#top 3D product video making

[motionmatrixmedia]

2D vs 3D: Which Product Video Making Style Is Best for Your Project

Animation can make or break a project. The style you choose can significantly impact the storytelling, aesthetics, and overall impact of your work. That's why it's crucial to weigh the pros and cons of 2D and 3D animation before making a decision. Each offers unique advantages that can be used effectively in various contexts. However, if you're looking to create immersive experiences such as games, VR simulations, or AR applications, 3D product video-making is the way to go. Read here to learn more about how you can choose the right style for your project.

[theburialofstrawberries]

"In the past, whenever the movies in Hollywood went stale and executives exerted too much control over artists, the industry had an important hand brake: the audience. If a movie bombed with audiences and box office numbers plummeted, then studios would have to change course. After all, the box office has always been viewed as the gold standard of metrics in Hollywood for a reason: it’s the most distilled and straightforward measurement of audience interest. Moviegoers must choose to buy tickets. They cannot skip around, fast-forward, or order groceries through the Prime app on their phone. No moviegoer enters a theater expecting to leave after two minutes. Until Netflix, one of cinema’s essential qualities, the thing that distinguished it from television, was the way it commanded an audience’s attention. Whether a movie grossed big numbers or bombed, a box office report carried an inadmissible truth: the vast majority of the audience experienced the movie in full, and its taste couldn’t be ignored.

How to predict the audience’s taste — what will make money and what won’t — is a question that’s plagued Hollywood since its inception. The problem was captured by the screenwriter William Goldman in 1983. “Nobody knows anything,” he wrote in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade. “Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work.” Netflix’s greatest innovation was that it found a way around this uncertainty: it provided a platform on which there are no failures, where everything works.

This is an important milestone for the largest Hollywood studios as they all set their sights on integrating artificial intelligence into their productions. In March, news outlets reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had held meetings with top studios to showcase his company’s text-to-video generator, Sora. Clips generated by Sora that circulated online alternated between drone shots of cityscapes that look ripped from video-game cut scenes and animals rendered in the 3D animated style common to Hollywood productions today. Streaming platforms are the only place where this garbage makes any sense — a place where it would never be watched at all.

But by insulating their films from failure, the streamers have destroyed the meaning of success. Thierry Frémaux, head of the Cannes Film Festival and a vocal critic of streamers, understood this well when he presented the dilemma at a Cannes press conference in 2021. “What directors have been discovered by [streaming] platforms?” he asked. It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Frémaux began calling on journalists to name an auteur whose career had been launched by a streamer. By this point, Netflix had released more than seven hundred films in the US alone, with hundreds of directors attached. Yet as the Guardian later reported of the scene, “nobody could name any at all, in fact.”

Here, streaming platforms have achieved a strange paradox. Never has a group of studios gained so much control over the production, distribution, exhibition, and reception of movies by making movies no one cares about or remembers. Having not only failed to discover a new generation of auteurs, the streamers have also ensured that their filmmakers are little more than precarious content creators, ineligible to share the profits of any hit. It’s a shift that has induced a profound sense of confusion."

Casual Viewing by Will Tavlin, for n+1 mag

[prokopetz]

One of my favourite old-school video game aesthetics that basically nobody in the retro gaming sphere is trying to replicate these days is the stuff you see in the original Mortal Kombat, among other places.

You know how in the early days of CGI, a lot of films basically faked their computer graphics with practical effects done up to look like CGI, in order to make it seem like the production was on the cutting edge?

A fair number of video games during that period did that, too. Of course, real-time 3D graphics were generally impractical, but using 3D graphics to pre-render your sprites and backgrounds was still a major bragging point, with games like Donkey Kong Country being the most well-remembered examples.

So what did you do if your studio didn't have the budget for fancy CGI workstations?

You faked it, of course.

Games like Mortal Kombat claimed to have photorealistic motion-captured graphics, but in reality, there was no motion capture involved, and the reason the graphics were photorealistic is because they were, well, actual photos.

They'd film local martial artists and stunt performers against a green screen, cut out each figure paper-doll-style, then laboriously hand-draw any required special effects onto each individual frame. Figures who couldn't plausibly be portrayed using edited photos of humans in cheap Halloween costumes, like Mortal Kombat's Goro, were achieved using stop motion puppetry to produce the source footage, then processed in the same way as their human counterparts.

That's it. No motion capture, no CGI, just puppets and photo-collage – with a dash of traditional hand-drawn animation on top – being passed off as the genuine article. They were literally video games with practical effects.

Like, I totally understand why nobody does it anymore – ironically, computer graphics have reached the point that just using actual CGI is cheaper and easier – but it kind of surprises me that there aren't more contemporary indie studios willing to give it a go just for the hell of it.

[bobacupcake]

Oooh, what about Journey? I think the sand probably took a lot to pull off

it did!! i watched a video about it, god, like 6 years ago or something and it was a very very important thing for them to get just right. this is goimg to be a longer one because i know this one pretty extensively

here's the steps they took to reach it!!

and heres it all broken down:

so first off comes the base lighting!! when it comes to lighting things in videogames, a pretty common model is the lambert model. essentially you get how bright things are just by comparing the normal (the direction your pixel is facing in 3d space) with the light direction (so if your pixel is facing the light, it returns 1, full brightness. if the light is 90 degrees perpendicular to the pixel, it returns 0, completely dark. and pointing even further away you start to go negative. facing a full 180 gives you -1. thats dot product baybe!!!)

but they didnt like it. so. they just tried adding and multiplying random things!!! literally. until they got the thing on the right which they were like yeah this is better :)

you will also notice the little waves in the sand. all the sand dunes were built out of a heightmap (where things lower to the ground are closer to black and things higher off the ground are closer to white). so they used a really upscaled version of it to map a tiling normal map on top. they picked the map automatically based on how steep the sand was, and which direction it was facing (east/west got one texture, north/south got the other texture)

then its time for sparkles!!!! they do something very similar to what i do for sparkles, which is essentially, they take a very noisy normal map like this and if you are looking directly at a pixels direction, it sparkles!!

this did create an issue, where the tops of sand dunes look uh, not what they were going for! (also before i transition to the next topic i should also mention the "ocean specular" where they basically just took the lighting equation you usually use for reflecting the sun/moon off of water, and uh, set it up on the sand instead with the above normal map. and it worked!!! ok back to the tops of the sand dunes issue)

so certain parts just didnt look as they intended and this was a result of the anisotropic filtering failing. what is anisotropic filtering you ask ?? well i will do my best to explain it because i didnt actually understand it until 5 minutes ago!!!! this is going to be the longest part of this whole explanation!!!

so any time you are looking at a videogame with textures, those textures are generally coming from squares (or other Normal Shapes like a healthy rectangle). but ! lets say you are viewing something from a steep angle

it gets all messed up!!! so howww do we fix this. well first we have to look at something called mip mapping. this is Another thing that is needded because video game textures are generally squares. because if you look at them from far away, the way each pixel gets sampled, you end up with some artifacting!!

so mip maps essentially just are the original texture, but a bunch of times scaled down Properly. and now when you sample that texture from far away (so see something off in the distance that has that texture), instead of sampling from the original which might not look good from that distance, you sample from the scaled down one, which does look good from that distance

ok. do you understand mip mapping now. ok. great. now imagine you are a GPU and you know exactly. which parts of each different mip map to sample from. to make the texture look the Absolute Best from the angle you are looking at it from. how do you decide which mip map to sample, and how to sample it? i dont know. i dont know. i dont know how it works. but thats anisotropic filtering. without it looking at things from a steep angle will look blurry, but with it, your GPU knows how to make it look Crisp by using all the different mip maps and sampling them multiple times. yay! the more you let it sample, the crisper it can get. without is on the left, with is on the right!!

ok. now. generally this is just a nice little thing to have because its kind of expensive. BUT. when you are using a normal map that is very very grainy like the journey people are, for all the sparkles. having texture fidelity hold up at all angles is very very important. because without it, your textures can get a bit muddied when viewing it from any angle that isnt Straight On, and this will happen

cool? sure. but not what they were going for!! (16 means that the aniso is allowed to sample the mip maps sixteen times!! thats a lot)

but luckily aniso 16 allows for that pixel perfect normal map look they are going for. EXCEPT. when viewed from the steepest of angles. bringing us back here

so how did they fix this ? its really really clever. yo uguys rmemeber mip maps right. so if you have a texture. and have its mip maps look like this

that means that anything closer to you will look darker, because its sampling from the biggest mip map, and the further away you get, the lighter the texture is going to end up. EXCEPT !!!! because of aisononotropic filtering. it will do the whole sample other mip maps too. and the places where the anisotropic filtering fail just so happen to be the places where it starts sampling the furthest texture. making the parts that fail that are close to the camera end up as white!!!

you can see that little ridge that was causing problems is a solid white at the tip, when it should still be grey. so they used this and essentially just told it not to render sparkles on the white parts. problem solved

we arent done yet though because you guys remember the mip maps? well. they are causing their own problems. because when you shrink down the sparkly normal map, it got Less Sparkly, and a bit smooth. soooo . they just made the normal map mip maps sharper (they just multipled them by 2. this just Worked)

the Sharp mip maps are on the left here!!

and uh... thats it!!!! phew. hope at least some of this made sense

[tossawary]

I think SVSSS as a 2D cartoon would be the best moving medium for it imo.

