'kay, so this is one last test render...

See what happens to the Demonic Flesh Bunny as it is struck by the Sunrise! (see bone_bunny.mov below)

He-hee. I hate bunnies. [wickedgrin]

And...



As promised, Frame One, Scene One, Shot One...

This is gunna be a good movie, I can tell! Very creative stuff you've shown us. I LOOOOVE the bone bunny movie. Did you use rigid body constraints on that? Looked great AND funny! I can't wait to see the finished product. Bravo!

p.s. Exploding bunnies ROCK!

Nope, it was Steffen's Newton Physics plug-in, the skeleton was a modified dynamic_explosion object, and now it's a neat little action file I can pop in at any point I need the skeleton crumbling effect.

It was fun. Glad you liked it.

Love the exploding bunny! Looks like I need to check out this plugin. Nice renders of the scenes so far!

Thanks. Yeah Steffen's Newton Physics plug-in is amazing - so versatile. (And he was sooo unneccessarily helpful when I had questions about it!)
Separate note : Re-running the cloth sim now. Let this be a lesson to always check ALL settings before beginning a time-intensive procedure. *sigh*

Love the exploding bunny, nice toon!

B

PS There is a good explosion sound on the CD.

Sorry, Michael, still posting bits and pieces! I promise I'll try my best finish this before summer ends..

Quick render of the Flesh Bunny as it launches itself at the Old Man. The leap should land it into the direct light of the Sun, thus causing the exploding demonic flesh bunny effect that you have all seen way so long ago.
This bit of action was hard to time out, and eventually I needed to add sub-frame keys (at half and 3/4 frames) to make it uncoil properly.

I'm really enjoying watching this unfold - picky comment - when the rabbit, sorry, flesh bunny, throws his head forward, the ears should come forward a bit too? Or was that happening off the top of the screen? In which case, a frame or so longer.

When you say add sub-frame keys? Is that with the motion blur? Mufoof?

Well, the idea was that the flesh bunny flattens its ears back like an angry cat does; I have been trying to keep the ears from being "floppy".
As far as the sub-frames - yes it was to aid in generating correct motion blur, and also add enough motion-arc detail so I can stretch the timing out if neccessary. (Like you suggested at the apex of the leap.)

Yes, you're right - keep away from the flopsy bunnies.

I like the mo-blur effect. I tried to do that with hair, but I need to concentrate on it a bit more.

This shot was a pain. Concentration is definitely required. I use espresso.
Okay, finally got around to screening this shot for my co-creator, Dushan (Caroline, and some others of you will recognize him from his 3D likeness) & he approves, so this shot can go ahead into final production. We're going to have the fleshbunny leap at the camera, and then cut back to a medium shot as the light strikes it and it crumbles/explodes.
More soon, I'm off to hurt the bunny.

Okay, first pass of the flesh bunny leaping at the camera into the light. This has the camera motion, but extra background bits are not added yet. Also, the bunny doesn't disintegrate after landing in the sunlight....yet =)

I was thinking it might be a bit too much going on in that last shot, so I smoothed out the camera work a little...
here's version 2...better? worse?

Actually I think the first one has more impact. I thought the camera angles were interesting, and that seems to be a feature of your movie. But feel free to disagree

Small point - when the bunny lands in the second one, the ground shakes, but the bunny seems to hit the ground less hard than in the first one.

Well, showed Dushan, he doesn't like the shaking camera at all. But we are, at least for now, going with the second rather than the first, because the leap is more apparent.
I'm just moving on to the next shot because he "wants to see it all together" and then I'll probably end up re-doing the whole scene anyhow.

Yes, you're right - seeing it all together makes it easy to see if it all fits. The isolated second or two is very hard to assess. I suppose it's a reiterating process.

Looking forward to a few more seconds....

Here's the full shot with the leap, and the explosion, and sound(!)
(openGL rendered)

Just some test effects I've been cooking up for a new climax scene we're experimenting with...

Going for a highly stylized cataclysm...in the light of the breaking sun...

Love the flare - are the clods individually animated ? Flocked? Dynamics?

Maybe some fast up for the explosion and slower down on the clods? Although as you say it is stylized, so it really doesn't matter. It looks great anyway, and on to the next scene.

