War never brings peace,
but death and destruction.
And in the meantime,
in Flanders Fields the poppies blow.
Between the crosses, row on row.

Dedicated to my MOTHER (81 years old for now and still a great peace activist)





Toystorylab on Vimeo :     Crassitudes (my "Alter Ego") on Youtube: 

A bit history...

- on Battle of Villers-Bretonneux:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Villers-Bretonneux

- on A7V:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A7V

- on Mark IV:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_IV_tank


Toystorylab on Vimeo :     Crassitudes (my "Alter Ego") on Youtube: 

Good job Toystory. Making a large battle scene has got to be tough but you carried it off well.

pete



http://www.youtube.com/user/peterblood50?feature=mhee

Very nice, fluid sequence, with a seamless feel. Felt very right for the subject matter and poem. 

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Actually, this made me remember some posts I exchanged with another forum member some time back. He was convinced of the need to storyboard every scene with a previz version before actually creating the real scene. I generally don't see the need for that in Iclone, and we went back and forth about it a bit. 

However, for a complex scene like you have created here in a single camera take, it would almost seem that you would need to storyboard the sequence in some way. Your set defines to some extent your camera movement down the long trench, but the various elements and encounters have to be well planned out. How did you approach this? Did you draw out a "camera plot" for the position of the different elements in advance? 

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Well done. I liked the uniforms. 

You did a great job, this was very well done with a great message the animation was very well paced and I loved the action.


Warped Reality VFX.

@ Peter Blood
Thanx

It was my first try on a "larger battle scene", it evolved and made fun...

@ Shadoesword
Thanx a lot

No storyboard... It all evolved while "doing".
I first built up the trenches. Then i started with my basic figure to get a walk through the trench.
Then i tried following that walk with a camera. When that was done, i started to do some research.
Searched for german and british weapons and uniforms. Wanted  A7V and Mark IV, found at 3D Warehouse.
During my research i found that battle of Villers-Bretonneux (three A7V vs three Mark IV), a doable amount...
Then i searched for clothes that could fit my reference pics. Made the soldiers in CC3...
Started filling the "gaps" (german soldiers, trees, tanks, sandbags to close gaps in my terrain mesh, ...) in my "follow-cam".
After doing this, my scene was well filled to do a backwards move with the cam (also closed some noticeable "gaps") and make an end.

A few shots from the scene:





When is was done and ready to "upload" the result, my brain made the link from the date of that battle to the date of my mothers Birthday.
And as my mother has been (still is) involved in a lot of "peace-movements/actions" i wanted to dedicate it to her...
So, the movie "slumbered" a while till i could launch it on 24th of April

@ Walt_R
Thank you

Uniforms were made out of my "wardrobe", after having a look at some reference pictures...
Without taking much care about details. Shape of helmets and colour of uniform make clear german/british.

@ Kevin L
Thank you very much





Toystorylab on Vimeo :     Crassitudes (my "Alter Ego") on Youtube: 

Enjoyed reading your detailed explanation of the process, Toystorylab. Thanks for taking the time to go through it. I find it very interesting to watch the creative process unfold.

Your video comes off to me as a "high-concept" piece, making the poem a unifying element that gives structure to the visual. It's not just a battle scene, but has a narrative arc that is provided by the reference to the poem and the way you used the camera. That's what appealed to me the most. 

I thought you must have started with the poem, and that was what led you to use the very fluid single-camera approach you chose. Battle scenes are often depicted in very quick cuts, lending a sort of chaotic jerkiness to the overall feel. Sometimes, though, the film maker will use slow-motion cuts and ethereal tragic music to contrast the wild chaos taking place. It can give a surreal kind of feeling, as if you are watching from a great distance, with your mind in a different zone. Though that is a powerful technique, I feel it it has been overused so much that it has lost most of its effectiveness. 

Your approach, I think was somewhere between those two. There was a lot of sense of chaos with all the bursting bombs and the constant firing, and the rain itself. But the steady camera movement and single point of view contrasted with that. 

But from what you said, it seems that all this just developed in an incremental way as you went about creating it. Your brain was fitting these together in the background as you worked, but you didn't go into it with that as a conscious "concept". 

I think that's the way my brain works creatively most often as well. 

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If someone asks about my way of animating, I am happy to share my thoughts and my approach
So, thanx for commenting and even dig a bit deeper...



As it has to make fun, the "evolving" way is my favourite one.
Walk your way, find obstacles, search for solutions, walk further, have new ideas while walking,
set your creativity free and be surprised when you come to the end of the road...



Toystorylab on Vimeo :     Crassitudes (my "Alter Ego") on Youtube: