Attached Link: Star Trek Aurora

very frickin cool, i do not like start trek or anything to do with it, so i did not really go over on the spoof story side, but i really respect the time and talent that has gone into that, very well done :)

FANTASTIC WORK!!!!!! beautiful animation and excellent sound effects!!!! you've got an awesome project on the go there!!! very well done!!!!(MUCH CLAPPING!!!!) can't wait for part two!!!!! how long has that roughly taken you!!!!

I liked it, too.

We're not Worthy! We're not Worthy! Friggin' Awsome! Only 1 nitpick. Seems the audio channel for the Vulcan lady drops out in a few places and I couldn't hear what she was saying. Specifically her very first words. Still. Wow! Did you render that whole thing in Poser? Wow!

OMG! Thus us amazing! Bravo!

I am speechless. Excellent job!..E-Frontier will be looking at this one.

That was awesome - great job!  :thumbupboth:  I really liked it.
I'd also be interested in hearing about what methods you used to accomplish this.

I was stunned, beutifully done and I need moore of it :-).

Any chance to se the clip in a higher resolution?

Regards / Jonny

Really impressive stuff, like it alot

John

Didn't see it yet.Still downloading but your breaking in open doors (ouch translated german phrase).I allways wondered why not making some new TOS Star Trek episodes in animated CG.Renember the animated Star Trek Episodes.Now someone should do it in CG.What about the adventures under the command of Cpt. Christipher Pike?In general I do want to see more of this.

Impressive.  Most impressive.  We all want to know how this was achieved!  How DID you make it?

A behind the scenes would be good!

Excellent work, particularly for a one man production pipeline! Which version of Poser are you using? If 5 or above, you might want to investigate either Metaform, or Particles at Daz. The downside is added rendertime for the effects; upside is more dramatic eye candy. My only nitpick is the uniformity of the interior lighting; shadows add dramatic impact (for example, pushing our captain-to-be's helmet reflectivity up for the scene as she moves into the control area from the airlock, and having erratic light flashes across the helmet and her face, flashes that prove out to be shorts from destroyed instruments when you see the hull breach. Not bright flashes either; just flickers that partially reveal her features and glint off her eyes and tell the viewer 'what she sees is =bad=). But knowing how finicky Poser's lighting system is, that could also take more time that it is worth (that's why I render in Vue Infinite; more control over the lighting, as well as the network rendering.... ;) ). For one person, that is an admirable amount of keyframing in 1.5 years.... Good luck with part 2!

Really well done!

I'm working on a never ending animation also so I really admire your determination.

Congratulation ,not only for the movie but for the power to push it through.I am carrying scripts in my head to make a 120 min blockbuster movies :D but not a frame is rendered yet.Every day I have new ideas and throw away the old.---really well done.

Wow,this is excellent ! Thanks for sharing. I'm also interested in a 'making of ' .

Wow!  Just... Wow!  Really enjoyed that!  Fantastic work!  I can't wait to see part 2 and I want to find out who rescued her. 

Incredible - you must have a lot of patience - 1.5 years in the making - Well done.

This was absolutely AWESOME!!!

That was very well done, particularly the "hand-jammed" animation.  I am working on a project that will only be about 4 minutes long, and it's taken me about 1.5 month to do it (every night I argue with my wife about how much time I've been spending on the computer).

Was that done in Poser 5?  What render settings did you use?  Like others have stated, a making of would be great.

T First let me say that this is AWESOME! One of the best I've seen so far, love the weightless effects! Now as to doing  a "making of"... DON'T! Get back to work and make more of this movie, I can't weight to see more. Do the Making Of.. after the feature is finished

I'm getting to be a fair hand at modeling in Carrara (you can check a couple of my clothing models in the marketplace..) If I can do anything to help you out please feel free to drop me a line.. Can't annimate worth a darn, but I'd be glad to help with any custom props, if I can.

mike

Screw that! Don't waste time on a "Making Of" til you finish the story or we will hunt you down and beat you senseless with a wooden mallet! :tt2: No sense making us wait any longer than we have to for each episode! Especially if each 12-15 minute episode takes a year and a half to make!

wow! im a trekkie fan  so this is great:D  i cant wait for part 2;)

I have to echo all the other congratulations, I had to leave it downloading overnight, & watched it this morning but was definately worth it, amazing.

I'm just geeking out on the Romulan (ST Enterprise) version. Dangit, I wuz gonna model that..;)
fantastic stuff..keep it up..awaiting the next installment ('08?..;)

Thanks, all! I really appreciate the comments. In a project like this you reach points where you wonder "Why am I working this hard, I've already got a job!" but it really helps to get feedback on the work and feel like you've made something that people might get something out of, whether entertainment, or even in some cases, inspiration to perhaps pursue their own works, which benefits all of us since it stretches the user base and might help drive the direction the software developers take. That, and after busting your ass for a year and a half, it's nice to hear somebody say something nice about what you've been doing! Seriously, thanks for taking the time to comment. To answer questions/points people have posed (roughly in order): Vince3: It's taken me about 1.5 years to get to this point of working probably a good 15 hours/week at least, often more. The first 8 months were occupied with writing the script, creating the storyboard, doing a "rough" animation with dummy voiceover using the storyboard images, and doing animation tests. I didn't get the first frame of actual finished animation until that August. Mizerael: Yes, sound was difficult, since it sounds different from headphones to speakers to TV etc. so it was hard to regulate. I'll need to work on that. (PS: I was recently in the town my ancestors came from: Wincanton, England, which is twinned as a sister-city with Ankh-Morpork. The town has 7 pubs. We hit them all in one day.) Ailarchendil (and others): the short answer to my methods is: I used patience! I've found that you never know what's going to be difficult--what seems like it's going to be hard, like showing somebody floating in zero gravity turns out to be easy, then you kill yourself trying to make a character convincingly bend over for 2 seconds. Software-wise, the workflow was a little complicated by the fact that I'm working on a Mac and rendering in Cinema 4D, and the only Poser Mac plugin for Cinema 4D is an old OS9 plugin that has never been updated, so my basic workflow for animating characters (Daz V3 and M3) was: 1. Record voice using a decent microphone (M-Audio Nova mic, Mobile Pre preamp, Apple Soundtrack); 2. Create mouth/head moves in Mimic; 3. Open Mimic file in Poser 5 (Poser 6 gave me problems with the old C4D plugin); 4. Animate character body movements/adjust head movements (head turns, blinking, etc.); 5. Boot into OS9, open Poser file into Cinema 4D environment and render it to TIFF files; 6. Go back to OSX, create .mov file from TIFFs, save; 7. Import .mov file into Final Cut Pro, edit into animation; 8. Add voice file/sound effects. Other programs used: Photoshop, Illustrator. Jonnybode: you can see a larger version at: www.auroratrek.com/aurora_pt1.mov Dale B: some of the added touches you describe I did consider and it is certainly a direction I could have gone. I instead went with a slightly more "serene" approach to the (part1) climax, but that's not to say that I may not revisit any scene when I'm "done" to see if I can't improve them--thanks for the suggestions. Pixelwks: I'm starting to think every animation is never-ending! Timberwolf: just go for it! As is, I got a year into this and realized I needed to do a rewrite, but I made sure I rewrote so I didn't have to re-animate anything! Neyjour: not to give anything away, but it gets worse before it gets better... Slakrboy: I was fortunate that my wife has a very nice voice for voice work, which--not intentially--but makes her a bit more of a fan of my working on this thing, since she's part of it. Trav: thanks! I may take you up on your offer--one thing I've learned is try to benfit from the work of others--3D is a community! Mizrael; I'm keen to avoid a hammering with a mallet--in fact, there are a couple bits of software out there (are you listening Kuroyume?) that should help me get this out a little faster. Pakled: I can't take credit for the Romulan ship: that was done by Sean Kennedy, who made the mesh available to all: http://www.seansgallery.com/ Again, thanks all for the comments--I appreciate it.--Tim

Great work! I am so amazed that you did this in Poser! It's great seeing Davo's sets in action, too. Lots of great little touches, such as the wrench floating as she opens the airlock. I want to see it all, now!

Hehe...I'd love to go bar hopping through Ankh-Morpork with ya! I promise to leave the mallet behind if I can learn some of your animation techniques over a few hundred pints of whatever's flowing.

Quote - Lots of great little touches, such as the wrench floating as she opens the airlock.

That was the one that got me as well.

This is excellent. As well as the technical quality, you've built the story very carefully too. I wondered if the editing in the middle third could have been a touch faster, from where the leading character has made it into the airlock to when she wakes up (a nice shock moment, btw).

And how about leaving all your opening credits until the end of this section? It would work, and would give you a fashionably-long intro sequence :-) (see 'Serenity' as an example).

Just a couple of suggestions, no criticism implied; I really think you've done a good job.

Wow Tvining!

I downloaded the "big" version and it  was very beutiful, image, audio, its top stuff.

Sure like to see the complete movie, but with this amount of work involved i guess i have to wait a while.

Good luck ( as luck got something to do with it, were talkin skill here) with the next part (please hurry :-)

Regards / Jonny

Tim,

I loved this and am looking forward to future episodes!  In particular, I'd like to comment on a few things that stand out for me...

• Story, story, story... great job!  It seems to me that the time you spent writing the story and all the story-boarding paid off in spades.  You kept me interested throughout and anxious for more.

