I'm creating an animation studio today

Everything else
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Ok, so quick update.

What I’m making is the nexus between videogames and movies. Finally, right?

So it takes a static file with everything you need to make a movoe, shot by shot. Orignally I had these huge spreadsheets that would feed it the information required and then it magically makes the movie from these files. Someone pointed out this is a kind of cumbersome way to do it and so we are working on a web based GUI that will let anyone in a hopefully user friendly way play with the tech.

So bavially we divide visual narratives as Acts, Scenes, Subscenes and Shots. So each level rolls up into the next and inherits all kinds of things like weather, tone, mood, characters, whatever.

You basically write a script, give it images, 3D objects and animations like .obj and .fbx files to match the actions you want, and it makes the movie for you. We are working on an interface and tools so you can be as abstact or as detailed as you like.

By the way, the guy writing the interface and UI is a Cornell Comp Sci grad and he’s just great. I think I’m going to make him my lead programmer if this works out.

Anyway, anyone interested just PM me and I’ll give you our server IP when it’s ready. It’s going to be a private, non DNS listed server when is ready.

I can’t wait to start creating videos with it!

The reason I know this thing is useful is because my wife used it to make a little explainer video for her business was extremly receptive to it. She loved it and wanted more. She’s least tech savvy and most critical of ease of use person I know, and the most pragmatic. She’s kind of excited about it so I know I’m on the right track.

We are going to try and make it so when you create a movie it posts right to YouTube or whatever so people can play with it and you can see improvements as we make them.

So PM me and introduce yourself if you want access in a couple of weeks! I’ll post updates here as to timing.

Basically the UI will take about 2 weeks and deploying it to a secure web server say 2 weeks so we are a month out.

Whew! I’m excited!

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I’m certain it could never be easy enough for a guy like me to use, but I must admit I’m still curious as hell about this and where it could go.

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We are trying to make it pretty easy, but yes, inherently it must use the language of film, which not everyone is comfortable with. We try to have a wide view of the completed story structure first, then optionally drill down to the shot level. In order to help people we will be capturing patterns, at first manually and then with ML.

I say the first person to capture the pattern gets to name it. For instance, typically in film you have various types of establishing shots. A super long shot might show an entire cityscape, then a closer shot for a particular neighborhood, when a particular car or building facade or something. However sometimes this rule is broken like in Michael Mann’s Heat. At the start of the second Act he uses a long shot of the city and then pans down and zooms in to a particular van going down the street, setting up the next scene. I call that “The Heat Stakeout Pan”. Though my wife thinks this is a bad idea as it might confuse people who are not film buffs.

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If you’re offering this commercially, you’re going to run into IP issues with this approach. I’m also curious who the audience for this is that isn’t film buffs, or at least cinematically literate.

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Yeah, you’re right. It’s much more alliterative that way but you’re right. Wide Establishing Shot Tracking and Zooming to Actor is not as sexy, but non conflicting.

To answer that problem, the AI can build you a full movie and then you can just change what you want, if you want to, then render it.

I really, really need a videogame programmer now but that will have to sit on the back burner until I get to it. Angel.co and Indeed have not come up with a lot of candidates.

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I hope this works out really well and one of the movies is eventually submitted to the Cannes Film Festival. Spieberg’s sphincter would permanently clinch!

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So our demo server is live! I have to do some tests, lock down security and upload some assets. It should be live next week. I need to also write a manual so people don’t get lost.

People who PMed me for access, stand by! I’ll send a link when ready and then you can make movies!

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Nice!

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Lol I meant internally. At Fry’s now building the server. :)

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Okay, Cleve. We’ll wait. ; )

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Fry’s does cloud computing now?

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I’m still waiting for the resolution of this story.

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any updates on this, how’s the server from Fry’s

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As the original poster had his account closed, you might be waiting a while…