new WIP video to my track "Turbulence of time II"

[hazardman]

ya'll,

just thought i'd share my work-in-progress -although i don't think it's too far away from being complete

i spent many hours creating almost all the content outside of MMV using 3DS Max, and AfterEffects then comping it all in MMV to have a lot of those elements controlled by MMV...

the wormhole effect was first modeled in 3DS Max and my original intent was to simply render a video of a wireframe version of it as part of a HUD...but when i was in MMV setting up the nebula-like background (an FS module) reacting to my audio, it dawned on me that i could export a video of this and use it as a texture map on the wormhole...so i applied it to the 3D model and rendered that out and was floored by the the result....

the computer text that appears throughout was done in after effects using a plugin called text anarchy...

at the end of the track, i poked some fun at myself by including a headshot of me a-la DR Who as a joke to share with my family and friends...with that, i don't know if this will be kept in the final video...perhaps i can replace this with a different head shot but with my hand extended out and having the clock face "tattooed" onto my palm...what do you think?

the hour glass model was a bit of a challenge to get into MMV...to get the lighting the way i wanted, i had to "bake" the texture onto the model first before bringing it into MMV..."baking" is a process in which the software renders every face of the model as lit by the 3d software and places those rendered areas onto a single image like a puzzle...then, that image is wrapped onto the model thus giving it the appearance of being lighted...i then exported all the separate pieces into *.obj format and assembled it all in MMV with a bunch of model modules....

overall, i created about 20 videos and spent crazy amount of hours experimenting and figuring this all out...there were a lot of challenges for me but i'm more than ecstatic with the end result...however, with all these videos, i did wish that the video module had a built in alpha parameter as i ended up having to add a separate RBG or HSB module to every one of them...not a big deal, just would have saved me a step

i also wished that there was a way to synchronize the video playback position to the current time position on the transport control but that is for another feature request thread...

anyway, since i did spend so much time on this, i'm probably gone production blind so i would appreciate any feedback...i find there may be too much time of just my pyramid shaped logo --what i'm considering as the time machine--bobbing in the wormhole to keep one interested...

and, as always, if you have any questions about the production process just ask

[blackdot]

i get "this video is private", when i try to play it.

[artnik]

Me too.

[hazardman]

i get "this video is private", when i try to play it.

doh!..changed the setting on YT..should be good to go now....

[Sadler]

I'm impressed with your tenacity to get textured models into MMV - they look great. The wormhole widget rotating in the corner looks like an A most of the time. The type-on effect is good - would be nice to see it native to MMV. Also like the equations though these might look more mysterious with an infinite zoom applied.

Although the tetrahedron is intended to look like a travelling time machine, various elements prevent it from looking as though it is moving through the vortex. The grid, waveform and type-on text (perhaps meant to be a hud) only serve to fix the craft in the plane of the grid. I think it would be better to do the vortex directly in MMV and have more twist and turns and bouncing around.

The drosted clock looks great as to the other passing images.

[hazardman]

thanks sadler for your input...

will all that you said, i did struggle with those items...

the wormhole model is actually shaped like a race track with a few loopty-loops..i would have loved to been able to use this directly in MMV but it would prove extremely difficult to translate/animated the oddly shaped object to make it appear as if the camera is travelling through it...the other obstacle is that MMV does not support animated textures so the wormhole would have a static image mapped onto it, thus not reacting to the music as it currently is...

no being able/know how to animate the worm hole within MMV, i was unable to figure out a way to translate the tetrahedron to coincide with the wormhole geometry...would love to make it bank in sync with it...i did try to use a translate module to move it around in space a little but i found that the motion was a bit much as there was too many other elements in the scene that were also moving...perhaps i could make it a bit more subtle however the motion would still not be "syncing" with the wormhole geometry...

with regards to the widget, glad i got an "A" for it--just kidding--what do you recommend to reduce that effect?... slow down the z-scaling on it or eliminate the scaling all altogether?...slow down the "tumbling"?..a mix of both?...

with regards to the infinite zoom for the equations, what exactly do you mean?...i did try to use a radial blur on them but the problem i had was that the blur's vanishing point is always in the center of the screen--i wish there was an option in the module to specify an x,y coordinate for the blur point--would be interesting to also animate these parameters...i did previously try to add an "infinite" blur in the equation scene itself but when composited over the main scene it definitely created a rectangular border where the blur ended....i suppose i could render the infinite zoom in after effects....

glad you enjoyed the drosted clock face, that is my favourite effect

again, greatly appreciate the feedback...thanks...

