Request for animation tips and resources
Diomede
Posts: 15,165
Greetings.
The current Carrara Challenge (Clowns and Circuses) is accepting animations. I have only dabbled so do not have a reliable work flow. Nor do I have a lot of web resources. I have watched PhilW's animation in Carrara tutorial and I have watched a variety of generic animation videos. I have an idea for a short that will require transition between at least 2 music backgrounds. What would be helpful would be links to:
- video editing and compositing software for clips rendered out of Carrara (free is good)
- sound resources including music and special effects (free is good)
- animation clip resources (free is good)
- converter programs to convert music, effect, and animation files to something compatible with Carrara, such as WAV files (free is good). I rig my own figures in Carrara so compatibility is an issue.
- animation hosting sites, my channel got temporarily suspended for posting a crystal ball transitioning to a landscape. Absurd! I am skittish.
- any other tips, suggestions, or links people consider useful
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Comments
Example of help needed
Here is an example of clown music on the web. It is in FLAC file format and MP3. How do I extract a clip and get it to Carrara?
https://archive.org/details/lp_circus-in-town_the-merle-evans-circus-band
Example 2 - if I have the sheet music for something, is there a free player that can generate a sound file usable in Carrara?
https://www.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/about-this-collection/
VLC player (FREE) can convert flac to wav and also has the option of setting in and out points for larger audio files
No clue on this one sorry
Free video editor/compositor? Blender? I've used that. DaVinci Resolve still has a free version I believe, I use that. On my old laptop I have Quicktime Pro (not free) which allows import of image sequences to create avi's
Before I switched to the subscription VEGAS Pro from Magix (to get suopprt for Particle Illusion), I used Magix' "Movie Edit Pro", now called "Movie Studio" (also the result of the VEGAS purchase from Sony). Its on sale for $50 (ends today, then $70). I very much enjoyed Movie Edit Pro and would still be using it if the standalone Particle Illusion had not transformed into ... long story. Lots of feature examples on their website.
Audacity is my go to for sound
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/?from_ver=2.3.2&CommitId=bd2956&Time=May4201911:41:37
Myriad has software that will play sheet music not scan it though so a photographed PDF useless in it
I only own their Melody assistant and PDF to music (which uses Music PDFs a special digitised format)
some scanning ones not tried https://www.musicrepo.com/music-scanning-software/
Been a while for me. The software i used to use has vanished....
this is worth a read https://www.creativebloq.com/buying-guides/best-free-video-editing-software
great you are doing an animation !
A music program I love that has been around for a very long time is "Band-in-a-Box" from PG music (starts at $130). "Just type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you'd like, and Band-in-a-Box® does the rest... Band-in-a-Box® automatically generates a complete professional-quality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns" Yes, its a litttle kludgy, but in recent years their "Real Tracks" (real recordings of instrumental parts) have offered much better songs. But even without those, it can generate some very useful musical soundtracks, and comes with a zillion "styles" (rock, country, jazz, classical, etc., etc.), most of which have demo songs. And yes, it will export a *.wav file. This animation has a short BIAB song starting at ~ 4:37, from the program's "Classical Fake Book" - Mozart, I think):
@Steve K
I added an animation segment in the prtesent challenge hoping to attract such animation wiz's like yourself.
I know you are busy but feel free to enter.
If we get a few entries then hopefully it will be included in the following challenges.
After all, Carrara is a great animation tool.
Sadly her brilliance is often underestimated - notwithstanding the wealth of evidence that points in the other direction..
regards from Oz!
Thanks for these tips and suggestions, @ProProse, @Steve_K, @Headwax, and Wendy. Plenty to get started with.
I hope this thread can serve as a more general source for resources and links related to animations and the stuff used in them, such as sound effects.
Many thanks. But I am pretty deep into another project and greatly enjoying it - Carrara animation of course with pieces from VUE. FWIW, I did do a circus animation a couple of years ago for a special 48 Hour Animation contest:
Love it!
Many thanks. Have you considered becoming a judge for the 48 Hour Film contests?
Regarding sound effects, one of my most prized possessions is the Digital Juice Sound FX, Vol 1 - 4. A huge amount of a wide variety on DVD's with a very usable index program and previews. Unfortunately they have changed formats to a lifetime subscription format with downloadable royalty free content, including sound effects, but AFAIK no boxed products like my set. The price is reasonable, currently the basic version is on sale for $150, and is worth a look - they have a LOT of stuff. I do see some of the old boxed products used on Ebay, which I do not frequent. More details in this old review:
http://azimuthaudio.ca/azimuth-blog/2012/7/19/sfx-library-review-digital-juice-soundfx-i-iv.html
very nice @Steve K - great how you introduce parts in a cinematic way
I was just searching for @Sci Fi Funk's amazing tutorials but they appear to have been all removed - that's very sad
he left YouTube, he has them on another site
Thanks. "Thinking cinematically" is a fairly common topic in books, etc. I tend to miss many opportunities, but as I watch some great NetFlix TV show, I will notice an interesting shot (typically a set up shot for a longer scene) and hit rewind to see what they did. Sometimes it has a plot purpose, but sometimes its just the director/editor/DP showing off ... and its usually great fun. "Peaky Blinders" is a personal favorite that also gets a lot of web attention for its cinematography. A YouTube search on "cinematic shots" gives a lot of examples: camera angles, gimbal moves, shot sizes, B roll, music cues, etc.
cinematic makes good graphic novels @Steve K :)
Two things I relearnt making the vid for this challenge.
1 Change the default tweener to bezier in the preferences section.
That way things will be smoother.
2 Aim the camera with a target helper - it looks more natural that way.
Indeed. I happen to own a not too old Classics Illustrated graphic novel of "Moby Dick" that is stunning. One reviewer: "What it is is 40+ pages of just insanely gorgeous and badass illustrations of Moby Dick by Bill Sienkiewicz. Seriously, I'd like to have framed prints of like half of the pages in this thing." Of course, to a real animator, those images are the key frames.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/759223.Classics_Illustrated
Yup. And set the intro/outro camera movement to ease in/ease out. Unless you want what Director Mel Gibson learned from his team: no easeing, cut out a few frames before, e.g. a car crash so it happens more suddenly.