Big really hard project looming - planning?

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Jkoseattle
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Re: Big really hard project looming - planning?

Post by Jkoseattle »

Thanks for the input. I've done a little 3D building in Moho, and I think for a simple set like this it shouldn't be too bad. Since I'm a one-man operation, adding a 3D animation program would increase the already steep learning curve, not to mention dollar$$. And once it's built, it's done. And yeah, I plan on that step being a PITA no matter what. I like the idea of still images from the set, and I could even get the artist to draw new ones, but there are a few camera moves I know she wants, and as this is partly a learning experience for both of us, I want to see if it will work this way.
Most of the time I'm doing music stuff. Check me out at http://www.jimofseattle.com/music.

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Greenlaw
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Re: Big really hard project looming - planning?

Post by Greenlaw »

Jkoseattle wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2020 5:44 pm Thanks for the input. I've done a little 3D building in Moho, and I think for a simple set like this it shouldn't be too bad. Since I'm a one-man operation, adding a 3D animation program would increase the already steep learning curve, not to mention dollar$$. And once it's built, it's done. And yeah, I plan on that step being a PITA no matter what. I like the idea of still images from the set, and I could even get the artist to draw new ones, but there are a few camera moves I know she wants, and as this is partly a learning experience for both of us, I want to see if it will work this way.
Yeah, I totally understand. Learning a 3D program from the ground up is a big deal and anybody serious about it needs to devote a considerable amount of time to it. Not a great idea when you're on a project with a limited time schedule.

If you're going to do this entirely in Moho, I suggest making the environment more 2.5D than full 3D. You can do a lot with 2D cards strategically placed in 3D space to create the illusion of full 3D. Unless the camera is revolving around an object, you don't really need it to be fully 3D. There's even a lot you can do to cheat 3D lighting on 2D cards (in a compositing program, and to a lesser degree in Moho.) I do this all the time in compositing and sometimes I'll use mostly 2D cards even in 3D programs. It's pretty common practice in live action+effects productions because it's easy to set up and quicker to render than full 3D effects. (In other words, it's a lot cheaper too.)

And speaking of 'quick to render', here's another tip: place all your '3D' environment layers in a single group or as few groups as possible. This way you can easily hide them using Layer Comps. Most of the time, especially when animating characters, you really don't need to see the environment when working on animation, and you can improve interactivity by hiding it. Then, using Layer Comps, render the environment pass separately. You can composite this flattened pass in a compositing program or bring it back into Moho as an image sequence for final rendering. This will save you time later if you don't intend to change the camera animation.

Which brings up another important point: If you intend to animate the camera, especially in 3D, lock down the camera choreography first. Few things waste more time in an animation project than changing the camera choreography and frame after you've animated the scene. Typically, I'll do a previz after creating the animatic, which a version of the movie with the actual 3D camera movements and scale proxies and very limited motion for everything else. This is used to figure out the placement of all the objects and camera choreography. Then, for the final animation, all the objects are replaced with the final versions and fully animated, while the 'previs' camera is used with very few, if any changes. This is mostly useful for 3D animation but it's helpful in hybrid 2D animations too.

As you might have guessed, I firmly believe in planning out a project carefully before committing myself to animating it. To me, it's the only reliable way to get a big animation project done in a reasonable time. One of the worst things I can do on a big project is to try to make stuff up and figure things out as I go along--on that path, I'm lucky if the project ever gets done. Animation is already hard work so why make it unpredictable too? :)

BTW, if you ever decide to get into 3D animation but don't have the funds to buy a program, you might look into Blender. It's completely free to use (although they do accept donations.)
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jahnocli
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Re: Big really hard project looming - planning?

Post by jahnocli »

Something I stumbled on a short while ago is Crocotile 3D, a tile program which works in 3D. Being a bear of little brain when it comes to 3D programs, I saw straight away that it was an app I could use. It's not free, but it's cheap ($20) and you can try before you buy...ish (you can't save any scenes until you buy it).
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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Greenlaw
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Re: Big really hard project looming - planning?

Post by Greenlaw »

Regarding the shot list, sorry, I haven't forgotten, just been super busy lately. I'll put together a quick tutorial and post it soon.

Coincidentally, I've been doing a lot of this at work lately and have some new ideas which might be helpful.
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