Another festival

Knightmouse has just been announced as a finalist for this year's NAFA ShowFest International in Sydney to screen on August 16th at Ritz Cinema in Randwick.

details here NAFA ShowFest Finalists

Recent news

Just found out this week that Knightmouse has been nominated for Best Animation in Queensland New Filmmakers Awards (QNFA) this year which will be announced on 6th August, 2010.
I don't like our chances looking at some of the other nominees on the list but it's nice to be nominated anyway.
Details here - QNFA webpage
and here - 2010_QNFA_NOMINEES

Also we've been selected for screening at Shorts On The Green Film Festival at Surfers Paradise on June 13th.
Details here - Shorts On The Green

That's all for now. Hopefully more news to come in the near future.

Film Festival News

Knightmouse just got selected for screening at West End Film Festival on 28th March outside Rumpus Room Bar at West End.
Details at www.westendfilmfestival.com.au

Trailer!

We're done. Heres a trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK_j376ooKY

AWESOME

Nothing screams dodgy student film like a lens flare.
Ha!..... We've got two.

render update

34 second render.
screw indirect lighting. I'm happy with really quick render times.

Almost finished lighting one sequence. Only 4 more to go.

Render sneak peak

Here's a peak at some render tests I've been doing today.
I'm trying to get at least one sequence done in next couple days.

27 sec render with Mental Ray. Simple lighting setups.


The same render with Final Gather takes 2 min 43 sec.

For what you get for the extra time rendering I'm more than happy to go with the 27 second render which will save us some valuable render time over next couple of weeks and save us some headaches too.

P.S. - It's 2:30am and I'm still at uni. Screw this I'm goin home now.

Almost finished animation

Week 11
Here's our animation done for now.
There are still a few minor things to fix but for now we can say animation is finished.
We can come back and fix up things later but we have to move on and prep everything for rendering.

So the schedule for completion by week 15 looks like this:
Week 12 - All textures and shaders finished.
Week 13 - All lighting and render setups finished.
Week 14 - Render all shots. Collect audio for final soundtrack. Compile final edit on weekend.
Week 15 - Final cut of film due for panel review. Final mastered tape due for screening.

We might be pushing for time but for now this is how things are looking.
Hopefully not too many dramas til then.

Workreel update

Small update.
A couple more shots now animated.
Tried a simpler version of transition from city street to castle.
Adjusted a few minor details in some animation.
Now just waiting for last shots to be animated so can finish texturing and begin lighting set-ups.
And desperately need a cut of whole film animated so can get sound.

So I animated a shot today, and textured KM's sword. Meaning textures for KM are done except for final colour overlays.

Animation WIP / Workeel

Here's a WIP of our short film.
Some shots are animated, some not.
Some have textures, others don't.
Lots of work to do yet.
Some shots have to change.
Audio hasn't been done yet.
FX stuff hasn't been done yet.

wip of kitchen textures

Production Progress

As of yesterday we have now officially started animating.
We split up and allocated shots for everyone to animate and have set ourselves some rough deadlines do work to.
We decided to have weekly group meetings to review and critique each others work and keep each other on track.
So from now on it's full steam ahead towards our finished film.
I'll try to post weekly updates of our workreel as we finish animating and adding shots to it.
Wish us luck.

PreVis Update

Here's an update of where the Pre-Vis is at.
I've been sick the last few days so haven't really done as much as I'd like so not much to show really.
I've changed and adjusted a few shots taking on advice from last production meeting.

Added the fast-zoom camera-move to castle but it's pretty shitty to be honest.
Much easier to get right as a drawn set of storyboards than a 3d shot. If not done right it just screams 'dodgy CGI shot'. That said, it needs work to get looking right.

I've still got to do the rest of intro sequence with the eagle using updated environment and then the Pre-Vis is done and we can start animating, finally.

My head is pounding so time for some much needed sleep now.
Hopefully next update is finished Pre-Vis.

KM rig FIXED

The arms can now stretch! Woo! Individual attributes for stretching FK or IK. So, basically if you want to blend between FK and IK now, you need to keep them at the same stretch. Which uh. is pretty easy to do, I guess.

Clavicles still need paint weights.

Mountain Textures

Halfway through doing mountain textures. I want to put a bit more detail and make the mountain more rocky on the hill on the left. Happy with bg. Need to put sky in, bad lighting, whatever.

Takes about 2 min to render.

PreVis Update - Work In Progress

I still have to do the intro eagle sequence and the fast camera move to the castle but here's what I've done this week.
It has changed slightly every day as I'm constantly updating the reel with the new shots as I do them.
I'm still not sure about some of the city shots though.
Still needs a lot of work.
Needs to be finished and locked off this week. AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!

Also I feel like I die a little every time I here that god-awful distorted eagle scream that gets used 3 times.

Updated ShotList

Here's the updated shotlist with new shot descriptions added according to new animatic/pre-vis.
You might notice that some shot numbers are missing because we now have 3 less shots to do.

Animatic/Pre-Vis Update

This is where we are at with our animatic/pre-vis for the film.
It has almost doubled in length from our early rough versions but I think it's much better now.

Colour test

Colour test, its ok I guess. Needs rocks, grass, and hi-res textures.