Finally, got the word from boss that we are not going for the NAB Show 2009, except Andrew who will be getting the full subsidy. Just in case no one knows what NAB stands for, it’s called National Association of Broadcaster. Anyways, the outcome is to be expected after hearing from boss of big boss’s comments and other higher officers. It’s a pity though, not being able to attend. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what the show is like and attend the Post-Production Conference to learn some new stuffs. My motive was to go for the Apple Certified Pro in Color for Final Cut Studio. At the same time, I could take the chance to walk around Vegas and experience the life.
Looking on the bright side, I can spend more time on improving my skills in After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Cinema 4D. I’ve finished animating the road safety video for a project and received quite a good general comment from people who have watched it. From the requestor, probably it’s the generartion gap, couldn’t interpret the overall concept that well and hence some adjustments were needed to be made.
And because of that, I got to learn something new. I learnt that Cinema 4D can import 3D models designed in other 3D tools and use them with Cinema 4D. What happened was that I had to change the model into something more human-like than the orginal King chesspiece. So, as suggested by the requestor and with the help of boss, I managed to find an interesting model to replace the King. I used, a Lego man. And not just any other Lego man. He is, Darth Vader! Hehe.
I wasn’t really looking for him actually, I was just browsing through and hoping to find some interesting models to use with. And there I found this model. Well, much work was done to explore the possibility to import and use the model. After all was done, I had taken the time to map the textures provided and some other stuffs related to the model before even start animating the model all over again, starting from scene 1.
Animating isn’t much of a hassle, especially when I already had all the ideas in my mind when animating the first model. Animating was done swiftly and boss and seen it. Some comments from him were that the colors of the model is little too dark, and afraid that mroe commenting on the appropriate model would come. Another comment was that instead of the model turning into a pool of water, I had made Vader to be of a more violent character by using the force and threw a car out of the way. Haha, that was original, and that was from boss. Great to hear that form him.
Up to this stage, I’ve finished rendering the final output of the video and had converted the video into a Windows Media Video format (WMV) at 2Mbps . Easier for sending out attachments for preview. I had hope to reduce the size further but a video with a frame of 1920×1080, it is really difficult to reduce the size of the video to less than 10Mb. Unless I crop the frame to a smaller frame.
Anyways, leave till Monday to settle. It’s the long weekend and a good break before the tedious week starts.
Yey, coz’ I will be catching The Fast and The Furious 4 tomorrow. Hopefully nothing will upset the plan though. And I’m thinking, should I wear my new glasses watching movies? Hmm…I have Astigmatism, leave it till tomorrow to decide then.
Finally, I will post some screens of the road safety video to show the difference between Darth Lego Vader and the King Chesspiece.
I promise!