Chris_Keaton
ScriptFEST Mod
That kid needs to learn how to properly wash her hands.
Diabolus Domi - A Freekstorm Entertainment Production
- Thread starter MrFluffy
- Start date
Chris_Keaton
ScriptFEST Mod
But seriously it was another cute film. Not sure that's what you were going for, but it was. I was afraid that dude was going to shoot the girl. I mean you seriously have to mind your backstop when you are shooting. Overall good job.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Yup, the shot at 3:13 was gorgeous!
Taking on such a task (full CG monster) must have been daunting at times, so job well done for that! Cute little girl. Making films with your kids is really great. Patience is what it's all about.
Some tightening could be done here and there but overall it flows pretty well. Very cool monster.
Nice job,
MAH
Taking on such a task (full CG monster) must have been daunting at times, so job well done for that! Cute little girl. Making films with your kids is really great. Patience is what it's all about.
Some tightening could be done here and there but overall it flows pretty well. Very cool monster.
Nice job,
MAH
Sprocketboy
Well-known member
The kids are great. The innocence unknowing sister and brave brother taking on the devil with a shotgun. Awesome. I allowed my 6 year son to watch it and he loved it. I had to show it to him 2 more times.
Your CG devil is nicely modeled but I wish you try to render it with HDR lighting to match the lighting in surrounding you shoot in. I'm sure whatever 3D software package you are using has it. Most do.
This is a fun watch. Thanks.
Your CG devil is nicely modeled but I wish you try to render it with HDR lighting to match the lighting in surrounding you shoot in. I'm sure whatever 3D software package you are using has it. Most do.
This is a fun watch. Thanks.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Thanks Edgen,
The kids love it most of the time. After an 11hr shoot they get a bit tetchy
I cant wait for the announcement of the next Fest
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Thanks Chris.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Thanks for the encouragement.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Thanks Zaza.
You know the funny thing. Over here the first thing people ask is "Why does he have a shotgun in the bedroom", but none of the Americans ever ask that!
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for commenting.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
I didn't want to touch on that myself. :lipsrsealThanks Zaza.
You know the funny thing. Over here the first thing people ask is "Why does he have a shotgun in the bedroom", but none of the Americans ever ask that!
I don't even know anyone who owns a gun.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
I'm really glad that you and you son enjoyed the film.
Softimage does do HDR and I did some test shots with it. Unfortunatly I simply ran out of time so I was unable to do HDR or even spend additional time on the animation. I worked pretty much non-stop from the moment the fest was announced. Hopefully as my workflow improves I will be able to do more, quicker and that should improve the results.
Thanks for watching.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
The odd thing is that I do! ROFL
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
When using a CGI monster you film is going to rise or fall on the strength of that monster. Unfortunately, yours was a bit thin...I'm sure that had to do with how much time you had to create it, though.
You told a coherent story that I could follow beginning to end.
This was yet another "Child in Jeopardy" film. I'm really surprised to see how many people went this direction. On the other hand, I'm sure it's nice to get to work with your kids and put them in "the movies." I'll bet they had a blast.
My biggest quibble with this was when he used the shotgun to kill the demon with the little girl BEHIND it. In that position, I would have been worried about injuring her, too.
You told a coherent story that I could follow beginning to end.
This was yet another "Child in Jeopardy" film. I'm really surprised to see how many people went this direction. On the other hand, I'm sure it's nice to get to work with your kids and put them in "the movies." I'll bet they had a blast.
My biggest quibble with this was when he used the shotgun to kill the demon with the little girl BEHIND it. In that position, I would have been worried about injuring her, too.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Thanks for your comments. She was safe, have you never seen Supernatural, the gun was full of rock salt
ZazaCast
Major Contributor
Thanks Zaza.
You know the funny thing. Over here the first thing people ask is "Why does he have a shotgun in the bedroom", but none of the Americans ever ask that!
LMAO! That's because I have 2 shotguns within arms reach of my bed...you never know when a stray zombie or devil might wander into your home. :shocked:
bruceallen
Well-known member
Mr Fluffy
Wow, that's an insanely ambitious film. Good heavens man - model, rig, animate and composite and humanoid character in that short a time period?! Crazy!
First off, your outdoor shots look really cool. You set up a lovely color look and good job with the kid. The brother was good. Wanted to see more emotion from him - he just went through an emotional rollercoaster and doesn't look like he broke a sweat.
If you're planning to use the film as part of a VFX reel... which I'd hope, given that you put 200+ hours into it, here's my 2c on how you can take things further.
Personally I'd put HDR at the bottom of the list. There are other things you can tweak that don't increase render time.
First of all, tweak the animation and get it really great. It is good for rough but you want to get it really fantastic or it'll drive everyone nuts. Since the creature is anthropomorphic, people expect perfection. Shoot footage or use a mirror for reference. Render out with motion blur of course (or use ReelSmart motion blur in AE).
Once the anim is looking sweet, then try to sort out the 3d texture issues:
- Rework the textures and up the resolution and detail in the chest area. You can also see texture stretching around the shoulders.
- increase the bump mapping a lot. Consider even displacement mapping to break up the silhouette.
- think about having it reflect an environment map (you could use a blurred copy of your backplate). You'd be surprised how much a little reflectivity could help.
- maybe increase specular a little, too?
- place a few more subtle lights in your scene. You have the key lights down pretty well and the dynamic lighting when the critter is doing the energy thing are great. Try doing things like placing lights that only affect the specular, or a very dim light to simulate the red carpet below in the last shot
- shadows for the floor would be great
and the compositing issues:
- some of your shots seem to have a grey outline. Maybe you're rendering premultiplied and importing as straight?
- if I were you I'd change the color of the electrical arcs. Add a little glow and maybe try a more desaturated cobalt blue? Since all the other blues in your film are greenish I'd expect the blue to be greener. At the moment it says "default filter settings". Maybe try adding the effect before you color the shot?
- try a little light wrap to make your character fit better into the plates
- color the character more to match the back plates
- for the "critter appearing out of the black smoke" stuff, try to incorporate some shot stock footage (or film ink in water yourself) to break up the cg smoke and make it feel more organic.
Lastly, you don't have to do this for EVERY SHOT to start with. Get one shot looking awesome so you can put it on your reel and move on from there as time allows.
Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
Wow, that's an insanely ambitious film. Good heavens man - model, rig, animate and composite and humanoid character in that short a time period?! Crazy!
First off, your outdoor shots look really cool. You set up a lovely color look and good job with the kid. The brother was good. Wanted to see more emotion from him - he just went through an emotional rollercoaster and doesn't look like he broke a sweat.
If you're planning to use the film as part of a VFX reel... which I'd hope, given that you put 200+ hours into it, here's my 2c on how you can take things further.
Personally I'd put HDR at the bottom of the list. There are other things you can tweak that don't increase render time.
First of all, tweak the animation and get it really great. It is good for rough but you want to get it really fantastic or it'll drive everyone nuts. Since the creature is anthropomorphic, people expect perfection. Shoot footage or use a mirror for reference. Render out with motion blur of course (or use ReelSmart motion blur in AE).
Once the anim is looking sweet, then try to sort out the 3d texture issues:
- Rework the textures and up the resolution and detail in the chest area. You can also see texture stretching around the shoulders.
- increase the bump mapping a lot. Consider even displacement mapping to break up the silhouette.
- think about having it reflect an environment map (you could use a blurred copy of your backplate). You'd be surprised how much a little reflectivity could help.
- maybe increase specular a little, too?
- place a few more subtle lights in your scene. You have the key lights down pretty well and the dynamic lighting when the critter is doing the energy thing are great. Try doing things like placing lights that only affect the specular, or a very dim light to simulate the red carpet below in the last shot
- shadows for the floor would be great
and the compositing issues:
- some of your shots seem to have a grey outline. Maybe you're rendering premultiplied and importing as straight?
- if I were you I'd change the color of the electrical arcs. Add a little glow and maybe try a more desaturated cobalt blue? Since all the other blues in your film are greenish I'd expect the blue to be greener. At the moment it says "default filter settings". Maybe try adding the effect before you color the shot?
- try a little light wrap to make your character fit better into the plates
- color the character more to match the back plates
- for the "critter appearing out of the black smoke" stuff, try to incorporate some shot stock footage (or film ink in water yourself) to break up the cg smoke and make it feel more organic.
Lastly, you don't have to do this for EVERY SHOT to start with. Get one shot looking awesome so you can put it on your reel and move on from there as time allows.
Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Hi Bruce,
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a helpful and informative comment. It’s really appreciated.
The project was beset with problem, both practical and CG.
I made a mess of the modelling as originally it was supposed to be a low poly model with a high density displacement. But the software choked completely and I ended up trying to do it with the high poly model. That was a disaster. So in the end I ended up doing poly reduction on the hi-poly version while keeping the details levels as high as I could. This broke the poly layout for joints etc .
You live and learn. Next time I'll use a medium poly with a displacement, and allow more time for rendering.
Animation was tricky, thanks for the suggestions. Next time I’ll animate against an actor, that way I can get the movement timing right. It will be rotoscoped but better than non referenced animation.
Good advice on the lighting. I’ll play around with it. The next time I’d like to use image based lighting and I’ve now got a silvered HDRI globe to help with that.
The grey outlines were due to the AO pass not lining up with the diffuse. I still don’t know why it wouldn’t line up. I tried doing it several times and it just refused to play ball. I think it was rounding errors in the software causing the camera to effectively move between passes
Check on the lightning. It was the defaults. I simply ran out of time.
Still it just as important to know what wont work as what will, and I sure got a lot of that this time
Thanks for watching.
MrFluffy
Well-known member
Last edited:
Marlon Ladd
Veteran
Nice film and very ambitious. I thought you had a great premise and excellent cinematography. The little girl did a very good job. The guy that played Sam did okay, but when he fell and was supposed to be unconscious, well that was not very convincing. Looked as if he laid down and his eyes were still blinking once on the ground. I must give you kudos for creating the monster and I think a little more work on him (like in the above mentioned thread) and you'll really have something going. The electricity bolts were pretty spot on. I think you did a good job of creating suspense and I thought this piece was very professionally done with alot of potential. Good job.