiwan
That was a great post. 
Not to discourage you, but you have to really think very hard about this, especially if you’re going it alone (or if there will only be a few people to help you). The truth is that the secret to getting good animation or VFX are established in two things:
Not discouraged. Actually it is posts like yours that help me think things through and help me brainstorm a bit. It really sucks to go at it alone and having someone like you chime in helps alot and makes me feel less alone.
Asset creation and Rendering are the two main “time drainers” and you are currently experiencing the former.
The thing is you can’t begin any testing, or hope to iterate any image sequences until you have the assets. The more assets there are, and the more complex they are, the tougher you will have it.
I Love Kaiju is actually my easiest story. Hahaha! It stemmed from me wanting to do a simpler story. All the other stories are more stylized in nature. “I Love Kaiju” works with normal human models for the most part.
Here are folks who used the method I’m doing.
And
No one has asked you this: But does this concept call for spoken dialogue? Because you have to note that at places like Blur, facial acting and spoken dialogue were the subject of an entire project in and of itself (ie: the Face Robot project). Also you have to note the short film LE GOUFFRE did not tackle spoken dialogue because it’s really a big leap.
Yes but that is why I’m trying to stray a bit away from super realistic people and more stylized. If you watch anime you notice there are very few mouth movements.
That’s a question best answered by yourself: Will you be happy that all the characters have identical faces? Will this be a solution you can build on for the future, assuming the project is a success? Or is this really a solution you will discard later on?
I’m looking to get a simplified head I can morph off of and create a ton more faces. I’m actually going with a cool facial style. Kind of a realistic “Adventure Time” for some of the characters.
Would you consider the possibility of spinning off a Mecha Episode as the first thing you do? Wouldn’t be the first time. Remember even George Lucas decided it was better to start STAR WARS with Episode 4.
Designing mechs is not my strength. In fact I’m horrible at doing cool mechs so I’d have to find a designer for help on the mech design. So more money or finding an extra person.
Plus still I would have to have someone model it for me so if I’m going to utilize the energy I’m going to stick with the organics. I personally wouldn’t be happy with the story.
Again, personally, I’d shy away from something as difficult as organics and a death scene for something so new. Especially if the scenes in question, to deliver some of the ideas you mentioned about Milton and the betrayal, require dramatics or spoken dialogue.
The fight scene is between one helmeted character and Milton who is unhooded, so the hooded parts will be easier and Milton also has a guard over his mouth when fighting, it is also the tail end of the fight so not too dramatic and some scenes are far off so you will only hear and not see mouth movement. I’m going to use a ton of “anime” shortcuts. Like talking off screen, talking showing only the eyes, focusing on a different part of the body here and there.
Just wanted to help.
And you definately have! Like I said " sometimes" I feel like I’m going at it totally alone. I get jealous and upset at the folks who can model but don’t do their own projects and it takes its toll trying to find artists who never pan out or getting them scooped away. You working with me and giving me suggestions really helps. Helps a lot! Thank you very much. You do not realize how much that means to me.
OK, I’m going to run through your examples one by one:
Considerations:
Considerations:
Considering the full series “RWBY”, this is basically the 2nd IP developed by a full-time team at studio Rooster Teeth. So very different circumstances, and yet there’s a lot of stylization.
I am quite familiar with Jesus Orellana’s ROSA. It took about one year to make, mostly using similar environments, a strong green-themed palette… and note that he intentionally went down a design route where he used heavy eyeliner and particular shading to avoid having to work eye shaders. He used two DAZ models to get this result.
Basically what I’m saying is characters can become a lot easier when everybody wears eyeliner and face paint because you don’t need to sort skin or eye shaders during VFX testing.
My point is all the above examples have considerations… Or to put it bluntly… they “cheated” their difficulty in some way to ensure things are feasible.
Personally I have made the same observation. But I am only exploring this in a new project. I didn’t do it on my “first” one (which wasn’t really the first one… since there were other 2 or 3 minute “storyless” clips before that one).
But you are on the right track that out of 100 plus facial movements, only a few count. Depending on what you’re going for though, eventually you use more out of the many shown in Facial Action Coding System (FACS).
Well I was thinking that if you were going for an Ultraman era type of thing, then the robots would only need to look as sophisticated as the ones from the 1970’s… They don’t need to look like Gundams.
Unfortunately can’t help in designing such mecha myself.
Why not a full face mask? It seems to work sometimes:
Note the hooded guys in Gas Masks (the stealth guy with the gasmask and hood who can turn invisible who is first fully visible at 00:45). He has a lot of personality and presence even with a full face mask worn under a hood.
I’d say… go the whole 9 yards and make them both “Ninja Mask fighters”.
Also remember, that there is such a thing as “Tokusatsu Acting”… like how that gas mask guy is moving his head with much more force than a normal person would talking through a mask so the audience would know which guy is talking.
Glad to have helped.
Also remember, that there is such a thing as “Tokusatsu Acting”… like how that gas mask guy is moving his head with much more force than a normal person would talking through a mask so the audience would know which guy is talking
You know I never noticed that now until you said it. Hahahaha! That is awesome!
Considerations:
- Running time very short.
- Lighting, texturing and rendering are all very simple and would not be considered “mass media” grade. So this project could come together “fairly quickly” (not saying it would be easy. But certainly it isn’t an Assassin’s Creed trailer worth of difficulty).
