New 4 Minute Animation - All Carrara

Steve K

Here is my entry in the Carrara animation contest at Carrarators, titled "Budget Travel". A 4.5 minute darkish comedy using M4, V4, many props from DAZ and Renderosity, and mocaps from Eclipse and others. The animation is all Carrara, but there is a live action insert using royalty free video clips.

http://www.bond3d.byethost18.com/index.php?topic=243.msg1431#msg1431

PhilW

Steve - I am getting a "This page can't be displayed" error on your link.

Steve K

PhilW said:

Steve - I am getting a "This page can't be displayed" error on your link.

Yes, there is some kind of problem at Carrarators. Here is the direct YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqBOpiF24nc

Thanks for the interest.

Jonstark

SteveK that was excellent! Lol, what a relaxing and fun trip he had. The 60 year old prostitute was a nice touch :) Render quality was very good, some of those sets looked pretty complex to setup. Very impressive :)

Steve K

Jonstark said:

SteveK that was excellent! Lol, what a relaxing and fun trip he had. The 60 year old prostitute was a nice touch :) Render quality was very good, some of those sets looked pretty complex to setup. Very impressive :)

Thanks, Jon. As I mentioned elsewhere: I was inspired by some great models. In particular coflek-gnorg's Razor Rider Series (hotel reception, corridor, room) at Renderosity. Also "The Borderline" (elevated train) by The AntFarm and its presets to fit "Le Faubourg" by Faveral, and also "Urban Future" by Stonemason, all at DAZ. Plus many others ...

The render was straight Carrara, fast antialias generally, and mostly 5 to 10 seconds per frame.

I considered putting a warning about the implied sexual content, but decided it was pretty tame. Maybe I should have ...

I have actually stayed in some motels not a lot different ... so "based on a true story" ... loosely ... :coolsmirk:

Jonstark

I thought the movement speed of the trains in both scenes really was dead on, looked about right. The taxi looked like it was going a little slow, but hey maybe it was just slowing down to deliver the poor guy to his dream vacation destination.

No worries about any sexual content warnings, as there was nothing remotely sexy displayed (lol!) and the prostitute was well-covered anyway. :)

I'm going to have to hunt down some of those sets, I'm a fan to Coflek's stuff already. (between him, 3dc, and stonemason alone, the sets really do exist to make a theater-quality cgi universe spring to life).

PhilW

Very amusing!

Steve K

Jonstark said:

I thought the movement speed of the trains in both scenes really was dead on, looked about right. The taxi looked like it was going a little slow, but hey maybe it was just slowing down to deliver the poor guy to his dream vacation destination.

No worries about any sexual content warnings, as there was nothing remotely sexy displayed (lol!) and the prostitute was well-covered anyway. :)

I'm going to have to hunt down some of those sets, I'm a fan to Coflek's stuff already. (between him, 3dc, and stonemason alone, the sets really do exist to make a theater-quality cgi universe spring to life).

Jon -

Right, the taxi was a little slow. I could try to say it was a cabbie trying to run up the fare, which I have seen, but really I just got worn out fixing the higher priority glitches. Arms through walls, bodies through clothes, arms through bodies, and especially lighting. Not only trying to get the right light where needed, but also having light where its not wanted and figuring out where its coming from.

My wife & I don't have kids or grandkids, so I don't know how parents feel about mild sexual suggestiveness. I doubt any kid would even raise an eyebrow, but here in Texas we have a lot of religious folks ...

I agree on the high quality realistic scenes,and in fact that's pretty much all I purchase. Thankfully there are a couple of dozen vendors that offer great realism at affordable prices. I own half of Stonemason's 141 items, and similar numbers for The AntFarm, Faveral, Coflek-Gnorg, Jack Tomalin, Howie Farkes, and others who offer Carrara or Poser format (I'm still leery of .DUF products in Carrara ...)

Thanks for the feedback.

Steve K

PhilW said:

Very amusing!

Thanks, Phil. You may have noticed the water under the bridge was your "Carrara Realistic Seas", the "Becalmed" preset. Yet another element that helps create realistic worlds in Carrara.

PhilW

Steve K said:

PhilW said:

Very amusing!

Thanks, Phil. You may have noticed the water under the bridge was your "Carrara Realistic Seas", the "Becalmed" preset. Yet another element that helps create realistic worlds in Carrara.

Ha! No, I hadn't noticed, but good to know it is being put to good use!

Hermit Crab

Great animation, Steve K

The lady wasn't at all shocking. The part which struck me most (not in the sense that it needs censorship) was the medic reading a book in the presence of a corpse. Sadly, all too realistic but it didn't cancel out the general humour of the piece.

Once I stayed in Paris for a few nights and had to sleep in the car. It was Easter weekend and we couldn't find accommodation anywhere. One place in Montmartre had vacant rooms at a cheap price - but the place was very much like the one you depict - they refused to let us even see the rooms!

Incongruously, a wealthy-looking, well-dressed man and very beautiful woman came down the stairs and left as we were discussing this.