I mean, personally, yeah, that's how I'd enjoy seeing it as well! My ideal slightly pretentiously artsy SVSSS screen adaptation would probably look only a little more detailed than linograph prints (2D or shaded 3D?) (someone hit me up in like two weeks to draw an example of what I mean, if I don't remember on my own, I don't have access to art stuff right now), very stylized and vibrantly colorful, because that's one of the art styles that I particularly enjoy.

I'm not a personally a fan of the 3D SVSSS show because I find the characters a little too doll-like and same-facey for my tastes? It's fine! It works! It's serviceable! It's just all, backgrounds included, a little... safe? I tend to like over-the-top bright colors and intricate details and impractically weird shapes and yet also coherent world production design in my fantasy, which is a lot to demand of any production, perhaps especially with animation productions, which are always squeezed for time and money.

(EDIT: I know the SVSSS show was under heavy constraints and the results are impressive considering their resources; it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like the art style and nevertheless find the results underwhelming. I don't like a lot of "realistic" modeling / rendering styles, not just "anime" ones, even if they are extremely technically impressive. Believe me when I say that I know the vast majority of the entertainment industry is overworked and underpaid and creatively restrained.)

Slightly tangential general note: I don't think 2D is inherently superior to 3D (EDIT: NOT trying to imply asker is saying this, just having some general thoughts), especially because, with the realities of production, each have their advantages. 2D has a lot of stylistic advantages still, but 3D shaders are catching up and doing some incredible things these days! More advanced puppet controls and particle effects and such are doing some beautiful things for 2D shows as well these days. A lot of stuff has been subtly mixed media as soon as 3D became possible. It is potentially possible (note: not saying any studio would actually greenlight this) to do an equally slightly weird and artistically stunning 3D SVSSS show, given the freedom to work. (Good boarding and writing is also sooooo important in both mediums, obviously, it's not just about the art design. You can get away with incredibly limited animation with good boarding, writing, and art design.)

Another slightly tangential ramble: both 2D and 3D have the potential for stiff animation and poor character acting, which also comes down to production limits and animator skills? (I often think of character animators as a type of actor!) There are a lot of 2D shows that I don't really like because I find the animation incredibly stiff, both puppet and handdrawn (there's great 2D puppet stuff out there these days), which pretty much always comes down to production limits (deadlines and budget and software, saving up their animation for the coolest scenes). One of my favorite things about Studio Ghibli films (which as features get a lot more space to focus on art compared to the demands and restraint of television) has always been the squash and stretch in otherwise relatively realistic action, making things like hugs look SO nice for example. But 3D stuff is getting better at that these days! The ways characters slumped into each other in "Nimona" for example was great. And it's just fascinating to look at the elasticity / stylized sculpt of expressions in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" compared to the technical limits of the models / rigs in "Shrek" or "Shrek 2".

Adding these side notes because I want to be clear about my respect for both 2D and 3D artistically! A lot of video games are doing cool stuff in 3D that looks very close to 2D with stylized shaders, which you can sometimes spot by the large or small rotations in character action / acting, which is difficult (and therefore often expensive) to do in 2D with all of those extra drawings / angle poses. Also, I think the current push towards funky shaders in 3D is so cool and it's hard not to gush about them!!!

[curio-queries]

I saw Jungkook's documentary this weekend and have just a few thoughts. If you're avoiding spoilers, don't click the cut!

The Hybe Documentary Format

So...as a reminder to you all, I do not have professional expertise in the film industry. I'm just a very discerning consumer. I also haven't seen Hobi's documentary and I watched Road to D-Day while I was quite ill last year so I only vaguely remember some bits. (I'll definitely be getting back to those sooner rather than later though as research for a series of posts I'm developing.) That being said, I think we have enough data points to state that Hybe has absolutely no interest in filmmaking techniques outside of music videos.

I did mostly enjoy my experience seeing this film yesterday and I'm always grateful for any amount of footage the members are willing to share with us but this 'documentary ' was worse than Jimin's Production Diary. Any of you that managed to make it through my rambling review will know how dissatisfied I was with that.

I Am Still is not a documentary, it's a mixture of showcase footage and behind-the-scenes clips, most of which has already been divulged in the various episodes and shooting sketches on YouTube. Honestly, if you're not able to see the film, just go rewatch all of the bangtantv content for JKs solo period and the showcase and you'll be up to speed with 85% of what was in the documentary.

There are definitely some expansions to the storylines featured in the bangtantv content; mostly being anything that wasn't overtly optimistic. For example, we learn a little bit more about just how sick JK was during the Seven/3D promotions. That content likely was pulled from the bangtantv edit because it would have put a damper on the promotions and given certain 'fans' a focus to fixate their vitriol. But overall, it feels more like an extended version of existing content rather than a new work. At least JPD didn't continually feed us footage we'd seen before.

I'm someone who gets completely bothered by previews spoiling content so I didn't watch any of the promos until after I saw it and I am so glad I skipped them because most of the 'original' scenes of the film were featured in least one of them. Alas, that's a separate issue of which I'm definitely in the minority.

Was There No Structure?

Kinda. Like JPD, there is a semblance of a structure: Attempting to follow the chronology of release activities for JKs GOLDEN album through the lens of JKs staement trying to prove that he is still worthy of everything he was being hailed as during the BTS group activities but I don't feel this was successfully executed. It jumps round enough and isn't very successful in explaining the events if you didn't already know about them. The film starts with the SEVEN performance at GMA and footage that we've already seen of JK recording SEVEN, not mentioning anything about the music video or really how JK got involved with the song in the first place. The rest of the story beats have similar missing points.

They have a vague narrative with the 'I Am Still' points but that's mostly carried by subs and a couple of moments that JK mentions himself. I'm not saying it's not true or wasn't top-of-mind for JK during this process but it's not the main point of many of the moment/messages he shared with us during this time period so it feels a little disingenuous since everything else jn this film really only makes sense if you've already seen quite a lot of behind-the-scenes content.

Honestly, it makes me question the intended audience. Obviously, they know that ARMY will shell out whatever we need to when there's new content from our members but most of us will have already seen all of the bangtantv content so we are already familiar with the most of the footage in this film. I genuinely don't think this was produced in such a way to be palatable for audiences not familiar with BTS so who does that leave? Our friends and family that are peripherally aware of the content but haven't learned the basics of JKs album? ARMY with short term memories only?

But again, it seems this film was compiled by an editing team and not lead by a director with experience in crafting a documentary. The only new footage that Ican guarantee was captured with the express purpose of being included in this film was the few clips of JK talking in the practice room with the albums displayed by him. But we all know that's where all of the promo clips were gathered as well. I have issues with that approach as well but I'll leave this point alone for now unless anyone is interested.

Suffice it to say, all of these suppositions over the past year about how JKs documentary was getting special treatment or even questioning about investment in a project up front are dead. This was a product assembled with bits of what they already had completely in-house which was sold for distribution.

So, Did We Learn NOTHING?

No, there are a few Golden nuggets (see what I did there?). I can't recall everything having only seen it once (and having a rather disruptive audience - I swear there were only dozen or so ppl in my theater but I forget how obnoxious teenagers can be. I'm glad they're enjoying and supporting but we really didn't need light sticks flashing during a film and how many times does one person need to get up to answer their phone during this runtime? Three according to the row in front of mine.)

Anyway, something I thought was interesting to learn was that Standing Next To You was initially recorded the day after JK heard it for the first time. And hearing a little more about how JK yearned to perform that song definitelygot me thinking a little more about it. We can't reach any conclusions just with this little nugget but it does open the door to some theories. Like perhaps they were initially planning to have JK record two separate albums? SEVEN and 3D would be the singles of the first and JK would perform them as we saw but perhaps STNY was originally planned to be the single of the 2nd album that would release while he was in the military and thus be unable to perform it? Maybe JK loved STNY so much that everything was grouped into one album and Never Let Go was the only track held back for ms? Definitely some theorizing space to be had now.

Final thoughts?

Similar to my thoughts on the GCF: Budapest (which I feel would have had a much better reception if it had been labeled as a bangtan episode rather than a GCF), I AM Still should not have purported to be a documentary. It was much more similar to the annual Memories compilations. But the general public would not have shelled out the $25 to go to a theater to watch a Memories DVD so alas, we have our content packaged as a ~documentary~...

Did my view on the music change at all? Not because of the documentary. We're coming up on the year anniversary of GOLDEN and it's still definitely not my favorite. I completely understand why some people like it but it's just not to my taste. The overall impact falls a little flat for me. Too much breadth and not enough depth. I came into my musical soul during the 00s emo phase and will always be a sucker for music that absolutely drips in an emotional way rather than catchy songs vaguely referencing heartache and love. Again, just a matter of viewpoint.

I do think most of these songs stand much better being shuffled amongst other artists in a Playlist and several of them are significantly better when JK sang them live but I still won't be listening to them regularly. I wholeheartedly believe JK completed his task of proving himself as an extremely dedicated and versatile singer and performer. He's definitely got some solid points added to his resume after this project.

[littlemisstired]

something that has always fucked me up is the frankly terrifying exponential skill acceleration in the creative field. so many of the young artists I know now, even myself, are at a skill level that 25-30 years ago could have gotten them real jobs in animation or game design, even lauded as being top of their line of work, but are hardly even a blip on the radar in today’s industry where the skill ceiling is now miles above achievable for so many.

