"Lance Birch" <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote:
>
> I really do think we could make something cool out of this.  The only
> problem is, we need a script!

If it were done along the lines of the "Mind's Eye" videos, a script
isn't really necessary; the one I have consists of segments from many
sources (some only a couple of seconds long), put together in groups of
similar themes and set to music.

Something like this would let people do whatever caught their interest,
perhaps even rendering themselves, and the editor or editors could
simply arrange them into groups.


> So 1 3/4 hours at 30 fps, that's 189000 frames, at what, 512x384?

What standard(s) would be used?  NSTC? PAL? HDTV?  How well will frames
in one format translate into the others?

How about music?  I've done a bit of soundtrack-type composing; anyone
else here a composer?


-- 
Jeff Lee         shi### [at] gatenet         http://www.gate.net/~shipbrk/

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Hi All,

Gary Shannon wrote:

> There seem to be a handfull of people interested in a group movie making
> project.  Any voluteers to coordinate the project? (I guess what we need is
> a "producer" to spearhead the whole thing.)

You're going to like that one : you wrote 'spearhead' but for a short while I believed
I had read 'shepherd', sort of the same idea anyway, isn't it ?


> Maybe a central web-page or newsgroup to provide a meeting place for people
> interested in the project?  A place to exchange ideas and information,
> divide up the tasks, etc. etc.....

Yes, we do need someone there with some experience and a lot of spare time. A student
who has already got some sort of experience of project co-ordination would be an ideal
person.
If you also want to go to the bother of having a newsgroup, that requires another
dedicated person just to maintain this side of things.

I do not have time for that sort of heavy involvement, as I have one very demanding
project, but I will have some time for contributing (and unlike what Lance joked about
: no I won't give my CPU, no way - just a bit of time on it). Also if help was
required with languages, I do speak French and my partner in life speaks Polish ...

But before we start anything, we should know what sort of way we want to work : just
ad hoc - as the inspiration comes, or very organised & structured - both can be cool
and manageable provided we know what we want.

Cheers,
Al.

--
ANTI SPAM / ANTI ARROSAGE COMMERCIAL :

To answer me, please take out the Z from my address.

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Alain CULOS wrote in message <3556295E.29AAC4B7@bigfoot.com>...

[Snippity]

>Yes, we do need someone there with some experience and a lot of spare time.
A student who has already got some sort of experience of project
co-ordination would be an ideal person.
>If you also want to go to the bother of having a newsgroup, that requires
another dedicated person just to maintain this side of things.
>

Exactly. I personally DO have the time for the maintainance of a mailing
list/Web board, etc. I can't run a news server tho. ( I don't think so at
least, but if wanted, I'll look into it. )

Also, I would like to point out.. I do *NOT* want to "manage" this. All I
want to do is maintain a website, etc. if necessary. Heck, I have a hard
enough time managing MYSELF! =P

>I do not have time for that sort of heavy involvement, as I have one very
demanding project, but I will have some time for contributing (and unlike
what Lance joked about : no I won't give my CPU, no way - just a bit of time
on it). Also if help was required with languages, I do speak French and my
partner in life speaks Polish ...

Heh, I'm almost exactly the opposite. I have little or no creativity, when
it comes to graphics, so I'll contribute it the other direction.

>
>But before we start anything, we should know what sort of way we want to
work : just ad hoc - as the inspiration comes, or very organised &
structured - both can be cool and manageable provided we know what we want.

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Hi everyone!

"Lance Birch" <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote:

> Also, we need to get some questions answered:
> 
> How long will it be?
> What will it be about?
> Who's making the models?
> Who's doing the animating?
> What program could we use to do the animating?

And:
what version of povray to use? For some things it could definatly
be worthwhile using some of the patches to povray. 

BTW, Maybe I could help with a newsserver. I'm not sure. Have to look
into that one a little bit deeper. (The student computer club have lots
of cpu servers online, to use just for fun).

/ Mathias Broxvall

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Just some brainstorming...

Realistic human characters are hard to get right.  That leaves toys,
puppets, cartoon-style (maybe 2d from 3d methods), robots,... any others?
(Pinoccio? Howdy Doody? Communist Robot Monsters from Outer Space? 
Something along the lines of the old Reboot TV show?)

As for each animator doing a seperate piece and editing them all together,
what if they all had a common theme?  Maybe something like the Twilight
Zone movie, or modern interpretations of Fairy tales (South Park meets
Mother Goose...)

640 x 348 makes a really cool "wide screen" aspect ratio (That's what I'm
using for my short film)

It could be converted into DVD-compatable MPEG and distributed on DVD
instead of film or tape.

I've done a lot of composing and MIDI orchestration (Classical style, rock
style, "movie" style...) and I'd be glad to help out there.  Any POV tools
or extensions needed, I'm also a programmer by profession.

