Enterprise Animation

[Creative Inc]

Like Nighthawk, I too decided to create an animation. However, unlike his, mine will feature little or no battles. This animation will be centered around the Enterprise and be, for the most part, about the beauty of it.
The total length of the animation will be the same length as the music I've selected for it, which is a little over 4 minutes. Considering it takes my computer roughly 2 hours to render 15 seconds, I'd say that's pretty good, and my computer is no pushover.

I'll post updates here when I get the chance, but I cannot guarantee there will be one every week. The videos will be low quality, but the final finished product will be in high.

Current Progress: 35 seconds with some minor fixes to do.

Images: (ImageShack)





Video Link: (RapidShare)
http://rapidshare.com/files/66698121/0-35_Low.zip.html

[Nighthawk]

hey, hey, just don't steal my idea of the launching lol
will it be a pure space scene?

[Creative Inc]

will it be a pure space scene?

Pretty much. I've never really tried animating characters before and I wouldn't know where to start.
As for the launch scene, that video pretty much covers it.

[Nighthawk]

The total length of the animation will be the same length as the music I've selected for it, which is a little over 4 minutes. Considering it takes my computer roughly 2 hours to render 15 seconds, I'd say that's pretty good, and my computer is no pushover.

that's maybe because you're not rendering by fields, or layers.
do you have a video edition program like After Effects or Premiere?

[Creative Inc]

Unfortunately no. Could you please explain to me how that would help though?

[Nighthawk]

well, as most of the movies use the FX field, nowadays:
you render something with a black, green or blue backround, with or without a mask, and then import it and use the mask or the background color to cut that part out and lay it against a background.

so, in the case you have a scene where the ships exits a dock, or a starbase, and goes past the camera, the dock or starbase will be a fixed picture, and the ship a masked movie. instead of having a 300MB movie with ship, background and starfield, you have a 12MB movie of the ship, a 20k picture and a starfield. then, the output movie might be 200MB uncompressed and around 70/80 with .avi or .divx codec.

this doesn't apply if you have a camera pan with ship and dock all-in-one. saw that pic with the sovvy in dock from the back in my thread? that's a part of a panning. the rest is a montage.
also, you can skip rendering effects in Max, and add them later, like flares, explosions, engine glows, motion blur, etc.

I think you can download a demo of after effects from the Adobe site, it won't be fully functional, but you'll have the basic composition tools. you'll have to ballance what you render in max and what you merge in post-production

I suggest you render the shots a little longer than what you planned, so you have a margin to place the shot earlier or later in the movie, in case you want to match a sound track.
that's why many movies have deleted scenes lol

[Creative Inc]

Thanks for the info. As for the shots, I'm actually timing them to the music. I'll listen to the music, decide where a break is and then animate a shot for it.

[Nighthawk]

another thing: it still looks too much as a polished car than as a starship. try to add some speculars, specially in that shot where you pass over the bridge. the lighting, coming from behind the ship should reflect off the metal. sometimes, you don't need a strong direct light over it. remember the Ent-B launch? lighted from every direction, with soft lights and the sun from the front.
I've been trying for 5 months to get the lighting as they do in the show, so don't panic, it won't come up at the first try lol.

also, when it exits, capture the part that is lighted, not the one that is shaded :S. or take it from 1/4 to the left, from behind.