Monday, November 16, 2009

Omega



This is amazing!! Just posted on the message board, and in production for some time already over at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design in Germany... stopmotion puppets placed in a CG environment that was created (and framegrabbing done) using Blender open source 3D software. I must say, this definitely looks like one of the coolest films I've seen being made recently... for a long time actually. I wish I had come up with this idea!!!

Check out their blog: http://www.artificial3d.com/omega/

19 comments:

Mike said...

L00ks awesome!
Thanks.

rich said...

wow.thanks for posting

Shelley Noble said...

Stunning. Highly creative creature designs. Looks like the makers are being thoughtful in each detail. I even like the gap at the bottom of the "O" in Omega and what it may mean in their script.

Yaz said...

Wow.. different. Puppets look more natural then the environment. I dont know why I got this feeling. It is like real science-fiction actors are playing on an artificial film ground. Maybe puppets are too good or environment is too natural unlike what I used to see in stop motion films..

Oh No! Whaaat??? said...

Thank you! I've watched this several times today and find it somehow relaxing...

Darkmatters said...

Shelley... the letter O with the gap in the bottom is actually the Greek letter Omega. And Yaz, the backgrounds (sky, not ground) are done in CGI.

Dan Metalmadcat said...

m_) Perfect combination to shut some mouths, the so arbitrary ones, about what should only remain. See here how sometimes unification is what no one will even think of yet might be a bridge towards the best future for animation mixing mediums.

The fearless threader said...

I love the idea of mixing the animation media, it speaks to me in many m,any ways. I love this and really cannot wait to see the whole thing, hungry as I am for any good quality sci-fi in any media.

Rambles'N'Shambles said...

Hippocamels...

I KNEW IT! THEY ARE IN CAHOOTS!


and wow, that's amazing work, pulls you in, making you want to watch more

a guy in a gorilla suit said...

Wow. Finally. It was a matter of time until Blender will be used this way. I started to work with it and will under all circumstances use it for editing all my stop-motion shorts (work will start next weekend again...).
My experiences are that Blender had the most intelligent interface I ever had a chance to work with. It all looks much more confusing than having Photoshop opend the first time, because there is a zillion of buttons and then in different modes and what not. BUT: The Blender homepage comes with the complete documentation, set up in small chapters where each ends with a little workshop - not the regular 'what we learned...', nope: the final of chapter one is 'making your own animation in 30 + 30 minutes' - which means 30 minutes to build and 30 to animate. My experience was that it is possible in this time if you just follow the book and click your way. If you take some more time and experiment a bit, it will take its time. But as long as you keep in the described pannels/buttons/etc. and don't stroll around to much, you get a very good feeling for how to work with it.
Blender will be a great help in editing and working with sound, further there is a direct bridge to GIMP - an open-source based clone of Photoshop with which I did most of my picture manipulations. In GIMP you can build textures or whatever and use it directly in Blender. Further, GIMP provides a very good bluescreen plug-in...
I wish I had more time and space at the moment to test all this awsome software tools. I sure will document every step and all my experiences with them... (currently my whole stuff is in four flats all over the town).

One last w0ord about software and point-click-clack work: I use it as a tool because I can't afford 8/16mm film. And this tools are free. As LIO mentioned in his last postings over at stopmotionworks.com - forced perspective... Sure it looks better when its the real thing ! This completely free-for-all tools are a great help in achieving my goals - or will at least one day.

And for the trailer: I had the chance to get some glimpses of it - but don't have the possibility to watch the whole thing here. But thanks for posting - looks great !

P.S.: I don't get paid for advertising Blender, GIMP or any other free-of-charge, open-source based software here. But I strongly recommend to give them a try if you are looking for no-budget software solutions. Michael over and out.

Darkmatters said...

Hey Tiff,

Ooops! Actually the Hippocamel is in the post just below this one.... in the comments. Its true identity is the hippocampus... not a school for aquatic mammals as it might seem, but a little seashell-looking part of the brain responsible for memory indexing. Don't ask how we got on the subject... I can't recall....


Michael... I actually have a copy of Blender on my computer, but it's so freakin' COMPLICATED I blew a fuse in me noggin when I tried to mess with it!!!! If I ever try again I need to look at those tutorials.

a guy in a gorilla suit said...

here the complete documentation: workshop/tutorial by workshop/tutorial. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual
Without them you don't really have a chance.
STOP ! WRONG !!! I found blender when I was looking for a no-budget software solution for film editing and found a four part tutorial for complete newbies. In German.
But for starters, some videos for complete newbies (like me) that help a lot: http://www.blender.org/education-help/video-tutorials/

I started here: http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/contrib/interface.avi (download link !)

I'll give Blender another try when I have the time and the space... My goal is to set my whole software side of filmmaking/stop-motion/etc onto the open-source rail, from the operating system over editing software for audio/single frame/video/dvd-mastering to design of covers/artwork and document it all as good as possible. At the moment I'm in a training to achive a certificate as a Linux Service Technician (or so) which leaves just little sparetime.

And a last thing I want to mention since quite a while but haven't had the time to read all about it: your characters and the whole set and everything is awsome. Plainly, legendary awsome.

All the best ! M.

Logan said...

This is beautiful. Thanks for posting...

Anonymous said...

Great looking work, here. I can't even tell if something's posted on Youtube anymore because the quality is so jaw droppingly high.

Watching a video full screen nowadays is like being at the movie theater.

I, too, like to integrate CG with stop motion. I think it has a place... Camera moves, particle effects... things that would be difficult, if not impossible to animate in stop motion. The only drawback I see to using CG is that if the stop motion is not done to the same caliber, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Ditto for the CG not being as good as the stop motion...In my work, I try to strike a balance between the two by making everything look badly made :)

jriggity said...

Neat o!

nice find.....thanks for sharing.

jriggity

bRYEnd_of_the_schtick said...

(^ you folk STILLs crackle me tin foil to make warm sounding fireplace sounds.

(^>prosser

kNOW! go enjoy some tryptophan or however you spell the sluggishy feeling drug in turkey meat.

(^ tsk. oh why not:
spell checking "tryptophan" reveals
Aristophanes, cryptography, cryptogram, triumphant

Shelley Noble said...

O! d'uh.

Darkmatters said...

Yeah, Omega is actually the LAST letter in the Greek alphabet, and its use generally designates finality, as in the Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man (last man on earth).

Thanks Prosser... the day of feating and sleeping is almost upon us... then begins the shopping craziness...

Anonymous said...

Where did you get your backdrop material?