I look back at the kinds of art that was being made by the professional artists back in the 80s and 90s for comics and animation and some of it is downright amateurish compared to today’s work. It was roughshod, silly, scratchy, experimental. It wasn’t preoccupied with fitting into the bland Triple A standards or warping to fit what huge corporations expected, because those expectations simply didn’t exist yet in a world where video games and animated film and fantasy illustration were still in their infancy. The art in concept art felt so much more alive, more human. Nowadays I see people trying to get their feet in the door slaving for years trying to learn rendering techniques or portfolio tricks to even get their work in front of a recruiter, making stuff they don’t even care about just for the chance to be taken seriously. Strange how now more than even bigger studios are being ridiculed for their bland and uninteresting design/writing choices, where smaller studios with more creative control and more ready access to independent voices and visions are cranking out wildly popular, original titles left and right.

this sort of ended up longer than I expected, and rambling, but it’s something I’ve felt for so long as an artist who spent 15 years desperately trying to “get good enough” for a professional studio. The problem is that in the corporate capitalist hell we live in here in the US, “getting good enough” is almost never achievable, because those goalposts are always moving. You want to be a background artist? Well you need to learn how to do 3D modeling, texture mapping, physics simulation, how to use lighting in game engines. You want to be a character designer? You need to know rigging and clothing simulation and how to apply animation in X software. Also you need to do every style known to the world plus more, except in the end the studio will probably just ask you to photobash three dozen designs that all look the same anyway.

I understand there’s more to this than I’ve mentioned, that the world has changed in the 3 decades since the mid 90s, that there are millions of artists and only a few hundred thousand jobs in any creative field at any given time, that it’s reasonable to expect people to learn new things to better work as technology advances… but it seems so particularly crushing to artists, who oftentimes pour so much of their own heart and soul into what they do, and who are still expected to monetize, adapt, and distribute their skill like it’s some corporate tool and not a gift from evolution for us to record and express ourselves. Art and design are the building blocks for humans to understand and capture beauty and pain, joy and sorrow, and it’s disheartening to see that vulnerable creativity stripped away in favor of producing sterilized, corporate friendly “products”.

[rad-o-saurus]

I AM BEGGING YOU HOW DID YOU MAKE THE CHUM MASK

I'm probably not the best to ask for costume making advice but i will do my best to explain my process as comprehensibly as possible. Luckily i took pictures during it's production!

This post is kinda long but hang in there lol

Step 1: Research

Since there is no tutorial on how to make a fish head, i had to find tutorials that deal with characters with a similar face shape and and skin type for both construction and material. Any fursuit head tutorial should be watched just to get a general feel for what you're getting into though.

(Link of playlist of video tuts i used for reference)

Step 2: Planning/Sketching/Gathering

To start i recommend taking a picture of yourself and drawing the head around it to plan where to place things like eyes and jaw (if you want a movable jaw) . It's also important to measure your head/plan out how big you want the head to actually be concretely. I adapted the design as best i could while still retaining likeness. Know exactly what your head is gonna look like before you start

EX1: Sketch for look and measurements (i had many others this is just the cleanest)

I then had to decide what material I was going to use for certain parts of the cosplay. Following the tutorials i gathered essential materials like Upholstery foam, a balaclava and elastic band for the jaw but i had to improvise for more case specific parts. The hair and teeth are made out of cardboard and the eyes are just Styrofoam balls for example. I also cheaped out a little for the skin, opting to just buy gray fabric instead of the preferred minky.

I also kept a log to track my progress, schedule myself and take notes when changes need to be made so that can be useful as well

Step 3: Production

Finally it is time to make the damn fish!!

3.1:Bucket head

I used the bucket head method (which basically just consists of wrapping a piece of foam around your head gluing it and putting a top) since it was the simplest to do.

I then cut out the necessary holes and started adding the other foam to get the shape base of the head.

I then kept adding on foam in general shaped and started sculpting it. Normally fursuit makers use a fancy saw but if you have a bread knife (serated) and a pair of good scissors you should be good to go.I also painted and paper maché-d the Styrofoam eyes at this point.

(sculpting process also for tail too)

Don't forget to try it on every once and a while to make sure everything works as it's supposed too and looks how it's supposed too (also make sure you can see because I didn't and it's very hard too see in that thing)

Ex 2: Swag

3.2: Skinning and accessories

By this point I started making the teeth and the hair which was simple enough since i've used cardboard as a material before.

The real tough part for me would be to skin the thing which required that i learn how to sew.

I first had to make a pattern which required that i wrap my precious fishy boy in duck tape and then draw out the different sections of the head for them to be sewn together later. It was definitely hard to get used to but I'm thankful that I learnt how to do it because it actually helped me better understand Uv wrapping in 3D texturing !

I did the same for the tail! (Btw if you ever decide to do this please wrap your foam base in plastic wrap because removing the duck tape otherwise is difficult and can even rip off some of your foam)

When all was done and sewn in one piece wrapped it around the head, glued the hair and started painting the details like scales and mussel as well as glue on the mesh in order to hide the eye holes.

