Octane short movie ?

[vanlicht]

I am happy to hear Radiance mentioned the idea of making short film, which means Octane is deigned to render animated sequence. One of the main reason for investing into Octane is for rendering solution for a short thesis film, Hark the Angel Sings.

Hope I am not hijacking this post thread, I could make a new post if that's more appropriate.
It is a bit embarrassing to post this....but I am curious to see the reponse.

I like the idea of collaboration , and I would love to seek possibilities to invite
those who might be interested for such collaboration chance, especially I see a lot of talented artists
demonstrating stunning works in the forum. It is a character driven film with story as the priority in mind,
while at the same time the story elements provide a diversity of lighting situations, as well as technical challenges:
Variety of Lighting scenarios: cathedral indoor lighting, underwater, caustic,water rendering, and theatrical lighting.
Simulation: Water, hair (possibly), and Cloth simulation,
Rendering style: painterly + old photography

If enough octane users show their interest, and depending of the feature we need with the updates of octane render, we might be able to keep posting the updates of the progress of the film using octane render.

Since there's quite some challenges in terms of the scope of the film and the knowledge required, I am more than happy to see, and sincerely invite, whoever show their interests for investing their artistry in to the short film. The film has been developed a while and now at animation blocking stage. I already have storyboards, animatics, sound ADR elements, and some basic modelings and rigs there. Artists I am looking for: modeler (architecture, props, statues), texture artists, simulation TD (water, particle, hair, cloth), and basically people with good artistic sense.

Short description of the film:
Title: Hark the Angel Sings
Theme: Seemingly a common childhood experience, the film is to explore why children tend to hurt little animals and what it means to us.
Film Length: approx. 6 minutes 40 seconds


Some very quick test shot with Octane...not textured, not with proper lighting setup yet.
Though, hopefully it gives a quick peek of the rough description about the film elements:

PS. Those are rendered with dissected proxy files that I use for animation, not the hi-res final model.


Again, if it's inappropriate to post this in this thread,
I will delete it and post a new thread, thanks.

Kindly let me know what you think...and I will have a more formal, informative posting if it grows certain interest.
Thanks.

[mlody47]

Personally I think with Octane we should start with something maybe not more simple but definetly shorter.

I think Its great You posted here with that, but there might be some different opinions about theme. ( but You got storyboards, models, couple of rigs, and pretty much more - thats big plus ).

Lets see what all decide.

[havensole]

I love the idea. I've been waiting for the animation ability since the start, as that is my main CG focus right now. I'm not the greatest artist, but I can rig and animate characters decently, and any sound needs I can take care of too.
As far as story and mood and whatnot, I'd like to see something more edgy and real vs. cartoony, but I'm fairly open.

[fbuerger2000]

As a member of an Open-Movie-Forum, i can say:

@vanlicht: Youre Idea an post is great. A very nice theme.

BUT..., i agree to mlody47 = shorter!

The work on such a movie is a very time consuming thing, and often totaly underestimated. Make a scene where a butterfly moves through a scene. or something else....

And when it comes to music or audio, i can try my very best like havensole (Have you DP or Logic?). I have tons of audio stuff here.

regards
Frank

[havensole]

Typically I use Nuendo for my music and mastering, Audition for film tracking and cleaning, and other random stuff I've collected over the years to fill in the gaps. I can get my way around most audio programs as I've had to sit in on sessions here and there in unfamiliar places. Logic is a great program, but I found it to be a little too much of a resource hog, and since Apple bought it I haven't really played with it. I've used most of the "big boy" apps, like DP and full Pro Tools rigs, but I just never felt like I really synced with any of them, aside from Nuendo, which is surprising because I've always hated Cubase. I really dig the work flow of Reaper, but the audio quality just isn't quite there yet. I started originally using Vegas back in the day when it was an audio program. I always loved the simplicity of it, and I think that's why I still like using it for video now. I know everyone has their preference, so debating what is better is better left for other forums. I have a small studio here at the house and access to bigger ones at work, so whatever we'd need I am sure we can find somewhere. Also I have access to lots of decent-good voice actors from the college next door to mine if the project required it. Music isn't really a strong point of mine anymore as I've focused more on the engineering side the last few years, so take me out of that pool of prospects, unless someone wants to collaborate at which point I am all in.

Most of that can be figured out later. I think starting with a team of artists and visionaries would be best to begin. Come up with a concept and start the pre-production phase. I don't know how epic the project is expected to be, so the team might start with something simple, like the butterfly idea, and then move onto an Elephant's Dream type big project as things develop. There is a lot of work that would need to go into a large project, and a lot of that is in pre-production planning so that everything is understood (concept wise) before things really get rolling.

I will say that I love the concept of how and why Blender does their open movie projects. Using the project to further the development of the software for the better of all the users is a great idea. I don't know if this is something that Radiance wants to use as a model, but just an idea. Anyway, I'm really excited about this concept. Lets get crackin.

[vanlicht]

As it is just a proposal seeing how there's chance of collaboration,
I didn't mean to pitch the thesis film as the main Octane short film project in the first place.
My intention is to seek aspiring artists who share the same passion and their willingness to show their talents.
Though, I wouldn't mind if it goes that way, if and only if...
I would be more than honored and horrified...it would be like, putting gold on already beautiful flower, octane render that is.

(ps. Just another side note:
For the film project itself, it is in animation blocking stage now, the blocking stage will be done in mid May.
Composer is working on the way, Kids sings and screaming etc has been done, still looking for sound designer.)

@mlody47
Yeah, the theme is very specific, it is not popular-oriented, but inspiring and allegorical.
6 min 40 sec is long for a short film indeed, but that's how long the story requires to unveil the folds in this case.

@fbuerger2000
There's been countless fixes of story and tech research, I think I sort of know what monster I am playing with,
at least I see the beautiful tail of it... It is the enthusiasm that keep people going.
Everyone is picking their own poison, aren't we?

@havensole
You animate and you do sound engineering? Molly, admire your talents.
Said you usu. look for talents at some school nearby?
I usu. look for voice talents through lacasting.com or voice123.com,
you must know these already.

@Radiance:
I was wondering for rib or animation support, will it be a feasible feature in upcoming betas before July?
August is a critical date for thesis film evaluation, if I want to apply Octane Render into the pipeline...
which I enjoy using at the moments and it looks promising if not amazing already.

[havensole]

Well I never said I was good at everything. LOL!!! Yeah I tend to burn my candles at all ends. Always been that way. I'm not a master in any right when it comes to animation or modeling yet. Sound Engineering was something I fell into while being a musician and going to various studios with different bands. Began to just make sense to learn to do it myself versus paying someone I didn't trust all that much way too much money. I became obsessed with the circuitry involved in synthesizers and microphone preamps and so I went to college for electrical engineering. Graduated but didn't like any of the jobs I was offered in the audio world. Went back to doing more Indie Film sound stuff and ended up where I'm at now. I work at an engineering college (gives me a lot of free time to work on my hobbies and such) as a sound and video engineer. The college is surrounded by 7 other colleges of various focuses. One of which, where my best friend works, tends to focus heavily on film and such, so there are a lot of semi-serious actors there. I worked on a project with one of the students, who just happens to actually work in the voice acting industry fulltime, and she has helped me get other students who do voice acting for some other projects. I am not familiar with those sites you mentioned, but I will check them out now.

[fbuerger2000]

Excused, but my english is horrible school-englisch...

@vanlight:
If i might be sounded, that i will pulled town something, NO, Not, never...The idea with a short film is absolutely awesome. Go for it, ..make it!!

@havensole:
Thanks for the very much information. I am here with Logic and tons of Plug-Ins. My interrests is making music, as hobby in my free time. And in mixing and "mastering", i have actual my first steps here. I have made the audio work from our actual open movie project, and everyone who wants to here something:
http://blendpolis-movie.de/blog/
Sadly our latest video is only in German, and the speaker voices are mostly recorded with webcam-mics but that don't influence the music I hope some like it...

regards
Frank

[havensole]

Your project looks promising. Wish I understood more German. My high school german classes are long since faded knowledge. A lot of the style reminds me of the CG movie I've been working on for way too long. Good luck with it and let us know when it gets finished.