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Re: Lots of useful info in here. *Longish*
Posted By: Kyrceck <Kyrceck@gmail.com>	Date: 12/23/04 4:16 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Lots of useful info in here. *Longish* (ThorsHammer) : Animation wise: Maya is pretty much the state of the art. It's also quite : a few thousand bucks, so I would tend to steer away from it. Some people : would choose Softimage or Lightwave over Maya, I guess, but in my opinion, : Maya is the best overall package going (you should note it's been a while : since I've followed animation seriously, so this might not be true : anymore...). : So, assuming you don't want to spend all that, let me recommend Blender . : It's not as full featured as Maya, and it's interface is pretty odd until : you get used to it, but it has most of the major high-end functions, like : bone-based deformation (used for animating characters), and it has one : huge advantage: it's free. You can go to the website, and download a : full-featured, no-limitations, no-registration-needed copy of it right : now. If this seems too good to be true, you probably need to become : acquainted with open source software , which is what Blender is. : U.S. Cavalry has a few pellet and replica guns, though I can't recall : offhand if any of them look much like the M6C. : Not easy at all, on a budget. If you have a really major positive cash : flow, though, U.S. Cavalry has craploads of surplus military gear from : various armed services of various countries. You could probably do pretty : well buying stuff from there (or other surplus stores), and then modifying : it as needed to look specifically like Halo marine uniforms. : Covie gear is just plain gonna be hard. One thing I might recommend : (hesitantly): You seem to be interested in using CG for this project, so : an option would be to shoot any acting involving Covies/Covie weaponry in : front of a greenscreen/bluescreen (these can be approximated at least : semi-decently by painting a large flat surface like a tarp one flat color : [even a blue tarp should be painted, because the reflection from their : surface screws up the system], and shooting indoors), and then compositing : the actual ingame models and background into the shot via animation and a : good video editor/compositor combo, which you'll need if you're planning a : project of this magnitude anyway (Apple makes a nice editor/compositor : combo if you wind up using Macs, and Adobe does some pretty solid stuff on : both platforms. Neither comes at all cheap, though, and I don't know of : any real open source options.) I imagine that some modder or another has : already extracted the Halo 2 models and textures, so you could probably : even use those. : That would be very, very difficult and involved, though, especially if you : don't have a huge animation/modeling/compositing/editing team, which I bet : you won't. Also, unless you've got some high-end pro-level animators, it : just won't look that convincing (although again, perhaps you could get a : friendly modder or three to figure out Bungie's animation format, which I : *think* was done with Halo 1, and this would help you make convincing : animations). Apart from that, I don't see any alternatives to just : sculpting/carving models, and painting them correctly (maybe if you have : MAJOR CRAPLOADS of cash, you could get the Nightmare Armor guys to make : you some, but I imagine getting them to produce new weapons from scratch : would be an order of magnitude or two more expensive than just buying : stuff from their current production runs). : Just my earlier one about using the original models animated in Blender or : program of your choice, and like I said, that would be extremely : time-consuming and difficult. But, I suppose it'll also be extremely : time-consuming and difficult to create convincing Grunt costumes, so I : guess you'll have to make the call, based on what your group's skillsets : and resources are. : Luminous blue blood makes me think you'll be buying blue glowsticks by the : ton, breaking them open, and spreading the contents around your corpses : liberally. That color isn't perfect, but I'd say it's your best bet, and : perhaps if you hunt carefully, you can find a better color. If you do go : that route, try to do something to prevent the glowsticks from seeping : into the ground; that could cause some nasty pollution (better to at least : keep that mess in the dumps). : If you really want gratuitous gore (not necessarily recommended by me), some : hints might be: Extreme closeups and long/extreme long shots are way : easier to fake than a standard medium shot, and the viewer probably won't : notice the difference. That is, showing a plasma sword being shoved : through someone with blood spurting is easier to do if all you see is the : midsection than it is if you see an entire person. All you need is a dummy : midsection that's got a bladder filled with stage blood, and you're there. : In the same way, a faked exploding body will look much more convincing : small, rather than large. : Overall advice: Find the nearest stage acting supply company you can (or : maybe just search the web for some good ones; I don't know what any : web-based ones might be); they carry all sorts of useful stuff, like stage : blood, costumes that might be modifiable, and other things. The products : they sell aren't as convincing as the equivalent special effects junk from : your average production house special effects group, but then, they're : somewhat affordable; that's NOT true of most movie-level props, in my : experience. Find a copy of The Five C's of Cinematography ; this book is : the best, bar none, when it comes to explaining the mechanics of actually : shooting a film. If you aren't already a cinematographer at the Hollywood : level, read this; I can guarantee you'll learn something from it. I know I : did. : Can you tell that I've spent just a wee bit of my life on this sort of thing? : :-) : -Nate Another reason to get into Machinima. :)

Message Index

Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	11/28/04 5:56 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Voltage	11/28/04 6:01 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Peptuck	11/28/04 6:19 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Cavmn	11/28/04 7:05 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Rebel	11/28/04 7:41 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	11/28/04 9:14 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Pico	11/28/04 8:22 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Michael M.	11/28/04 8:41 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Pico	11/28/04 9:48 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	KoRnKid	11/28/04 9:10 p.m.
Thanks for all your suggestions	Hikaru-119	11/28/04 9:17 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	343winks	11/28/04 10:10 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	11/29/04 8:39 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	egghead316	12/23/04 1:06 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	12/23/04 1:13 p.m.
Actually.	GruntKilla	12/28/04 11:22 a.m.
Re: Actually.	Hikaru-119	12/28/04 1:59 p.m.
Re: Lots of useful info in here. *Longish*	ThorsHammer	11/29/04 12:54 a.m.
Re: Lots of useful info in here. *Longish*	Hikaru-119	11/29/04 8:29 a.m.
Re: Lots of useful info in here. *Longish*	Kyrceck	12/23/04 4:16 p.m.
Forgot one thing, Louis please read	Hikaru-119	11/29/04 8:32 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Ty 'Bobamee	12/13/04 10:38 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Andrew Nagy	12/22/04 2:29 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	12/22/04 6:11 p.m.
Hikaru... Previous movies?	GruntKilla	12/22/04 7:18 p.m.
Re: Hikaru... Previous movies?	Hikaru-119	12/22/04 8:53 p.m.
Re: Hikaru... Previous movies?	GruntKilla	12/23/04 12:47 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	12/23/04 12:49 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Kyrceck	12/23/04 4:12 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	12/23/04 4:57 p.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	DBPhoenix	12/28/04 9:37 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Guardian	12/28/04 10:07 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Hikaru-119	12/28/04 10:13 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Jammerfer	12/28/04 11:53 a.m.
Re: Announcing Project: ODST	Sharpshooter	12/28/04 12:38 p.m.