3D-Pangel

Agree. Filoni is a master story teller. Just listen to his interviews and his insights into character development and story arcs will just blow your hair back. Favreau is also a master filmmaker. He sometimes gets a bad wrap for the big budget Marvel spectacles, but just look at what he can do with a small movie like "Chef". Apart from the great story and arc of his character, I could watch that movie for the food alone (there is a 30 second scene of him making a grilled cheese sandwich for his son that will just make you hungry). And he did make "Elf" after all. I mean c'mon! Show the guy some respect! Dave

Igor would never use Houdini for that type of stuff. With great power comes great responsibility!!!! 😄 You may be right. But whatever their tendencies, I will give studios like Blur and Blizzard a pass. Some of their game cinematics have given me tremendous entertainment. How I wish for them to produce a full movie at some point!!! Some of the Star Wars cinematics from Old Republic or Eclipse packed more excitement in 3 minutes than were in the entire sequel trilogy (and a good part of the prequel trilogy as well.

Many ways to convey death without gore. For example, in the first episode of the first season (Sonnies Edge), did we really need to see the old guy pick through the women's crushed head with his cane? In close up? Even GoT chose a wide shot after The Mountain crushed Prince Oberyn's head. And even then did not linger on the shot for too long. The crushing was also left to your imagination when all you could hear was the sound. But in Sonnie's Edge, you saw her head get stomped until her eye's fell out and then there was a long lingering shot as the camera trucked in for a close-up of her pulverized head twitching. Was that really necessary to the story? Was it entertainment? There were so many ways to convey the same sense of shock and horror to her death without graphically over doing it. Great sound effects and editing would have been far more effective. You imagination can create more true horror than the best graphics can provide. Just look at Hitchcock's shower scene in Psycho as a prime example of horror created through sheer craft with very little blood (only seen going down the drain) and NO gore. Honestly, I believe current filmmakers make the choices to punch up the gore so that they can be branded as "edgy". I heard the director of the 2019 Hellboy remake say as much for the end scenes when demons were just flaying people alive and they even marketed those scenes on their "sizzle reel" to attract interest (watch here if you must). The preview almost goes as far to say "We are R rated and gory!!! Isn't that great!!!!" Well...the movie still sucked and covering it in blood did not make it any better. Dave

Well, I was getting a strange "Pwnisher" vibe when this scene came up: Very reminiscent of his 3D challenge found here. His is the first render in that video montage. "Pwnisher" is Clinton Jones who is my favorite C4D artist and has appeared in a few Maxon hosted streams during conferences, etc. The first image in that S3 preview blew me away. Looking forward to watching it (May is going to be a big month for streaming) but I will admit that some of the excessive gore is a bit off-putting. It pulls me out of the story. Unfortunately, it appears that excessive, over-the-top violence is what is required in order for a story to be considered "relevant" to today's audience. I actually enjoy it more when the directors show restraint and use it only to further the story point, create tension, etc rather than make it part of the "entertainment". For me, all it takes is one really good shocking scene to get those points across (tension, fear, horror). After that it is just gratuitous and a sign of lazing story telling (IMHO). LDR tends to drift a bit too far in that direction at times (but not always, which is a good thing). But, I will be glued to the TV on May 20th eager to catch every story because the stories are pretty good. Dave

Interesting...you mean from the 1960's group: The Monkees? My sister loved that guy. He passed away in 2012. Did we bring him back from the dead like Peter Cushing in Rogue One? Oh wait...you meant that CG character guy.😁

I knew that this trailer was playing at Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness screenings, but it is now showing at IMDB Overall, I think I will love it. If anything, James Cameron knows how to craft a great story. But, after 13 years since Avatar, while I am seeing improvement in the animation, I am also realizing just how well the first Avatar holds up after all this time. I just thought the technology development after a 13-year gestation period would improve every part of the CG pipeline to such a degree that it would jump out at me immediately when I watched the preview. But you tell me. Have we come to expect too much from James Cameron? Will this movie move the whole industry forward as much as all his previous movies did? Or will it just be an amazing bit of storytelling once again immersing the audience in a new and distant world? Dave

