The Source engine has to be one of the greatest engines to ever leverage creativity. I think that's one thing i'm not afraid to admit. It has allowed many mods to become fully featured experiences on the engine and made many great games come out of it. Alot of those games are artsy or just plain amazing but they're still Source games. It's truly a feat by Valve to let those games see the light of day. Source Filmmaker is no different because it allows the everyday person to access the assets of not only Valve games but Source games. Valve has leveraged it to a point where talent hasn't gone to waste in their videos from the Team Fortress 2 shorts to any related one concerning a list of games in Valve catalogue.
I have to admit that I don't really have a background in animation outside of After Effects and Premiere. I've constantly refined my skills with After Effects by learning different techniques to make new and interesting videos for what I need. I've done alot of technical stuff with it and still don't know everything but I did learn something of importance from both Premiere and After Effects which is keyframes. It's the one thing i'm glad to have known before getting into the Source Filmmaker. It is slowly paying off as I become proficient and knowledgeable about the quirks of the program. Lambda Incident came to be out of a simple test I did by a sequence shot which gave me the push that I needed to go deep into it.
The above is a title sequence I made in After Effects for my production company.
The opening sequence was me getting wet with the program but it wouldn't be till the third "scene" of the film where i'd begin to truly learn the essence of what makes any animation program difficult. This third scene is by far the weakest of them all but it simply sets up for the second act. Timing is a little off because I didn't over extend in order to properly to see what would work best, didn't take my time on everything to make sure it looked nice, as well as a lighting test for myself. Things just didn't work out so it's probably the worst part of an otherwise perfect movie. Perfect to my standards anyway. I was required to animate a face of a model and I tried my best to figure out what would work but this is all set in the constraints of what I put myself up to. This ate away at me though because it kept getting difficult and I hit more than one hurdle trying to complete this scene. I had issues after issue trying to get this scene done. It broke me down so much that it forced me to take a month long break from producing the film in order to properly get anywhere.
 | |
| This is the opening shot of the scene which features a simple left, right, left head movement. |
I didn't put many elements in this scene because of simplicity, atmosphere(as cheesy as it will come out to be won't mean much for it), and the fact I was not skilled enough with SFM to get anywhere comfortable. I have utilized the official Valve tutorials, tutorials of other skilled SFM animators, the SFM wiki, and the SubReddit for SFM. It has allowed me to get this single scene off the ground and actually get somewhere even if I really didn't have a clue as to what in the hell I was doing. I just don't believe that anyone will like this whole entire scene except for the cheesiness factor of an otherwise serious film. I might make it worse in post production when I actually manage to add music. I don't know how well that will go but that's all up in the air till every scene of the film is done in principle photography which might be before the next blog of this goes up.
It's not to say that I hate myself for attempting to learn the ins and outs of SFM. It's not an easy program by any sense of the word. I feel like i'll be saying this alot. No video program is easy especially if you're reliant on the use of 3D space which After Effects has reminded of again and again. There's alot of variables that you have to account for and you might screw up or the program might screw something up that you thought would work. The biggest thing is that 3D space is all about illusions and manipulation. This applies to all film but especially animated films. You have to really time things perfectly in order to get the shots you want with SFM and it comes down to animation timing to camera placement. Will it show this and will this move to where I need it to be when I want it to be there? There's these questions which come up and I have them still. Can I trick the viewer into not seeing the inconsistencies or attempt to hide them well enough? The one downside of film and any type of film is that you're always going to have those and it's just a flaw.
 |
| The Headcrab was the second major thing to come out of this scene and had its own hurdles. |
It took me over twenty four hours of editing to to do this one scene. Well over it. This scene was simply the hardest scene for me to do but I every scene after has come out stronger and better because of it. Yes, this will be the weakest scene of the entire film due to the faulty animation, the cuts, and etc. I might be able to salvage it in post production but this blog will simply be a reminder of the torment that one scene has caused me. It might give the correct atmosphere that I want or it'll just turn out cheesy but my hope is that the rest of the film recovers due to the following scenes. This is after all my first machinima but not my first short film. I'd hope that it at least gets recognized for the time that I put into it and that any criticisms of my film technique in SFM will help me be better for my next time around. I believe that if you dedicate enough time and passion to something that you will get somewhere good. Somewhere comfortable and safe. This film is at that point where even if I hit a hurdle then I can come back from it.
I sleep every night thinking of what good things can come out of this scriptless first attempt of machinima. A machinima that I had an idea for one day and simply went with my gut. A film that while not nothing new or truly original will lead me to there or better. To a place where I can hit my machinima peak and become a better person out of it. I know i'm not much to speak about this stuff being that this is if my first machinima but i'd hope that it does see the light of day. I didn't announce a year of release because it wouldn't be finished. I know it'll be done before the deadline but my hope is that I won't have to deal with diminishing returns during editing. That's for another time though and for the post production blog.
Lambda Incident is a Source Filmmaker film slated for a 2015 release. All stills and preview footage is a work in progress and as such nothing is final. San Danne Studios is using Valve Source Filmmaker, a free released animation and video editing program, and the assets of Black Mesa: Source to create the film. All copyright of Half Life belongs to Valve Software and has been made with respect to the user agreement stated by both Valve Software and the Black Mesa: Source team.
No comments:
Post a Comment