Faster Rendering in Command Line

Using command line rendering is a faster alternative to rendering within maya. The result will be up to about 50% faster. The reason for this is you are rendering without maya open which frees up the computers resources that can be used for rendering calculations. I have used this while helping to render out the scenes. In a production of a larger scale a renderfarm will be the best alternative.

Child Solider Animating Test

While I was animating the child solider I could not make the child hold the gun with his two hands without doing unusual deformations. However I decide that he should hold the gun with one arm and the other to balance himself.



The child is walking slowly sidewards shooting randomly. Plus it is in a cycle so he can go on for longer than 3 seconds if you wanted. If there was rotation in the shoulders and hips the animation can be improved.

AK 47 - Rapid fire reference

Moe has given me a rig of a child soldier for me to animate. He will be shooting and moving sidewards. This will give me a quick idea of how to go about it.

Walking in the Market

I have taken into account the market scene needed to be busy with people walking around which seems to be like a ghost town at the moment. So I told Moe I was going to make a simple slow walk cycle that he can speed up and down with the timings. With these variations you can multiply the cycle to other characters without having a complete duplicate which the viewers will notice.

Heres what I have done. Same rig as before no rotations of hip and shoulders

Heat wave effects

What I have done here is added a heatwave effect to the scenes to show how arid the place is without water. I did a test on a single frame for faster test results to see what it will look like. I followed this tutorial http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=34773-2 to create the heatwave but changed it to suit the films look. It gives additional movement to the scene which will look appealing to the viewer.

I have tried uploading a video on the blog but the video seems to be too small to notice any difference.

Carara Aspect Ratio

In this film we will be using a CinemaScope aspect ratio. Why? The reason is that at the moment the television screens are currently using 16:9 ratio as a standard and some cinemas are screening movies in 2.35:1 ratio aka CinemaScope. Recently there were announcements from top television manufacturers that in the future 2.34:1 will replace 16:9 in homes. The experience is a super wide vision of the movie which gives more information to the viewer. For these reasons we went with CinemaScope to be in touch with the possible future.

Cover run playbast

Animated a run covering his head. This will show that he is trying to avoid the danger behind him. Again the shoulders and hips can not be animated as the rig limits this.