KatsBits Community

Game Editing => 3D Modeling & Content Creation => Topic started by: ratty redemption on September 16, 2012, 07:01:17 PM

Title: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 16, 2012, 07:01:17 PM
i checked with kat if i could post this new topic in this part of his forum, as it's not currently for a video game, although it uses similar mesh modeling, uv unwrapping, rigging and bone animating tech. 

www.youtube.com/user/rattyredemption

all of my uploads to yt so far have been short low res test renders. they should give an indication of the art style.

some of the earlier videos show my first attempts at animating the alien jellyfish. i need to practice more on those as the animations aren't fluid enough for my liking. i am pleased with the background animations though.

eventually i would like to have the finished animations as interactive dream sequences in the video game project i'm also concept designing. if i work more on that project in the future, i'll also cover the wip here on katsbits and possibly over at blender artists forums.

currently the visuals for the music video project have all been done in blender 2.6x using procedural generated 2d textures, which are key framed with blender's graph and node editors.

as far as i know shader node materials are not currently supported by most game engines, if any, although maybe i could use pre-rendered 2d animated textures if eventually needed for the game project.

most of the background materials and meshes, may look very similar to each other, apart from color palettes, but they do have subtle changes in the movement of the materials and or camera and mesh deformations.

the youtube versions archive the development over several months, as i improve my use of the tools and refine the vision i have for this project.

the foreground will mainly be the alien jellyfish i first started covering in this topic:

http://www.katsbits.com/smforum/index.php?topic=6.msg2243#msg2243

the first image below is one of the node material setups.

the next two images show one of the background meshes at different times during the animation, as well as it's deformation rig and camera. the node material is different for the last image.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth04.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2012%2F259%2F2%2F0%2F031_by_rattyredemption-d5ew3u2.jpg&hash=d15415c71006bcbee30bdd09aa56379fe2eae0b8) (http://fav.me/d5ew3u2)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth02.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2012%2F259%2F5%2F8%2F032_by_rattyredemption-d5ew6ts.jpg&hash=15ab4df4096309ce4694420d386d1eac74301896) (http://fav.me/d5ew6ts)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth00.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2012%2F259%2F9%2Ff%2F033_by_rattyredemption-d5ewa1k.jpg&hash=20304bfa1d8a4f55bbc24a992ff3d31e299710e3) (http://fav.me/d5ewa1k)

Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on September 19, 2012, 04:59:02 PM
Depending on the game engine you'd be using you probably need to break this down into two parts, 1) an animated mesh and 2) a colour transforming material/shader. You'd definitely need to do some research into the latter.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 19, 2012, 07:54:02 PM
thanks kat, and as the background meshes are deformed by only a few bones, i imagine they should export quite easily into a game engine? i'll do more research into reproducing the material shader effects when i have enough time.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 20, 2012, 09:01:27 PM
below is a couple of images of my latest background deformation and camera key framing.

they might not look much technically, but in my opinion, one of the most interesting effects comes from how they combine with the node materials to produce some beautiful distortions, which in turn influence the movement of color, as it flows across the video frames.

of course a lot of this is subjective and i accept not everyone will appreciate this style of art, let alone choose to watch it for any extended period of time.

also please take into consideration that the short test renders i upload to youtube are all designed to loop, which they do if they are downloaded and played back in a media player that supports looping. the overall hypnotic effect is considerably more powerful than watching a single video clip just once through.

the final music videos will be comprised of several looping sections that are faded or morphed into each other over time.

when it's working, blender is an excellent tool for getting my surreal concept ideas into something a little more tangible.

technically though, when it comes to animating my jellyfish foreground, i'm still a newbie so will welcome any constructive advise on improving my traditional animation skills. more on that when i'm next working on the foreground.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth08.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2012%2F263%2F6%2F5%2F034_by_rattyredemption-d5fbio9.jpg&hash=046f21fa390f74f015bf12b96cca5192f7f9ea83) (http://fav.me/d5fbio9)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth08.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2012%2F263%2F3%2Fc%2F035_by_rattyredemption-d5fbis1.jpg&hash=a6382810bc65b26a961ce21338c28a8723a5ebfa) (http://fav.me/d5fbis1)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on September 20, 2012, 10:23:55 PM
Are you going to sync these to the musics BPM (Beats Per Minute), or just leave it as relatively random shape/form/colour turbulances?
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 20, 2012, 10:40:33 PM
good question, and i've thought about syncing some of the visuals to the specific music tracks i intend to use, but probably will leave most of them unsynced, partly for technical reasons, but also i would like my artwork to work with a cross section of music genres and individual tracks, and if it's obviously synced to some music that might detract it working with others.

even with these short clips, when viewed looping, they do appear to automatically sync to some degree with most music i've tested them with.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 20, 2012, 10:57:35 PM
here's some direct links a few of my youtube videos.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FOPw_4U3IPIw%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=34acbf7f00686c044eb20313b5745cd2e69fc1ee) (http://www.youtube.com/embed/OPw_4U3IPIw?feature=player_detailpage)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FmhDngaWWzeg%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=9be94983a5fc67f1e70a95dda805acdaaf5b485a) (http://www.youtube.com/embed/mhDngaWWzeg?feature=player_detailpage)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FMJM3IxNhe4k%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=9ed4527ab4177bf294823b0bf6005b328a01c4c3) (http://www.youtube.com/embed/MJM3IxNhe4k?feature=player_detailpage)

Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on September 20, 2012, 11:03:35 PM
How are you setting the effects oscillation (the speed and duration of the blending, swirling and so on)? If it's a property setting it should be relatively straightforward to change the Frames per second to something that corresponds to BMP? 120BPM = 2 beats/second, which is what? 12 frames per/between individual beats (at 24FPS)? That way even if you have ambient music (without obvious beat markers), so long as the tune conforms to BPM you should be able to sync reasonably well.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 20, 2012, 11:12:36 PM
thanks kat and i'm mainly key framing the background mesh deformation and node materials using the graph editor. i think i understand what your suggesting and it does sound very cool. do you have any more info or links i could learn more about this?
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 20, 2012, 11:13:45 PM
(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FSu1ZdMKjZhw%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=1c2baef5ddfae053d419b5c4494eafab6e8e476c) (http://www.youtube.com/embed/Su1ZdMKjZhw?feature=player_detailpage)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FOBr_teOziw8%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=3844c440a46063eae0f5dc48d682f41f9069a6e3) (http://www.youtube.com/embed/OBr_teOziw8?feature=player_detailpage)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FMvaBZHoW3mU%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=623f5ac53393b244cf7a39a5b7d4263fe3c9964e) (http://www.youtube.com/embed/MvaBZHoW3mU?feature=player_detailpage)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 25, 2012, 10:12:19 PM
a test showing compositing of one of my pre-rendered psy cloud backgrounds run though a displace node, and then mixed with my pre-rendered high frequency pattern.

this node setup should allow me to use the same high frequency layer on any of my existing backgrounds which use the same mesh deformation and camera angles.

although as this is abstract work, it might be possible to get away with them not using the same tracking.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth01.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2012%2F269%2F4%2F1%2F038_by_rattyredemption-d5fz7md.jpg&hash=46aaec3aabb3f9b016347b74ded69c016f01566b) (http://fav.me/d5fz7md)

here is a couple of direct links to the youtube uploads of these tests.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FATzdhWDqeOg%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=13f254d667ebba6b59da1f38e9744db099cb1fab) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATzdhWDqeOg)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 29, 2012, 08:01:22 PM

a test render without the medium frequency rotating layer, and with more variation in scaling.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F5YRqbvL7s5Y%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=5a828bfc285934c3b0bfb0c58d7db6528b200607) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YRqbvL7s5Y&feature=plcp)

further testing of the displacement nodes, and mixing of my high frequency layer with my uv test pattern.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fwf7c182okvQ%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=e46dfb7a3a5e2e90012388a621199a921d97afc6) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf7c182okvQ&feature=plcp)

