A little earlier tonight I sat through a number of motion graphics examples.. I was expecting to get a lot of eye candy wow-ness.. and while I got a bit of that.. I was left with a feeling of.. being utterly unimpressed with much of what I saw, which probably relates to the problems and issues I’ve been talking about, in my last 2 posts, on the subject of digital story telling. That said.. I did come away rather inspired.

I feel like.. as far as creative possibilities are concerned, the medium of 3D and motion graphics.. is powerful as all hell… The trouble, at least as near as I can tell.. is nobody is really doing it right..  Wow, what an arrogant statement.. well forgive me.. if you’re one of the folks doing it right.. I know.. it’s a little bit of an over statement.

But.. I’m also talking as a fine artist.. I’m also talking about the potential of the medium.. at least as I see it.. and anyway, I wanted to start to talk about some of what has me inspired.. talk about what I’m dreaming in this moment.. that kinda thing.

Dreams

The cost of the dreams 

It strikes me that anything is possible. In this simple statement.. in this feeling that anything is possible.. in there.. the god’s sing.. the music of the spheres.. just waiting for an artist to hear.. and there tail to be retold. Can you hear it?

When we talk about film making.. when the conversation turns to special effects, 3D graphics, motion graphics.. we often talk about how expensive it is. That expense would, at least in large measure, seem to be an effect of what the designers in this area are able to command salary wise.. even with a lot of work being outsourced to India.

Of all the art forms I’m interested in, there is no doubt that 3D and motion graphics is the most expensive areas. Cinema 4D, which I’m using.. retails for between $3 and $4K… After Effects is now going for around $1K, Final Cut Studio is around $1.3K, last I checked.. and there are many other tools.. plus one needs a super fast and powerful computer.. and having many computers to form a render farm.. is a nice idea..  If one is shooting video as a part of it.. pro cameras are several grand.. lighting rigs probably start at around a grand.. MoCap is more then I even want to start thinking about.. the gear to pull keys is more money… 

So just to get the tools to start learning the stuff is like.. prohibitively expensive..  or at the very least, investing in them takes a major commitment.. and then you’ll be faced with a ridiculously steep learning curve! So all of this “might” have something to do with why it’s as expensive as it is…

But lets just say you’re crazy like Matt.. and you’re like “screw it, I’ll invest in it cause I have a big dream,” now the economics are a little different. Now the economics are.. well once you’ve bought the equipment, the only real expense is the time you have to put into the work.. and arguably the regular expense of upgrades.

Of course Matt is even madder then all that! Cause I mean.. I’m also doing the sound studio stuff! The web design stuff? Yeah.. I have issues!

Ok, so implications of these here economics

So.. much like the lizard king, you can do anything..

A bit latter:

Anything seems like a worthwhile topic for meditation.. though anything might not be real. The topic of technical limitations comes to mind… limitations of skills.. as well as limitations of time… and there are still some limitations to my studio… but.. there is still, given all that, many vectors of limitlessness… 

There are lots of little ideas.. many of which have been formed over the course of.. well many years really. I have all sorts of “strategic communications” ideas… relative to the question of how to relate to the market place.. well, lets explore these..

A few days latter:

Little ideas

I think what I really want to do is create “audio visual experiences.” I put it this way because putting it any other way seem to have a certain amount of bagged to it.. it suggests certain things… that “audio visual experience” does not. 

I, of course, am a sound artist.. I kind of think being a sound artist is a huge advantage for a digital film maker.. type.. because you’re able to think holistically.. sound could be central, visual aesthetics could be central, the “art-ness” could be central, dialog could be central, a plot could be central.. and what is central, at any given moment, could shift.. and you really only have the ability to work this way if you are fluent in all these parts..

So audio wise I want to create an experience. There’s a lot of ideas I have that are unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, as a part of some sort of film.. so all these things must be explored.. along with.. just creating an amazing sonic experience.

3D

The impression I’m getting about 3D is that It’s really more about design then production. Every element.. it pays to do research for.. and its all about paying a serious amount of attention to detail.. and it might even be that I can get great results.. nearly coming out of the gate.. if I’m willing to put in the work on the research and design front.. along with a little exploration here and there…

Planning

It’s all about planning! My way of thinking about it is.. you start out with an idea and you develop the hell out of it… work everything out.. from how the sound might work, to how the plot works, the story…. all this stuff, and really refine it.. take it to an extreme.. but then, at that point.. well at a certain point.. be willing to just improvise and explore.. 