Hmmmmmm......so which football team do you support? Patriots - "Like", "Up vote", "Social reward points out the yazoo" Jets - "Confused", "Sympathy" Buccaneers - "Ignore", "Double Ignore", "BAN HIM NOW!!!" 😁

Valid points. But what if in addition to know who is ignoring you, you also knew the post that caused them to ignore you? Also, the ignore feature should only be for posts and not private messaging. Here is why: Personally, if I made a post that caused someone to ignore me for reasons I could not understand, then I would reach out to them via a PM. I guess for me it is important to understand how I may have offended them. Granted, sometimes it can be pretty obvious. I think we all know when we are crossing a line when we post. The yard stick I use is simple: Would I say this to them in a face-to-face conversation? If the answer is anything other than "YES - Unequivocally, would I say this to their face in all situations and in all settings", then chances are you are crossing a line. Plus, you can only convey so much meaning in written text. There is communication in facial or body language that helps with the messaging that is not sent in a post (emoji's can do only so much) which helps the receiver to understand the attitude of the sender. So the context behind the post can be mis-interpreted as well. In short, posts and the context behind them can be easily mis-interpreted. Therefore, if I am at a loss to understand why I was ignored, I would reach out to understand why so that I can improve my communications in the future. Hopefully, a contrite apology also removes me from being ignored, but if not, then I tried my best to rectify the situation and I move on without a second thought. Finally, if I ignored someone and they reached out to me via a PM to understand why, my level of respect for that person would increase. I would just appreciate that they took the time to try and figure out what is going on rather than just say "F*** him". That has happened and it ALWAYS positively changes how I perceive that person on this forum. So I look at "ignore" not as a shadow ban feature, but a tool for people to understand where one-on-one grievances need to be worked out IN PRIVATE rather than on display for everyone else to see....which is never good. Just a thought, Dave

One more small point. I think we all have ADS - Adobe Derangement Syndrome. There is a trend for us to think that Maxon is a "huge" corporation and as such we equate them to Adobe and that is where our panic sets in. Honestly, Nemetschek in terms of annual revenue (per their 2021 financial report published on 12/31/21) showed revenue at 681.5 Million EUR: Now, in USD that equates to around $771 million. While good size, Nemetschek would not even make the top 500 largest corporations in the US in terms of revenue. When you compare Adobe to Nemetschek, Adobe's 2021 revenue was $15.75 Billion USD (about 20 times bigger than Nemetschek). Now, Nemetschek's revenue comes from more than just Maxon: Nemetschek has only one company in the Media and Entertainment segment, and that is Maxon. So Maxon's annual revenues are 10% of Nemetshek's or $77 million USD in 2021 (up 9% from 2020). Honestly, while a healthy bit of revenue, they are NOT a huge corporation by any stretch of the imagination. Maxon's revenue did grow over 2020, by $16.3 million...which is very good because it represents 26.8% growth. So while Maxon is well managed for their size, they are by no means huge. I can personally speak to how important even the smallest bit of revenue is to truly large corporations. I managed the global test infrastructure for a product line that was shipping $20 Million USD per DAY! So we generated more revenue in 4 days than Maxon did all year. My team found an issue that required us to shut production down for two days to fix it. I had to meet with the VP. A bit tense. But it was clear that you don't get rewarded for fixing those problems, you get fired if you don't. I was then asked by a different VP to figure out why one factory was roughly two weeks behind in output (around $60 million). I flew half-way around the world to the factory, went into the factory as soon as I landed and identified the problem that same day, The email I wrote went all the way to the CEO and ultimately, the entire line of our management team supporting that factory (from the manager to the VP) got fired. We ship $40 Billion per year but sweat over $20 million. Every dollar counts. So imagine what happens when Maxon mis-steps. I am sure that R25 shook Maxon to its core because they just do not have that big a cash cushion to protect them from mis-steps. Remember, they have been hiring and acquiring pretty heavily and this is revenue and NOT profit. Their biggest expense is salaries. Lackluster releases put their cash flow in jeopardy. They do NOT have the luxury of being soooo big that they can ignore the user. I am pretty convinced of that now after reviewing their financials. Dave

