Hello Reallusion Forum Users!

I'd like to announce that production of my new film, "Under The Shards Of Athena" is underway.  Yes, that title's a bit of a mouthful, but the movie has had several other names over the course of writing and pre-production, and this is the one I like best.  It may change before the end, but (for now, at least) I think this will be it.

This will be a fantasy movie (I'd say "epic", but that might be overstating it a bit.) Set in a world of swords and sorcery, mythical creatures and weird denizens, plus all the other fun things you'd expect in that genre (and more...)  It's a serious film,  that is, not a comedy - and no mention of UPM or Nobbits!  (Sorry!)

It will tell the tale of our hero, a Barbarian named Karagen, as he treks across the strange world of Marisia (names subject to change!)

Anyway, I have written the script (though I'm toying with an alternate ending) and made up all the main characters in Character Creator.  I should mention at this point that this will be my first iClone 6 movie, so I am going to have to come to grips with this new beast as I delve into the nitty gritty aspects of it.  Quite different to iClone 5, that's for sure, and yet much the same as well.

Production is just beginning, though I'm experiencing several issues as I try to get the right look and feel to the movie.  I have some ideas as to what I want, but getting iClone to do it (and do it well) is proving a challenge.  Nevertheless, I shall prevail!

I will need a few voice actors for this (I think the count is six), but I'll delay casting until I'm a bit further into production and have stopped fiddling with the script.  When I DO come asking for Voice Actors, I'll post pictures of the characters in question so people will have a better idea of what they might sound like (if that makes sense.)

That's it for now, folks!  Updates will come sporadically, depending on how production goes.

Cheers!

BiggsTrek

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

Oh my, this sounds very cool! I'll definitely be watchin' from the peanut gallery with anticipation!!!



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Thanks Mark!

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Hi again fellow Reallusion users!

I'm pleased to say that I have finished filming the first scene!  Managed to iron out some kinks in the main character's costume whilst doing that (very necessary, actually) and settled on a look for the film (well, for that particular location, at any rate.)

Now on to scene 2!  My first "action" scene of the movie.  Trying to be stylish with it.  Should be fun!

Getting a bit more comfortable with iClone 6.  Finding it easier to use as I grow used to the new interface.  I think I like it!

And Realtime Smoothing... that I like a lot.  Especially on the characters.  Makes 'em look muuuuch better.

Cheers for now,

BiggsTrek

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

Hey All,

Just a quickie update as I work through Scene 2.  I just spent close to 2 days on a single, 5 second shot (crafting an animation that I couldn't find a "pre-made" version of).  And when I went to edit it in Vegas (yes, I edit the film as I produce each shot) I then cut that 5 second shot in half and took out about a second in the middle.  Was it worth it?  Well, yes, but man, it's those fiddly little things that really suck my time dry.

That's it for now!  Thanks for reading!

BiggsTrek.

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

Hey REALLUSION Users!

Another update for you!  I have miraculously finished Scene 2 AND Scene 3!  (Please, no gasping...)  Kind of helps that I had a week of vacation and nothing else to do. 

Scene 2 (the action one) came out pretty nice.  Got some cool arty shots in it.  One thing I find amusing is that, when filming, I find myself straying from what's written in the script.  Whether it's a technical reason (it's too hard to do that!) or an artistic one (oooh, doesn't that look cool!) I sometimes have to force myself to re-read the scene and make sure I'm not losing the original intent.

Scene 3 was fairly short, yet poignant (and I like to say the word "poignant" enough to say it twice).  Had a slight technical issue with refraction of an object and an embedded video file, but nothing a little tweaking couldn't resolve.

Now I'm on to Scene 4 where I use a little iClone Physics to swing a corpse from a tree.  Fun!  (Did some testing before building up the set dressing .  Glad I did as I clearly didn't know how to use Physics very well.)

That's it for today!  Back to work!

BiggsTrek

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

Thanks for this thread.  The basic concept of your work is very appealing to me because it is similar to some of my own ideas.

By that I mean that my imagination is fed by some categories of images I see on artists' stores.  If someone at DAZ, for example, is selling a Woodland Sprite or Elven Archer (these names I made up, who knows, they may exist!) then my imagination starts to create stories for them.  That's the power of the artists' sales renders, no doubt.

So I look forward to seeing your films.  I also like that you are getting something done with the tools as the exist today rather than waiting for some new feature to appear. 

Thanks, Grimhilda!

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

There will be a slight pause in production due to the iClone 6.5 upgrade that contained the undocumented "feature" where the UNDO functionality was made unusable.  (It's a little more complex than that, but I'm sure they'll fix it next week...)

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

Reallusion have finally released the fix to the UNDO problem in iClone, so now I can continue my production after about a two week pause.  I have a couple of Particle Emitters that I want to finish up and put on the Marketplace, but that should only take another day.  Then I'm back into iClone 6.51 and 'Under The Shards Of Athena'.

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek

Today I cut a rope.  Took me ALL DAY.  And the result is 2 seconds of footage.  But that's life, and, well, I enjoyed it.

https://marketplace.reallusion.com/iclone/author/biggstrek