The whole shebang is effected through Steffen's fantastic plugins, and creative use of exporting/modding chor actions.
Newton, explode rebuild, etc...

The scene isn't final, this is only a test.

I'm on to another shot, as recommended.

Nice flying boulders! Could altering the initial mesh make them less cubical?

Yes, definitely.

I liked the stylistic "cubical" rocks - I though it was done on purpose. Very road runnerish.

Good camera angles and movement, as well, as usual.

The cubic style is something I ended up liking as well, especially since the reality of the film is literally unraveling at this juncture in the story..

Thanks, I'll post more stuff as soon as I make it!

I stumbled across an ingenious new trick with hair today.

Since Death's head/face are not dense enough for good collision detection, I approximated her head/shoulders with spherical, 0% softness "Fan"-type forces.

When I attached these to her model's rig, the hair suddenly doesn't penetrate. (Before it kept sticking into her forehead and shoulders)

It seems the forces function as infinite resolution solid models of primitive shapes, making proper collision detection a snap!

Very interesting find ! ...I must try this out - (assuming I understand what you're saying) - Does the hair still respond to the motion of the head ? But the fan sphere "blows" the hair away from the head? thus keeping it from penetrating ?

Yes, it isn't perfect, I need to adjust the magnitude values, but it is 99% more effective than hoping the model mesh alone will collide. =)
Essentially, the sphere is about the same size as her forehead, and is positioned attached to her head. (You can add forces to a model like you would with bones or lights.

Spent about 30 hours wrestling with the first large bunny crowd shot. I would love to see the flocking plugins get a little more development; they are a bit touchy right now. (Wish I could program...I believe the source is available for them...)

Anyhow, enough wishing. I finally got the bunnies working, and I'm done for now. Dushan and I worked together to get the right hopping/creeping walk, he had this vision for how they moved that needed to be animated as a team effort.

(He on the floor acting it out key by key, and me posing as fast as possible.)

Anyhow, just a teaser frame for now :
Click to view attachment

Nice frame! and I feel your pain - however I was also hoping for a pic showing Dusan on the floor doing the evil hopping, creeping flesh bunny walk...

LOL he would have torn my arms from their sockets if I posted that... our Cat-beast would be feasting on my flesh right now.

WOW! this project is comming along nicely, you talented son of your mother..... Lovin it....

On & off, between moving our recently acquired 50s furniture, I've continued wrestling with the bunny herd shots. Up to ~50 in the shot and no choking computer yet...

Click to view attachment

And, the final shot...
Click to view attachment
(the lighting is not final)

On to the next task!

New rough-render of the stumble/bunny dance. Those who have been following this from the beginning will be pleasantly surprised to see the once-sparse shots now littered with the cavorting Flesh Bunnies.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

The Bunnies initially presented a bit of problem. The script called for hundreds to be present, at their peak infestation. When I say initially and bit, I really mean constant, and large.
Fortunately, it ended up that the bunny shots would be fairly simple to break down into digestible bits. For the amusement of my fellow artists, I'm going to discuss the steps briefly.
There are several bunny models, with varying degrees of complexity, and varying capabilities. Some have furry tails, some do not. Some have hidden fangs, some do not. Some are used only in silhouette/back shots. Still others have different rigging. I believe I developed about ten different bunny models for this film, and about 5-6 were actually used in the final render-slated shots.
My favourite bunny model is used for just one shot, and has dynamic-constraint-driven jiggling fat, it really adds to the sense of weight.
Each typical multi-bunny shot has about 25 visible "crowd bunnies"...these are simplified and driven by crowd flock objects. (The flocks were giving me a hell of a time, initially, until finally I found them to be most easily controlled by a cube influence shape, not the default sphere.) A few shots have up to fifty bunnies within the scope of the camera.
The scenes were animated without the flocks, and then they were positioned later as almost "set pieces", before the final render.
The "hero" bunnies are the ones up front...they have the nicest modeling, the most careful rigging/deformations, and puffy fluffy tails.

Judging by the final renders that have been inching out, all the hard work is paying off.

That is a cool clip, had be going....

Hot off the render-beastie...

Click to view attachment

Loved the dance, eerie!