Voodoo 3D Tracking.

So I have been tinkering around in the world of 3D tracking. Its a fun place to be and a wonderful piece of kit can be grabbed for free.

You can get a non commercial copy for free here:

http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html

The default settings work pretty well, although on my attempt at something a little more advance than this:



It seemed to stop tracking. It was doing so well, but it was probably just me.

But yeah, the footage was free from:

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/greenscreenplates.html

These guys put up green screen footage that hasn't worked for one reason or another so that you can practice with it.

Good guys I must say. Enjoy.

New things that I like, ie. my showreel and a video of Manchester

Hi there,

been working studiously on a few things recently, the results of which are up and about!

Anything new other than that to mention? Well, people seem a bit freaked out by Facebook places. I must admit that I am abit unsure as to its fucntion other than for advertisers to be able to target people when they are near their respective stores. But then I guess that it can only be good for the economy. I might give it a bash in the next few days.

Has anyone heard of Diaspora?

http://www.joindiaspora.com/

Its an open source "privacy aware" version of Facebook. Some are touting it as a Facebook killer. Any truth in that do we think? I'm not really convinced. i like the sound of it, but will Facebook really be the new Roman empire? I doubt it. It will probably just be another thing I log into as well as twitter (Facebook killer) and LinkedIn, Stumble Digg, FourSquare etc etc etc.

So, my exciting stuff? well, 2 things, a new showreel of my character animation and also, a nifty little video that I have done of Manchester after some sort of attack. I am also working on a VFX shot whereby Manchester gets a facelift Blade Runner style.



Showreel



I hope you like these, please leave comments if you have any crits or praise. Praise is always good.

And don't forget... Sharing is caring! Post the vids you like everywhere :)

Paul

Sketches of a Broken Mind (redux)

Hello world,

well, I'm back now from my little Italian adventure and raring to go. I say that, but I have, in fact, been back for about 3 weeks now, I just haven't gotten around to writing anything. I think its the typical feeling of having your feet caught in heavy mud while carrying a fridge on your back that always follows a big holiday that has caused me to be less than inclined to write a blog that perhaps, no-one will read. And if they do read it, will they care? (sigh)

So on that happy note, I shall begin.

As the title would suggest, the main point of this is to explain that I am re-visiting "Sketches..." a short film that I directed alongside James Kennedy (a member of Trifecta films, more on them later).

After losing contact with our lead actor Katia Winter (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2316016/), I finally managed to get hold of her through her agents. She watched the film, really liked it, but pointed out that the sound was below par. Which, it is. Which got me thinking, "I would like to re-edit this, possibly with a voice over".

So I have been busy going back through the dailies and now have a version that I really like and is very different from the previous cut. Katia has kindly agreed to re-record her lines and we may even be getting a score from Jesse Glick (www.jesseglick.com) so watch this space.

Since I last wrote, James, Barney Batchelor and Sean Mason have tentatively formed Trifecta Films, a collective umbrella for our work (for more info contact paul@trifectafilms.co.uk).

We have been filming music videos, and having them played on Channel M which is nice. The Valentines "a Girl Like You" debuted last week. Very chuffed. More music vids to come from them and Polly Mackey and the Pleasure Principle.

I shall keep you posted on other developments.

Yeah, happy days.

I'll post some stills at some point.

Ta.

YouTube Overlay Ads (how to get rid of them)

While on the marketing case for my employer (Optical 3D www.optical3d.com, check it out) I set up a YouTube page and uploaded one of our animations. A lovely animation showing a 3d construction of a Morris Lorry from 1937.



After waiting for what seemed like an eternity to upload it in HD, I finally recieved the email to say it was available. I went to check it and to my horror, ads for 3d animation companies started to appear.

Clearly bad for business I hot talied it over to google to find out how to rid myself of these intrusive ads.

Now, I'm sure by this point everyone who knows this is screaming "its obvious why you're getting ads!!!"

Well, to me it wasn't. On the original video I uploaded, we had the jaunty little number "The Entertainer" playing away in the background. Turns out that is copyrighted material. Do you see where I'm going?

I'm well aware that a lot of people probably know this already, but it seems that Youtube, to protect copyright and maybe make a little as well, put ads on videos with copyrighted music. Maybe to pay the artist and the PRS? Maybe to line their own pockets? I don't claim to know.

However, once I deleted the video, culled the music and re-uploaded, there is no sign of the offending ads.

Now I will have to nip onto my personal account to see about changing the audio on some of my videos.

Does anyone actually click on the overlay ads? I suppose they must, or else the big G wouldn't do it.

I have to say, this is probably my favourite.



Clearly HSBC are bidding on keywords like "DIE" and "DEATH" to get promote their retirement plans. Nice.

So, as a parting note, the moral of this story is:

Don't use copyrighted music on your videos unless you want to help promote the latest evolution in erectile dysfunction pills.

Simply compose the track yourself, or get some royalty free, or ask the permission of the artist. I have doen that in the past and you'd be amazed how many say yes.

Thats it for now,

Happy YouTube uploading.

Paul

Ps. "The Walker" is almost done!

"The Walker" by Paul Wright & Phil Chambers

Hi folks,

just to let you know that Littleman's newest film is almost done. A closely guarded seceret till now, we can announce the existance of "The Walker", written and directed by Paul Wright and Phil Chambers.

"A young man is left for dead after a gang murder his new wife seemingly in cold blood and for no reason. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong woman..."

Coming Soon....

First Littleman Blog

Hello world,

this will be the first of hopefully many posts, regarding the world of film, animation and so on.

A little about me to begin with:

I'm a 3d character animator, sometime director and writer and generally just a lover of all things creative.

What I will be looking to do is build up a little following on here and basically share my knowledge (as it is) of the animation and movie industry as I make little discoveries and pick peoples brains. If I'm right, then awesome, If I'm wrong point it out, but obviously in a nice way and not a typical internet way...

So I think the first place I'll start in my next post is the basics of getting a job in animation, how to make a showreel , how to approach companies and what have you.

So, stay tuned and I will keep you posted.

Paul