Attached Link: Star Trek: Aurora--the Conclusion

I also wanted to take a moment to thank the many people here on the Renderosity forums who have given me valuable advice and answered myriad questions I had over the years about the intracacies of this sometimes exasperating program. I'm sure I'll have more questions once I start my next project, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the completed Aurora movie.

Thanks--Tim

Hi Tim I Downloaded it and watched it this afternoon

I really enjoyed it congrats!!

Cheers

Hehe..I've watched these too. I like 'em ;)

Laurie

Sir, my compliments!

Very impressive work, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Excellent work, I loved it! 

(Applause..........)

Excellent work, Tim. The story held together well, and worked well.

What's next on the mezzanine, hmmmm......? (gdr) 

very well done!!! 

Bravo, excellent vid!

Wow! Just ... WOW!

Quote - Hi Tim I Downloaded it and watched it this afternoon

I really enjoyed it congrats!!

 

 

 

Cheers

How did you downloaded it?

It's Vimeo. And the author allows downloads of the video (right side..about 1/3 way down the page). This is on the Vimeo page...to clarify...lol.

Laurie

What a great surprise for a Sunday! 

Even though to made my eyes get all teary in a couple of spots, I really enjoyed it! One of the best star trek stories I've seen (and I've seen a lot). There were some moments in this where T'ling and Kara looked so completely real!  And thank you for putting the wallpaper up of T'ling meditating... it's a beautiful image.

 insert standing ovation here

Thank you for sharing this with us.  

*you not 'to" (edit wouldn't save)

This film had my friend crying buckets and laughing out loud.
Big hit.

Thanks Tim,

this was great!

it's the best poser animation yet posted here IMVHO.

:thumbupboth: Awesome work! :)

Really awesome. How long did this take to make? A 55 minute move? :thumbupboth:

Tim's been doing it in 10 minute slices, and at least a year between releases, so at least 5 years...and I think a bit longer.

Thanks, All! I'm glad you enjoyed Aurora--it means a lot coming from people who understand both the challenges and strengths of this medium. Tho I used many different software packages, including rendering in Cinema 4D and utilizing motion capure, Poser remained at the core of the process--it's where I spent probably 90% of my time, composing the animations.

Dale B is correct--it's been coming out in parts over the last 5 years (I guess it turned out to be my "5 year mission"), tho if you throw in the script, storyboard and initial test stages, it gets closer to 6 years. I look back in chagrine that I have originally predicted "oh, about a year-and-a-half," but I don't regret the time, since I really learned a lot (with help, as stated!) over the years.

As for my next project, I've got several in mind, including another Aurora episode, but we'll see--I'm still letting it sink in that I finally finished this piece!

Thanks again!--Tim

Gives me something to shoot for with my own movie...

I had almost given the movie idea up, and was going to go Esther's route with a comic, but you have inspired me. Really nice work.

How did you do the motion capture?

I have the NaturalPoint Arena motion capture system, set up in my basement. Kinda pricey for a hobby, and still a lot of work to capture and clean the data, but invaluable for complex moves--saved me a lot of time, and allowed for not only more natural movement, but moves I couldnt animate by hand in a million years. I really started utilizing it extensively at about halfway through the production (once Kara shows up on the Yorktown). The cleanup/adjustment was done in Poser, as well as adding hand/finger movements, expressions, and adding mouth movements from Mimic.

As you've used Arena, how does the armature setup work? Is there a default in-application skeleton to map the pointcloud on, or can you import the rig from the mesh you intend to mocap for? I'm in the midst of scripting myself, and looking hard at Arena to speed the process. But one of the issues still with Poser is the rigidity through the torso. Getting a figure re-rigged with more spinal bones will fix that, but if the Arena software won't accept it, it wouldn't be worth the time and effort (plus the cleanup could be a nightmare....).

Hey Dale,

Arena has a default skeleton in the app, and they have a plugin to export to Daz Studio--which you then export to bvh--which works pretty well, except for the arms, which for some reason it won't rotate the Shoulder, but instead transfers all that data to the Forearm. You can directly export the bvh form Arena as well, and import that into Poser, tho you need to fix the bvh "Ab" line to "Abdomen", and that usually works, but I end up using both ways, depending on the figure and the capture--I even sometimes use a combo of the Daz export for the main part of the figure, and the direct bvh for the arms. There's a bit more to it, but you can judge my results at least in Aurora.

An absolute classic you've created here Tim.

This is the quality to aim for if you want to animate in Poser,even though Tim does tend to keep taking his skill levels higher and higher.

But this is not just about animation,its voice work and story is outstanding , an excellent

example of how to assemble a group of people and organise their awesome vocal talents

to help create this work of art.

Tim has also shown us how grit ,determination and a million miles of patience can bring

to life a dream.....a work of love.

Whoa!  I'm am very impressed!  I've seen a lot of Star Wars fan films but most of them were really lame.  Even though they had great visual effects, their story lines were not very well thought out.  I began watching this video thinking the same thing only this time it's a Star Trek film but it turned out to be really good!

Beautiful rendered animation =)

Thx for sharing