Version the third.

In this version, I've added shadows and lighting to the scenes which needed it, so now the entire thing is lit. I've taken my first stab at adding music to this version, by using some music from Deckman Coss, an artist on my former label. It's licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivative Works 3.0 license (more information here).

In short this means that I am allowed to use the music, but I have to credit him, and I can't make use it commercially. I've credited him at the end of the film and this is for educational purposes, which are okay.

I'm not entirely happy with using the same song twice at the beginning and end. The bit where the second stops in the middle is supposed to be funny but I think it falls flat. I'm going to take another look at the music really soon, but this evening I'm going to be focusing on accompanying written work for the blog.D 3.0

In progress version 2.

Here's the second in progress version of the film. I exported and uploaded this before I went to bed last night, some shots are still a bit broken but most of them now have lighting and shadows. I added extra shots to the end to give it a stronger conclusion. I think this conclusion will be made even stronger with sound.

The last shot also has a spot of rotoscoping applied, and an effect to make him stand out less in the brightness.

I put a bit more thought into the sound this time, the background noise from Dom's game is continued between the last few shots, this ties them together much more nicely than before. Apart from that, the sound has yet to have any significant work put into it, but it's on the list!

Exactly 1 week to go.

I've been hard at work on the film, and i've made pretty good progress.

Firstly, here's a picture of my three characters, each a different kind of plant pot.

Higher res version here.

As you can see their personality from left to right is Angry, Stupid and Excited. Deep characters in this piece. I used the pictures of plant pots that I took to model them, then I used those same photos to make the textures. The arms, legs, eyes and eyebrows are re-used between all of the models, and the noise and mouth is added into the pot's mesh. The pupils are kept separate from the rest of the eye so that they can look around, which they do at various points in the film.

Here's the latest export of the film. It ends before the actual end (the noise might make you jump!) because I've not finished those shots yet. In fact most of the shots are incomplete, this was mainly for receiving feedback from friends.

I'm going to remove the last split second of the first matchmoved shot. I'm going to add shadows, increase the speed of the leg movement and make the pots bob up and down as they run. The second running shot needs a complete overhaul because they constantly change sizes and the rotation is completely wrong. Oh, also i've got to think about what I'm gonna do about sound and music. I'm not sure if I can create anything that would match this piece but I'll try. If not, I'll use royalty free material.

I'll probably upload another test version tomorrow.

The Season3 Studios slide appears on screen. You hear a smash, and the first shot is of Dom sitting on a sofa, he looks out the window for a second and then returns to his game.

The "Alex Noble Film" slide appears on screen. You see a row of plant pots, moving from right to left along the row until we get to a CGI plant pot with arms, legs, and a face. Then be blinks and looks at the camera, and the screen goes blank. The title appears.

http://cyberalyman.deviantart.com/art/Titles-for-my-upcoming-film-207279689

Photo refrence material

I borrowed a camera and took photos of all of the plant pots out the front of my house. This is going to be used as reference material to model realistic looking plant pots. They are a very simple shape so it won't be hard to get that right, but I'm also looking at colour and texture here, and how the lighting affects them, which is why I took pictures from 3 angles for each plant pot.

The camera's battery ran out before I could completely finish, so there may be more photos to come, but while it's charging I'll get to work making plant pots.

I'll also need to look into how to make a cool looking transformation from plant pot to self aware plant pot.

The photos are visible here.

Final week plan.

Okay, last week, I'm putting this plan in writing to make sure I stick to it.

Saturday, monday - Get all of the models and animation finished so they're ready to just drop into the scene. Also get some titles and credits set up for the film so I don't have to do them later. A plan for filming would also be crazy useful.

Tuesday to Friday - I'll have the camera, so it'll be a case of filming by day and matchmoving by night. The animations should be easy enough to just drop into the scene so hopefully I shouldn't have too many issues, it's just about making sure I've got enough matchmoved shots to prove I know the ropes as far as that's concerned. Also I'll need some shots of Dom acting, to get it all tied together.

The plan for that is that he'll hear noises outside and to to the window and see them running up the drive. Then we'll cut to lots of shots of the plant pots waking up and running towards the house. As for a conclusion... Just tension build up and then the title I guess. A bit lame, not much payoff, but at this point what can I do.

Over the weekend it's gonna be piecing it all together and adding some effects glossyness in After Effects if needed. Then I'll need to look at reformatting my blog content into a good readable format. Also I'll link to the blog. I might also look at getting parts of the process online so that you can see the steps I took.

I'll need to get Red Bull, I'll need to get burnable DVDs, I'll need to make sure the printer's got ink, and I'll need an external hard drive for all those image sequences. The end (for this project, at least) is in sight, so FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE, IT'S WORK TIME.