Planet Blender

Blender Conference 2010
Detail Library (Paper Orange Project) - 2010-09-25 23:06:00


I'm just passing here to tell you that we will be at the Blender Conference 2010! =D
We do not just be there, but we also will present our project: The Detail Library at the conference in a lecture.

It took us to announce it because we were working things out for the travel and we were "entertained" with the creation of the presentation and article.
So expect the Conference to learn what it is about this project!

See you there! (For those going =))

Six months milestone
Materia - The Awakening - 2010-09-25 22:49:41

The production has been now EXACTLY (WAM launchdate) 6 months in the making. This means we have nearly spent half of our 13 month estimated production time for the whole thing. Which strongly suggest that we are going to miss the original “target date” of 1.6.2011 for release. But who knows, maybe we get the groove on and get it done in time, too early to say. How ever lets have a full look at what all we have managed to make so far. So please, read more for more details…

Pre-production:

Pre-production included treatment made out from synopsis i had written even before the original Materia. After this was completed i got some help from people to draw up concepts and the writing of screenplay begun. After 10 rewrites, it was finished and animatics (crude block animation of the whole film with some sounds). When this was done, i was able to write a list of everything we’d need for the film, to make it happen. I passed this list to 3D modelers and artist i had gathered via IRC, WreckAmovie and some forums. I also managed to secure all ready some very awesome dialogue (almost complete set) recordings from some really awesome Voice Actors. Unfortunately for myself (Samuli), by the time i had to take a leave of absence from the project, to attend my mining operation in Lapland, Finland, which took about one month of my time. But before i went, the project status was changed to in production.

Production

So this is where we are now, and is probably the most time consuming bit of this whole thing. Meanwhile i was working my ass of hauling chunks of rock and showeling dirt to sluice, 3D modelers started their working, and started to go through the list. In late summer, i got back and we got cracking and started to really push the modeling, and tried to focus to get the Characters to some status, as they had been behind the schedule a lot (still are, but right now they are finally progressing ). Most of the modeling effort has been spent into Props and Modules (sort of lego blocks we use to build up sets for the film).

During the production it was however time to show atleast something we had done so far, so i decided to put together a showcase for the project. The R-Reel as we call it. This was to show that the project is alive and doing pretty good and ofcourse to recruit more people to help us. After the R-reel we continued on working on the 3D modelling.

Currently we are still working on props, modules and characters, and only recently we have managed to start to move forward with characters to start thinking about rigs and final looks of the characters (we have some trouble finding people to texture them).

Future

Our next “larger” goal is to show some Characters, maybe even in motion, before Xmas. Cant make any promises really, as no one is getting paid a penny. I am however hoping to get animation underway before 2011, if possible. A lot can happen in 3 months.

Remember, if you feel you can help us, Please do contact us… We could use help, specially on Character texturing and general texturing. AND Please do join us at Facebook

Right, thats all that i have to say…

The Producer's Report #126 - Three Things
Phil McCoy's Posts - Project London - 2010-09-25 20:00:00

Three pieces of news:

ONE: Thank you to Anton Urban, Phil Rogan, and Soren Laulainen for their breakthrough ideas. These guys have gone above and beyond the conversation and surveys following the last test screening to provide amazing ideas to enhance the story of Project London. Ian is currently working on the final story refinements to review with the producers next Saturday.

TWO: In anticipation of finishing and releasing Project London in 1st Quarter, 2011, we are creating a list of festivals and conventions to participate in. We could use your help identifying more opportunities... Please check out our list and suggest ideas. Thank you!

THREE: New friend and author, Tony Mullen mentions Project London in his recently published book, Blender Studio Projects, Digital Movie-Making. This is all very exciting and cool for us and we wish Tony much success with his book.

That's the news. We are also ready to start interviewing colorist candidates. We are hoping to find someone local that will be able to work in our edit suite and use our tools which includes the Magic Bullet suite of color tools and the Black Magic Ultrascope. Would you be interested in earning a credit in Project London as the colorist? Please contact me directly to discuss, by sending me an email at phil@projectlondonmovie.com. Cheers,

Phil McCoy, Executive Producer
on behalf of Nathan McCoy (left), also Executive Producer and Phil McCoy (right)

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Twitter: 2010-09-26
Matt Ebb - 2010-09-25 18:31:00

• happy mid-autumn… i mean mooncake festival! #
• gakkenflex on flickr blog today, represent! http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/09/21/gakken-flex/ #
• Current Quarterly Essay re. Australia/China relationship by Hugh White was interesting reading #

The Monk & The Monkey
Virgilio Vasconcelos - Animation - 2010-09-25 15:35:51

There is a very good short I saw sometime ago, which I think really deserves a mention: The Monk & The Monkey, by Brendan Carroll, Francesco Giroldini and Erez Koskas, from Ringling College of Art + Design.

[read the full article]

Sintel, Durian Open Movie Project
Pablo Vazquez Personal Portfolio - 2010-09-25 11:58:16

Deserved update, last time I wrote on this blog, I mentioned I had some *awesome* news to share… and I DO have awesome news now!

After finishing a project I was involved on at RGBProd, in Switzerland, I moved to Amsterdam by the end of February, to work on the Durian Open Movie Project, Sintel. Been working on it until nowadays.. and will be wrapping up during the upcoming weeks.

I’ve been invited to work on the render side for Durian, but as always in small teams you need to do a bit of everything, my first assignment was to create the environment for Sintel’s cabin, model, texture, light and render it. A final frame from the sequence is on the right.
Also made a blogpost on the Durian blog for the first iteration,  and a WIP sneak peek.

The movie (15min) will premiere this Monday, on the Dutch Film Festival, in Utrecht. This is the official movie poster!

I can barely find words to describe how wonderful this project has been to me, I feel like a completely different artist now. Before Durian, I always had this feeling “I could try to do that style, but..” there was always a “but”, in this project I had to do it, was part of my work, and after months of training I think the result is an awesome proof of concept for myself, I really needed this change, such a challenge changed my perspective on my previous projects. I’m eager to know what comes next

Something I find a bit annoying about Twitter is that I can’t receive-answer comments easily, always by tweets and I find it a bit of a rush sometimes, so I will include them as posts here, so we see more life on the blog and also we’re able to communicate better!

Cheers!
Pablo

Bmesh Knife
Blender Labrat - 2010-09-25 09:14:00

Earlier on today Joeedh committed knife tool to Bmesh, however, this is a vastly improved and a lot nicer knife tool :)

Log of the commit can be found at
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-blender-cvs/2010-September/031306.html

an since I was so impressed I decided to do a little video demo of it :)




Hope you all start testing bmesh again :)

See Ya's later

graphicall: Joe Eagar (bmesh) "No longer shall users put off testing until 'it's cooler'!", SO! lets build, test, and give him some nice feedback! :)
Twitter / graphicall - 2010-09-25 06:27:43

graphicall: Joe Eagar (bmesh) "No longer shall users put off testing until 'it's cooler'!", SO! lets build, test, and give him some nice feedback! :)

RAT bProficiency
BlenderNation - 2010-09-25 05:28:42

Michaelangelo Manrique tells us about his project “bProficiency series”. The first part of it “RAT” is what he made for Blender Foundation’s Certified Trainers (BFCT)...

[read the full article on blendernation.com]

Modifier Series: Using the Array Modifier
Blender Cookie - 2010-09-25 04:14:06

In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip series, we will be working to cover the various modifiers available in Blender. This series will demonstrate what each modifier does, how it works and what you can use it for. In this first installment we look at the array modifier.

http://blendercookie.com