main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

** SOFTWARE Help / Advice **

Discussion in 'Archive: Scifi 3D Forum' started by George Mezori SCIFI 3D, Aug 5, 2004.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
  2. Way-Of-The-Force

    Way-Of-The-Force Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2005
    Hey guys,
    I'm writting a Fanfilm that will require alot of CG, and I'm a little worried because I don't know how to do it.

    This is not one of those post of me asking everyone to make my movie for me, this a post of a movie maker who want's to know how he can his elbows dirty in some CG work, so he can create the type of films he wants... please be open and offer some advice on how i could get started, It would mean so much to me. either PM me or e-mail me at bensgreat2000@hotmail.com


    Way of The Force
     
  3. Macro_Roshuma

    Macro_Roshuma Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 27, 2004
    Are you SURE you dont want somebody to do it for you? cuz my company will...
     
  4. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    Are you SURE you dont want somebody to do it for you? cuz my company will...

    He said what he said - if you have questions send him a PM. :D
     
  5. 20x6

    20x6 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 10, 2003
    Hey, would anyone with Maya or Lightwave be willing to check some files for me? I have some .obj and .dfx files that I can't open in Maya PLE. I need to find out if it's because the filmbox plug-in won't work for PLE, or if the files are corrupt.

    Anyway, if anyone would like to check the files for me, send me a PM and I'll email em' to ya.

    Thanks
     
  6. morpher-2005

    morpher-2005 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2005
    I have been using Carrara Studio 1.1 to do my 3d modelling. Allthough it is only a micky mouse programe it is so easy to use. I recently modelled a battle droid and am having real trouble animating it. Can anyone help me?

    p.s could anyone suggest any user-friendly 3d editing software, I heard lightwave was good
     
  7. outrider462004

    outrider462004 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2004
    "Thanks. Got that much worked out and understood. Now, do 3dS Max files not work in blender? Or should I try another file? If I shuold be reading this elsewhere and I am just not seeing it please point me in the right direction.

    -bigbaldpapa, noobest of noobs"

    "Have you tried the support files available on the Blender website? Most of the info you seek will probably be in there. Hope that helps!"

    I have the same question as bigbaldpapa. I tried your link. I don't help. Whats out there that I can use?
     
  8. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    The info you seek is right there - you just have to look a bit. Here's what I found with a simple search on that page.

    Good luck!
     
  9. outrider462004

    outrider462004 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2004
    Thanks. But get this. I just found out I can already import most non blender files already. I never noticed before.
     
  10. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    Glad to hear it works either way. :D
     
  11. outrider462004

    outrider462004 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2004
    Okay bad news. The plug ins that were there are no good. The ones I downloaded are no good. I could be doing something wrong, but I don't know. Help!
     
  12. squall88_uk

    squall88_uk Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2004
    can anyone push me in the direction of tutorials for 3ds max on how to animate static models? ie. make space ships fly around in front of the camera, following paths.
     
  13. morpher-2005

    morpher-2005 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2005
    :( people are ignoring me again
     
  14. malducin

    malducin Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2001
    I need to find out if it's because the filmbox plug-in won't work for PLE, or if the files are corrupt.

    You can't use plugins with Maya PLE, it's one of its limitations.

    could anyone suggest any user-friendly 3d editing software, I heard lightwave was good

    You mean 3D animation program. There are plenty I guess it depends on your budget. There are some linked to in the first page.
     
  15. Halfling_hopperston

    Halfling_hopperston Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2005
    i am currently working on a mini fan sceen in the build up to doing a 3d fan flick... however one of the shots im attemting to render whants to take 3 and a half hours PER frame... this is not good whant tis 360 frames all told... i was thinking of dong a network render but the problem is having machines to do it on as im only doing it as a sideline for a bit of fun.... sooooo is ther any way i can do a render faster with out loosing to much quility or an easy way to do an effecting network render since the only boxes i have access to for it wont make a huge diffrence
     
  16. Jedi2016

    Jedi2016 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 3, 2000
    Halfling_hopperston posted on 6/4/05 7:26pm
    i am currently working on a mini fan sceen in the build up to doing a 3d fan flick... however one of the shots im attemting to render whants to take 3 and a half hours PER frame... this is not good whant tis 360 frames all told... i was thinking of dong a network render but the problem is having machines to do it on as im only doing it as a sideline for a bit of fun.... sooooo is ther any way i can do a render faster with out loosing to much quility or an easy way to do an effecting network render since the only boxes i have access to for it wont make a huge diffrence
    [hr][/blockquote]
    It depends. Your scene is taking 3.5 hours for a reason.. find out what that reason is and eliminate it. What program is this in? What resolution are you rendering to? How many objects do you have? How many polygons? How many lights? Are you using any fancy shaders or lighting tricks like Radiosity? Are you raytracing everything? Do you [i]need[/i] to raytrace everything? Remember, most space shots (assuming it's a space shot) doesn't require raytraced reflections, transparency, or refraction. And depending on how the radiosity effects the scene (if you're using radiosity), you can probably get away with faking it. If all you have are raytraced lights, try using shadow-mapped lights instead, they often render faster.