Mathias Broxvall <mbr### [at] swipnetseNOSPAM> wrote in article
<1d8### [at] dialup122-3-36swipnetse>...
> Hi everyone!
> 
> "Lance Birch" <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote:
> 
> > Also, we need to get some questions answered:
> > 
> > How long will it be?
> > What will it be about?
> > Who's making the models?
> > Who's doing the animating?
> > What program could we use to do the animating?
> 
> And:
> what version of povray to use? For some things it could definatly
> be worthwhile using some of the patches to povray. 
> 
> BTW, Maybe I could help with a newsserver. I'm not sure. Have to look
> into that one a little bit deeper. (The student computer club have lots
> of cpu servers online, to use just for fun).
> 
> / Mathias Broxvall
>

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I can also provide webspace for coordinating efforts.  I'm very new, and my
textures site doesn't look like it will work out, now that texlib is being
updated again (not much point nolw is there ;) ), so if there is genuine
interest let me know.


George Joseph Wyckoff (irc nick: KillFile)

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I wonder whether it is posible to export from the new version of the MAX
file format to POV-Ray (anyone made a converter for it yet)?  That way you
could make real characters using Character Studio, make the motion paths and
then export into POV-Ray.

The only problem is, people have to have 3D Studio MAX, and not very many
people do (price: gasp!).

I think that perhaps the idea of a magic eye thing woulsn't really work too
well, it would be too hard to co-ordinate.  The overall standard of the
product would drop because everyone would just throw stuff together.

I've seen there is a couple of people interested in music.  Obviously this
is a cool idea, once we know what we're doing, I'm sure there'll be people
(much more talented than I) to compose some music that will fit the
theme(s).

Back to the character think though, maybe we could make a kind of episode
(or movie) of figurines, like the one from the Flic elwood.flc by (wait a
second I'll check the official POV-Ray CD! Don't you love that pattern on
the CD?) Mathew Kaustinen.

I've made a similar model (it's nearly exactly the same because I have the
same model sitting on my desk in front of me right now!)

Just some thoughts anyway, keep 'em coming.

Oh, also PAL/NTSC/etc.  I don't think this'll be a problem if we render to a
high enough resolution to fit them all, the file size of all those frames
will be the problem (or maybe not...).


--
Lance Birch
Remove the smiley to e-mail.
http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/ambient/lance

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I'm thinking along your lines, Gary. Here's a few of my ideas to throw
into the brain storm:

* The first thing that came to my mind when this idea was brought up was
the graphics demos of a few years back (alah "Future Crew" -
http://www.hornet.org/info/fc/)
* Would 20 frames/sec be suitable?
* Each contributor would send in the source code + mpeg (+ images?) to
the central location so that the editor(s) can best "merge" each clip.
* A common theme between at least a few clips would make it easier for
the editors.
* I had an idea for a project of my own which involved flying around a
mountain, then diving into it - which would view black for a second -
then the next thing the viewer sees is a "door" opening - only when they
step out, they realise that they just came out of a coffin/sarcophagus
that is buried in an ancient tomb in the mountain. The next minute or so
would be going through tunnels Indiana Jones style. I could go on...

Hope this helps.


Gary Shannon wrote:

> Just some brainstorming...
>
> Realistic human characters are hard to get right.  That leaves toys,
> puppets, cartoon-style (maybe 2d from 3d methods), robots,... any
> others?
> (Pinoccio? Howdy Doody? Communist Robot Monsters from Outer Space?
> Something along the lines of the old Reboot TV show?)
>
> As for each animator doing a seperate piece and editing them all
> together,
> what if they all had a common theme?  Maybe something like the
> Twilight
> Zone movie, or modern interpretations of Fairy tales (South Park meets
>
> Mother Goose...)

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I'd like to participate, but I don't know where to sign on :)
  I don't know how to help, I have no disk space, I have no cpu-time (just
a poor 486DX2), I'm not a very good artist (you can see my work at
http://www.iki.fi/warp/pics/), but I still like to cooperate :)

--
                                                              - Warp. -

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Lance Birch <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote in message
<6j90qv$7ja$1@oz.aussie.org>...
>Back to the character think though, maybe we could make a kind of episode
>(or movie) of figurines, like the one from the Flic elwood.flc by (wait a
>second I'll check the official POV-Ray CD! Don't you love that pattern on
>the CD?) Mathew Kaustinen.
>
>I've made a similar model (it's nearly exactly the same because I have the
>same model sitting on my desk in front of me right now!)


I remember seeing small anims on TV a LONG time ago. And they used abstract
objects to project an idea. 2 of the best I liked were the large desk lamp,
small desk lamp and a ball. The large desk lamp was the mother/father, the
small desk lamp was the child playing with the ball. The other one was a
deck chair meeting a lake for the first time, putting a leg in and pulling
it out. Even these objects normally have no character, how they were used
created a whole new aspect to them. Meaning there could be storys about desk
objects etc. No need to use people. THE Attack of the Killer Pots.... 8-)


Fran.

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