That is why I’m looking for a threshold in quality and using some stylization. Actually these guys have a ton of longer episodes.
Tell me what do you think about Unreal Engines rendering style and look? That is something I’ve been going over to work on the rendering speed of things.
Aha! Yet another thing I been playing around in testing. Let’s just say that whatever works in Unreal Engine works to even greater effect in a full-fledged 3D app that is not bound by the limits of any game engine. 
The most important take away I got from game engine art is the Normal mapping and Retopoing methodology. The guys who do them for games know these processes to a very high degree.
I wanted to share this IP that was created by a member here on CGtalk. He has just finished developing his IP in the way of an actual full length film.
About 1 year ago he came on this forum to post his work and his work was torn a new one by the professionals on this site.
Here is the original trailer.
While most of the criticism was harsh and some very critical this artist kept working and used even the worse “critique” to improve his product. He took some advice and found a great modeler by the name of Victor Hugo and kept working on his project alone if need be.
Here is the result and the movie will be released shortly.
That to me is an inspiration and worthy of front page. He is increasing the bar on One-Man ventures.
What I find sad sometimes though is the fact that there are not more of these things going on. The other sad fact is that people not thinking making a film worth watching by a small group is not possible. The collab forum is nothing more than a ghost town.
When you even talk about IP you even have people scoff at that idea.
I’d love to hear where you think artists can actually sell all these original IPs that people here are always telling everyone to make.
My question has always been if folks like “Video Briquendo” can be in business since 1997 then why not talented folks here pursuing their own endeavors?
Why is collabing all but dead? If it was alive you’d see more unique and cool things being created by groups but instead you have the one man guy having to do it all himself.
I can count about 6 or 7 One Man made films, 3 of which were made by the same person.
Roberto has done so much to try to promote IP here on the forum. The crazy thing is if you look at all the posts it is about the same 10 guys talking to each other and encouraging each other. Which is awesome by the way!
But the other side of that coin is you would think in a forum full of creatives you would have so many ideas bouncing around and encouragement, maybe even help and new collabs being formed to do something awesome and that is create.
The funny thing about the video above is when he posted the first trailer that didn’t look as good he got 4 pages of comments bashing his work and now that the quality has improved drastically he has about 4 posts.
I know this guys work is not perfect or yet to Pixar but each time these guys do something like this they set a new bar. Congrats to him.
I was hoping we could at least get the word out. I wanted us in the IP forum to create a program to promote each others works. I call it the “100 to 100” We all know at least 100 people. I was thinking on each release or our IP or at a point where we need it to grow that we contact 100 of our friends and tell folks, that the folks who are part of the program. Like we help each other out with our IP. I can tell 100 of my folks about your IP and you can tell 100 folks about mine. I think it could grow that way.
It’s usually been said that if you go into a room of 50 people and ask for a film idea, 10 people would have a really good one. Then you ask the ten of them to go make the movie and maybe only 4 of them would know how to do it.
And of those 4 maybe only 2 will finish.
We can’t ask everyone to be a Creative in the sense of being a Film’s Director (as in directing and getting to the finish with something watchable) or Producer (pulling resources together and arranging the end-to-end path for the film or property).
I don’t see why we should try and evangelize this to others. It’s like asking everyone to be an Entrepreneur.
If they want to do it, have the will to do it, and have a plan for how to do it? They can step into this thread.
Hey everyone,
I know it is the end of the month but I’m going to post here with my inaugural Incubator post. I was laid off recently and have decided to take a part time job to provide a base income and leave me enough time to pursue my dream of developing an IP. I’ll get a formal WIP thread started for august that follows the incubator guidelines, but since I don’t have anything other than a concept right now, I didn’t really see the point of making a thread with nothing to put there yet.
I like the idea of the incubator and it seems like there are some talented people that are involved. I’m looking forward to participating.
CONCEPT NAME: Irresistible Grace
STILL IMAGE: film banner coming week 1 of August
CATEGORY:
Children’s Book/Short Film/App
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: A story about a young girl and how a religious experience helps her see the world as a beautiful place.
STATUS NUMBER: preliminary post
TEAM MEMBERS:1
START DATE: Aug 2014
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : Not sure yet, I need to get my head around what assets I need first, break the project into phases and set up a production schedule.
WIP THREAD: Coming in Aug
WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK: got laid off last month, taking part time job to allow free time develop the project
WHAT WENT WRONG:got laid off last month
SHOW AND TELL: n/a
And of those 4 maybe only 2 will finish.
We can’t ask everyone to be a Creative in the sense of being a Film’s Director (as in directing and getting to the finish with something watchable) or Producer (pulling resources together and arranging the end-to-end path for the film or property).
I don’t see why we should try and evangelize this to others. It’s like asking everyone to be an Entrepreneur.
If they want to do it, have the will to do it, and have a plan for how to do it? They can step into this thread.
YOu know what? You are right.
Ok guysI really will need your help for my SIGGRAPH presentation.
I really need for you guys to post videos OR STILLS of your projects so I can talk abit abou them…
-R
Roberto,
You can download a teaser for Le Gouffre on our Vimeo:
The poster here:
http://legouffre.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/LeGouffre_Poster_EN_small.jpg
And you can find stills from the film in our gallery:
Awesome, keep em coming guys I need to do a first draft of my presentation by Friday…
-R