Yopachi's A:M Video Essay (done, finally)

[Yopachi]

This is a long time personal project that I've had on my mind to write, script and animate. I finally put it together and It's a little awkward. I've used A:M to make low-fi "retro cgi" art, over the last few years. However, I think the software is very capable of making any variety of style or appeal. I've never done a video essay and it did not come naturally to collect my thoughts and lay them out like this. I'm glad i did anyway!

The video essay on YouTube

 

[Yopachi]

I used software "ThreeDPoseTracker" for all the mocap. it makes ai assisted mocap from a single camera strait to BVH capture. It puts the load on the GPU so you can have as many takes as you like. perfect for A:M. picture below is the dev. you have to get a free account on the website booth.pm but the software is free too! 

[Rodney]

Wow @Yopachi, I didn't realize how much I needed to see that.

Outstanding essay that captures so much or the Animation:Master experience (and early 3DCG history) in such as short video.

[Dylan Perry]

Wow, that was amazing. What a great essay. 

Those 'y2k CGI aliens' aren't dead, I'm working on a full length movie they feature in. Still using AM v13s, seven pc render farm, windows 7, no internet connection, no plugins, no subscriptions and most definitely NO AI. At all, none, not even upscaling, I'm rendering the whole thing 4k and most of it 16pass multipass at a few hours a frame.

I'm only 30 mins in of 75min after six years of production with likely another 5-7 years to go. Also all orchestral music is done on 16 vintage roland synths and even using hardware reverbs and effects. Pretty much the most slow and tedious way of doing it but it's completely future proof so I can make movies until I die lol

Don't get me started on people moving to Maya and other software, most of my team back in the 2000s constantly went on about moving to Maya or Soft Image or whatever. The funny thing is, my mate is also making his feature film but using Maya and Houdini and modern pipelines. He's constantly having licensing issues, can't open old models without renewing subscriptions and can only run one copy on one machine cause its too expensive to have more. And something even more funny, he was over the other day seeing my workflow on my old PC and I pressed play in the AM timeline; two shaded characters and a wireframe set, and an embedded reference video, started playing at the same time at atleast 30fps. his mind was blown "I can't do that" he said, I can only watch it realtime once I've rendered it. (That said, he's a pretty good artist and his film will be awesome.)

The trick with AM is to lean into what it's good at, curvy lines with razor sharp edges, reflections (lots of reflections) and keeping things simple. I can't stand the look of modern CGI movies, some of them are completely unwatchable with ridiculous amounts of colours in every shot. And the lighting and surfacing is so real all you see are pimples and eyebrow hairs, it's distracting and unnecessary. I also hate all the animation as animators think they are actors, shoot video of themselves and act like they think animated characters move. The result is it's all the same, it's all shit, over arcing over animated mess. Ok, not all films but most of the slop that comes out now. 

Oops, sorry for the vent. Your video is very inspiring and makes me feel I'm on the right course and all the work is worth it. Thankyou!

Dylan

 

[Dylan Perry]

Also, I had the pleasure of attending multiple Hash Bashes that Martin put on back in the day and even got to direct (badly) a couple of scenes on Tin Woodsman of Oz. The old Hash crew were great to hang out with and Martin is a legend and a great host. It's a pity what went down with his team but he soldiers on to this day. 

Robcat is a godsend, his level of knowledge on all aspects of AM is unparalleled and his videos and advice have been a key part in me making my movie.

I'm also working with Aldrich who's here on the forums and makes any new models and characters I need. Another Hash legend

I don't post here much but I sandbag and watch whats going on. This is an amazing community of extraordinary people and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Go AM!

Dylan

[Yopachi]

@Dylan Perry
GREAT VENT!

So much about what you said resonates with me! Your mascots were on the cover of the first copy I had. I was too much of a adhd youth to use the software a lot back then. But now, more than ever, we all need a cleanse from the hollywood fatigue we all feel!  

[Roger]

Yopachi,

Thanks for posting this, sometimes keeping things simple is the best approach.  I often daydream about having a 42U rack of servers to chug away on renders, but it really isn't necessary.  And it is really easy to get hung up on having that "Pixar" look, which can sometimes just get in the way of finishing a story.   Not that AM can't do that kind of thing, it can.   But the point of AM was what one artist could do in their home office, not fretting about trying to make a short animated by one person look as good as something that had a team of a dozen people working on it.  

Thanks for giving me a needed dose of "can do" optimism.