"Dreamscapes" - 5 Minute Carrara Animation, Houston 48 Hour Film Contest Entry

Steve K

The Premiere Screenings at the theater were 26 July, I think the audience enjoyed it.

chickenman

Very nice especially under the conditions

Steve K

chickenman said:

Very nice especially under the conditions

Thanks.  As you have probably noticed, we took a lot of shortcuts to reduce render time (not our first 48HFP rodeo).  720x480 frame size ("preview" to most), still images with Particle Illusion 2d effect overlays - birds, smoke, etc., (which render in real time or faster, no kidding), actual "preview" render settings in Vue (so no antialiasing, but it was underwater so "its not a bug its a feature"), only basic Carrara lights, etc.  The Houston contest producer, a longtime veteran of the contest and a good friend, got it to look pretty good on the medium size screen, using her projector in the smallish theater.  A high res projector in a big theater would have probably been disaster for us.  Some of the live action videos (everybody else) were really sharp, HD productions.  But as always, the story is the thing, and for me, a bunch of highschool kids had the best story.  An experienced actor from another team, during the Q&A afterwards, asked, "How did you come up with that story?"  The answer from the 17 year old director was priceless (the title is "Elephant Boy", hopefully it will be on YouTube or similar).

Dartanbeck

Bravo! Yeah... they had fun! ;)

Very cool... I love the above follow-up behind the scenes. Love that stuff!

Headwax

nice work Steve K

Steve K

Thanks, Dartanbeck, Head Wax.  As a followup, "Elephant Boy" by the high school kids won the Audience Award for their group (13 videos), the only awards announced so far.  I was a little surprised, since a few other videos were more technically polished, but again, story rules.  And audiences, at least the Houston 48 Hour audiences, love humor.  Many of the other videos, in genres like "Detective/Cop", "Drama", etc., were pretty dark and violent.  Well done in a few cases, but not a lot of fun, for me and others, evidently.

wgdjohn

Very nice indeed!

argus1000

I wish I could do a 5 minute animation in 48 hours. Alas, it would take me 48 days just for a rough draft; and double (maybe more) that amount of days for a final, polished draft. Oh, animation is slower than slooooooooow for me. Must not rush things.

P.S.: I work 4 hours a day. Every day.

Steve K

Thanks, wgdjohn & argus.  The two day contest is really just a way to goad myself into doing something.  Based on my YouTube views, the videos that are done with a little more planning, and especially with some feedback on drafts, are more popular.  But its a fun game, especially the screenings where you see not only your video, but 50+ others as well (all live action here in Houston).  Some are VERY funny, some are VERY well done.  Here is a Houston winner from a few years back that everybody liked:

And a very funny winner from a few years earlier.  The young boy at ~1:30 started college last year - film school.

PhilW

Very impressive to do all that in 48 hours!

Steve K

Thanks, Phil.  I mentioned all the "shortcurts" above, but the one that really helps, I think, is Particle Illusion's 2D overlays on stills (or videos).  Smoke, birds, welding sparks, water wakes, auroras, etc., all render in essentially real time. The video  has a bunch of these, making up a big chunk of the 5 minutes.  BTW, the overhead view of the ~abstract submarine wake is a Particle Illusion preset titled "Weird Wake", overlaid on a top down view of your "Realistic Seas for Carrara".  The ~15 second clip rendered in about 30 seconds.