My first big animation project.
This is the intro scene, I've planned about 5 other scenes, one which is
partly done..

divx 5.0.2, ~1.35mb, 250x500
http://hertel.no/peter/povray/alien%20invasion%20test19.divx.avi
mpeg, ~2.28mb 250x500
http://hertel.no/peter/povray/alien_invasion_test19.mpg
(The files will move when I get myself to create a little page about the
project.. Won't happen in the near future though..)

About the animation:
The Small Walking Alien (green one), is using my own walk "system" :) Stupid
thing can just walk straight forward in -x direction, but it works like it
should for this animation.
The Hapser (red alien) is a lathe object, with a normal added in an attempt
to make it look more oganic.. how does it work?
The alien that eats the hapser is modelled in Wings3D, you'll get a closer
look of it in the next scene..
Ground is a checkered plane with a checkered normal :)
All the textures are mainly pigment {something} finish {metal}..
Camera movement are done with splines (it's a ultra_wide_angle camera if you
wondered)
Light is a spotlight which follows the Camera

I know about the stupid knee of the green alien, it's not that noticeable in
the animation (I've posted a picture in p.b.i which shows it much better),
but if anyone has a solution that does not increase rendering time I'd love
to hear it. The sphere and cones has the same radius. Blobs might be an
option, but that is only when I've fine tuned the camera movement, so I
don't need to do hundreds of slow test renderings =)

I'd like feedback on:
Camera movement, smoothness, flow etc.
Lighting
Textures, are simple.. should I keep them that way?
Everything really..

Agh.. enough typing..

-Peter
-----
#local Q=0;#while(Q<999)#debug"Peter :)\n"#local Q=Q+1;#end

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Both times one of the little guys are eaten, there's another little guy
between the camera and the one being eaten. It took me three times to
convince myself that the red thing was actually landing on top of them.

I suggest that you have the red thing eat one of the guys *right* in front
of the camera before moving onto any others. Then there's no confusion, and
you also get that surprise factor.

 - Slime
[ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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> Both times one of the little guys are eaten, there's another little guy
> between the camera and the one being eaten. It took me three times to
> convince myself that the red thing was actually landing on top of them.

Ahh.. Didn't think of that.. Guess all the test renderings made me blind..
But it really does land right! ;)

> I suggest that you have the red thing eat one of the guys *right* in front
> of the camera before moving onto any others. Then there's no confusion,
and
> you also get that surprise factor.
>
>  - Slime

Good idea.. The problem is that the simple texturing and modelling of the
red alien really doesn't look that good at close range, but I'll take a look
at it..
Another thing.. It's supposed to look like the red alien is about to eat the
camera in the last jump? _I_ know it's heading for the camera position, but
does it look like that? Maybe the whole thing should go a little slower,
increase frames to 500-600?

-Peter

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Weird...
It makes me curious for more.
Right now, the camera angle _and_ movement seem a bit too much,
but that might be functional. 
At least it creates the impression that you're part of the
scene. Which is good, I hope... (is it?)
Couldn't you have a bit more interesting environment?
I guess I need to see more of the story to understand what's
going on.

Remco

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"Peter Hertel" <peter@hertel**NOSPAM**.no> wrote in 
news:3ddbf0ed$1@news.povray.org

> http://hertel.no/peter/povray/alien%20invasion%20test19.divx.avi

this file is broken


Wow I love this film :) realy nice. Maybe it should go a little slowwer, 
first time I didn't notice that red is accualy eating green ones... 



-- 
#macro g(U,V)(.4*abs(sin(9*sqrt(pow(x-U,2)+pow(y-V,2))))*pow(1-min(1,(sqrt(
pow(x-U,2)+pow(y-V,2))*.3)),2)+.9)#end#macro p(c)#if(c>1)#local l=mod(c,100
);g(2*div(l,10)-8,2*mod(l,10)-8)*p(div(c,100))#else 1#end#end light_source{
y 2}sphere{z*20 9pigment{function{p(26252423)*p(36455644)*p(66656463)}}}//M

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Hi Peter, that looks really cool.
What did you use to model the creatures? And the eyes blinking what did you
use?

All the best

Fidel.