 Day latter:

 I’m thinking I need to just post this so I can go on to the next post.. I’m thinking this should be called memoirs of a meditation on digital story telling.. for the simple reason that it seems more like a record of a meditation then anything… 

I write so much crap without posting.. recently I’ve written a number of posts on my 3D adventures.. even “finished” at least one, but haven’t yet posted.. I guess I reread it and didn’t like it so much..  so now, its time for a new swing at writing such a post..

High end 3D, which is what I’m calling working with Cinema 3D Studio… is many orders of magnitude more complex then low end 3D.. or.. 3D I’ve done and explored in the past. These orders of magnitude give an almost oceanic feeling to the challenge I must rise to should I wish to actually get so I can.. kinda sorta do anything with the software.

The best way I could describe it is.. you have lots of these.. worlds of technology.. By a world of technology I mean.. stuff to learn.. and to really do much of anything it feels like you need to grasp multiple worlds.. as they are interdependent.. but mostly it seems to be a matter of grasping all the ideas that are a part of basic 3D lingo.. well that and there implementations and…  well lots of stuff. 

At least for the moment.. my strategy for learning this stuff starts with the tutorials that ship with Cinema 4D.. found on DVDs… hours, and hours, and hours of videos. You go through the video, and step by step you do what they tell you to do.. and often at the end of the video I’m not really sure that I’ve REALLY learned the underlying concepts. Where they even trying to teach me the underlying concepts? 

Going through a tutorial means a lot of starting and stopping.. and I’ll often do a tutorial more then once.. slowly I’m getting so that I understand, at least in part, how to use a few tools.. starting to learn some of the basic concepts. But mostly it’s about being willing to bang your head against a wall until eventually you sorta dimly understand something.. and just keep at it.

(can you even believe Randy Rhoad’s started the band? Boy did they go to hell without him, ha?!!!) 

The tutorials, more or less, are like the step by step process by which you create an animated scene.. allow me to give you the overview..

Cinema 4D tutorials.. that ship in the box

Modeling 101 

The first thing you do is model a few objects that go in your scene.. this amounts to 1 park bench, 1 trash can, and 1 light post.. I did these a few months ago so I can’t really give you too many details on this…

Modeling 102 

The next set of tutorials are really the character tutorials.. we build 2 butter flies.. We start with the head, and then move onto the body.. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten in the last week.. and not even that far along in this.

After you’ve build the bodies.. actually one body that will get various added after.. we enter the wonderful world of texture mapping, which is the art by which we give a model color and texture, basically…

Bring in the Texture Maps 

Cinema 4D is a modular 3D program.. so that it’s sorta like having many integrated 3D programs in one.. you can buy them each separately.. and what not.. but I own “Cinema 4D Studio” which is a package that pretty much contains them all.. (read unrealistically complex) In any event.. one of the modules that’s a part of this package is called “Body Paint” which is a special tool for adding texture maps to models.

I’m used to having to do my texture maps the old fashion way.. You open some kind of a paint program, probably photoshop, but I’ve been known to use painter, and you go to town.. you then export.. lets say a jpeg, and attach it to your model inside your 3D program.. This creates a number of painful problems.. like how do you get the model to look like it was painted correctly..  getting things to line up.. and all that. There are ways to approach these sorts of problems.. but Body Paint lets us ignore these problems all together.

I haven’t done the body paint tutorial yet, but I have watched the video. Basically you load up the objects.. and paint / color / add texture maps to the objects. For the most part this is stuff that I feel pretty comfortable with.. but.. you can create multiple “maps” for multiple texture parameters.. like say.. how shinny something it is.. making a map allows you to have varying levels of gloss… as an example.. there’s also our friend the pump map.. which gives the surface a bit of a 3D textural feel to it.. and on and on we go…

Character Rig 

One you’re done hacking away at coloring your models.. we enter the wonderful world of character rigging. Besides the basic tutorial on this subject.. that’s a part of the exercise of building this scene.. Cinema 4D comes with an “expert rigging” type set of tutorials.. of which I’ve watched most. 

Essentially the process of rigging up a model is a process of turning your model into a virtual puppet. You basically build controls into it that allow you to animate the thing around.. so how about some typical stuff..