[Sadler]

Here's one way to do infinite zooming equations:

zooming_equations.magic

(2.46 KiB) Downloaded 1629 times

[hazardman]

thanks sadler, yes, that's rather cool

the hard edge/border created by the ellipse bothers me a bit but i can probably create a *.jpg using a gradient on the border as a mask to feather it out...will also have to render each of the equations as a separate file -- currently it's one video--but that's easier enough to do so that i can map each video/equation to a separate star field module...

funny enough, i had experimented using starfields to project random dates & times but i didn't make the cut...

[Sadler]

Blur the ellipse before multiplying it to get a soft edge. Or use a vignette IFS before the radial blur.

[artnik]

thanks sadler for your input...

no being able/know how to animate the worm hole within MMV, i was unable to figure out a way to translate the tetrahedron to coincide with the wormhole geometry...would love to make it bank in sync with it...i did try to use a translate module to move it around in space a little but i found that the motion was a bit much as there was too many other elements in the scene that were also moving...perhaps i could make it a bit more subtle however the motion would still not be "syncing" with the wormhole geometry...

I find that even a simple cyclic movement in Z can make things come alive and reinforce the feeling of forward movement, and it doesn't even have to be well synched to anything else. I used it a LOT in this piece:

[skarabee]

Lots of work in one and impressive result. Hey Doctor, your new Tardis looks good! (It's smaller outside)
I wish I could make such textured models for my midi virtual instruments. I don't have 3DSmax or any decent modeler.
I'm intrigued by your "baking" process. Is it a feature from 3DS max? How do you apply the the resulting image texture?

[hazardman]

I'm intrigued by your "baking" process...

most higher-end 3d animation software will do this...i think blender can do this as well but i only know the process in 3ds max which is a lot simpler then it used to be....

in 3DS i envoke the "render to texture" command...i select the object(s) i want to bake, specify what channels to render (diffuse, specularity etc), what size i want the texture map to be and file type (jpg works fine)...then max applies a specified modifier to those selected objects to unwrap the UVW coordinates --texture coordinates-- to assign each polygon an area on the single image file...then the renderer kicks in and renders each polygon and places that piece in the image file...then, that file is used to wrap the model with the new UVW coordinates that was made with the unwrapping...3ds max gives you the option to swap out the former texture map with this new one....anyway, in i'm sure you can find a whole bunch of tutorials on this process--heck, that's how i learned to do it---for the particular 3D software you're using or would like to use....what did you use for your spider-drummer?

once all that process is done, i need to collapse the model to integrate the new UVW coordinates...from there, i simply export as *.obj along with the new texture image....and presto, the 3D model in MMV looks like it's being lit by a light source, shadows and all

for example, attached is the "baked" image for the base of my hour glass...

3dSolid001CompleteMap.jpg (194.48 KiB) Viewed 23671 times

so this one images gets stamped all over the 3d model thanks to the unwrapped UVW coordinates...

[hazardman]

I find that even a simple cyclic movement in Z can make things come alive ...

thanks for the tip (and cool video)...

so, i've gone back to animating the x-y-z position of the tetrahedron and it looks so much better....what this has also done is free up the center of the screen and enhanced the visualization of the wormhole's geometry, the zooming by clock face, and the countdown numbers that are turning/twisting along the path of the wormhole--nice!..

i have also removed the grid on most of the scenes and lowered the spectrum to clear out the centre...

i'll probably be uploading v2 of the video tomorrow for further comments...

appreciate all the feedback

[hazardman]

here's the updated video...

comments are welcomed...

[artnik]

Thanks Hazardman.

MUCH BETTER! It totally has a sense of momentum now. Well done.

[hazardman]

MUCH BETTER! It totally has a sense of momentum now. Well done.

aw, shucks....

and thanks for your input...