a test render with the high frequency layer blended more subtly with the psy clouds than some of the previous versions.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi3.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FFmgnNlC5G-8%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=a6da350c0b89bc376a3f55dc62bac78eeb535894) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmgnNlC5G-8&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 29, 2012, 09:44:01 PM
mostly the same as the previous test but with a different colored psy cloud layer. the high frequency is blended using an overlay mixer node so derives some of it's color from the background.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7ylI7NOsLLM%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=afe052f36d4e6616760f53f5a3db123256e275f2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ylI7NOsLLM&)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on September 29, 2012, 10:42:21 PM
Noise level of the texture is a little higher than I'd use myself but overall you'd be hard pushed to know that was being done in Blender  ;)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on September 29, 2012, 11:36:51 PM
do you mean the relatively small size of the gaps between the high frequency pattern? or the overall amount of movement that layer creates? and he he, thanks kat.

ot: when you have time could you reply to my last email, no rush though.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 01, 2012, 11:50:42 AM
these next three videos are the last of my tests with this version of the background mesh deformation and camera animation. they are the same as the last few animations although with different colored psy clouds.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FSDHOGbbE4Mc%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=da8802c3eb81dcdbaa7fcd809c9802b96409250b) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDHOGbbE4Mc&feature=plcp)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FohyMDY31ga4%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=0a5256b358fef442f95c1d8d1035b45c94e52c30) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohyMDY31ga4&feature=plcp)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F38rOefJaaX4%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=c50524a74b2a3839818399d861954747e36020cd) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38rOefJaaX4&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 01, 2012, 03:09:37 PM

the latest mesh deformation and camera test. i now have about 4 of these combinations that i think are good enough to be used in the final product. each of those can be rendered with my growing library of shader node materials.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi3.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FBMrcRXPXMy8%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=1779c3c857707b6365d6e2b3e057bbf814beced3) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMrcRXPXMy8&feature=plcp)

top down view from one of blender's 3d editing windows showing the latest mesh deformation and camera animation.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FdbM5_SfxzIc%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=ca26525672814ffcb8506c8ba935987c7d5f1a3f) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbM5_SfxzIc&feature=plcp)

side view of the blender 3d editing window.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi3.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FbQAHW9l49Rs%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=4654be2603bceafeac541b0ff1699f55efa7aeac) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQAHW9l49Rs&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 03, 2012, 02:45:26 AM
the first of the new mesh deformation and camera animations, using some of my previous shader node materials.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FDDl3seyXpbE%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=0a8a46149ca9cbd6d6c29cec51b24c726e2080c9) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDl3seyXpbE&feature=plcp)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FCm7B2yoy_Ig%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=571fe95371f6bd24217a6764ed9523807a4b61bd) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm7B2yoy_Ig&feature=plcp)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FPRzNJRC2Y2k%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=67d98a36a732d908b90cf4bf34e11e4c0aed68bd) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRzNJRC2Y2k&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 03, 2012, 09:14:03 PM
the combination of this mesh deformation, camera angle and movement, plus the shader node material, does seem to produce a disorientating effect, hopefully after the alien jellyfish foreground objects have been rendered it will give us something more to focus on. more tests needed on this i think.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi3.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FfPXT57JSZZE%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=7516a6ca40598024219be0b9ccaed6fe85955595) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPXT57JSZZE&feature=plcp)

the next two are less disorientating.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F8UU-MGY1Oc8%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=4525ea93ff48877b73005fc8fe4dde9c34069ee4) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UU-MGY1Oc8&feature=plcp)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FOwASzsf_nTE%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=540948430e0ceb8fafe952999b35cc06194c3a02) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwASzsf_nTE&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 05, 2012, 12:49:55 AM
a slightly tweaked texture warping, displacement node and high frequency layer, blended with my uv test pattern for the latest mesh deformation and camera animation.

edit: he he, i just noticed yt had displayed the following message for me after it had finished processing:

"We detected your video may be shaky. Would you like us to stabilize it?"

i declined the offer, although if the tech they use is non destructive, then that's a cool feature, i just would prefer to do any post processing, if needed, before i upload.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F8AkUEt6Xsis%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=3d31d53f54d66d8106fd11ab3842bfaf85967b20) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AkUEt6Xsis&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 05, 2012, 02:05:28 AM
i think this is one of my most effective animations to date, there is still room for improvement but i'm now confident i'm on the right track with the tech and art style, at least as far as the backgrounds go.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FGgxicl2uGJI%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=6d3f1ffcdcf05bffc6c5949fdbbbf9691f146cae) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggxicl2uGJI&feature=plcp)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 05, 2012, 01:41:23 PM
youtube rejected this video, claiming it was a duplicate of a file already on their servers, which is bs since i only just finished rendering it and i always use unique file names. so i uploaded it to facebook.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fvthumb.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhvthumb-ak-snc6%2F245159_10151125044934737_10151125031944737_14962_432_t.jpg&hash=28adb5ddd46a0d6f8d82b27c57ce9f0c157844bc) (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151125031944737)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on October 05, 2012, 02:59:25 PM
Yeah there's not you can do about YouTube's automatic algorithms flagging stuff like that.

Slightly Off Topic: it's good to see what you're doing (*thumbsup*) but you might want to only post info when 'major' updates occur. Aside from colour/effects changes it's starting to get difficult to see the process progression because there doesn't appear to be significant enough change between iterations - in other words, the topic is in danger of becoming a bit spammy, which you want to avoid for obvious reasons (it's also possibly another reason why YT flagged the latest vid).

I think you've got the process down-pat enough to start adding music to these vids, might even be worth using YouTubes own music library system to add appropriate audio.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 05, 2012, 05:26:45 PM
thanks kat, and understood my friend.

most of my work is very similar to each other, even when i'm not tweaking settings in blender. the intended result should be a series of music videos centered around my alien jellyfish as they fly/swim through various environments.

currently all the work i've uploaded has been for the first environment, and although there are a few color palette changes, the movement of both the swirly backgrounds and camera is very subtle. sometimes i have to check which video clip i'm watching, and i have a couple of hundred test renders on my hdd, but the differences are there, and i'm confident the end result should work as intended, at least on a subconscious level.

i'll take your advise and try to update only when i have something easier to distinguish during the development, and eventually when the end products are ready.

re the music, again thanks for the suggestion, although i do have the music for each of my intended videos already chosen. the guy i'm working with has just become one of the top ten most listened to on reverbnation.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on March 05, 2013, 12:42:48 AM

here's some test renders of my new foreground objects. they are more abstract, and less intended to resemble any creatures like the jellyfish, but they do still have an organic feel to them.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F-wLUbTsCJT0%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=eb0cb450d6a6811dfefdcf518f7ac8a1c80c0a7d) (http://fav.me/d5u5rtg)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FcxzGA92H6WI%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=36774e2464171cd681b8365e3744e81ef225afff) (http://fav.me/d5u61rs)

and here's some renders with these objects with my previous backgrounds, although heavily processed through blender's compositor.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi3.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FZ1pnT_1mg9I%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=29f42395ba54c8fef2f126fe821ab597b1ad8d1b) (http://fav.me/d5vm4mk)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FamFoMw4ikqA%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=567896c53a1cbcb2edf419a14f0ebf79c79eed1b) (http://fav.me/d5wpyyo)

Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on March 06, 2013, 01:01:48 AM
this is the first of my new psy jelly material renders, since i restarted this project about a year ago.

i'm pretty pleased with the results, although i could only get raytraced refractions and fresnel to work, if i also enabled mirror reflections, blender would lock up. not sure if it is a bug in the 2.66 version i'm using, or if i'm doing something wrong?

i'm using blender internal. if anyone here knows the answer, please post.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FKcoYb8_I2qo%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=1037c181a03cfa513f03f96e826d8a914497af48) (http://fav.me/d5x39st)

Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on March 06, 2013, 05:11:41 PM
'Mirror' (reflective) renders have always been a bit CPU intensive, that might explain the lock-up. You've definitely learned some '****' rendering techniques doing this project and the end result is certainly very 'trance'! Have you actually put any of these to music and 'published' them yet, as was your original intention, or are you just using the project as an exercise is rendering now?
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on March 07, 2013, 03:16:22 AM
thanks kat, and i found a workaround by rendering just the reflective pass, which blender is doing at the moment, then hopefully i can composite that with the rest of the layers.

and thanks very much for the compliment. this commercial project is still going ahead, be it very slowly from my end, although thankfully the trance musician is very patient, partly due i would imagine, to him have several other psy artists he regularly works with, so i'm not holding him up at all.

as i understand it, the intention is we have different versions of the videos, so in the end he might have the same track on two or three different artist's videos, and likewise i might offer my services to another musician in the future, but for the time being, i'm happy just to be working with him.

when i restarted this project last year, i was reasonably confident i could do this artistically, i just vastly underestimated how much research and development i would need to do with blender, and this included learning the post 2.5 interface. and although i'm working (unpaid) full time on this, my 7 year old, second hand pc is very underpowered, so it takes a long time to render even at the 360p resolutions.

we're intending to publish those for free and charge for the 720p versions, but i won't start rendering them properly until i've got the 360p ones as good as i can get them.

for the first full length video, with music, i've decided to leave out the alien jellyfish, because i still have to improve my animation skills with them, although the models and rigs are built, so i'm practising on the less complicated abstract objects like you see above. i have a couple more models to build and then i think i'll have enough for the first video. and by the 3rd or 4th hopefully the jellyfish will be ready.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on April 09, 2013, 04:54:51 AM
here's some test renders of my new "tesseract" model.

i rigged and animated this with bones, and although the results are what i was hoping for, it was really tricky to get working. blender would often deform parts of the tesseract correctly and screw up other parts. i rebuilt the rig 3 or 4 times to get it to this stage.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi3.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fr-hVsBP0o00%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=ef568ce67ce8479fffac2decfb3a7de4501d4a37) (http://fav.me/d60nqyr)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FE97zZc3HZRU%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=f1364b3f0493b361a8e2b15a7f6722b4a70c51d9) (http://fav.me/d60slk3)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FS5y6l17k4WY%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=265fd71087ce2a69d0cb24df2d202fac31aa150f) (http://fav.me/d60umoa)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on April 09, 2013, 06:58:44 AM
Double-check you don't have "Envelopes" selected, if you're weighting bones based on vertex group influence and Envelopes are active, they can interfere with deformation (which is what appears to be happening based on what you've said above).

Those vids definitely have an otherworldly feel. They work better visually because they're much 'cleaner' in appearance (maybe due to the metallic look?), previous vid, on a small screen at least, seem quite noisy by comparison. Interesting stuff.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: silicone_milk on April 09, 2013, 07:16:42 AM
Trippy stuff. I really liked the glassy one (2nd shot)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on April 09, 2013, 10:42:59 PM
thanks for the tip kat. i have checked the armature modifier and envelopes are disabled. i've never actually used those as i don't really understand them, so i just work with vertex groups.

i think in this case blender was just getting confused as to the bones rotating within the mesh, because in my first attempts at rigging this, after 90 or 180 degrees rotations, parts of the mesh would snap into a weird deformation. but at least it's consistently working now i rearranged the deforming bones and added in more controllers.

and thanks very much for the compliment, one of the aims of these is to look alien/otherworldly.

re the more noisy videos, are you referring to one of the three i posted yesterday, or the older ones?

other than the highly reflective/metallic ones, most of my videos have a deforming psy cloud background, which often has a high frequency, intricate pattern mixed in with the clouds.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on April 09, 2013, 10:45:23 PM
he he, thanks milk, that is one of the other main things i aim for with my psy art.

here's another of the reflective ones:

