Despite my working on some freelance stuff this month we're still going strong. We passed 83% complete and even more exciting is that we are approaching 50% rendered! Now this number is a little vague, as what I'm including lighting, compositing and effects in this "rendered" category. I could make individual channels for those but they're all so tightly woven into each other that we may as well leave it as it is. The point is that once we hit 100% "rendered" it will all look pretty and finished.

Obviously a big reason for the jump in rendering lately has been that I've been doing my best to feed my three computer render farm at home while I'm out at work. It's mostly meant taking easy shots that aren't too complex and putting them through lighting in the few hours I've had free after work. In slightly under a month I've rendered 10% of the film, which is an interesting statistic in it self. I believe it can go faster, as I recognize more and more opportunities to turn off the 3D motion blur. But equally I've been sending a few things back to rendering to fix low quality issues or improve the lighting. So it's a give and take.

It's actually quite a lot of fun, and slightly addictive, keeping the render farm busy. It's a bit like a game of strategy, prioritizing shots and layers, pre-comping things to check they're working, choosing what to rush vs what to spend more time on... all the while making sure the farm keeps busy while I'm out.

In under a week I should be finishing my freelance gig and I'll be back on the film. I'd like to add effects to all these shots I've rendered, but I'm quite happy to pass that job along to any budding After Effects team members if they want to let me know. Beyond that I'll be getting back to animation for hopefully the last push in that department. We've only got a few shots left to go and once they're done we'll be a lot closer to 'picture lock' which will allow Phil to complete the score and Jay to work more thoroughly on teh sound effects.

It's all coming together! I'm very proud of everyone. Nice work, keep it up.

Thanks... Me too!

The charts are made in Microsoft Office Excel. I track the entire project in a spread sheet.

Hey I just saw the 82% finished version and it's looking very good ! Congratulations !!! You guys have done a great job. I had seen the trailer before and couldn't really understand what it was going to talk about, but with the whole thing, I understand the story much better, and it's great... Here are the little things I noticed or didn't understand :

- Is it on purpose that you didn't put the written rules any more at the beggining of the short ? Because I think they helped to understand things a lot. There is a lot going on in little time, so it's nice to have the basics anounced strait away.

- My main issue is when the devil and Death flirt. When the devil wants to impress her, a human comes up with the %, did he make that come up ? Or is he supposed to react to that ? The devil then sees two humans kissing right after a shot where death fiddles with her remote behind her back ? Did she create the kissing ? Or is it just a random kiss that happens and we see that the devil likes love more than destruction ? Or is it both ? It's just hard to understand for me if she created that or not... If it is her that generated the kiss, maybe a bit of sound effect could help to understand that she's actually pressing on the remote behind her back. A bit like the sound that fades away when she lets go of the remote (which would lead me to belive that she is the one affecting the kiss).

Anyways, that's the part I don't find very easy to grasp and I felt a little lost the first time I saw it. I hope it helps a little even though the project is close to finished . I know it's not that easy to act on things once the project is that far.

Overall it looks great, I like the idea and environment a lot. I can't wait to see the finall version !

-

This is a behind the scenes look at the rendering farm computers I'm using to render our short film. I take a look at Render Pal, equipment contributions from Lucas Martell (of www.PigeonImpossible.com ), and David Clements. Thanks to Jeff Lew for the idea ( http://www.youtube.com/user/killerbeanforever ).

http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/v … -rendering

Direct Link

Last edited by michaelcawood (09-03-2011 7:31 pm)

Hey Micheal,

I've followed your project pretty much all the way through. It's great to see it at this stage now.
I know first hand how difficult it is to make a short film. You should be really proud of both yourself
and your team, it's looking great!!

I'm sure there are things you'd do differently now, but thats the nature of the beast. Just thought I'd
congratulate you on getting it this far.

Can't wait to see it finished.


Good luck!!


Darren

Last edited by oakcee (09-10-2011 7:20 pm)

Funny that.

I'd probably do the same myself.

Although I think the sense of acheivement from finishing a film justifies
all the hard work in the end. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

This version of the edit features some new lines of narration with a temporary voice, and some new musical themes, plus the usual progress of shots.

Direct Link

Some more images from the film

With animation hitting 90% complete we're well on our way to completing the film in the next few months. In fact the first festival submission deadline looms upon us. "South by South West" is one of the biggest festivals in the world for film and music, and we'll be submitting the film for their November the 1st deadline. The festival itself will be in March next year which is perfect, as we should be complete well before that. They accept early cuts of films for the submission deadline, and we just have to do everything we can to make the film as complete, and watchable (to non-animators), as possible for the submission deadline.

The biggest challenge will be making sure that the animated effects (beams, bubbles, Peeps and Hearts) are as close to complete as possible in the next couple of weeks so that the logic of the film is in place. Another area that's important is the Earth shots as they bring a lot to the understanding of the film.

I'm currently pushing as hard as I can to complete the animated shots I'm assigned to. The main one left is the closing scenes with Death and Devil, and we're also going to need a strong version of the baby shot with all the correct elements in place.

Beyond that we just have to get as close as we can to complete animation from the entire team. Once all of the above elements have been addressed to a strong level I'll be looking at taking over any faltering shot assignments to ensure that the film completes in a timely manor around the end of the year (or early January).

With the timeline virtually locked now, I'm hoping to see more progress from the sound team and there shouldn't be anything to stop them from completing that very soon. Then it will be all about lighting, rendering, 2D effects and compositing.

Here's the latest storyreel:
http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/v … el-v107-79

We were recently featured on AniBoom's channel and picked up a few thousand views in a few days (4300 and still going up), which was encouraging. We also got a lot of comments which was quite interesting to read.

Direct Link

Wow, haven't seen this in a long time. Amazing what you and the development team have accomplished. I can't even imagine the logistics to get this project done, heh! Very cool.

This is a rough video introduction to how we're using Render Pal and Dropbox to render our short film across the internet with a team of volunteers.

http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/v … ender-farm

Direct Link

This is the first version of the film that we're sending out to festivals. SXSW takes an early cut so they'll be the first to see this with the potential for a Festival Premiere with them if it's accepted. They take the final version of the film later on.

This version of the story reel includes the usual new animation, renders and effects but also a new sound effects track that's almost entirely replaced. I had to add in a few spot affects from the old sfx track that haven't been added yet, but otherwise it's all new.

Direct Link

Thanks... here's an updated Storyreel.
http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/v … el-v113-94

Direct Link

Direct Link