FXWars! Catapult! (Trebuchet) : Derby-Q Salano

#81

Thanks. Modeling was actually not the part that took much work, it’s actually quite lowpoly, 4797 faces without the cloak.

There there Peter, you find your way to my hideout :slight_smile:

Thanks for the comments all, here’s a rendered frame for the final animation. Hope you guys like it, first frame took 10mins to render, at frame 50 it drops down to 5mins, in the end I will have 20 hours of rendering… jolly…

Well actually I am glad it’s rendering… when I first tried to render, the renderer would crash on every try, overload… I resized the textures to 50% and optimised the meshes, the workers lost their facial differences, luckely there’s not a frame where they are in closeup, now I still got crashes, so I decided to take out the third treb, the one that’s being build… I modified some render settings and now I’m walking on air, I even think it would still work with the third treb active… although it was blocking the view, so I’m better off without it… Here’s that render:

#82

couldn´t you also have reduced the colour ranges of the textures. i often reduce my colour maps to 256 colours rather than reducing the resolution of them. in most cases you cannot tell the difference colour wise, but reducing resolution can bite you when for some reason you need a closer shot than the texture resolution allows.

by the way your image looks fansastic. i would separate the scene in passes though and comp them back together if the rendering crashes all the time. like background, trebs and people all separated to help optimizing rendering.

I really want to see this animated.

#83

I have been thinking about passes, but I didnt want super high render times, so the crashing is more of a safety :slight_smile: I never tried reducing the color range… nice hint, I’ll try that some time, the reduction in resolution is acceptable, only in the first frame you see some pixels, but I’m not gonna worry about that anymore…

#84

Is the background a photo that you’re comping in or is that a render as well? I can’t really tell, it looks good but something is goofy about it. The trebuchets look like either the perspective is slightly wrong or they’re lit differently or something. I dunno! But wow it’s looking cool. If it IS a rendered background… you’re not rendering every frame with the background, right? You could just do one render and then comp it back in of course, unless you have a moving camera. Anyhoo, I’ll look forward to seeing it in motion once it’s done.

#85

I have to say this is the coolest work i have seen at cgtalk in a long time!

awesome work man!

#86

I agree Rabbit, the skyline is a bit out of sync with the rest of the scene, but I’m not worrying about that really… I’ll do some post color changes that will modify the overall look anyway.

Thanks a lot Sheep Factory, not worthy but gratefull :slight_smile:

#87

OK … this is just sickly insane work in a short amount of time. How? :argh:

I really don’t have anything constructive to say at this point. I think the animation is fantastic and very true to it’s scale. I also don’t have enough knowledge of dynamics to understand how this achieved. I just wanted to say I’m impressed with what you’ve accomplished so far. I’m looking forward to seeing this thing in it’s final stage.

Keep up the great work. :thumbsup:

#88

Hi Derby :

Great job of expanding the concept ! I guess I should say that at first , I guess I must have misunderstood what the mod wanted , and do apologise for any advice I gave people about concentrating on dynamics , not visuals . perhpas the mod initially may have meant “let’s do some really realistic simulations” , but you have taken this whole venue to another level , totally of your own accord , and for that you should be shot ! … Just kidding , of course <big grin> .

Seriously , I think you have demonstrated to all of us just how far one can go if they are willing to do the work to the best of their ability . You’re obviously much more capable than myself , but I’m one of the lucky one’s , in that I am inspired by your work , not frustrated or turned-off in any way .

I can just imagine the joy of an CGI Art Director asking you for something fairly simple , and then having you present that person with a concept or animation beyond what even they could have imagined !

Another point . that perhaps is not so insignificant (please allow me to comment) is the way you handle the “nit-pickers” , who of course are only trying to help . You respond with “oh well , I’m not going to worry about it” , and is such a great way of perhaps sharing your insights into what you think is important , and what is not . Good for you !

Well , what else can I say ? Very gratefull for having the luck to just be here and see how a skilled person has approached the challenge . Wonderfull . Hope to see your name up in lights some day , and I do hope you even eventually get to help your fellow country-persons along while you journey !

Cheers Derby !

studio (edit: misspelled Derby)

#89

Thanks a lot everyone, too kind!

I’m now rendering some shots, having trouble filming this though, if you have any ideas on how to film this, very welcome, now I focus on the trigger for 100 frames, then go to another cam standing somewhat away, who zooms out as the treb launches… then I got some flying projectile renders and then a tower gets smashed pretty hard.

I also wrote a guide of about 12 pages that’ll I’ll upload in a few days, about what I used, how I would advice to do that, hints and tips, stuff like that… Hope you’ll appreciate it when you get it.

#90

Your work is brilliant. You surely nailed the simulation, its stunning.

#91

derbyqsalano, I hope it doesn’t feel like I am just getting in line like everyone else but after reading through the six pages of this thread I have to say your work is very impressive. Working with dynamics, especially ropes, can be terribly painful at times and I admire your end result!

Thanks for sharing with everyone,

Daniel

#92

If it is possible, I would set up multiple cameras and cut it all together in post. I would also set up the anim to first buid some tension, jump quick to action, maybe wane a bit, and big action to end. If you are adding audio FX you could have some beginning close-ups of the weapon in the ready position with some creakying rope audio, then a fast launch, maybe some wall damage, then your guys reloading, maybe some other trebuchets in the distance firing, and finish with a launch and destruction of a key piece of wall.

#93

A view of the castle, looking out over the field and on the trebuchet in the distance, slowly panning from left to right, passing the treb a bit and then focusing back, staying still for a millisecond and then zoooooming in on the treb, or maybe even on the eye of the treb commander… THEN going to the treb firing-view… that would be cool :wink:

Awesome work dude, just awesome… it has been a pleasure following this thread!

#94

Thanks, although both suggestions are a bit too late, aka too much work and August 1st I got other priorities, I’ve been rendering in 5 shots, trigger, launch, two shots of flying projectiles and a crumbling tower, which is still in progress, glad about the amount of response though, highly appreciated!

Derby-Q Salano

#95

Check out my final render, at least for now. I think I will add sound, I got some more time left

#96

Holy crap, that is amazing. I’m in complete awe of just how far above and beyond you’ve gone in this challenge. Says boatloads about your dedication to the art. I love the little touches you’ve included, like the little half-stumble the trigger-man does after hitting the switch. I feel like the wall could have taken more damage, though, if only for the sake of dramatics and visual excitement. May be too late for that by now, though.

Congrats on such a fantastic entry. :bowdown:

#97

Thanks. I too wanted more damage on my tower, in fact, the dynamic part is a lot bigger then the part that gets smashed, but the animation wouldnt run, it took me a lot of time to solve the problem.

#98

This is really, really nice. Good job, man.

I agree with the above reply though, more damage would be nice. I guess it is realistic damage though, castles weren’t built to be destroyed :stuck_out_tongue:

#99

Extraordinary!
Superb job!

Nicolas.

#100

Love it, really great work there. That’s amazing that one person did all that work in such a short amount of time.