Animation is divided on both shot to shot bases, as well as usage type. Such as Intro Movies versus the "actual film" itself. All tasks are done using 3d Studio Max 7.
Shot Status:
Fox Intro- Animation Final
Red Intro- Not Started
Main Film- Not started
Fox Intro (Pass 1) Created 4/10/06:
This was mainly one huge test, so the final result isn't necessarily final. Cameras may get changed, entire sections of animations may be cut out, and so on. The yellow flashes are quick examples of when lightning would be striking, so that definitely won't be staying. Just placeholders.
Music is also not final. I just threw that in there for kicks. And it's Metal. So if you don't like that.. well, mute your computer for 20 seconds.
This particular file is not finished in terms of production either. Lacking, are the following: Highrez mesh (just smoothing), displacement, motion blur, post effects (lightning, sparks, etc) Final texture, and even the background/environment itself isn't final. It's just one big test. But a fun one, and something that let me determine one thing for absolute certain: This is the most complex character I've ever worked with. Typical!
One more thing to note. Since this is without blur, you can see basically every single frame, crystal clear. So I suggest checking it out frame by frame (Quicktime is awesome for that.. which is why I use it) The action goes by pretty damn fast, but you'll never see half of whats going on. Such as the tongue bouncing around in his mouth after the kick slam move. No one will probably ever see it, especially when it's blurred.. but yup, it's in there. As are many, many other tiny details. I love the details.
The second animation pass of Fox included a huge list of changes. The background and framing were the most important, but there were many strictly animation changes as well. This is considered the "Useable" version of this movie. In the event that I never got another chance to do a 3rd pass, this would be it. But since I have no time limit, it will get another pass. Still, you can get a few good sense of what things will look like from here. After this, it's all polish and tweaks. Though I do intend to rework the lighting and background yet again.
All thats missing from this render is final post effects. Blur, Zdepth, Lightning effects, that sort of thing.
Stream any of these, or Right click save as to store it locally.
For the third pass on Fox's Intro, It ended up being actually two different pases, so you could almost call it pass 4.
There was a specific third animation pass, which was meant as final before showing it around for any smaller nitpicking tweaks. Of which I did get especially from Goose Ramierez who I work with on a regular basis when contractors are needed. He actually sat down and picked at it for close to an hour. Nitpicky? Yes. But thats exactly what I wanted, and his nitpicks made it drastically better.
Then, the background and the lighting especially, got a massive overhaul. I wasn't satisfied with the realistic background, and wanted something much more stylized. I did keep the photo background as a base, though. Just massively stylized it out.
The lighting was a huge task, in part because I wasn't very skilled with lighting at the time, and also because of the huge amount of complexity in this scene. There are so many animated lights turning on and off, tons only lighting Fox and only the background, others even as negative lights to get those stlized shadows, and so on. And that doesn't even include the animated floor and blast lights.. It was a massive undertaking, but I think the results speak for themselves.
During all this, I also tweaked animation down to the smallest detail, and messed with camera a bit to get it even more dynamic.
The effects in the movie are temporary placeholders. When Jeff gets to working on the effects finally, it should look pretty amazing.
Also note, no post effects such as motion blur and Z-depth and so on. Not yet. That comes last.
The still frames below are at 1024x786 rez so you can fully appreciate all the detail present. But just be warned if you're on a slow connection.
Stream any of these, or Right click save as to store it locally.
Quicktime Required.
3 Different versions. Pick the one that you'd prefer
For kicks, I decided to put together a video showing this piece of the project develop through the stages. As it was basically made up entirely as I went along, it changed over and over. Again and again. But all for the better, in the end. So if you were ever wondering how it was put together? Well, here is a short glimpse of that.
Since FVR is a film with almost no storyboards, that makes it impossible to do the bulk of the animation until Red is completed. However, to get around this, an intro animation was created. By doing this, many predictions can be made for the future. This gives me the chance to work with Fox and see how hard it is to actually animate him, how long it will probably take, and other issues such as texture stretching, or skeletal problems, and etc. Plus, this also allows me to work with him and create something fun that I can in fact, actually use later on. The Intro will be what plays after you select your character, or so goes the idea. This was mainly one huge test, so as it became more and more complete, it went through huge visual revisions.