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FWZqQj0D5PkI%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=1975feb329f29bd666a4e30c4932a48a5d98372d) (http://fav.me/d60ubms)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on April 10, 2013, 12:33:09 AM
Be mindful that if you bring in an old *.blend file that 360º rotation might actually be 180º on the positive, then the remainder -180º (if you image a clock face, from 12 to 6 is 180, then from 6 back up to 12 is -180 because that latter rotates on the opposite side of the centre-line), if that happens bones can flip and rotate in odd ways. I can't remember if this approach to rotation was 'fixed' in the new versions of Blender or not.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on April 10, 2013, 01:15:48 AM
interesting, thanks kat. and i built this using 2.66a but those degrees would explain the snapping of some of the deformations, i guess, since my f curves go from 0-360 degrees.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on June 12, 2013, 08:04:35 PM
i've been working on some more of my alien creatures. i decided not to use spline ik's for the one with the tentacles, as i'm still not sure how best to animate them.

so all of these creatures use the minimum amount of deforming bones i could get away with, that and my old pc performs better now, as i often have more of these models on screen.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F_WCGDndCnzk%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=d59d68d7556b0051338b6320f3cf071c2a554fae) (http://fav.me/d682zzx)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi4.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FkqAiYKXm5gU%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=d545812fd26b11bf4aaee6ed5fd3f1515074c1b3) (http://fav.me/d67xoj7)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FyAkqMudMAi0%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=0698c85def576e5c3ba3a235de2de5c4cfe71655) (http://fav.me/d67oihg)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on June 13, 2013, 11:58:10 AM
Very trippy! Object movement is interesting, the whole thing looks like it's a scene from some weird nature program about alien life-forms.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on June 13, 2013, 12:40:00 PM
cool, thanks very much kat. and that is the atmosphere i've been aiming for.

david attenborough ftw, he he.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on June 13, 2013, 08:04:34 PM
here's another variation of this camera set:

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FyK2Zsz8aGoY%2Fmqdefault.jpg&hash=2087e88e8779e687e225c35e102264c6c1677468) (http://fav.me/d68rmq5)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on February 19, 2014, 12:12:45 AM
oops, i haven't updated this topic in a long time, here's some still images of the latest rigging i built for my small alien tentacle creature:

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth09.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2013%2F316%2F0%2F7%2F175_by_rattyredemption-d6tz2j1.png&hash=41fc15b0253da168d581e925c681f738258da45c) (http://fav.me/d6tz2j1)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth08.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2F150%2Ff%2F2013%2F316%2F8%2F1%2F176_by_rattyredemption-d6tz320.png&hash=f34fd4a03c966c67fd68426c67691f4adf3fd052) (http://fav.me/d6tz320)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth04.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2F150%2Ff%2F2013%2F317%2Fe%2F7%2F181_by_rattyredemption-d6u43j0.png&hash=1d1fd39e0d2b5b0cacb34df4ccee32c7f3da4f89) (http://fav.me/d6u43j0)

Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on February 19, 2014, 03:26:41 PM
and here's a simple opengl lighting render (no material textures) of the new rigs in action:

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth02.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2Ffilm%2Fo%2F2014%2F032%2F0%2F7%2F076ae5246e4b79a9098d2b9ff092c4aa.jpg&hash=0875823c734a876aab1186e26a1e5821927569dc) (http://fav.me/d74ppvw)

and this is my new fractal based material. the fractal isn't animated yet, but does have a multicolored high frequency layer that swirls around the fractal.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth00.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2Ffilm%2Fo%2F2014%2F045%2F5%2F0%2F50a4d8a215fc1c4d042bf853d342eaf7.jpg&hash=ac5b1e6d5010ed04f7f7868f5feea8f2f328f742) (http://fav.me/d76hudl)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on May 21, 2014, 06:14:40 PM
i've recently been collaborating with some more 2d fractal artists on da, who have kindly let me manipulate their still renders in the 12 year old free app called winmorph.

i then color cycled and video edited the various clips in blender. currently these two examples are 2d, although i'm currently working on some 3d versions that will follow on from these.

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth05.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2Ffilm%2Fo%2F2014%2F123%2F2%2Ff%2F2f25bacf5345467dccc7f9caf2b23127.jpg&hash=96e9510eb83e594173545337502ea5cd47ff7403) (http://fav.me/d7gz6f3)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth07.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2Ffilm%2Fo%2F2014%2F135%2F9%2F7%2F973b241a5348b1359ba51b44e46314c4.jpg&hash=1b3a97ca38aa297dbdb1740f00b58ea1d3410e6b) (http://fav.me/d7iftyf)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on May 21, 2014, 07:22:31 PM
That's pretty effective considering it's relative simplicity.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on May 21, 2014, 08:00:23 PM
thanks a lot kat.

it's deliberately retro in some aspects, and originally i was producing animations similar to this nearly 25 years ago. showing my age there, he he.

but then when i got into 3d work, i didn't really think of recreating or updating that style until recently. also these animations seems to be growing in equal popularity on da among both the fractal community and the hippy, stoner rock communities. all of which i was also pleasantly surprised by. plus these take considerably less time to produce than the more complex 3d ones. saying that, i'm intending on combing the tech and styles for some future music videos.

and the fractal artists are apparently enjoying seeing their 2d still images being brought to life, in the animated sense. and they now have hundreds of in between frames that they can choose from if they want to upload a series of stills to their respective galleries on da, so it's been an enjoyable and fruitful collaboration so far.

Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on June 30, 2014, 12:41:14 AM
here's the next two videos in this fractal material series, both start off looking like the older 2d videos, but then slowly morph into being more 3d:

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth04.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2Ffilm%2Fo%2F2014%2F180%2F5%2F8%2F587cd912ac8da3fd03409913acf060d7.jpg&hash=788ca6d7b403d1d93c96cdf886d86b241fd15524) (http://rattyredemption.deviantart.com/art/trippy-psychedelic-3d-fractal-morph-01-h-464304142)

(https://www.katsbits.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fth01.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2Ffilm%2Fo%2F2014%2F179%2Fa%2Fd%2Fad8a0d1383cd4f27118846ad1b218102.jpg&hash=db6b0231215cdaec27f7c1e2053f4da66a41de07) (http://rattyredemption.deviantart.com/art/trippy-psychedelic-3d-fractal-morph-01-g-464180905)
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on June 30, 2014, 04:57:22 PM
Needs music!
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on June 30, 2014, 05:08:03 PM
he he, thanks kat. eventually that will happen.

off topic: did you find time to check the session cookies? i still keep getting logged out when i close my browser.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 20, 2015, 11:00:16 PM
for anyone still interested in this blender project, i should have updated this topic about 3 months ago when i finally finished the first of the music videos. since then i've been very focused on my indie games project, and haven't done any more of the psy art, although i do intend to in the future.

anyway, here's links to the deviant art and youtube versions. the latter is more compressed but in 720p:

http://fav.me/d8ydgrr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDSYx0ACvTc


Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: kat on October 20, 2015, 11:27:24 PM
Can't watch that sort of stuff for too long as it gets disorientating (which is its purpose I guess!), good to see the project finale.
Title: Re: blender wip psy ambient trance music video project
Post by: ratty redemption on October 21, 2015, 12:43:32 AM
thanks kat.

and yes, there are several optical tricks i used to create the over all effect. one of which is there is a segment about 3/4 into the video that slowly turns the "room" upside down, while at the same time bending/warping the floors and walls etc. some people enjoy the result, while others have reported a motion sickness type sensation. i also reverse the last tunnel segment, towards the end of the video, as well as color it red. which partly syncs with the music's lyrics (not the beat though) and a couple of people have reported the ending was also unsettling.

and some viewers found it easier to watch if they muted the music and played their own, as the original track is not only very hypnotic but quite somber at times, which i personally think works well as a juxtaposition to the brightly colored visuals.

overall i'm very pleased with how it turned out (which took me 14 months, half of which was research and testing) except the compression on these video streaming sites like youtube reduces the bitrate quality to a fraction of what the dvd and or blu-ray would likely be, if we (the music producer and myself) ever get enough content together for a disk release.