"The Barrier" and Blender

All week I tried to find a way to convert the camera specifications in Xtranormal into Blender, so I can create the background images I need. I made some progress.

I had success with the focal length. Xtranormal's specification is some kind of inverse of the specification that Blender uses. By trial and error I got an equation that approximates the relationship well enough.

Blender focal length = 1054.6 time (Xtranormal fov) ^-1.0149

I find that I still need to adjust this when I do a new camera.

I finally figured out the co-ordinate system Xtranormal uses. I had the y-axis and z-axis switched. I thought that would fix the problem with the orientation parameters. It didn't solve the problem. Xtranormal appears to use quaternions, but when I use those in Blender they point the camera in the wrong direction. Frustrating.

I really don't think I will come up with some easy way to transform the orientation parameters. I did come up with an approach that seems to work, but is very time consuming.

1. In Xtranormal I use the location markers to define the corners of a camera image.
2. I save the STATE file and get the and used them to identify the corners of the camera frame.
3. I unzip the STATE file and get the co-ordinates of the corners from the document.xml file.
4. I use those co-ordinates to create a plane in Blender
5. I adjust the camera orientation and focal length to match the plane I created.

It is only an approximation, but I think it should work well enough. I have done five cameras so far. There are 30 cameras altogether. I think some of them are duplicates, or close to duplicates, so I won't need to do them all.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Another Computer Crash, but "The Barrier" Moves Forward

My computer crashed again this week. My wife bought me a new one and I got back to work on "The Barrier". The camera orientation conversion from Xtranormal to Blender still has me stymied.

New Computer

Our computer finally packed it in this week. We got a new one Tuesday and I started to reinstall my programs. By weeks end I had most of the old programs set up again. It is  a Windows 8 machine, and I found it a bit tricky to understand at first. I have a better handle on it now.

I had a big scare when I couldn't install Premiere Pro. I thought that the version I had might not work under Win 8, but it turned out there was a conflict with a program already installed on the computer. After I fixed that it worked just fine. If I had to buy a newer version, it would have cost me $1,000!

"The Barrier"

With all the computer problems over the last week, I didn't get much done on "The Barrier" this week. Mostly I worked on creating some background images for the open house scenes.

I have most of the set for the transportation plan open house built in Blender now. I still have to add some set decoration; wall posters mainly. I had a bit of a struggle with the lighting. I kept getting too much, or two little. I think I have it the way I want it now. I am a bit concerned that the set isn't big enough and may expand it somewhat to make the room look bigger.

The biggest snag I have is with the camera settings. I think I have the co-ordinate conversion right now, but given the other problems, maybe that isn't the case.

At first I couldn't adjust the camera focal length, but stumbled into how to do it this week. I think I have that worked out now, although, until I have all the problems resolved, I can't be sure about that yet.

The main issue now is the orientation parameters. The system Xtranormal uses has 4 co-ordinates and at first I thought that Blender only used three. I did some experimentation and thought I could just multiply three of the parameters to give degrees, but that didn't produce what I expected.

I found that Blender also has a orientation system called quaternions, which I never heard of before. It has four parameters. When I transfer those, it comes closer to what I want, but is still off a bit. I'm kind of stuck for now. One idea I plan to try is to change the way I convert the co-ordinates. If I can't find a way to convert soon, I may just try to eyeball the images.

I suspect that someone else has worked out the conversions before, but I'm not sure how I can find them.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Building a Set for “The Barrier”

This week I experimented with a 3D model program to create a background set for some of my scenes in “The Barrier”. I made good progress, but have much to learn yet.

I need to create a background for a few of my scenes, because the ones available didn’t fit. I output them with green scenes, so I could drop in background images.

This week I started to work on how to create the background images. My original idea was to create flat images and then distort them to look right. That would have been a lot of finicky work, and likely would still not look any good.

I looked into 3D modelling programs. One, called Blender, looked like a good choice. http://www.blender.org/ They said it was easy to use, and it was also free. Some of the free ones let you have the program for free, but then you can’t use the images you create in a commercial product. Blender does.

It wasn’t as easy to use as they said it was. After a couple of days I was about the give up. Then I got one thing to work the way I wanted to, and started to build on that. Over the course of the week I learned a fair bit, although I’m sure I only scraped the surface of what can be done.

I created walls and a floor for my set. The initial versions weren’t very good, so I did new versions. Version three looks OK to me. I still need to build the whole set. Besides the walls and floors, I want to put some posters on the walls and add some doors to the room. Beyond that I would like to add some other set dressings, but at this point I think I should hold off on that. It could be a lot of work.

Once I have the set, I need to set up the cameras. I’ve done some work on translating the camera settings in Xtranormal into the camera settings in Blender. I think I know how to do it, but I haven’t actually done it yet. Surprises may await me.

I did a test to see how the composited image compares to the same shot on an Xtranormal set. The XN logo ends up green, which looks funny. At this stage I don’t think that is important.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Update on “The Barrier” 2013 August 4

“The Barrier” project passed a milestone this week. The animation program, Xtranormal, I used for the movie shut down. I think I can complete an initial version of the movie with what I have, but I will need to find a different way to make a final version. Xtranormal needs verification from their website to output videos, and with the website shut down, I can’t do that any more.

“The Barrier”

Last week I reviewed the whole movie and found a number of things I wanted to change. I got one round of changes done by Tuesday. I reviewed what I had again and then started a second round of changes. I got most of them done before the system shut down Thursday. What I didn’t get done were nice-to-haves, not need-to-haves. I believe that I have enough to do a complete movie now.

I need to add some picture elements – mostly computer screens and a TV screen. I have a group of three scenes where I will need to build a complete background. Xtranormal didn’t have a set that was appropriate for the scenes. I used one of their sets to create the scenes, and then used a trick to get the same scene on a green screen background. That will allow me to put in a background. I don’t know how I will create the background yet.

I talked to a guy I used to work with. When I told him I was working on a movie about a transportation planner, he seemed a little sceptical. I hope other transportation planners won’t feel the same way.

Xtranormal Replacement

I spent some time investigating some of the programs that I might use to replace Xtranormal. Some are really too limited for the kind of thing I want to do. Others are much more powerful, but look like they may be quite difficult to use. I’ll do a blog post about the options later.

One big snag from my point of view is that Xtranormal had artificial voices built in. The others don’t. You need to create your own dialogue. The artificial voices are not cheap, but neither are real actors.

I plan to leave a detailed evaluation until I have “The Barrier” version 0.9 done. I will do another blog post about the options later. I have identified eight so far. There are four that look like reasonable replacements to me.

Stateplus - http://stateplus2.hackernewbies.com/

Muvizu - http://www.muvizu.com

iClone - http://www.reallusion.com/

MovieStorm - http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/

The others I found were: Carrara 8, goanimate, toonboom and powtoon. There are plenty of programs that do animation, but they are not really the same kind of thing as Xtranormal.  If you know of any other programs, please let me know.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

First Cut of “The Barrier” runs 86 minutes

I made good progress on “The Barrier” this week. I compiled all my scenes into a complete film. It came in at 86 minutes. My goal was feature length, so I'd say I've accomplished that.

After I did the edit, I watched the entire movie, with only a short break in the middle. I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. I am too close to it to really be objective, so I'm not sure any one else would like it. I hope that other transportation planners will like it though.

I did spot a few problems and things I want to change. I started to revise some of the scenes. Xtranormal shuts down in three days, so I only have a very short time to redo the scenes I want to change. I’ll need to focus on the most obvious errors.

It frustrates me to have to cut short my work on the project. There are so many little subtleties of dialogue and action that can give the movie so much more depth. I’ve done that in a few scenes. There are several scenes where I’d like to have some characters wandering about in the background. I did that in a few scenes where it was necessary, and not just an enhancement. I hope I get the time to do that.

I want to look into alternatives to replace Xtranormal, but I have to leave that until later. For now, I want to get as far along as I can before the shutdown.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

“The Barrier” - Now onto the First Cut

I added three new scenes this week. One isn’t very long, just a few lines. It is mainly a line I want to add, but I haven’t found a way to tie it into the story. I’ve left it out for now.

I got all of the video files output from Xtranormal, so I have something to work with if I don’t get a chance to rework some of the scenes I would like to.

I began work on the first cut of the movie with Premiere Pro. In keeping with my previous experiences, I have run into trouble with Premiere Pro. Mostly it seems to be issues with the Windows Media files. I think I have that fixed now. I hope so anyway.

It has been a struggle over the last few weeks. A friend of mine said I should name my films with more positive titles, like “That was Easy”, or “Piece of Cake”.

I learned some more tricks in Xtranormal, but since the software will be stop working in 10 days (2013 July 31), that doesn’t help me much. I’ve heard rumours that there might be a way to use Xtranormal after the deadline, but I wouldn’t want to count on that.

I have a little program I set up to convert the Xtranormal State files into a script. I developed it a few weeks ago, but now it doesn’t seem to work properly. I did manage to get a script I could use. It helped me catch a couple problems in the dialogue so far. I had the wrong names for a couple of characters. I thought I had caught and fixed them all.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Another set back for “The Barrier”

I thought I was on a roll with the project, and then my computer crashed. It took me most of the week to get it mostly operational. I managed to make a little progress on “The Barrier”.

Computer Issues

Monday, my computer had a freak-out. I spent all day Tuesday trying to fix it. In the end, I had to do a factory reset. That formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Vista. Fortunately I back up our data every week, so I didn't lose much there.

In the course of reinstalling vista, I had to do all the updates. I had trouble with service pack 1. I found out how to fix it on line, but it appears that it wasn't installed on the computer before. That meant I didn’t have service pack 2 either. That might explain the some of theproblems I’ve had with the computer.

I found it difficult to reinstall Xtranormal, the program i use for my movie. After a little help from the support people at Xtranormal, and a few little tricks of my own, I have it up and working. I hadn't expected much in the way of support, because they are shutting down at the end of the month. I was pleasantly surprised.

I don’t think the problem has really been solved. I may still need to get a new computer.

“The Barrier”

I finally got back to "The Barrier" by the end of the week. I did a few minor fixes to a few scenes, but mostly i have output new video for the movie. The default resolution is 720, and I switched to 1080. It uses up more space and takes a long time to render. I think the better quality is worth it.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog