TITLE: Forces of Nature
NAME: Colin Theys
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: Colin@Theys.net
WEBPAGE: www.ctfilms.org
TOPIC: Forces of Nature
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: ctfon.mpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Realsoft 3d v4.2

TOOLS USED: 
    Realsoft 3d v4.2, Photoshop, Premier, TMPGEnc, AVISynth,
Terragen

CREATION TIME: 
    I'd really rather not think about it...

HARDWARE USED: 
    PIII 667 with Matrox G450 Dual Head. 256MB 133mhz ram
+(Athlon 1ghz network-render box)

ANIMATION DESCRIPTION: 


        I started this rather ambitious project about a week into the
competition period and storyboarded about a three minute animation. 
Unfortunately, school prevented me from finishing it by the deadline, so I'm
submitting it as a "to be continued...".  It will also have sound.

        I was trying to think of what could be a powerful yet funny "force of
nature" that wouldn't look truly pathetic when I tried to model it and came up
with the idea of a little old lady.  You know the type.  There are some little
old ladies that really are "forces of nature" in their own right.  In this
animation, I pit a little old lady against a tornado.  I had a lot of fun
storyboarding it and I hope it's as much fun to watch.


VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS: 

        Pay attention.

NOTE:          I would have loved to include a zip file, but the files are
simply too large. ( >2GB)  If anyone would like to see any files from the
animation, I'll be glad to accommodate you.  I learned how to use this stuff by
looking at other people's work, so I appreciate the value of "open-source"
projects).


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED: 


        This was only my second animation ever and the first to include a human,
or even a skeleton for that matter, not to mention the first animation I've
ever done in Realsoft.  In hindsight, it was a rather ambitious project, which
is why I didn't finish it.  I created all the main models independently using a
common coordinate system and combined them together into scene files as needed
for each sequence.  Many of the models were pre-animated (i.e.  I animated the
lady rocking in the chair and simply imported the file to any given scene to
add a rocking lady.)
        I spent about a week doing all the modeling, texturing, and setup, and
the rest of the time doing animation.  The skeleton was particularly tricky
since the skeletal system in 4.2 is "hardly perfect" and is incredibly prone to
seemingly random distortions, etc..
        The house was done using fluid dynamics and about 6 fans making fly-by
sweeps.  The crash was painstakingly key framed.  The tornado was done by
animating a huge hierarchy of groups containing a lathed tornado-thing. 
Textures were mapped over it in about 8 layers.  That took some doing.  I do
not plan to animate another tornado this way.

CREDIT WHERE DUE:
        -The truck as viewed from a distance was a model from 3dCafe.  (The
crashing truck was home-made.)
        -The sky texture dome (not the lightning sky,) was from Marlin Studios.

