"Trick Or Treat" Animated Short done in Carrara
PhilW
Posts: 5,145
As some of you will know, I was working on an animation project for around 6 months, finishing last month. I can't share the whole thing as it will be doing the rounds of film festivals, but I can now show a little preview trailer, which you can see here:
http://www.trickortreatshort.com/
I was responsible for the character designs as well as all the sets, animation and rendering. As you can see, it is a 5 min short aimed at children aged 8+ based around a "Trick or Treat" Halloween theme. I can't remember seeing anything like it that has been animated and rendered in Carrara before, so I hope that it will act as a good showcase for the software, as well as being an entertaining piece in its own right.
Thanks for your interest, I hope that one day, you will see the whole film.
Phil
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Comments
30 seconds of Carrara awesomeness .... it looks really cool and had me going what! when it finished.. 30 seconds is just not fair lol
This looks awesome. Congratulations PhilW! I've been waiting eagerly to see clips from the project. All rendered in Octane? I'm sure you have so much to share from the experience. Really good to see Carrara used at this production level. So many questions....can't wait to see the full thing, pls share the film festival itinerary once available. Congratulations again!
I did consider using Octane, but decided in the end to render everything in Carrara's native renderer. This was for a number of reasons - I needed to be able to render several characters in some scenes, and Octane at the time did not have Out of Core textures as it now does. I wanted some characters to have hair/fur, and that was not supported by Octane - again, it now is! And also, as a more cartoony look was appropriate for the subjects, then I didn't really need the high realism of Octane. And as it is set at night (well, evening), there is less ambient light to consider. If I were starting over again now, I may well have decided to use Octane though.
Whoa......Carrara native! That's quite impressive, a real testament to the capabilities of the Carrara native renderer in the right hands. This just made me go back to watch the trailer yet again and again. What sort of average render time were you able to achieve per frame? What sort of rig were you working on? Did you use a render farm? Mimic for lip-synch? Did you hand animate everything? Were there surprises? ......lol, I did say I have a lot of questions. That's an awful lot of work though, handling character design, sets and animation by yourself in 6 months, especially while doing other stuff. I've seen short films of 5 - 8 minutes made in about the same time but usually with 2-3 people handling those same roles, but then....duh.....you're PhilW!!! ;o)
OK, let's see if I can answer these:
- average render time, I aimed to make it no more than 5 mins per frame, and in general achieved that, but some scenes took a bit longer, but never more than 10 mins per frame, and that is rendering at full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080.
- I am using a laptop! No render farm, no super powered PC. I tended to set a scene or two up during the day and then render overnight, although I usually also rendered a low res version to check the movements before committing to the full overnight render.
- No Mimic for the lip synch, I did it all by hand, I think you get a better result that way.
- Almost everything was hand animated. There is a bit where something is thrown and I used Carrara's dynamics for the flight path and the object bouncing to a stop.
- Were there surprises - Yes, if by that you mean problems! But nothing that could not be overcome. It makes me laugh when people say you can't use Genesis figures in Carrara, because almost all the characters were based on Genesis, because they had body shapes available that I wanted to use. Most have custom maps and/or custom clothing to give the character looks that I wanted. The biggest drawback was that I could not use NLA clips on the main characters, as the unusual body proportions lead to distortion when a clip was applied. But I could still re-use the same walk cycles by re-using a previous animation, it was just a little less convenient than using an NLA Clip.
It was a lot of work, but hugely enjoyable and I am very proud of the final results. If it attracts enough interest at the film festivals, it may get developed into a series for kid's TV.
Really inspiring stuff Phil. Thanks for the technical break down. Good to know it's Genesis! Very nice modeling and lighting works too. Looking forward to viewing the whole story!
One day I will get to tell stories using Carrara, one day.................
OK, let's see if I can answer these:
- average render time, I aimed to make it no more than 5 mins per frame, and in general achieved that, but some scenes took a bit longer, but never more than 10 mins per frame, and that is rendering at full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080.
- I am using a laptop! No render farm, no super powered PC. I tended to set a scene or two up during the day and then render overnight, although I usually also rendered a low res version to check the movements before committing to the full overnight render.
- No Mimic for the lip synch, I did it all by hand, I think you get a better result that way.
- Almost everything was hand animated. There is a bit where something is thrown and I used Carrara's dynamics for the flight path and the object bouncing to a stop.
- Were there surprises - Yes, if by that you mean problems! But nothing that could not be overcome. It makes me laugh when people say you can't use Genesis figures in Carrara, because almost all the characters were based on Genesis, because they had body shapes available that I wanted to use. Most have custom maps and/or custom clothing to give the character looks that I wanted. The biggest drawback was that I could not use NLA clips on the main characters, as the unusual body proportions lead to distortion when a clip was applied. But I could still re-use the same walk cycles by re-using a previous animation, it was just a little less convenient than using an NLA Clip.
It was a lot of work, but hugely enjoyable and I am very proud of the final results. If it attracts enough interest at the film festivals, it may get developed into a series for kid's TV.
Thanks, all very instructive. Let me be the first to wish for a 'making-of' video from you at some point. Hope it is successful at festivals and you get to work on the tv series too. Really pleased pleased for you that you've got this done so nicely.
That looks awesome - hope to see the rest of it someday :)
Phil W
Impressive!
My head hurts thinking how much work that must have been.
Must feel great to have it completed.
8068
Thanks for the feedback - yes it was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed doing it and it feels very satisfying to have completed it!
P.S. If you have a look at the background on the trailer page, you can see some of the other characters involved!
Work very pro!
It promises to be an excellent film, beautiful atmosphere, beautiful renders and excellent animations of the characters.
Say to us when it is visible for the public!
I certainly will, but it may be a few months yet, if not longer. I am hoping that it will air on TV next Halloween in some areas!
How did I not comment on this? I swear I did, but somehow my post never went through...
Incredible work, extremely awesome and I was left wanting so much more! Hopefully someday we'll get to view the full clip, but even the short bit shown here is more than enough to demonstrate how awesomely Carrara can perform when used by a master. Inspiring stuff! (not to mention, cool as heck!)
Very good, and promising for the whole movie. The voice acting in particular sounds good. It reminds me of the 2006 movie "Monster House", which I enjoyed (trailer at IMDB). Nominated for the Oscar for best animated feature. Some funny dialogue, e.g.:
Jenny: There!
[waves flashlight at chandelier]
Jenny: Well, if those are the teeth, and that's the tongue, then that must be the uvula!
Chowder: Oh, so it's a *girl* house...
Jenny: [looks at him] *What?*
Just an update on the "Trick or Treat" animated short that I did with Carrara. It has been accepted into the Montreal World Film Festival. Not only will this mean that it will be seen by loads of people, but apparently an entry here gives automatic submission into the Oscars! Now that would be a good showcase for Carrara and DAZ!
that's terrific congrats :) Fantastic news!!!! Oscar's here you go!
Well there is a big difference between submitting and being shortlisted, but nice to know that it will even get considered! I won't be dusting off my dinner jacket just yet (that's a tuxedo to our US friends!).
the joy of life is in the anticipation ;)
What a great accomplishment, Phil. Well done.
Congratulations, Phil, well-deserved. Remember to mention the forum here in your Academy Award acceptance speech.
Thanks guys - I will!
Well done.
It would be Nice to see.
Montreal is only 4 hours away may have to see if I can make it.
4 hours sounds like a long drive to see a 5 minute short! But hey, if you are willing to do it, I am sure it would be a good day out.
you spell my name with one H :) - for the speech I mean :)
Phil,
Thanks for sharing your work. It is really smooth, professional and with natural gestures. I do hope you let us know when the full animation is available to view - the tease worked too well - want to see more. It is also very encouraging to see how Carrara can be tweaked to give such results. Thanks also for the details in its production. Rendering full HD on a lap top and using keyframs for lip synch.... Also you seem to have turned it out by yourself without the aid of a team or staff. Thanks for sharing that.. It means that all of us have the "potential" to turn out quality work without any excuses about equipment. I consider that knowledge a gift...thanks Phil.
Starboardtack
msteaka - thanks for the kind words!
+1
Thanks Phil for sharing your work and for leading the way, really really looking forward to a Carrara win at the Oscars, it would help....oh yes it would!
Great job Phil. Thanks for sharing your work here with the Daz community and inspiring others to show what our little program can do. Fingers crossed for next step.
More good news - "Trick or Treat" has now been accepted for the "Action on Film" festival in California, and also is a finalist in the Short Sharp Film Festival in Australia. Looks like this is going global!
If you are a Facebook user, you can get the latest updates by Liking the "Trick or Treat Short" page - your support would be much appreciated.
https://www.facebook.com/trickortreatshort