利用者:Enriq766/3DMovies

SO YOU WANT TO MAKE A 3D MOVIE?

A GUIDE FOR THE BEGINNER

A REFERENCE FOR THE REST OF US

Original Post by

Enrique Gonzales(Enriqolonius)

Section One

INTRODUCTION

This guide is written for the Novice to Advanced users of Blender. It is not intended to teach you how to model or how to use the basic functions in the program. There are hundreds of websites and tutorials to help you learn Blender, some will be posted in the appendix of this guide. This is a guide to help users understand the concept of small 3D movie production. It is not my intention to challenge the production or concepts of Hollywood movie companies. With the emergence of 3D movies and shorts there has been a keen interest in 3D art as well as Animation. I will share my experiences to help you have a better feel for how small 3D animations are done.

My first point to make, and probably the most important, is: are you 100% sure you want to make a movie? If the answer is "yes", then the next question is: are you willing to make the movie yourself with no help? This is the most difficult question when starting a project of this type. Most new or novice users will say "no". A more advanced user knows that he or she could not complete a project of this size by him or herself.

There has been a growing trend of new users coming into 3D forums and chat rooms to announce a plan to make a full length 3D movie and asking for help, with little or no details about the actual movie. This is generally shot down by every user of the community, mainly because it has been done so often that people get tired of seeing projects start and never finish. This guide should help you not make those mistakes and teach you how to approach modelers and animators for help.

I have broken this book up into sections that deal directly with each phase of production. From your original idea to the official release of the film, I will teach you what steps to take and what to do to finish your movie. I will also tell you what not to do, and the things that could doom your project.

I am in the process of learning myself. One can not know too much. So I will update as I come to certain points. I hope you can get something from this Wiki.

Pre-PRODUCTION

Ok, now that you have decided to make a movie there are some tools you will need. Now it is entirely up to you as the director to choose the software packages to be used in the film. Mostly every software package you will be using has no limits on the creative output of the software. So this means you could use Photoshop and no one at Adobe will be asking you to pay them or credit them.

For the 3D software, Blender3D is the choice software for this guide. It is free and it is very powerful if used correctly. It has plenty of new options and effects made specifically for Animators.

For your 2D software, Photoshop is generally good to have. If you cannot afford Photoshop, GIMP is free and available for download. I would not recommend trying to use MS Paint for anything during the production of the movie.

Sound Production

For the sound production I recommend Audacity, found here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Drawing and Sketching

You will need these things before you get started:

• A place to comfortably draw, and sketch
• Paper
• Pencils, drawing pens, and color markers
• A flatbed scanner

It is better to not use copyrighted material, unless you have expressed written consent from the copyright holder. In most cases this is not going to happen. You will be better off coming up with your own original ideas. Most people in the 3D world tend to stay away from un-original ideas. The whole point is to make something that you can say “I made this” with out having to give credit to someone else.

Don’t expect people to have the same excitement you have. This is a very common mistake a lot of people make. Don’t push your idea on people. Let them come to you, show what you have done on your own and if it is good enough, people will line up to join you. Asking for help will usually end up with you working alone.

The Concept

Your ideas are in your head. You need to use different mediums to get your ideas across to people. To do this you will have to use a word-processor and lots and lots of drawing paper. I recommend using plain printer paper. Do not use school paper or graph paper, or any paper that has lines on it. This is very bad on the eyes and it looks very unprofessional. Printer paper can be scanned and stored very easily.

The main characters and scene design will be the most time consuming part of the movie. If you do not spend proper time designing your sets and characters, you will end up with dozens or perhaps hundreds of models that don’t look right together. As in all other types of art mediums, artists can develop their own style and look. It is your job to make sure they conform to the overall design on the movie. This can be done with good sketches of the desired objects. If good sketches are not available it is better to assign specific types of models to one person. As an example, let one person work on all the trees in the movie. This will ensure that every tree has the same look and feel. Same goes for most of the things in your movie. The set design will take the longest of these two. Once you have your story and settings for your scenes, you can start work on designing each scene.

The Story

As the lead person on the project, it is your responsibility to have all the answers. This includes the story. With no story, your movie project is dead before it even begins. If you don’t think you can write a story, there is probably no hope you will ever be able to finish your project. Creativity is not taught, it comes from within you and when you see the end result before you start, that makes it easy to do the things that lead to that end. Once you can visualize the entire project in your head, you will be able to put those ideas on paper much faster.

Find time on a relaxed day to sit at your computer when you decide to start writing. Let the ideas flow from your head and onto the screen. Do not worry about grammar or sentence structure, these things can be refined and fixed later. The most important thing is to let the brain get the information on the screen as fast as possible. Do not spend too much time thinking about one tiny detail. Once you have your story done, you can go back and read it, then make your changes and updates.

Screenplay

Your story is broken up into chapters and paragraphs and sentences, but a movie is broken up into Acts, Scenes and Shots. Now that you have a solid and interesting storyline, you need to rearrange your story into a play. A story can tell a person's thoughts and feelings, but a movie must portray them through acting and dialog. While a story can leave a setting to the reader's imagination, a movie must have a set built with meshes and textures. Lastly, a story is meant to be read, absorbed and understood over a long period of time; a movie is meant to be watched for entertainment in a short period.

The screenplay does this; it lays out the story into a discrete set of Acts, Scenes, and Shots. There are usually three Acts: Introduction/Tension, Rising Conflict, and Resolution/Conclusion. At the beginning of each Scene, a Set is described which includes key props and placememnt, time of day and lighting. Each Shot within the Scene that occurs on the set describes how the actors enter the stage and from which direction, their dialog and actions, as well as a camera angle.

When the screenplay is done, go back and estimate how long each shot will take, and add it up. You want to shoot more footage than you will need, because some will be cut during production. However, you don't want too much because each shot takes time and effort to produce. Elephant's Dream had a runtime of 10 minutes, and Final Fantasy ran for 106. You have to decide, based on your budget, how long your film should run. In general, you want only the minimum number of shots that are needed to tell the story line, and each shot lasts a few seconds, and a scene should be entertaining.

SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS

When drawing, try not to draw too lightly. Dark lines will scan much better and there will be less work for you to do after you scan them. If possible use black ink to trace over the most important drawings. Do not be shy with your drawings, not everyone is a great artist on paper, but you must try to show what it is you are thinking of. It is also a good idea to do multiple views of the same object, especially important ones.

This is one of those stages in the process that you will struggle with. It’s not fun, or exciting, it’s very time consuming and boring. Don’t expect anyone to help you with this. On the other hand, it is a very important part of making your movie. Your team members will not know what you have in mind when they start modeling.

Section Two

STORYBOARDS

Time for storyboards. The second most important thing you can do is make storyboards. The storyboards can be as detailed as the final version, or as simple as stick figures and blocks. The idea behind the storyboard is to show your team the basic look of each scene. It is not a frame by frame representation of the actual animation. If that was true, you would end up having thousands of pictures to draw. To save space I recommend drawing two shots per page. Here are some blank storyboard sheets you can print and use. (insert link to ROUBALS storyboard sheets)

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

So as not to bore you with technical mumbo jumbo, I will explain the "frames per second" rules and how it will affect your movie, by not using weird words.

25fps, or 25 frames per second, is what is considered to be industry standard in making realistic animations, weither in 3D, 2D, or even video games. The mind can only process so much information at a time, so when you bump the frame rate up, you get more pictures to decipher and you may not even process half of it. As an animator, you really don't want to cross this 25 frame limit or go below it. Going slower, say 15 frames per second, will make the animation appear choppy and not smooth.

(image soon) (animation soon)

If you look at this example, the ball is set to move from point A to point B using the 25fps rule.

(image soon) (animation soon)

In this example we turned down the fps to 15. When played back you can see that the ball looks more choppy.

(image soon) (animation soon)

And in this final example we turned it up to 35fps.

I hope this helps you in understanding how frames per second works.

Section Three

THE DIRECTOR

"What do you need me to do?" This is the #1 question you will be asked. Be prepared to have an answer. "Nothing right now" is not what you want to say.

As the Director:

• You have all the answers.
• You have all the work load.

Having all the answers is part of the position. Even if the answer is "Do what you think will work best" As the director you will be asked lots of questions. I recommend using a specific forum for this or even e-mail. This way, no question goes unanswered, and production does not come to a halt because of 1 tiny detail.

Having all of the work load should be an understatement when referring to 3D animation projects. If you like sleep, a social life and a girlfriend (or boyfriend) then forget being a Director. Or at least a lone director. It takes time. Commitment is another thing, but time I think is the most important. Make sure you don't have anything on your schedule for the next year or so. In 3D animations, the general rule is, 3 months for every 60 seconds of footage. This is for personal and team projects. So please use this time table when thinking of how long you want to make your short or movie.

THE MODELING TEAM

I have broken down the modelling jobs in groups to make things go faster. From here on out, I will be using The Crosswalk and its Files to explain better what we did. The first thing that came to me was getting 2 people to be Lead model makers. These 2 people set the style and visual concept for the film. We did some 2D concepts, but once we saw what was soon to come, (the "toon" style), we fell in love with it. This was something that did not take days or weeks to do. This is where the director can put his foot down and say "This is FINAL, lets move on!" You will get a dozen ideas; take a look at them all and pick the best one. That way, you're not fussing about how things should look. The Modelling team is where most of the interest will be generated. Everyone will want to help out in this part. What we did was make 1 list. This list was updated as we realized we needed new things. Above this list I posted that people only model things in the list and model them to the style of the movie, and that all other models will be rejected. We also realized that we needed to put a poly count limit on some of the items. We literally got a hair brush that was 10,000 poly count. So this is a good thing if you know a prop or character will not be in the main camera shot and can save some render time.

Example List:

• Diner Table(White top with red trim)
• Diner Chair(White seat top and red sides)
• Diner Stool(red top and chrome sides)example:[1]
• Napkin Holder(8 sides textured)
• Salt and Pepper Shaker(very low poly use texture)
• Restaurant type garbage can(the kind you see at a fast food place)
• Cash Register(Old style)
• Soda machine
• Plant in pot(On floor about 5 feet tall)

As you can see if there is a specific look or detail level I note it in the list.