What are your methods/software to get your images/videos done?

Animation using Poser Pro 2010, BVHacker 1.8

Modeling using 3ds Max, Sketchup, sometimes Blender

Sculpting with Zbrush 3.5 R3

Compositing with After Effects CS4

I plan to use the UDK for game develpoment... But the 3D movie must come 1st alongside with learning C++, Java and Unrealscript.

Characters and some scenes using Poser 7 or 8, soon to be Pro 2012

Lighting, outdoor and scenes involving water and Rendering in Vue 9 Infinite because it's superior to poser in that regard.

Compositing in CS5 and other image enhancers.

I don't do modeling..

 I've got more of a Goldberg than I do a pipeline at the moment. Animating is being done in P7- through Ppro2010, and I just placed the pre-order for 2012. At the same time I am very, very slowly working on learning Messiah.

 My current endstage renderer is Vue Infininte 9.5 (waiting to hear about Vue 10 and hoping that some unmentioned tech makes it into same....).

 I don't model, but I have Truspace and Modo on the CG box, and am trying to grok it around with my drafting experience.

 Post is done in the CS4 versions of Premiere, After Effects, Encore, Audition 3, Particle Illusion 3, and SonicFire Pro 5. Still using an old version of Paintshop Pro, but Photoshop CS5 is on the get list, as well as the upgrades for the other Adobe products. Lots of little scripts and one functions applets, as well.....

Poser for everything.  With the exception of a few, my images tend to not have any post work in them other than to fix spots that I can't seem to work out inside Poser.  For my last render it was the hair and the hat. I just couldn't get the magnets to work properly, so I added the hat in post work. 

Oh, and if you consider adding a background in Paint Shop Pro, I also do that sometimes. Sometimes I'll add it to a square and render it on its own, and then add it to the background in Paint Shop Pro.  But that is more because my computer can't render really complext scenes and I have to sometimes render in bits and pieces.

DS4 (occasionally poserpro 2010)

Modelling, rendering, particles, VFX etc in XSI.

Sculpting/texturing with ZBrush though i'm saving money to get mudbox.

Compositing I use photoshop.

For stills I pose in DS/PP, import as OBJ into XSI and then build the rest of the scene around that as needed there. For scenes which need characters interacting with custom built props, I model them in XSI, import into DS/PP, and pose the character around them. Then export the character as usual.

Don't do a lot of anim work but the few i've done have been animated by exporting as COLLADA and importing the rigged character(s) in XSI and working on them there. Takes longer to setup but IMO much easier then trying to animate in Poser/DS itself...

Poser 7 for figure positioning and scene building.

Lightwave 8 for what modelling I do. Mainly minor additions / alterations to existing stuff.

Photoshop elements now for postwork, making simple textures like signs.

Animation in Poser, render in Poser mainly. Composite in PS Elements.

Its not so much a pipeline as an explosion in a junk shop :)

I also have a very large trash bin for all the failures ;|

Mine involves paper, pencils, lots of cigarettes and swearing.  Poser, Wings, UVMapper Pro and Photoshop sometimes make an appearance, too.

But usually lots of swearing. 

I usually setup character and any props, lighting and render in Poser PP 2010. The rest I do in Photoshop CS, but soon hoping to upgrade to a newer version of photoshop. In Photoshop I use a combination of Mouse and a tablet pen.

I don't do any animation tho

"Mine involves paper, pencils, lots of cigarettes and swearing" lol

nearly same as mine but swop the ciggies for coffee

Quote - "Mine involves paper, pencils, lots of cigarettes and swearing" lol

nearly same as mine but swop the ciggies for coffee

I drink a lot of tea.  I enjoy coffee but drinking a lot of it gives me the world's worst migraine.  The real, full body experience, not just some namby pamby headache.  Flashing lights, steel spikes through brain, choking sensation, tight chest, nausea and stomach spasms.

And people say smoking is bad. :) 

my workflow includes a couple of visits or more :rolleyes:  to this forum during a project

there's almost never a magic button or a shortcut. 

coffee!  yes.  tea, earl gray hot.  brownie break (no walnuts)

one day, i'd like to complete a starting point, so don't always have to start from scratch.
d'you think a midpoint starting point is possible?

Quote - Mine involves paper, pencils, lots of cigarettes and swearing.  Poser, Wings, UVMapper Pro and Photoshop sometimes make an appearance, too.

But usually lots of swearing. 

:lol: @ swearing. Sounds like me.

I set up everything in Poser (character, surroundings, lights..etc) in Poser 8. Then do the rest of my work in Photoshop. :)

My workflow depends on how I start but eventually the branches are the same:

Create a sculpt in ZBrush  - retopo in Topogun - uvmap in UVLayout - group in UVMapper - rig in latest version of Poser Pro - texture in ZBrush and Photshop - create morphs in Silo/Modo

or

Model in Silo/Modo - sculpt in Zbrush - uvmap in UVlayout - group in UVMapper - Texture in ZBrush and Photoshop - create morphs in Silo/Modo - rig in latest version of Poser Pro.

Marvelous Designer 2 for creating dynamic clothes

Silo for all others modelings

UvMapper & UVLayout for all the UV stuff

3D Coat for retopology & textures

Genetica for textures

Pose and Render in Poser Pro 2010

Quote -

:lol: @ swearing. Sounds like me.

I set up everything in Poser (character, surroundings, lights..etc) in Poser 8. Then do the rest of my work in Photoshop. :)

I am very, very good at swearing.  I don't, however, use bad language when the children are around.  I figure they'll learn to swear when they go to school, so there's no need to hurry things along.  :) 

Noone is here to listen to me swear, but that being said, I hardly ever do.  I whimper and whine a lot instead. :)  Coffee, strong, black.  An occaisional Snicker bar.  No cigs for the past 10 years.  

Teque

Quote - ...No cigs for the past 10 years.  

 

Teque

That's where you're going wrong.

It's your patriotic duty to smoke.  I believe everyone should smoke and I will encourage my children to do so as soon as possible.

Think about it...

Smokers contribute enormously to the economy.  Over here in the UK, cigarettes are one of the most heavily taxed things you can buy.  So, in addition to making a tidy profit for the tobacco companies, we are lining the coffers of our government to such an extent that - if everyone stopped smoking overnight - the economy would collapse.  Then there are all the small businesses who rely on selling cigarettes to get people through the door, all the warehouses, distributors, packaging and design companies, paper manufacturers and so on.  In fact, there's an entire industry based around making gadgets to light cigarettes.  

Smokers stimulate health care and research.  Since we are far more likely to develop serious, chronic and debilitating diseases, there are literally millions of pounds spent on research and development into curing said diseases.  Additionally, health care professionals get much hands on experience in dealing with us as we hack up that last piece of blackened, putrescent lung tissue.

Smokers contribute to crime reduction.  If every crimial in the world gave up smoking, they'd be able to run faster and continue their lives of crime for much longer.  As it is, since they can't run more than 10 yards without their lungs exploding, the cops have a much greater chance of catching 'em.  And, when you can't get out the house without a walking stick and an oxygen tank, you're hardly likely to be waiting in an alley to mug some innocent passer by. 

Insurance companies and pension schemes benefit enormously from smokers.  By dropping dead at ridiculously early ages, insurers can chisel thousands of pounds off their death payouts, in addition to hiking up their prices to astronomical levels in the first place for smokers.  Pension providers save millions by not paying out much - if anything - due to their smoking members kicking the bucket long before their payout is due.

Families benefit most of all.  When Uncle Jim pops his clogs at 55 instead of 98, he's saving the family the heartache, embarrasment and general inconvenience of seeing him turn into an incontinent raving lunatic who walks around with his knob out and throws poo at the walls/cat/kids.  They also don't have to bother with all that tedious business - and additional expense - of parcelling him off to a retirement home and the associated visits to said place, because he had the good grace to croak while he still remembered who he was.

So you see, smoking is good for everyone.  Light up today. :) 

Sam, you are a tease :)

It's the wave of the future, I'm telling you.  Our country is heading for pensions meltdown, with more and more old people piling up and nobody able to pay for 'em.  We need strong, decisive action immediately.

Do your bit for your country.  Light up that cigarette today! 

Fricken choughHysterical Sam.

8 )

Tom

Just spread the word! :)

I'll send up smoke signals.

Oh..Production pipeline:

Involves more than just software. Most animators will flush out a storyline complete with storyboard drawings first...Then move on to character modelling (Referencing drawings)...Then on to rigging...Then weight mapping...After that, it's typically setting up morph targets for phenomes,lip syncing, face expressions, as well as muscle bulging. Next would likely come key posing to fit storyboards...Texturing and lighting last because you wouldn't want all of that memory overhead while doing all of that previous stuff. Then audio.

All af the above could be done in...say...Lightwave and Premiere (Maybe After Effects as well) without opening Poser one time. (But most houses likely use their own preferred  cocktails of particular software)

And each specialty (Drawings,Modelling, Rigging, Weight-mapping, Phenomes, Lipsyncing, Morph targets, Posing, Texturing, lighting, Sound) would likely be done by seperate people and teams.

The Production Pipeline is not the software...It's the Process.

 8 )

Tom

OH... errrr, yeah..............Poser 7, Vue 8 Complete, and a bunch of coffee. I have several modeling programs for when I feel the need to pull my hair out, also.

Teque

Expanding what Hawk said, you would actually write the story (and include descriptions of scenes), make a storyboard. 

The way the pro's do it is to do the voice acting first. That way you can build the CG part of the project to match what is finalized, not finding yourself going off on a wild tangent and having to re-record half your dialog. That is the part that kills a lot of projects; "But wouldn't it be cool if----!!!!!" And the smaller the project, the less tolerance you have, as change after change eats time. And if you pissed off one voice actor with repeated demands, you might find yourself having find or hire a new actor and recording all the affected characters' lines again.

I some ways, if you want to get done, you sew your bloody hands and genius to the floor. Finish the script. Script is God. Finish the voice recording. VR is God. Wash, rinse, repeat. You'll never be satisfied, as you can always find things to improve. To tweak. To swap out for the new thing. And you will procrastinate yourself into exhaustion....and out of time. 

Quote - > Quote -

:lol: @ swearing. Sounds like me.

I set up everything in Poser (character, surroundings, lights..etc) in Poser 8. Then do the rest of my work in Photoshop. :)

I am very, very good at swearing.  I don't, however, use bad language when the children are around.  I figure they'll learn to swear when they go to school, so there's no need to hurry things along.  :) 

.....I don't swear around my 3 year old. But some how she knows bad words...its not me its my husband I swear!..........:lol: