August 2024

Summer Holibobs

South Down Films, Devious, Tracing the Rails II, Mo-Cap and more

Super Charly

Happy August!

So, the latest update concerning my main project.

Go with me on this one as it’s a bit of a long way from nowhere!

My local film group, whome I have been associated with for many years, are having their annual short film festival, but unfortunately things have been a bit quiet.

Ever since Covid so many groups in local communities have folded and, the once, thriving film clubs are now thin on the ground. Several have folded due to lack of members and the South Down Film Club is one such group, which has come perilously close, but their club president, ‘Alan Cross,’ a professional drone operator and an Adobe After Effects guru has put an appeal out to the local filming community.

Now I have had many lovely evenings attending this club as a guest speaker, which has always been a fun experience. So, I feel that I must do what I can for these guys; a call to arms, as it were, so I’ve taken on the challenge to produce……………………….something! (What am I thinking? What about my feature film? I hear you ask.)

I’m not sure. Things happen for a reason and mostly, I know not! But hey! One must follow their heart.

I am sure of this; all things flow into the sea and one thing leads into the next. There is a goal to pursue; who knows what will happen next.

I will keep you posted on the progression of this new mini adventure.

And if any film makers living on the Sussex coast line who fancy a, ‘One month,’ ~~shoot~~ challenge please follow the link bellow.

Devious

The Motion Capture data, which used iPi Soft and X Box 360 Kinnects. This data [BVH] was then imported into Blender and this armature was re-targeted onto the Spika’s armature.

For facial movement Auto-Rig Pro was used to create an IK armature and then the mouth movements was key framed into several posses which could then be used to manipulate and match audio sound waveforms.

Devious

Episode five rolls on (Still I hear the last cockroach in the room cry as they scuttle off when I switch the light on.) Time has been of a premium and work has been slow, but I am hoping to smash my bit out of the park this coming week. I have been determined to take a nicely rigged character and incorporate motion capture. Any one who has followed this know that this can be quite a challenge, but yet I am confident that I will be triumphant! I don't have a choice, I'll have to be if I want to make the South Down Film Club mini movie festival. I have had better success with rigging using auto-Rig Pro (See above's example) and motion capture has been achieved using iPi Soft (For more information regarding this programme I have left a link below). This is a more expensive option of Mo-Cap, but I can say that this is a program that works right out of the box. You can use the 30 day trial, but this limits you to only being able to use two cameras for capturing the data, but as long as you have set up your environment according to specs; ensured that you have calibrated and evaluated correctly for a good capture, then there is no reason you cannot get an excellent evaluation experience and even have, 'free', usable bespoke capture data for your own project. When it comes to motion capture there are so many avenues one can explore, free BVH or FBX downloads, AI data from a video, which, like Rokoko are offered for free, Brekel, Mixano via the premier software, and, of course, iPi Soft. Links below.

Tracing the Rails II

Chris & Stephen and the TTRs Team

have been extremely busy after the successful launch of their web series. Episode Two has clocked up 25k views on their You Tube channel and episode One is still climbing and is at 55k at present with plenty of wonderful notices.

It’s a terrific series and a very interesting documentary. (And this is coming from someone who has no interest in the history of trains and old train lines.)

Please click below to visit their website and for Episode Two of Tracing the Rails.

My dear chums at the Sussex Film Office are ever continuing their expansion into every possible service as the ultimate [one stop film production shop] and this time they are bringing local talent to the attention of the production companies who are looking towards the South Coast of England as a filming location.

This is the latest addition in their professional arsenal in offering a bespoke service to their clients.

To find out more please click on the logo above to explore all the services that SFO have to offer.

The David Cross Band

My buddies continue to tour and in September they are actually doing a one-off gig in London. So if you are a prog rock fan and can get to Camden please come along and witness true Legends perform their perfected craft. Below is a promo video with the details.