• Audio... again, excellent job!  In particular, Kudo's to your wife for her talent not only in the voice-overs but the singing parts.  I love the theme/title song written for this, as well as the execution of it and placements/timing within the clip.  It really contributes to the overall ambience/mood.  You also did an excellent job with the background sfx, which peolpe take for granted - ship engine hum, singing inside a bubble, with breathing apperatis (sp) dispersion sounds, voice-over-comm-link, etc all combined to great effect.

• Expression/emotion... very nice work on the facial expressions used to convey the emotion of the scene(s).  I particularly liked the scene with Kara after opening the ship air-lock, reading the gauge and trying to look back over her shoulder (within the confines of the EVA suit) with uncertainty...

...there are some things I could critique you on (relatively stiff body movements, etc), but the combination of Story/Pacing/Audio/Expression all carry this work above the bar.

Congrats.

Keith

Whatever you do, don't forget to link to it in the Animation Outlet!

Great work !!!! I want see more of this ! :)

Greets Allibaba

The only thing I can add to what's been said is that the very end of the credits hangs. After the voice and product credits, I get a still screen that starts with: "are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc./Paramount." That screen doesn't move at all (I downloaded "aurora_pt1_sm.mov") Please don't think I'm focusing on the negative. It's just that all the good stuff has been said. This is excellent work!!!!!! (but I thought you might want to know of the one very minor technical glitch at the end).

Good 1st part. I really liked it.

Couple of things.....

1. The main character's voice is great! Spot on!

2. I didn't really like the Vulcan's voice (Yes I know it was the same person). Something just seemed....off...

3. When the younger version of the main character is first plugging the cable in, the cables in the background are not on the outside of the containers, they appear to go under them. In the next scene when you do the closeup, they are where they should be.

4. This takes place after TOS, so shouldn't mostly everyone know what a Romulan ship looks like? Even if the kids didn't know, I would think that the parents would.

Quote - 4) This takes place after TOS, so shouldn't mostly everyone know what a Romulan ship looks like? Even if the kids didn't know, I would think that the parents would.

The main story might have taken place after TOS, but the flashback would have been some years before, amybe even before TOS.

Guy

Thanks for the comments, and the "glitch" check, everyone--it's amazing how you can look at this thing a million times and still miss stuff! And I'd have sworn I fixed that cable problem, Punisher1999--good catch! Ghoyle1 is correct about the timing, tho--the story and flashbacks straddle TOS. --Tim

I didn't  think about the timeframe, plus, while I'm a fan of Star Trek, I'm not completly up on timeframes, but weren't the Romulans around before TOS?

anyway, good stroy and while an unconvetional direction (following merchants), it's a good idea.

However, if this took you 1.5 years, I am upset I enjoyed it, because I will probably have to wait a long while to see the finished version. :(

Perhaps you should just quit your job and work on this full time? :)

Great work

Regards

Rowlando

(laughing) My day job is simply there to fund this project, Punisher. I'll see if I can't get this next part out faster. At the time of TOS, Romulans hadn't been seen in 100 years*, since the first Romulan War, and the ships were all much different, so a Bird of Prey had never been seen by the Federation until "Balance of Terror" in TOS. (Or, well, Aurora, but that's a different story ; ) * And "seen" means just their ships--somehow the Feds fought an entire war with the Romulans without actually seeing one in person --Tim

In "Star Trek: Enterprise", in the final season, they were using remote controlled ships that could generate the illusion that they were Tellarite, Andorian, etc., ships. A logical precursor to the cloaking device of TOS and later periods.

Also, they had secretly infiltrated the Vulcan High Command and were subverting the Vulcan government. AFAIK, that remained secret until "Balance of Terror".

Guy

Well, you left me wanting to see more that's for sure. That's a real "grabber" of a story line you have going. I thought the visuals and sound were excellent. Considering this is an amateur project, I'm totally impressed with the quality of your story and the animation. A series like this would make a perfect addition to the Star Trek franchise. It's a shame Paramount didn't consider something along these lines as a replacement for "Enterprise".

Absolutely stunning. Beautiful work and the writing was well done. I hope you find the time to continue with the project.

I'm glad you replied to this - I was wanting to watch the clip again (I like the song) and the ebot made it handy to find the link again :).

Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of "wow", "awesome", and "congratulations" - well done on an amazing project!

Looks great. Where did you get the jumpsuits? David

We're huge fans of "Aurora". Beam down the next installment!

was just referring to this the other day in a thread about what you can do in Poser via animating..hope they see it.

Attached Link: http://www-fi3.starwreck.com/download_trailer.php

Using Lightwave and After Effects this is what 5 Finnish guys did in their apartment. I am amazed at what can be done when people get serious with readily available software. Kudos for the awesome Poser version also!

wow, beautiful animation. Lots of great little details to make it come alive.

Awesome work, I admire it a lot :)