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in article Xns### [at] 204213191226, Rafal 'Raf256' Maj at
raf### [at] raf256com wrote on 21/11/02 4:10 am:

> "Peter Hertel" <peter@hertel**NOSPAM**.no> wrote in
> news:3ddbf0ed$1@news.povray.org
> 
>> http://hertel.no/peter/povray/alien%20invasion%20test19.divx.avi

I have just downloaded this file today.

All the best

Fidel.

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> > http://hertel.no/peter/povray/alien%20invasion%20test19.divx.avi
>
> this file is broken
Well.. it works for me on Win2k, with Opera 6.
I'm really sorry for not converting spaces to _, if that creates problems
for anyone, but the ftp prog refused to rename it (anyone had that problem
with aceftp?) and I didn't want to re-upload it on my slow dial-up :-/

> Wow I love this film :) realy nice. Maybe it should go a little slowwer,
> first time I didn't notice that red is accualy eating green ones...

Thanks!
Well, I tried a 600 frame version, and it kinda lost the flow.. It runs at
24fps btw..
The reason you didn't notice the eating might be because of what Slime
mentioned, I'm working on the camera movement now.

-Peter
--
http://hertel.no/peter
#local Q=0;#while(Q<999)#debug"Peter :)\n"#local Q=Q+1;#end
What do you think of my new signature? ;)

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> Hi Peter, that looks really cool.
Thanks!

> What did you use to model the creatures? And the eyes blinking what did
you
> use?
>
> All the best
>
> Fidel.
>
Wow :) Must be the first time someone asks _me_ about modelling technices,
thanks Fidel! That felt good! ;)
They are all handcoded.
Legs are moved with a small walking macro I did.
Neck is cylinders and spheres along a spline. It's way faster than using
sphere_sweeps and works pretty well here.
Eye lid is made up of clipped sphere and torus, which then is rotated to
make it blink.
Here is the code, guess it explains it better..

    #macro Eye_Lid(SEL_Clock,EL_Translate)
        #declare EL_Clock = mod(SEL_Clock,1);
        #switch (EL_Clock)
            #range(0  ,0.8)#declare EL_Open = 50;
#break
            #range(0.8,0.9)#declare EL_Open =
50-50*((EL_Clock-0.8)*10);#break
            #range(0.9,1  )#declare EL_Open =
50*((EL_Clock-0.9)*10);#break
        #end
        #declare EL_Object=
        union{
            sphere {    0,0.3                   clipped_by {cylinder
{y*0.05,y*1 ,0.4}}}
            torus  {0.275,0.05 translate y*0.05 clipped_by {cylinder {  0
,x*-1,0.4}}}
            sphere {<0,0.05,-0.275>,0.05}
            sphere {<0,0.05, 0.275>,0.05}
            cylinder {<0,0,-0.275>,<0,-0.05,-0.275>,0.05 rotate z*EL_Open
translate y*0.05}
        rotate -z*EL_Open
        }
        union{
            object {EL_Object}
            object {EL_Object scale <1,-1,1>}
            sphere {0,0.25 texture {T_SWAEye}}
        texture {T_SWABody}
        translate EL_Translate
        }
    #end

Regards
-Peter
--
http://hertel.no/peter
#local Q=0;#while(Q<999)#debug"Peter :)\n"#local Q=Q+1;#end
What do you think of my new signature? ;)

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> Weird...
> It makes me curious for more.
Great!

> Right now, the camera angle _and_ movement seem a bit too much,
> but that might be functional.
Too much? How? I use the ultra_wide_angle camera because I think it boosts
the looks of the animation a bit, compared to the standard camera.

> At least it creates the impression that you're part of the
> scene. Which is good, I hope... (is it?)
Yes, it was done in an attempt to show/enlarge the size differense between
the aliens, as well as the surprise when the first alien gets eaten. But
there is no you-character in the animation.

> Couldn't you have a bit more interesting environment?
Not in this scene ;) It's only a short intro, the other scenes have more
interesting enviroment!

> I guess I need to see more of the story to understand what's
> going on.
It's an classic topic, the little fish gets eaten by the bigger fish, etc..
The animation ending is going to be a little funny surprise, so I won't
spoil it with telling the whole plot =) But I'll post more scenes as they
get near completion, if you folks want to see them? The feedback you give me
is all extremely valuable!

-Peter
--
http://hertel.no/peter
#local Q=0;#while(Q<999)#debug"Peter :)\n"#local Q=Q+1;#end
What do you think of my new signature? ;)

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