Carrara Challenge #62 "Clowns and Other Circus Stuff" -

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  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    I use image series

    Do you mean the "sequenced jpeg" under the windows AVI tab?

    And, once I output in that format, my video editor of choice will then know how to use it?

    I'm wondering if Phil covered this and I just missed it.  It is so crucial to understand.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169

    @Dartanbeck, calling Dart!

    Dart has videos on his workflow.  In the link below he talks about using a video editor after the 24 minute mark or so.  Davinci Resolve.  

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213
    edited June 2022

    UnifiedBrain said:

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    I use image series

    Do you mean the "sequenced jpeg" under the windows AVI tab?

    And, once I output in that format, my video editor of choice will then know how to use it?

    I'm wondering if Phil covered this and I just missed it.  It is so crucial to understand.

    I use sequenced png and have never seen any of Phil's tutorials, I am sure they are awesome but I just cannot watch video tutes easily

    yes, Hitfilm imports image series, Blender video editor image import I select the first one and hit "a" to select them all

    I read what is documented in the manual and elswhere or just use trial and error

    much error

    so much

    an error has occured cheeky 

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited June 2022

    Two Clowns and a Saddle Tramp

     

    A last minute entry.  One category missed so far has been the rodeo clown!

    The cowgirl is classic V4 with the original face.  For me, she has the perfect sincere western face.  M3 and D3 are the clowns.

    The mechanical bull is a kitbash between Yeehaw and the Daz Bull, and my own additions.

    The bar is mostly a product imaginatively called "Bar Interior." :)

    The portrait in the back is the late Lecile Harris, a famous rodeo clown.

    Prework on the clown faces.  No postwork.

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  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Thanks Wendy!  I will have to try sequenced png and see what happens.  Probably not this week.  A slow but ongoing DIY home project needs to get in gear.

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,188
    edited June 2022

    And then 

    _  fairly well  with this one  ~  over-all 

    _ But does have Faults ~

    Thanx

     

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  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,188
    edited June 2022

    And then 

    _ would have added more items in the scene  ,  but time limits

      thanx

     

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  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Diomede said:

    Well, Cecil B DeMille need not worry about my foray into film making yet.  Yet.  laugh

    Here is my attempt at having two of my silly clown figures dance to circus clown music.  Music is called Circus Clown Music from Archive dot org and is freely available.  Had lots of unanticipated problems, but I should have anticipated that.  But if I had anticipated that, then the problems would not have been unanticipated.  wink

    For your enjoyment.  (Wendy - this animation exprience has reinforced just how truly awesome you are!)

     

     

    ha ha that's great Ted, love those fancy dance moves!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Diomede said:

    @Dartanbeck, calling Dart!

    Dart has videos on his workflow.  In the link below he talks about using a video editor after the 24 minute mark or so.  Davinci Resolve.  

     

    a genius he is !!

     

    I always render out a series of PNG's - jpegs suffere from tonal comptression as far as I know - you know all that linear work flow blah ;) :)

    No but seriously Jpegs compress the top few layers of tones - tiffs dont , maye png's dont?

    just from memory not the Bible

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,188

    Headwax said:

    ed3D said:

    Headwax said:

    Now does anyone need more time? I'm happy to extend it past the 15th of course.

    ~  and     "when  Is the actually End Time of the 15th ?  _  suppose could Scoot In "  Thanx

    Hya be good if you could, the time of end is nominal, usually we do Daz Utah time - so by the end of the 15th Daz Utah time. But life is short and I am flexable ;)

    And Then ~ 

     entrered Both , So , Yay-yay  yes

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    ed3D said:

    And then 

    _  fairly well  with this one  ~  over-all 

    Thanx

     

     

    nice work, really love that Submarine and the spacy scene with those disparate objectts! Very surreal !

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    UnifiedBrain said:

    Two Clowns and a Saddle Tramp

     

    A last minute entry.  One category missed so far has been the rodeo clown!

    The cowgirl is classic V4 with the original face.  For me, she has the perfect sincere western face.  M3 and D3 are the clowns.

    The mechanical bull is a kitbash between Yeehaw and the Daz Bull, and my own additions.

    The bar is mostly a product imaginatively called "Bar Interior." :)

    The portrait in the back is the late Lecile Harris, a famous rodeo clown.

    Prework on the clown faces.  No postwork.

     

    wow that's a beaudy pardna :)

    Tonal range is superb and the poses and facial expressions, not to mention the Bull's horns.

    "Bar Interior" - well that's pretty descriptive :)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    ed3D said:

    Headwax said:

    ed3D said:

    Headwax said:

    Now does anyone need more time? I'm happy to extend it past the 15th of course.

    ~  and     "when  Is the actually End Time of the 15th ?  _  suppose could Scoot In "  Thanx

    Hya be good if you could, the time of end is nominal, usually we do Daz Utah time - so by the end of the 15th Daz Utah time. But life is short and I am flexable ;)

    And Then ~ 

     entrered Both , So , Yay-yay  yes

     

    great news!! thanks :) !