(BTW the Gendarmes move you on if you sleep in a car in Paris)

Steve K

Marcus Severus said:

Great animation, Steve K

The lady wasn't at all shocking. The part which struck me most (not in the sense that it needs censorship) was the medic reading a book in the presence of a corpse. Sadly, all too realistic but it didn't cancel out the general humour of the piece.

Once I stayed in Paris for a few nights and had to sleep in the car. It was Easter weekend and we couldn't find accommodation anywhere. One place in Montmartre had vacant rooms at a cheap price - but the place was very much like the one you depict - they refused to let us even see the rooms!

Incongruously, a wealthy-looking, well-dressed man and very beautiful woman came down the stairs and left as we were discussing this.

(BTW the Gendarmes move you on if you sleep in a car in Paris)

Thanks, MS, its very satisfying when folks notice the little details, even when they go by pretty quickly. I think the dark humor, like the book reading medic, is inspired by my preference for "realistic" books and shows, like the great HBO TV Series "The Wire". Here is a 10 minute collection of 100 great lines (caution: language):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sgj78QG9Bg

I've attended the local police "Citizen's Police Academy" (14 lectures), including a ride-along with a couple of the officers. I live in a fairly peaceful suburb, but even then we have some bad actors. I think the police and medics have to have a thick skin just to get through the day.

Interesting story about Paris, sounds like there's a story in there, maybe an animation. I once spent about 15 minutes in France, at the Calais terminal for the hovercraft from Dover. For about $10, we got to ride over and back, but had to "deplane" in Calais and then get right back on. France looked pretty nice, the mile or so I could see. :coolsmirk:

PhilW

France is great, I have been to all four corners and driven top to bottom and back a couple of times with different routes. You should try to see more of it - Calais does not really do it justice!

Steve K

PhilW said:

France is great, I have been to all four corners and driven top to bottom and back a couple of times with different routes. You should try to see more of it - Calais does not really do it justice!

Phil -

Just to clarify, I was not putting France down, just joking about how short our stay was. We were actually on our first visit to London, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The hovercraft trip to Calais was a side trip that we only learned about while visiting Dover Castle, I think. My wife's father's family (Van Parys) is from Belgium, so we hope to visit the "continent" someday, maybe see our fellow Carrarator DUDU.

I do recall a headline in the London news (possibly apocryphal): "Channel Fogged In - Continent Cut Off"

(Vague attempt to stay within sight of topic) My animation has quite a few disjointed cuts ("jump cuts"? "smash cuts"?). Mostly because it was too much work to animate all the connecting shots. I thank the French movie "Breathless" (1960) for making this acceptable. As a reviewer at IMDB says, "This is the one that started it all kids, the daddy of post-modern cinema. MTV jump cuts, fractured soundtrack and images aplenty. ... All style and no substance is considered a bad thing today, unless its Tarantino. Well, if it wasn't for Godard, chances are there would be no QT." I'm no Godard or Tarantino, but I can make "wrong" cuts with the best of them. :coolgrin:

PhilW

Steve K said:

PhilW said:

France is great, I have been to all four corners and driven top to bottom and back a couple of times with different routes. You should try to see more of it - Calais does not really do it justice!

Phil -

Just to clarify, I was not putting France down, just joking about how short our stay was. We were actually on our first visit to London, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The hovercraft trip to Calais was a side trip that we only learned about while visiting Dover Castle, I think. My wife's father's family (Van Parys) is from Belgium, so we hope to visit the "continent" someday, maybe see our fellow Carrarator DUDU.

I do recall a headline in the London news (possibly apocryphal): "Channel Fogged In - Continent Cut Off"

(Vague attempt to stay within sight of topic) My animation has quite a few disjointed cuts ("jump cuts"? "smash cuts"?). Mostly because it was too much work to animate all the connecting shots. I thank the French movie "Breathless" (1960) for making this acceptable. As a reviewer at IMDB says, "This is the one that started it all kids, the daddy of post-modern cinema. MTV jump cuts, fractured soundtrack and images aplenty. ... All style and no substance is considered a bad thing today, unless its Tarantino. Well, if it wasn't for Godard, chances are there would be no QT." I'm no Godard or Tarantino, but I can make "wrong" cuts with the best of them. :coolgrin:

That's exactly how I read it about France, I was just encouraging you to try to see more, as Calais is not really the best bit.

Several of the reworks on my recent animation project were because of jump cuts or other sudden changes between scenes, so I guess not everyone is into that style!

mmoir

Steve k , nice job on this

I got half way through making my movie and then all my free time for movie making was taken over by playing tennis. Hopefully I can finish my movie later on.

Steve K

mmoir said:

Steve k , nice job on this

I got half way through making my movie and then all my free time for movie making was taken over by playing tennis. Hopefully I can finish my movie later on.

Thanks. As always, I didn't get to a few things I wanted to do, but even if I did, there would be more things ... :)

Tennis reminds me of a favorite book, "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. Part of it takes place in a tennis academy/boarding school with some strange characters. Funny stuff. (Wallace was a junior tennis champ, I recall).