We build a “bone structure.” You have this kinda “IK” bone chain.. you move one bone.. and all the others move in reaction.. depending on what’s going on in your bone hierarchy.. These bones get attached to your model.. and done in such a way so that you define to what degree this or that bone effects what part of your models geometry.

Of course nothing can be quite that simple.. can it? You have things like “constraints” that effect in what way a bone can move.. or the model geometry can move.. you have these crazy things like… applying physics to your bones.. or.. I’m not even sure what.

My brain is flaking out on some of the terminology but.. there are things you apply to the geometry that are basically like.. if you made the leg move.. this way…  the leg muscle will react in a suitable sorta way.

Next we have things like “morphs” which have everything to do with facial expressions.. getting your model so it can talk, at the animation phase, is about manipulating multiple morphs.. and so it is that in the rigging stage its our job to set up those morphs.

So there’s lots of this sorta thing involved in rigging up a model.

After we’ve rigged up our model we move onto..

Setting up the scene..

So.. we load up a bunch of stuff we didn’t build in the tutorial.. that is just provided for us.. as well as our park bench, trash can, light poles.. and what have you.. and do a little bit of this that and the other thing…  lighting.. 

Seeing as this scene is taking place in a park, we need to concern our selves with the grass..  The grass is made via the magic of Hair Module.. again.. a part of Cinema 4D Studio.. So we learn a little bit about how to do this.. 

Thinking Particles? 

There’s a couple characters that it will be our job to animate running around… or perhaps we are now talking post setting up our scene stage.. and as they run around they kick up dirt… This involves what I guess we could call “nodal programming” while working with particle systems.. it’s fairly basic on that front.. but we do it.. and attach it to the characters feed.. program it so that if the feet go below the ground plane.. they particle system shoots.. and there we go..

Rendering

At the end of this rather long process.. which does include actually animating stuff around.. and blah blah blah.. its finally time to render.. and by rendering we output the product of our scene.. as video.. According to the tutorial.. the scene we’ve made could take as long as a day to render.. which is to say a day where you can’t use your computer. As near as I can tell.. my computer is faster the ones that take a day.. but by how much.. you’re guess is as good as mine.  

Sorta Conclusionary stuff

So its actually a lot more complicated then I’m making it out to seem. The main question is how much head banging is it really going to take.. and.. will I be able to remain focused on the head banging long enough to really get it going? Stay tuned to see…  

Since I got the new MacBook I’ve been obsessed with a new video blogging project. This seems to have come out of the blue.. not that I hadn’t been thinking about video a good deal prior.. but jumping into this like this.. The level of commitment I’m now feeling for it.. the excitement and passion I’m feeling for it.. The feeling of just being possessed by it… that is very surprising to me.

It’s as if God spoke to me and said “Matt, you must start video blogging, you must become a video blogger.” “Well God, that’s a little random, don’t you think?” Of course the trouble with God is.. there’s really no one to turn for for second opinions.. well I suppose there’s always Satan but…

It comes to me like a revelation.. like one day you wake up and you realize “this is what I’m supposed to do,” and though you had thought about it prior.. never did it command you.. . not like this.

What’s brought Matt to this new video blogging project? 

Ok, brace you’re self.. this could get long.

Somehow I always wanted to be a film maker.. since I was little kid… So it should be no surprise that I took some video and film making classes in college.. though.. the equipment at Mass Art, the only state art school in the US, was not capable of.. well I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with it.. so I never really got too into video or film making while there… really only dreamed about it.. though I did take a few film criticism type classes to kinda.. prepare I guess… 

But I can remember hanging out in the dorms.. getting high with some folks.. and telling them how in a few years anyone can own a video camera, the tools to edit it, and how we’d be distributing it via the internet.. imagining that world of possibilities.. and so.. I sorta went in that direction.. with my music, learning web design skills.. etc.

Somehow.. somewhere in there.. perhaps it was a result of my first “real job” as an interactive designer.. I was able to afford a video camera.. I also bought Premier and After Effects. I think I must have been on a G3 that could barely handle it.. it didn’t have a DVD burner, and the hard drive was tiny… so in practice I didn’t do much video.. just played around a bit.. shot video.

I started creating a kind of video library of.. just raw footage.. some of it dating back to the collage years.. with the idea that I’d eventually do something with it.

Sometime latter.. still on that old G4.. I started dating this girl whom.. I fondly refer to as Sue of Zen. Sue was hard of hearing.. needed subtitles to watch tv or films. When she was thinking about getting HBO I saw my opportunity..  ”No, you should get Net Flicks I said… I was thinking “if she needs subtitles to watch films.. she probably will be fine with foreign films.” So.. I conned her into letting me pick the films.. all the great film makers of film history.. for the year or so that we were involved.. I’d see up to 8 films a week.

The effect of Sue of Zen and I watching so many films was.. I became a horrible film snob.. I mean when you watch that many films.. that many of the greatest films ever made.. it’s hard to tolerate the crap!  I haven’t watched films like that since.. and I’ve grown a little more forgiving of Hollywood.. 

Well there was one other effect.. I became a lot more sophisticated about film.

When it came time to buy my Mac Pro.. I was thinking Video Making when I bought it. 8 Cores, a better then standard graphics card, 1.7 or something or other terabytes of space.. go for the 2 24″ HD screens..  etc.. I was even budgeting in professional video cameras and lighting rigs.. . 

But the thing was.. I wasn’t really jumping in head first into the video production stuff.. Hell, I wasn’t doing much of anything.. well, that might be over stating it. 

A few latter: 

Anyway.. so a long story, right? I can’t really get into everything about what I’m up to.. so lets go into what I’m up to at the moment..

Adventures in Apple’s Motion 3D

Motion is a motion graphics program.. that’s sorta 2.5D-ish, that’s a part of Final Cut Studio.  Motion graphics is basically animation with tittle graphics for film and TV.. My approach is basically painting plus the dimension of time… 

So I don’t know Apple’s Motion..  And Apple hasn’t done a real good job with thinking through the learning process… as the manuel is rather sucky. They have a few training videos, but they don’t really get you up to speed.. they just kinda give you a few things.. and from there you just kind of fumble around.

For the last couple days now.. I’ve been doing these little motion graphics projects.. which are perhaps more about learning the software then it is about making great work.. I’m aiming for great work, but who knows if I’ll actually get there.

Still.. I can see the potential…   

A couple days latter (I think):

I’m slowly getting to the point that I kind of understand what’s going on in Motion.. It’s not really that hard to pick up.. though there’s a depth to it that still seems a little out of reach, maybe? Or maybe there’s just a lot of things I figure I ought to be able to do, that it should be able to do.. but I can’t figure out how to do it or even if you can do it.. but then I’m new to the case….I’ve rendered out a number of motion animations.. and.. I have mixed feelings on them.. of course there not exactly meant to stand on there own.. In any event, that I now feel like I’m getting a feel for the program.. my expectations for what I ought to be able to achieve.. is now to start really going up.My latest sets of projects have been to take stuff that I’ve designed in photoshop.. or created in photoshop. In Photoshop these images are constructed with lots of layers.. In motion I take the images of the different layers, and set them up in 3D space.. so the layers now have spatial relationships between them.. and I’ve got a few lights going.. and I’m goofing around with the cameras.. and everything is sorta moving around a little..This really does feel like painting plus the dimension of time… Painting in motion, if you will. Though using this kind of language to talk about it seems to overstate it a little.What I’m doing is very much in keeping with the kinds of stuff I was doing with After Effects those few years back. The After Effects CS4 upgrade is now on my “to get list”.. and I may likely get it rather shortly.. assuming that I continue my video commitment.. 

Motion Graphics / Animation Goals

My plan of attack, technology wise, is to start with Motion.. of course. Eventually I’ll jump into After Effects… of course.. And then, assuming I can get Cinema 4D to run on this computer, well.. there’s that. The first objective, I guess, is to obtain some serious competency with Motion.. and then into After Effects. Cinema 4D I expect to be a giant learning project, and for that.. the goal is simply to get to a point where I’m able to start creating stuff to integrate into this sort of motion graphics / animation pipeline.. as a pose to going all out into 3D animation. What I mean is.. I get the ball rolling with this stuff.. and then just add pieces to it.. a process by which I hope to develop competency with the other stuff.. but real competency with that stuff.. only needs to be at a level determined by this stuff.. if that all makes sense.

Conclusions

I don’t know what will come of all this stuff, but it’s a fun adventure to go on.. and I have laid down the ground work in many ways.. to hopefully do something great.. We’ll see what happens………..