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169

    Headwax said:

    Diomede said:

    Here is my attempt at having two of my silly clown figures dance to circus clown music. 

    ha ha that's great Ted, love those fancy dance moves!

    Thanks.  The great choreographer Bob Fosse might cringe, but we all have to start somewhere.  The footwork for the dances are from a youtube guide to 4 basic dances of musical theater.  The final version I submitted is limited to just these.  In the first version I tried to include a side step for the fat clown and a bump for the female clown but they just didn't look right.  Although it is very rough, there is no end, the beginning has no anticipation, and the upper bodies are yucky... even with all of that, this was a great experience.  I learned very much.  Here are the basic dance steps that I used.

     

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169

    Thank you, Andrew.  This challenge was very challenging.  I learned so much.  yes

    I was not close to finishing my grand comedic epic with my tribute characters so did not ask for more time.  I did make a lot of progress on a Vaudeville stage.  Has classic dimensions, multiple curtains, footlights/ceiling lights, etc.  I will offer that as a freebie when it is done.

    THOUGHTS??? - do people prefer written title cards for dialogue, or text-to-speech?  

    Scene - Mae West with two Keystone Cops

    - West ... most women like seeing a man in uniform.  I like my men out of their uniforms.

    - (after West invites both men)  Keystone Cop 1... I don't think we need a chaparone, Cherie.   West... I don't need a chaparone, but you might need reinforcements.

    I tried a text-to-speech site but the dialogue seemed too flat.

     

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  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169
    edited June 2022

    One More Thought - Puppeteer in Carrara

    One Carrara element I found useful for my dance animation was puppeteer. I really had not explored it much before.  In particular, I found it a great way to match up the beginning and ending positions.  This was helpful for creating NLA clips of different dance moves that could be strung together.  To make it easier on myself, I loaded my figure and then posed in a dance-ready position.  In the controller tab, in the puppeteer graph, I clicked to create a dot for my starting position, which will also be the ending position of many of my dance moves.  I saved this version of the figure with dance in the name of the file.

    For each dance move NLA clip, I loaded my dance-ready figure in a fresh scene with its start puppeteer dot already saved.  I posed the figure for a sequnce of dance moves clicking a puppeteer dot at each location I would like a keyframe.  For the final position, I clicked the initial puppeteer dot.  At this point, the timeline is still empty but I have a series of puppeteer dots ready for the keyframes.  I click the original dot to return the figure to the starting position.  Advance the timeline.  Click appropriate pupeteer dot for pose.  Advance timeline, click dot, repeat.  At end of timeline click dot that returns to original position.  Do some practice runs of the animation, including loop, to check for oddities and correct.

    Return to timeline beginning.

    Select whole figure.  Under NLA tab, click 'create master clip.'  You can check and uncheck body parts to include in the clip.  My fat clown dance was more stiff than my female clown because the fat clown only moves legs for most clips.  Had intended to create a series of separate arm movement clips.

    **** DANGER - your clip has been created but it has not been saved.  Save clip to browser under clip tab!!! ****

    I preferred to start each new clip in a new scene.

    To use saved clips in a future scene, drag the clips to the clip tab in lower right properties tray.  They are then available for easy use.

    Clips can be dragged from the properties tray clip tab to the figure's track in the sequencer.  Tracks can be added and overlapped.  So a clip that controls only arms can be combined to alter a basic dance clip.  Just keep in mind the order of the tracks so you have the correct clips overwriting each other.

     

     

     

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    Post edited by Diomede on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588
    edited June 2022

    Diomede said:

    @UnifiedBrain, I don't know about the software you will be using, but Lightworks has a menu option to detect image sequences.  So if you render to sequenced images, you should be able to load them.  Whichever software you choose will have something similar.  I am using the free trial stripped down version of Lightworks.

    Forgot to thank you for this, thanks!

    I was unaware that video editors could load such a thing.  I am familiar with lots of video formats, but this is alien to me.

    Also thanks for the puppeteer information.  Phil covers it in some detail, and I remember using it in DS before I began the Carrara journey.  More limited, but also easier in some ways.

    On the text/speech question, use real voices if possible.  The needed recording equipment is not that expensive.  Invite your friends to contribute, and get them to ham it up.  Most of those text to speech voices suck.

    PS - congrats on the animation.  You are far ahead of me. :)

    Post edited by UnifiedBrain on
  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Headwax said:

    ed3D said:

    And then 

    _  fairly well  with this one  ~  over-all 

    Thanx

     

     

    nice work, really love that Submarine and the spacy scene with those disparate objectts! Very surreal !

    +1 

    My question to ed3D is, are you going for surreal?  If so, you achieved it on both renders.  If not, how do you interpret your work instead?  Just curious. :)

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    HW, thanks for the comment on the western render!

    I somehow missed your clown cannon animation here, and only saw it in the entry thread.  Again, very creative. :)

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    UnifiedBrain said:

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    I use image series

    Do you mean the "sequenced jpeg" under the windows AVI tab?

    And, once I output in that format, my video editor of choice will then know how to use it?

    I'm wondering if Phil covered this and I just missed it.  It is so crucial to understand.

    I use sequenced png and have never seen any of Phil's tutorials, I am sure they are awesome but I just cannot watch video tutes easily

    yes, Hitfilm imports image series, Blender video editor image import I select the first one and hit "a" to select them all

    I read what is documented in the manual and elswhere or just use trial and error

    much error

    so much

    an error has occured cheeky 

    I have somehow managed to avoid resuming work on the house project. smiley  Animation was calling.

    After much trial and error... it worked!  I did a 2 second animation with Mimic, selected render to sequence png, and 48 images appeared.  Kind of boggeling.  My video editor was able to use them, but only after I found a video tutorial.

    I'm not sure how to ask this question.  What is the frame rate that Mimic Lite uses for the Pz2 files?  I had to do a bunch of gyrations in the video editor to get the video to match the audio.

    Sorry, not able to post animations yet.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213

    whatever you set it to, 30fps is likely the default 

    you should be able to scrub through your video editor and see the amplitude of your wav file to match up when the mouth is open

  • UnifiedBrainUnifiedBrain Posts: 3,588

    Don't you ever sleep? :)

    I finally poked around Mimic Lite long enough, and found preferences.  I was using the default setting, and it was 15.  Maybe my editor (Cyberlink Power Director) will like 30 better.  Right now I have to set Cyberlink at 60fps, and set the individual frames for .2 seconds (two tenths) to get close to synchronized.  Not sure if anyone else has to do anything like this, but I do.

    As of now the editor has no visual waveform to coordinate with the images.  Maybe it has one, and I don't know how to activate it yet.

    Look out Pixar, I'm coming!

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213

    I am in Australia and just had breakfast 

    I did sleep as well as I could with a furry bastard that bites my face if I am not careful 

  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,613

    Diomede - glad you got your animation sorted - looks cool !!!

    Stezza - time has run out, hope the clown made it !!!

    Headwax - was hoping Philemo would get his animation in - it was looking epic !!!

    UB - hope you get your animation sorted !!! I think one of those clowns is going to get an earful when that bull bucks !

    ed3D - nice work - glad you got them entered !!!

    Wendy - can you buy muzzles for cats ?

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,188

    Bunyip02 said:

    ed3D - nice work - glad you got them entered !!!

    Wendy - can you buy muzzles for cats ?

    ~ and Thanx Very Much _   &  yeah , Cats can have Muzzles , too  _ 

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Diomede said:

    Thank you, Andrew.  This challenge was very challenging.  I learned so much.  yes

    I was not close to finishing my grand comedic epic with my tribute characters so did not ask for more time.  I did make a lot of progress on a Vaudeville stage.  Has classic dimensions, multiple curtains, footlights/ceiling lights, etc.  I will offer that as a freebie when it is done.

    THOUGHTS??? - do people prefer written title cards for dialogue, or text-to-speech?  

    Scene - Mae West with two Keystone Cops

    - West ... most women like seeing a man in uniform.  I like my men out of their uniforms.

    - (after West invites both men)  Keystone Cop 1... I don't think we need a chaparone, Cherie.   West... I don't need a chaparone, but you might need reinforcements.

    I tried a text-to-speech site but the dialogue seemed too flat.

     

    probably text cards like in the olden days :)

    I like the flat voices because I tell jokes in a deadpan way :)

    I remember, someone laughing once....

     

     

     

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    UnifiedBrain said:

    HW, thanks for the comment on the western render!

    I somehow missed your clown cannon animation here, and only saw it in the entry thread.  Again, very creative. :)

    thanks Ub no problems at all!

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,987

    Bunyip02 said:

    snip

    Headwax - was hoping Philemo would get his animation in - it was looking epic !!!

     

     

    yep me too it was looking fabulous!

     

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,188
    edited June 2022

    UnifiedBrain said:

    Headwax said:

    ed3D said:

    And then 

    _  fairly well  with this one  ~  over-all 

    Thanx

     

     

    nice work, really love that Submarine and the spacy scene with those disparate objectts! Very surreal !

    +1 

    My question to ed3D is, are you going for surreal?  If so, you achieved it on both renders.  If not, how do you interpret your work instead?  Just curious. :)

    _  mostly not really trying for Surreal , but  if has some elements of it  _ then its'  alrite _  and partly some-times it is  on purpose  ~

    _  not really especially  " interpret "  in any particular manner  neither  ,  mostly   _ 

    and was going to add the Duck  a wacky inflatable duck  by Stezza  ~   thanx 

    Post edited by ed3D on
  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,188
    edited June 2022

    ~  and then made these " Pipes "  with Blender  &  test renders with Bryce _ Thanx 

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