Honestly, I am very much in favor of the Ignore feature. The web has empowered people to attack first, shout down, and criticize from a safe haven in ways that they would never do if they had to face the person. I never want to see that happen to those whom I hold in high esteem here on Core: Cerbera, HappyPolygon, Igor, Icecaveman, Vector, BoganTW, the list goes on (and apologies to those I left out). This also goes for people at Maxon - such as Srek, Hrvoje, Rick Barrett, etc. who work hard to make C4D better and are NOT the face of monolithic, heartless corporation that some of us (including myself) have vented our frustration at over the years. I think it is okay to debate ideas and question the policies of corporations, but once that debate turns into personal attacks, then it has crossed the line. When that happens, I wish I could ignore the poster (and hopefully the poster knows who is ignoring him). Dave

While I really don't participate in any forums outside of Core4D, I do like the Artstation Marketplace. So please clarify, are you saying that Artstation is in jeopardy of going the way of CG Talk? BTW: Welcome back as you really don't post here that often. Dave

Welcome to Core! Character modeling is definitely jumping into the deep end of the digital pool but your model above is impressive for someone just starting out! Looking forward to seeing what you can do with Z-Brush. Dave

Why weren't you my Dad when I was growing up? Just awesome. If this wasn't mother's day, I'd have more nice things to say about you but I have to yield the floor to praising mother's today. Holy crap! 8 RTX 3090's! Are there enough slots in any machine to hold those? You would also need a 2.8Kw power supply. If it can be done, the chaps at Puget should be able to figure that out. Not sure what your business model is, but it sounds like a pretty significant investment in the HQ machine (at least $14K for the 3090's alone). May I suggest to start smaller and grow into that much computing power depending on how things are progressing. YouTube can be a fickle business. I understand that it takes more views than before to generate any revenue and you almost need a few videos to go viral (millions of views) to fully establish yourself. One viral video is like getting hit by lightening, but you need to a pattern of great content to obtain a loyal following. It can be done, but I would grow into it relative to your up front investments very cautiously. Relative to the laptops, it sounds like you are using GPU rendering so my focus would be on the fastest processors possible to send data to/from the GPU over the number of cores. I have always favored the build quality vs. price with Lenovo, so when trying to get the most PC for your $3K may I suggest: What I like: Big 4K monitor: 17.3" (3840x2160) Fast Processor: 3.2 GHz (6 core) GPU: 8Gb RTX-A4000 Storage: 1 TB SSD Memory: 32Gb (they do have versions with 64Gb but they are not on clearance) I hope this helps. Dave

I agree....but that does not mean there wasn't reconciliation by Maxon after Holger made his concerns known. I understand that Rick Barrett did publicly apologize to Holger for not contacting him during the R26 development period and made a commitment in the future to be more cognizant of where C4D development overlaps with 3rd party developers. Holger accepted the apology and (for all intents and purposes) seems to have forgiven the over-sight and is putting the whole issue behind him. This is to be expected as I do believe that both Rick and Holger are true professionals and very decent people. So can we chalk this up to just things getting dropped in the fog of rushing to get a major release out and not indicative of a heartless corporation? Trust me.....there are many areas where we can call balls and strikes against Maxon, but I just don't think this is one of them. As a matter of historical perspective: Did everyone forget about the massive plugin development community in the early days of 3D Studio (the 1990's). Whole catalogs of 3DS plugins used to be mailed to me during that time. 3D Studio grew in popularity in the 90's by absorbing plugins into its future releases. In fact, for the major plugins, it was part of the release announcement. Now, along the way and given that the plugin community was so huge at that time, I do recall complaints from lesser known developers that their whole business just got wiped out within a series of releases. Point being: I am pretty sure that DCC developers are ALWAYS looking within their plugin eco-systems for innovative ideas that seem to be catching on with their user base. If I was a Product Manager for a DCC application, I would definitely be doing this as it is a cheap source of market research. Now, Maxon is NOT 3D Studio. Maxon follows a very disciplined feature release timeline so they may not be as aware of the new shiny ball that is a hot plugin if its features are not aligned with their current position on that timeline. Plus, when Maxon does implement a new feature originally found via a plugin, it will be more deeply integrated than what may be possible with the SDK and therefore more powerful. Nevertheless, this does NOT excuse Maxon from reaching out to their 3rd party developers when their development paths do intersect and doing the right thing to invite them into the process. I have confidence that going forward Rick Barrett will honor his pledge to involve 3rd party developers with the development of a future release should that release impact their plugins. Afterall, it can be a win-win for everyone because maybe that collaboration prompts new ideas from the 3rd party developer for the SDK that only inspires further innovation from that 3rd party developer. One plugin may be absorbed but a new more innovative plugin could be created as an outcome -- and the process repeats itself. Just a thought....and a hope. Dave

Ewww........that was real edgy. 😆

....in summary....is it fair to say..... Maxon copied the Blender UI a little too closely? Dave

In honor of today, I thought I would post an update WIP on the outer Death Star Docking bay that I am working on. No way near completion and there is lots to do. Hopefully, I have maintained the necessary sense of scale in this rough model outline. It took more planning and calculation than I thought it would take to get to this point. Plus there were some set-backs and other competing priorities for my time (spring is always a busy time) but I set the goal to get this point for a post on May 4th. Note that the Death Star outer sphere actually has some curvature to it in both the horizontal and vertical planes. You can get a slight sense of it in the top left of the image. The dimensions were based on a study that someone did to size the DS. His approach was to count the pixels from the scenes in the movie that showed the Falcon approaching the bay and used the Falcon as yardstick of 32 feet. When he worked it all back, he determined the DS was 1.2 Km in diameter. That is what is shown here. At this rate, I should be done by 2024!! 😀 Dave P.S. Good thing I am not earning a living based on my modeling!!!

Thank you! That really means a lot to me. I am definitely reliving my childhood through this model. Prior to Star Wars I was a Ray Harryhausen fan and always interested in animation and VFX. Then when Star Wars came out, I really had to know how they did that and started reading everything I could find on motion control camera systems and optical printing when I was 16. That interested is what prompted me study mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute - located on the east coast. I even sent my resume to Lucasfilm when I graduated in 1983 (while my resume got forwarded to ILM, they were fully staffed and rushing to finish ROTJ at the time. I still have a really nice rejection letter with the ILM logo). Side point: Sony Pictures Imageworks VFX Supervisor, Pete Travers, also graduated from WPI with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1993 - but he started out as a technical writer for Autodesk's 3D Studio Max and that is how he got into the industry. Amazing how the whole industry changed in just 10 years! So I have always wanted to do something with Star Wars and this model is just that: filling a void and reliving a childhood dream. Thanks, Dave

How are you able to animate moving vehicles so realistically? Are you using a plugin? Also I love the fluidity of the camera motion in all three clips but it is not "computer perfect" as the point of focus always follows behind the action as if the camera operator is trying to keep up. Very professional looking. A few comments/questions: Where did you get your model of the desert? Very nicely done. I have always wanted to find a similar type of model. I love how you lifted the soundtrack from "The Flight of the Navigator". Honestly, you need to pitch this to Disney as a sequel. What you are creating is just too good to end up on YouTube when it is all finished. Small nit on the jeep animation. First: I love everything about it. Excellent camera work, lighting, modeling. I also love the wet ground....but (and here is the small nit part) the tires leave no track in the water and/or they are not kicking up a small amount of spray. See image below to get an idea of what I am talking about: Chris Schmidt (RocketLasso) has some really good tutorials on using and animating vertex maps and manipulating them with fields. You could also add a small bit of smoke to double as water spray (with a very high wind velocity pushing it back) but keep the life short just so it takes the curse off of the fact that you are using a flat texture trick to simulate water displacement. Here, less is more. I hope this helps. Again, just blown away as usual. Dave

I would agree. I actually signed up for the free week of Apple TV+ when I was home at the end-of-the-year shutdown my company mandated last December. In that time, we were having rainy, stormy and icy weather, so the only choice was binge watching. So I binged Finch (very good), Invasion (really good), Foundation (outstanding), and Greyhound (even more outstanding). My plan was to officially sign up when Foundation season 2 was released as, apart from a few shows that looked interesting, I did not think there was enough content to keep me watching. I really ran through everything I wanted to see in that week. Now, I also have Netflix, Disney and Amazon. I would rank them in that order and they are, hour for hour, behind Apple TV in terms of percentage of great shows worth watching. Nevertheless, for anyone who loves animation and grew up in the 60's, then "Apollo 10 1/2" is just a joy to watch. There is also Arcane (outstanding) and "The Mitchell's vs. The Machines" (but then again, how can you go wrong with Lord and Miller). There are also some really good foreign language films that I wish were dubbed in English but you miss so much of the movie reading subtitles that I tend to not watch them. Disney provides literally only 1 hour of watchable original programming a week. This one I may drop. Amazon Prime is only there because of the free shipping that comes with it. They actually sent me an email that said "Hey....you know we have streaming service!!!". The majority of Amazon Prime's content is equivalent to those cheap exploitation films that video store owners would purchase in a package deal to keep their shelves looking full. No one watches them. Now they did have some good series (still waiting for Season 2 of "Carnival Row") and original films (Bright), but honestly overall crap. Personally, I think streaming services are approaching a tipping point. Growth of Netflix subscriptions is actually going down. CNN+ just folded ($300 million investment and it closed shop after 3 weeks). I don't think Paramount+ is going anywhere given the poor reviews of some of their tent-pole productions (Halo, Star Trek) and the poor reviews of their original movies (The In Between and Infinite). Plus, I think the market is just saturated. How many $5 to $10 per month subscriptions are people willing to pay for? Plus, who has time to watch them. I don't - rarely spending more than 2 hours a day watching anything. There are better uses of our free time than streaming. To quote a very old C4D Cafe alumnus: "Go render something" instead. Dave

Funny. I was more impressed by the simulations being shown: muscle sims, grain simulations (foot impacts, etc), water sims. It was all just gorgeous to look at though except for the dino with the blisters on his neck. That was kind of freaky and took me completely out of enjoying the world that was being created. I just purchased a new iPhone (my previous phone was an iPhone 6 --- yeah, a bit overdue) and they keep nagging me to sign up for 3 free months of Apple TV. i may do it now. Dave

Thank you! Now I know what to look out for though I would imagine such a situation is more likely to occur if I was using the knife tool without care as to how I make my cuts. That can happen, but not by choice but rather by not being aware of where exactly the knife is cutting. So many times, I have had to go back and clean things up due to carelessness. Thanks again! I do appreciate it. Dave

The modeling tools are very much appreciated. The close polygon hole enhancements are just amazing. Honestly, many a modeling job will be saved with that tool. I call it the UN-F***-IT-UP tool. Rumor has it that with all these new modeling tools in R26, Cerbera has picked up so much free time each week that he is thinking about learning a new skill: Crocheting. Kind of like knitting polygons together...but with wool. Or he could just pick up more business. Not sure which way he will go with this. Did I mention that I need some new golf club covers? 😆 Dave

Also look at the RS Standard Shading node. It is an exact mirror to the standard C4D channel system but with nodal connections to the supporting textures rather than dragging them into the shader window. If this doesn't get people off of the old channel system pretty easily, then nothing else will. I would imagine from their you can slowly grow your shading prowess by adding mix nodes, triplanar mapping nodes, etc....etc...etc. Very smart move on part of the Redshift team to make the transition so easy. Dave

Exactly. You have to look at this from the perspective of those who ONLY had Physical Render and never had RS. Now, I sense that some are still hurting over the loss of Redshift GPU perpetual licensing. If that is the case, then RS CPU is not going to fill that hole...so I do get your point. But NOT having RS CPU does nothing for that loss as well. If you accept the fact that RS GPU will NEVER be offered as a perpetual license again, then having RS CPU in a perpetual C4D license is still better than having nothing so I am not sure anyone can logically call this a bad thing.