I am starting a feature length film live action screenplay with a secondary animated main character. Outline complete and committing it to Final Draft. The screenplay is just out of outline and in early development stage. As a conceptual test, I'm looking to collaborate with both a sketch artist and a model maker to refine my ideas on what this character will look like. It should be something no one has ever seen before, certainly DreamWorks quality. I'm not an artist by any means, but I know what I want when I see it and have scoured Google with image search for three representative images that need to be creatively combined into a living character (by sketch or "model"-clay?). My idea (I'm a long term software developer) is to scan the 3d sculpted model (motion capture) with Kinect for Windows V2 which is being released this summer. Blender is able to import Kinect-scanned 3D objects. One can then rig the character with a skeleton and joints add texture in Blender, and then use Kinect to animate the rigging joints with its motion capture abilities in real time. Here are links for the original Big Buck Bunny featurette and someone who has linked Kinect to the Big Buck Bunny rigged character himself. All those characters which are public domain and can be used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lck-SFfPKiw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tDetMtniyM Here is the link for the new Kinect for Windows which will change the Mo Cap industry, I believe: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/ You can see that for very little money, the software industry is starting to enable personal green screening, motion capture, character modeling and animation with stunning results. For a community like ours, this is huge news, as the fundable entry point and something with quality is becoming ever more accessible to the masses. The talent to create and do character development still lies in the hands of visual artists, but the facilitation of the production stages is now becoming consolidated just as film editing and music production and editing software was years ago. There is a site, http://blenderartists.org/forum/index.php, which would suggest that this community is focused on promoting Blender artists who might work on spec. The character, a rose, is a pivotal character and will interact with a few other animations but will mostly be on screen with the live action main character through the film, sort of like "Ted" was. What do you animators think of this plan?
Animation : Blender, Kinect for Windows, Personal Green Screening and Motion Capture, Animation by Alan Knittel
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I'm not animator, but I am scouting for them and, I've checked each link and watched the whole film as well. I'm hooked! Shew! Is this what you will eventually be doing? Would like to be your first customer! Already have an Awesome Super Hero Story! The Best To You!
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That rabbit needs to go on a diet - pronto! ;-)
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What I'm doing is a live action screen play with one CG supporting character. For a proof of concept, I have contracted with a concept artist to sketch and develop my ideas for the character. This particular artist was recommended by Pataz Studios in Costa Rica, one of the studios which will be doing Blender modeling and animation on the Gooseberry project. I very much recommend them at this point for any work. I will be taking the model and at the very least posing her for a billboard. I will be using Blender and NI mate to capture some animation later.
Hello Alan, Good to read your post, 100 % agree with you, and just for the records I myself doing a same concept film, my project is in three parts, and daily I discuss it with creative professional animators and even upcoming animators, to cut down the cost of animation and to look other software or ways to make it every film possible, you can see my concept and story line in my profile....and the Characters like Big bunny are still much adorable than the character are being introduced in today's time. Wish yo all the very best
How long did it take you to do this?
James, to be honest its been three years I am working on this project, in these year made strong data base and connections worldwide and learn t many things about films / industry and even animation formats and all. though animation was not my line at all, but I have learn t many things while developing and writing the project,
How long do you think it would take you to do the animation for a 22-minute sitcom?
It depends, how many shots you have with live characters, and green screen, VFX....it all depends on it...but as even yo have mentioned too, if plan properly and use motion capture and few new software, time for animation will be half