Step 4: Fuck around you funky fish!!!

If you have any additional questions about the costume feel free to ask, i will be happy to answer!

Have a Fishtastic day!

[basiliskfree]

(I watched too much history clothes making videos to have Lamp textiles)

For the most part Lamps don’t have the same pressures or need for clothes as Humans. Most finding the restriction of clothes really uncomfortable and annoying on their flexible bodies. Outside of some rare PPE Clothes are pretty much not a thing for hivemind lamps, so the fact all Ships have at least one auto loom and leather growing system was confusing at first to the humans studying them. Turns out textiles can make useful tools and for the speculum Lamps this tool use became used for art

more under Cut

This systems were mostly used instead for tool making, woven textiles are used in bags, Filters and netting for hydroponics. The two types of fibers produced are a polyester like material  (that is about as breathable as polyester) and a Kevlar-like material used in strength base tasks. A ship will usually have one small auto loom that will have two settings a plain weave or hexagon net. Other weaves and things like knit fabrics are just not a thing most Shipped lamps wouldn’t even view these materials as something to make clothes out of.

Mostly do you the power in their Leathers. These Materials are grow into many shapes, functions and forms. The Leather is  the same cell structure as lamp skin and can be grown and shaped to do pretty much anything the Lamps need. Need a Screen? Just grown a section of the Colour-change layer on top of a light production layer. Need a circuit board? Lamp DNA can make single atom wires for all your 3d circuit board needs. This Leather can ether be tanned for strength or kept “Live” for auto repair and some functions (you do have to feed your computer sugars do to this at times). Most Lamp tack is build using systems like this and for Spectrum Lamps if they are make clothes it will be out of this too.

On to Clothes there are two main Cultural views about it one from the Shipped and the Other the Ship-less

For the Shipped Clothes are ether Costume for plays (pictured are Two common characters in Lamp theater The Singer and The Silent) or PPE all of which tends Leather to be grown into a pattern, with it’s Stems formed from a “glue” that makes the separate edges grown into one piece before it’s tanned; leaving a seamless look. Lights and display elements are common as Lamps are very extra about there theater and the extra power draw is fine as these are not clothes meant to be worn for more them an hour.

For the Ship-less Clothes are more an everyday thing used to protect from the dust storms common to the “wastelands” outside of Greenwich (The one Lamp City). As the Name suggests these lamps don’t have Ships to call home, and with what little Living leather they can trade for are not going to waste it on clothes. These Lamps instead have a culture of weaving, taking the fluffs of a Common food crop and turning it into a range of different fabrics. They also tan the hides of parasites that is then sewn together into sheets. often in to geometric patterns.

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Running Up That Hill

I've never seen any episodes of Stranger Things, but I've learned bits and pieces about it from Tumblr/the internet, and of course I heard about its usage of Running Up That Hill (which I did know a little bit already) in season 4, which had the song shooting up to the tops of music charts, breaking a record for the longest time for a track to reach Number 1 spot on the UK's official Singles Chart (as well as the oldest female artist to get there).

Voiceplay's video for their cover of Running Up That Hill was released on the 2nd of July, 2022, and like the other "trendy"/popular song featured in a piece of recent media that they covered that year, it features Ashley Diane! So let's go! 😁

Apparently (if I'm correctly remembering the comments I read about it), Voiceplay used mops to cover the floor with a thin layer of water (which had to be done multiple times during filming), to get a cool reflective effect that would give the vibes of "The Upside-Down" from the series.

(And as always, shoutout to Eli for the lighting design!)

Ayyyy

Eli is going double-denim (very 80s) with his jeans and denim jacket combo, and his "Hellfire Club" shirt is merch from Stranger Things! Ashley is wearing a cute crop top, and I love her hair and makeup here. Cesar's got a button-up shirt and a maroon jacket (which I kinda want for myself tbh), Layne's wearing ripped jeans (like Eli) and a kinda-patchwork-pattern button-up (which I also want), and Geoff... is doing The Least again. 😆 His "80s-style" outfit is a plain black/grey shirt, jeans, and a barely-noticeable jacket/jumper tied around the waist. I do love him but I can't help but (lightheartedly) call him out sometimes. 😂

Love the eyeshadow! 💜

Cesar is absolutely vibing at the start of this and I love him

Lighting change!

And again!

When your multiple superhuman abilities include lighting control /j😝

(Also notice the water droplets around/near Layne and Cesar's feet?)

Cool 3D-glasses-like visual effect!

Man she's so pretty (Voiceplay videos spoil me sometimes, they really do)

"Let me steal this moment from you nowwww"

(Trust Geoff to get a low-key dark line of a song and make it even darker/spookier! 😄)

Lighting change again!

