I made this Demo Reel following Rick Green's Demo Reel Tutorial [LINK] . Even if you aren't a potential client for us, comment and tell me why or why it wouldn't would make you more likely to hire us if you were.
Scene Two prototype completed. Here is One and Two Together.
Animation 1 Ok, we now have our fish rigged, lighted, and placed. We are ready to animate! Before we animate, we must record the dialog audio so we can make the animation fit it. I used the Blue Snowball [LINK] . It's an excellent microphone. However, the audio in the clip below was recorded in a cheaper microphone... hence the popping... I did re-record the audio with the better microphone.. not to worry... It's just a prototype. To animate, we must set keyframes. Almost all virtual motion is created in frames. A frame is an image in a series of images. Movie cameras take about twenty-four frames each second. When the pictures are displayed one after another, the object that is filmed looks like it is moving. It isn't exactly twenty-four frames per second, so we call it 24p (Twenty-four frames per second progressive). For web video, to get smoother motion, we use 30 frames per second. That is what I am using for this project. Keyframes are basically motion markers. Let's...
Setting Up in Layout Ok, we now have our two fishies. One battered (hee-hee-hee) and one healthy. I opened LightWave Layout and imported both models. Some of you are probably wondering what LightWave "Layout" is. Well, I'll tell you. LightWave works in two applications: Modeler and Layout. Modeler is where you model ("create or modify") your 3D models (objects). Layout is where you animate (making dem' move!) and render (export) your animation. I have the models ready, so that's why I'm moving into Layout. Ok, I get the fish side-by-side and the begin basic rigging. "Ok", you ask, "What's rigging?". Well, to make characters move at joints, they have to have joints. 3D joints. To do that, we use 3D invisible bones. Bones? Yes, bones. 3D objects with joints have bones. When visible, they make the fish look more like a robot than an animal... it's a good thing they are invisible in the final export. I put a bone to move the head...