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BryceTalk Animation Case Study
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BryceTalk Animation, A Case Study, July 20, 1999Meta AuntiAlias: Okay!! :D Let's get started! CrypticGrafix: cool Meta AuntiAlias: Welcome to Animation in BryceTalk! Steve4001: yay! Meta AuntiAlias: Today we're talking about animation in Bryce -- a case study. Steve Lareau's recently announced, recently celebrated movie (which you can see at http://www.hilltopdesign.com/musicvideo/ ) is our topic today. Steve'll dish dirt on what it was REALLY like to Meta AuntiAlias: do a Bryce animation (tip: color Steve Lareau a separate color to see his words better! .... Steve Lareau: Hi gang <waving wildly> Purusha: :-) Meta AuntiAlias: Highlight speakers with different colors to help you track who is saying what. (the people list allows you to change colors--Upper left side, 2nd Green button) Steve Lareau: Color me Blue- it's my favorite! =D Meta AuntiAlias: So... Steve, you want to get started and tell us about your movie? : ) Steve Lareau: no... Hehe! Hi gang! Wheeeee!!!!!! If you haven't seen it yet, my video Discovery is here for download- it's 27 megs Zipped, it's in QuickTime format, http://www.hilltopdesign.com/musicvideo/index.html Here's some larger still images of scenes from the video http://www.hilltopdesign.com/bryce/videostills/index.html The movie is 240 by 180 in size CrypticGrafix: im getting it now :) Steve Lareau: This was all done on my P166 with 64 megs and a 2.14 gig hard drive Most of the animations were farmed out to some Bryce Buddies who downloaded the scenes, rendered them out for me, then uploaded them to a server I set up for the project. Gigabyte: this will take a while... Morbius: Steve, how long does it run? Steve Lareau: If I did this all myself, it would have taken years to finish this thing! =D Since it was a huge set of finished animations, I set the images up in Adobe Premiere, then added all the transitions and fades and so forth, as well the audio track. It runs almost 4 minutes Once it was all set, I burned all the components to CD ROM and sent them out to Rodney L'Ongnion, who was good enough to compile it on his setup for me. I simply didn't have the hard drive space nor enough memory to do this on my system. It would compile for a few minutes then blow up real good. =D It's been compressed with PKZIP, so you'll have to uncompress it before you can view it. Mac users can use the latest version of STUFFIT expander to open up this file. Meta AuntiAlias: www.alladinsys.com for stuffit expander Steve Lareau: Thanks Auntie! This video will also be seen on CD's handed out by Metacreations at upcoming trade shows, training seminars, etc, so if you're somewhere and you see that Metacreations is showing off their latest products, wander over and see if they have a demo CD. Gigabyte: what's the latest version #? Meta AuntiAlias: or is that www.aladdinsys.com ? Steve Lareau: Chances are that you can see this video on that CD, as well as demo versions of Bryce, Canoma, and other Metacreations products. I've got a link to Stuffit on th download page.... Meta AuntiAlias: (well, it's faster to download stuffit than it is to download Steve's movie!) Journeyman: they made you take a meta name Susan? Steve4001: ? Steve Lareau: Haha! Yeah, it took me 5 HOURS to uload it to my server! And I DIE when Cable modem owners tell me tha they downloaded it in 10 minutes! ARGH! Steve Lareau: I ca't WAIT for cable modemes here! Well, let me give you some background info here before we dive in with the question and answer part. Let me toss all of this out to give you an idea of how I do things. CrypticGrafix: i got an estimated time of 1 hour and 35 minutes Steve Lareau: First off, I'm pretty new to animating in Bryce. There's a lot of stuff that I'm still clueless about, I'll tell you that right up front. Steve4001: are there any plans to segment the download? Meta AuntiAlias: Okay, I'll start collecting questions for the queue... I can just tell that the more Steve says what's happened, the more questions there will be... so: I've got Steve 4001 in the questions queue Steve Lareau: With all the animations I've done, I have never used the Motion Lab at all, nor used paths. All my movements of the objects and the camera were done with manual keyframes. I do realize that you can pull off some incredible things using these features, but I have yet to explore them yet. I guess I'm telling you this so you know that you can still do some cool animations right from the start. CrypticGrafix: whoa Steve Lareau: The cool thing about Bryce is that there are many ways to do things, and I've discovered that I work rather differently than a lot of people do. Maybe I'm going about this wrong, but hey- it works! =D Once you get your scene set up, the first thing you want to do is to play with the sky settings. You can save a lot of frustration later on by getting this set at the beginning. Get the sky set to where you want it, and add it to the sky memory dots so you can get back to it later. Here's the way I usually start any animation: I create the scene, then whe everything's set and ready to go, I grab the timeline ball at the bottom of the screen and drag it until it's as long as I want the animation to run. Then, using the triangle on the right side, I drag it until the entire timeline is visible at the bottom, so that I can see the start and end of the portion I want to animate. Drag the scrubtime slider all the way to the left, and make sure the autokeyframe is off. (A personal preference) Let me know if I'm going too fast here! Meta AuntiAlias: ? (I'll add myself to the queue) dcamp: What size do people work at? A 356x288 pixel per frmae 25 frame per second MPG compressible animation long enough to fit a 3 minute piece of music would run 1.5 GB. Steve Lareau: You can always download this session in a few days Meta AuntiAlias: If you've got a question, please type ? Meta AuntiAlias: we'll let Steve ramble with his story for a bit and take Q & A afterwards. dcamp, I've added you to the queue : ) Steve Lareau: This is the time to set your skies. Move the scrubtime slider to the beginning. Now click on the sky memory dot, then add a keyframe with the + button. Now is the time to go into the skylab and set your cloud speed! Set it to where you want it now to avoid headaches later on. tanuki: ? Steve Lareau: Now grab the scrubtime slider and move it to the end of your animation, and add a keyframe. You've just made sure that the skies will remain set the way you want through the entire animation. Now- let's finish up. Select the camera, and move it into position at the beginning of your animation, and when it's where I want it to be, I add a keyframe with the + sign. I then drag the scrubtime slider to the end of the timeline, put the camera where I want the animation to end, then add a keyframe. Meta AuntiAlias: . Steve Lareau: Now hit the "play" button and watch the wireframe. If it looks good, it's time to play a little. If I want to, say, pan the camera up towards the sky in the middle of the animation, let's do that. With the camera still selected, drag the scrubtime slider and move it to the middle of the timeline. cyber_mike: what other programs did you use besides bryce? Steve Lareau: Grab the trackball and point it towards the sky and check the nano preview. If it looks cool, add a keyframe Now hit the "play" button and watch the wireframe. Bryce will make the movements nice and smooth by creating the "tween" frames. |
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Meta AuntiAlias: cyber_mike, I've added you to the question queue. If you ahve a question, please type "?" Steve Lareau: You can use this effect for everything from camera pans and tilts, and even change the field of view, which can do some cool effects as well. Steve Lareau: One thing that I want to mention here, which will be of GREAT help. It was months before I realized it was there, and was hopping mad that I never saw it earlier. When you click to add a keyframe with the + sign, hover your mouse over that + sign- you'll see that there are a TON of things that you can keyframe! You can keyframe anything from the sky settings- light, cloud speed, etc. Take some time and experiment with this area- it's the place to access all of the important things in an animated scene. (I was pulling out my hair wondering why some things were happening until I discovered this dialogue box. Personally, I think that this is one area that shouldn't be hidden on the screen, or at least mentioned in the manual better, since it IS important!) Well, that's about it- there's a lot of ways of working on animations in Bryce, but that's the general way that I've found it easy to work. One day I'll crack upen the advanced motion lab and start playing in there, since that's the area where the cool things are. Meta AuntiAlias: : ) Steve Lareau: And that's that! Wheee! Meta AuntiAlias: thanks!! Steve Lareau: I know I went fast, but you can always download this in a few days to refer to later on. CrypticGrafix: wow all that sounds a bit complex... Meta AuntiAlias: lotsa information.... maybe you need to scroll back a bit to take it all in? but... for now.. we have a Question Queue... Queue: steve4001, AA, dcamp, tanuki, cyber_mike, Steve Lareau: It's not complex at all- what I just described is a very simple, step by step to get the basics down. Meta AuntiAlias: so, first off, Steve4001; you're on! dcamp: ? What size do people with personal PCs work at. A 3 minute animation I planned to do in parts would have been 1.5 GB. CrypticGrafix: i havent really worked with it yet Meta AuntiAlias: dcamp, please wait until I call on you... Steve4001: are there plans to segment the download? Steve Lareau: It depends on your system and what you plan on doing with it- Meta AuntiAlias: we take them in order in order to keep from getting totally confused by a bizillion cross conversations Steve Lareau: my system is old and creaky, and the size I went with was the best compromise. Meta AuntiAlias: This is the question that has the floor: Steve4001: are there plans to segment the download? Steve Lareau: As for slicing it up for easier downloads- since it's got a sweet music track in it, no. It wouldn't look good. =D I compressed this baby as best I could.... Morbius: ? Meta AuntiAlias: okay: next! me! How many different scenes did you use? (scenes as in movie scenes, which prolly amounts to scene files) Steve Lareau: it's a good one to download overnight. I rendered out about 10 minutes of videos, but pared them down to the 4 minutes you see here. Meta AuntiAlias: People waiting in line to ask their questions (aka queue): dcamp, tanuki, cyber_mike, Morbius Steve Lareau: I jst used the ones that seemed to fit the feel for the music. Hey John! MetaJohn: Hi Meta AuntiAlias: If you have a question, please type "?" Schbeurd: Hi John SunDogDeb: ? Morpheus: ... Meta AuntiAlias: Steve...? are you typing furiously there, or did you not see my question? : ) Steve Lareau: All in all, I have 3 gigs of video sitting here at 240 by 180, uncompressed AVI format JeffP: ... Steve Lareau: lemme scroll... Meta AuntiAlias: How many different scenes did you use? (scenes as in movie scenes, which prolly amounts to scene files) no need, I just re-pasted... : ) Steve Lareau: Ah- gotcha- lemme see- the ones in this video that are in it- about 14 I'm guessing? Maybe less.... CrypticGrafix: damn im only on 17% of the download... :( Meta AuntiAlias: follow up/clarification: which is a smaller subset of the total number of scenes you animated? Gigabyte: I'm 4 % Steve Lareau: I did so many versions of it that I lost track of what made it in there for the final cut! Morpheus: dang what's the http aunti Meta AuntiAlias: http://www.hilltopdesign.com/musicvideo/ Morpheus: thanks i'll shut up now Meta AuntiAlias: still images: http://www.hilltopdesign.com/bryce/videostills/index.html Steve Lareau: For the video- about 14 or so. I can count them if you want to hold on while I play it back! =D Meta AuntiAlias: 14 is close enough... for now! : ) Steve Lareau: I've got about 50 scenes unrendered that will go into the next one. Lord, that's a scary thought- the NEXT one! LOL! Meta AuntiAlias: okay, thanks. I'm done here with this question, if you are, Steve! Steve Lareau: Yea.. done on that one. Meta AuntiAlias: next up: dcamp! go for it, dcamp! dcamp: I'm trying to figure what frame size to use. Meta AuntiAlias: People waiting in line to ask their questions (aka queue): tanuki, cyber_mike, Morbius, Sundogdeb, Steve Lareau: It will depend on what you plan on doing with it- dcamp: I have a mpg compression program that workd with 352x288 or 176x144 Steve Lareau: if it's for the web, 240 by 180 is pretty good, otherwise they get way too big to download. CrypticGrafix: ? dcamp: and my asf program works with 176x144 Steve Lareau: MPEG is the way to go if you can do it. It's always a compromise- but remember- rendering time for animations can get huge, trust me. dcamp: there's also the matter of frame rate. Meta AuntiAlias: clarification?: rendering the MPEG, i.e., compressing it, or rendering those scene files themselves (an answer I know to be "yes!") Steve Lareau: As an example, the scene of the black hole with the helixes- it was split up- PII450 did 171 frames, took 27 hours, 41 minutes. The PII 300 did the other frames, took about 12 hours. Rendering the frames takes a long time- compiling it later is the easy part! CrypticGrafix: good lord...39 hours? Steve Lareau: On my system, the scene with the blach hole- at 240 by 180 it took 9 HOURS per frame. dcamp: I can do renders in parts, but editing and resaving files in the area of 1 GB is too much. Steve Lareau: Talk about watching paint dry! CrypticGrafix: hehehe
>>>> Next up: How to get all your friends to render animations for you (or not) |
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