As if I was going to talk about the visuals for this video without talking about this moment! So extremely cool, even if you're not into Stranger Things. No clue how they managed to pull it off, but very well done!

The guys' reactions are all absolute gold, of course 😂 ("what should we do?" "I don't know, just keep singing!")

Based on the very-fixed and very-specific shots we get of Ashley while she's "levitating", I'm guessing this was more done via clever editing and post-production work rather than anything like harnesses to actually lift her in the air (not sure if Voiceplay/Pattycake Productions would have the money or resources for that anyway), but still, absolutely brilliant job, and what a way to elevate the video! 😉 (couldn't help myself 😁)

3D-glasses effect again!

I honestly wonder whether or not it was difficult to hold those expressions and not break character, while still singing/vocalising

The last frame of the video, right?

Wrong!

This is the actual last frame (before the Patreon credits), thanks to a very quick bonus scene that Voiceplay decided to include. They sure do have a flair for the dramatic, don't they? 😄

Shoutout to Layne for both the arrangement and video for this one! Voiceplay continue to knock it out of the park, every time, without fail. They know how to do songs justice, while still putting their own spin on it, and it always works so well!

[meloromantics]

would you ever consider doing video tutorials for knitting? for example i want to learn to knit bust darts (vertical, i'm busty and need more fabric there) but i have not had much luck on youtube. saw one video that showed how to do short row darts but that's not really what i need and even that video wasn't super clear lol. this is not a request for you to do something tedious btw lol i am not trying to pressure you at all, just love your projects and trust your knitting advice ♥️

no lust for video production on the nearish horizon but i can give some illustrated tips for potential next steps for you !! congrats on wanting to try darts, they are one of the most useful things i have figured out how to do. some high level points first:

first, i would say do not dismiss short row darts 😈 i will show you some examples of how i've used them on my projects in an attempt to convince you of this.

second: horizontal darts work so well for me that i have not yet actually worked vertical darts. the premise of vertical darts is using increases and/or decreases to add and remove horizontal inches to the same region.

third! as a busty and somewhat barrel chested broad, who mostly knits zero-to-negative ease, the most consistent fit modification i make is adding extra size under the arms. i'll explain this in my second example.

example A: horizontal bust darts

i learned how to work horizontal bust darts knitting lily kate france's upwards top, which is a fingering weight tank. the extra vertical length, and the angle at which it is formed, create a modest 3d "hill" that adds a little bit of "bonus space" when wrapped around the 3d object of your body.

both the vertical length and the angle can be customized to fit your body. lily kate's formula for fingering weight tops is what i adapted to the dk weight of the love magick using middle school algebra:

pink: total number of stitches from the front section of the upwards top [loose fingering gauge] in my size

green: total number of stitches from the front section of my love magick [loose dk gauge]

blue1; blue2; blue3...: the number of stitches before turning for each dart as given in the upwards top pattern

and of course x1; x2; x3...: the number of stitches i need to work in DK gauge to get the same spacing / angle of darts as i did on the upwards top

the upwards top is not super bra-friendly. i suggest doing what i did and finding a pattern you want to knit that has bust darts built in, and giving it a try!

and to my second high-level point above. i, personally, find the ability to adjust the spacing of horizontal darts more intuitive than vertical ones, and vertical darts aren't as visually appealing in the gauges i typically work in. but sometimes the "bonus space" provided by horizontal darts is not enough to accommodate the extra inches that knitters like you and i need. that brings us to the next modification.

example B: armscye expansion nation

i took these notes after my try-on for my first love magick sweater, which was super tight in the pits and written with an arm circumference that would not work with my body.

notes: - medium fits well through neck and shoulders, but will need much more room in sleeves and arm (med is 2" too short at bicep!!) - Frog back to sleeve separation and add at least 4-6 straight raglan rows - initially added 4 armpit stitches. will up to 6 for attempt #2. - 3 waist shaping decreases in body

my preferred method of adding extra horizontal inches is by casting on [or binding off] extra underarm stitches. in top-down sweaters, this adds size to both the body and the sleeves, which was key for me not only in the love magick but for most sweaters i knit.

in this example, the yellow oval represents the armhole shape as-written for joining a top-down raglan sweater in the round after splitting off sleeves. this pattern asks me to cast on 4 extra stitches for each armpit. what i would do instead is cast on 12. at a fingering weight gauge of ~6 stitches per inch, the math does this:

(my total armpit stitch inches) – (total recommended armpit stitch inches) = (total inches added) (12*2) – (4*2) = 16 stitches 16 stitches / 6 stitches per inch = 2 ⅔" added

if you size sweaters to your high bust measurement [you should], you'd want your (total inches added) to get you closer to your full bust measurement.

you can then use waist shaping to decrease your way back to the prescribed number of stitches. or to a number of stitches that is a better match for your waist size!

the combo of horizontal darts + extra armpit stitches has been great for my chest shape, and i have figured out a more-or-less standard library of mods that i make to most sweaters to make them fit me. you can find that formula, too, but it won't be the same as mine, and you can only find it by experimenting.

oh, and a bonus: if you're also curvy in the lower half, you can use the same Knitting Technology ™ to shape skirts to yourself [check my pinned post, if you haven't!]

i hope this helps! good luck n lemme know how it goes 🧶

[reviewtechnology]

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[3danimationcompany]

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[brooklynbutterflyarts]

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[dojae-huh]

The creative producer confirmed that AI was used instead of a 3D model. He said he used "blend" of mediums. Which still makes me think a photo was placed a top of a 3D head/other person's head (or other way around) because of the difference in detail (hair). AI smoothes hair and make locks follow waves.

(A 3D model was made later. The statue also have the round nose. Oops.)

I don't think SM will stop using AI. They outsource production of MVs. AI is a new tool which is very close to the effects 3D modelling gives, which is attractive to videomakers (saves them time, lets them do it and have control over the desireable result instead of hiring others). With time they will learn how to do it in a way fans won't notice (basically, will do a less lousy job, retouch when needed).

As of now there are 300k views under the video. I'm afraid, it is not enough to push SM to choose "integrity" over "speed/lower costs of production".

Before AI, the practice of painting over photographs, editing photographs with filters to achieve traditional medium effect or a perfect skin, changing the shape of the body, glueing together several pictures (head from one, arms from another) for book covers and editorial pictures was widespread. With AI it is the computer programme that glues several sources (photo+photo or photo+3D model). In video-games actors' real faces are used for characters. That's why it is not an issue in the minds of people who work in the field. The old way or the new way the real people's images are altered.

Personally, I don't think Taeyong was disrespected (the intention wasn't there). I see no difference between a person's image used for a plastic standee/doll or a digital video (the same level of selling your own image, your face, Tae signed the contract). However, fans are the buyers of the final product so as consumers they can demand changes if they don't like something. I can't share the sentiment about AI in this case (as no artist was ripped of his/her drawing style), but I can agree that the likeness of the person rendered should be preserved better. Taeyong's nose is important, heh.

Would I prefer real photographs being used? Yes. It was possible to do away without AI in those shots. A dialogue about whether to use AI or not is possible with MV/album covers creators, the push against the practice. However, I think it will work only even if the opposition is done in a calm manner, from the artistic value point of view, whithout hysterics.

[sharlmbracta]

Kanye West - Selah (Mario animation)

- Original from Choreography by Talia Favia ft Kaycee Rice

2nd animation that I've fully created from start to finish!

(youtube link for high quality video)

I wanted to challenge myself by attempting to animate a complex dance choreography with his peculiar body proportions, and I really learned a lot about movement and especially about weight shifting while doing so!

Him performing this choreography can be interpreted to about his fight with/for the powers that were given to him, the previous powers of his own, and his power of will. Perhaps it would make him release, with the conflict between his self as a person, and his self as an icon, representative, machine. The end can be interpreted as having a strong grip on himself again, reclaiming himself... but whatever.

Hopefully he can deliver some sort of sentimental impact to some extent despite the peculiarity of the content itself 🤣✨️

============================

Progress and sources below the cut

Progress:

23.02.19. ~ 23.02.21. - fixed downloaded mesh errors, body rigging done. 23.02.21. ~ 23.03.03. - all dance movements (rigid, superficial, no depth) done. high resolution test render 1. (back to college starting from 23.03.02. less time spent on animation.) 23.03.03. ~ 23.03.13. - stylizing and smoothing animation 80% done. face rigging done. facial animation done. 23.03.19. ~ 23.03.22. - created and adjusted stage and stage lighting. 23.03.26. - added squash and stretch. low resolution test render 2. separated view layers and data passes for compositing. 23.03.27. ~ 23.03.29. - compositing done. low resolution test render 3 for checking post-production lighting issues. 23.03.31. - adjusted shaders and post-production lighting. 23.04.01. - full resolution final render start. 23.04.10. ~ 23.04.11. - render finished (3926 frames). final color adjustments to outputted video. added intro description and watermark. uploaded video.

==============================

Music used: Kanye West - Selah

Original choreography video: Kanye West - Selah - Choreography by Talia Favia ft Sean Lew, Kaycee Rice, Courtney Schwartz filmed by Tim Milgram

Model used (no rig, only the mesh and materials): "Mario from Super Mario Odyssey" uploaded by Elite 3D

Texture used: Wooden floor texture

Everything else is created by myself, with blender.

The eyelashes and the top hair sprout is made by me, as they weren't in the model.

Rigging and animating done with blender 2.81

Shading, compositing, post-processing and rendering done with blender 3.41

he is so cute