    Basically, there's a ton of things that can extend render times, and they add up quickly.. not all of them are necessary, so cutting out a few of them to speed things up often works out for the better with no visible change to the images.

    You might also want to look at rendering things in passes. For example, there was a shot I did in [i]Conspiracy[/i] of a shuttle and two TIEs flying into the city of Coruscant. The city itself was rendered in three separate layers (background, middle, foreground), and the shuttle and TIEs were all rendered in their own passes. The combined render time per frame was FAR less than if I had tried rendering it all as one pass (the city was millions of polygons, and contained hundreds of lights).
     
  17. DMPjedi

    DMPjedi Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2003
    So there's seriously no demo of Lightwave? :_| I just got a job as a camera opperator and motion graphics dude and the company uses Lightwave. I wanted to get my feet wet on my own before I head in to see all their systems next week.
     
  18. Halfling_hopperston

    Halfling_hopperston Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2005
    well it seems i found the problem, it was simply the antialising for the trench i was using, (downloaded from here, the one from the knightquest THX trailer) the texture was just killing it, once i removed that and i droped the render time by hours.

    howevre the 3 xwings im using still rackup over 100k polys :S... i just hope doing it in 2 stages will make it work :S

    thanks for the advice.
     
  19. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    DMPjedi posted on 6/4/05 11:14pm
    So there's seriously no demo of Lightwave? [face_cry] I just got a job as a camera opperator and motion graphics dude and the company uses Lightwave. I wanted to get my feet wet on my own before I head in to see all their systems next week.
    [hr][/blockquote] I think an older version of LW had a demo...I never followed it seriously enough to tell you for sure though and I couldn't find one of the current version. Doesn't mean it's not out there but I looked pretty hard so you may have to try things out with a slightly older version.

    Good luck!
     
  20. Andrew_March1969

    Andrew_March1969 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Mar 7, 2004
    You got a job in motion graphics for a company that uses Lightwave & you've never used it!

    That's a new one folks, I'm to become prime minister but I haven't got any experience of politics, still anything's possible these days it seems :)
     
  21. jack_sogaard

    jack_sogaard Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jun 10, 2004
    I've been in this 3d and moviemaking world for half a year now, so far i've learned the basics of 3ds max Bryce Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. Im writing a script for a fan film, and made some small shots with my actors in a lightsaber fight, but now i have to "animate" the lightsaber and here comes the problem:
    I've done some tutorials for lightsabers (ryan wieber's etc.) and i have done some cool lightsaber pictures, but when it gets to a fight After Effects suck (or im using the wrong method). I cant put a mask on a lightsaber when the saber is behind my actor. There must be a better way plz help. PM me or send a mail: jack_sogaard@hotmail.com

    Jack

    ps. What software are the Star Wars animators using for this effect ?
     
  22. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    jack - After Effects is the best overall tool for this effect and the most widely used effects program in fanfilms by far so you probably need to watch Ryan's tutorial again. You can ask this type of question over in the FanFilms forum, there's a whole sticky just for this sort of thing. :)

    Good luck!
     
  23. jack_sogaard

    jack_sogaard Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jun 10, 2004
    Im doing a scene with after effects. I have two footages in one compesition. I want one of the footages to apear in the other footage at a certain frame. How do i do that ?

    If it is not possible to understand what i mean, then read the following:
    I have a footage with a force-lightning effect and then i have a footage of an actor doing the force lightning. But the actor is doing some swings with a lightsaber before he does lightning, and my problem is that right now the lightning is there all the time. It is only meant to be there a few seconds in the middle of my "actor-footage".

    hope you understood it, else PM me.
     
  24. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    This really belongs in FanFilms, but what you need to do is use the colored timeline sliders to set the in and out points of your clip. I would take a look at how to set the in and out points for a layer in your user guide as a start.

    Hope that helps - good luck!
     
  25. Chris_Grant

    Chris_Grant Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    May 29, 2005
    Hi,
    This must sound like a noob question but i have been searching for hours now and cant find ths solution. I am using blender and have just started and yet i have completed several tutorials. I can animate and do most things, however i dont have a clue how to get more than one object onto the working area in order to have things flying past each other/fighting.
    Any help on how to do this would be much appreciated.
    Thanks
    Chris
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.