@residue now a days for the most part there's release tech demo's and then tech demo's showing updates to an existing engine or when they find ways to make a current engine look even better without doing anything, the beauty of the unreal engine 3 is that it can be as simplistic or as full of raw detail as you want it to be, hell the unreal ed for UE3 is basically a stripped down version of maya.

As I stated on another forum when this video was posted there, the reason everything looks so good is because almost everything shown is static and the engine only needs to render a single object or group of objects. The forest is so very high res because almost every polygon is used to create scenery. The child seen at a distance is probably no more than a thirty or forty thousand polygons, leaving at least half a million others for scenery. In the next part all you have is a square room with little detail and a vehicle. Most the shots focus entirely on the vehicle itself, so they are able to use every poly in the scene for making the most amazing vehicle they could.

Compare this to actual gameplay where not only do you have a background scene but you have a variety of things going on, from half a dozen enemies shooting at you to things exploding. The poly and texture budgets are far more cramped in an actual game than it is in a technical demonstration like this video. It's why tech demo's 'never' represent an actual games graphics, just the absolute high end of what the engine is capable of.

Besides the beautiful but completely unrealistic scenery (in terms of how good that would look in an actual game filled with enemies, explosions, debris, physics objects, etc) the technical aspects such as being able to hand animated in Maya while directly connected to the game in real time is pretty cool as is the engines rendering pipleline. Still, over all it's not as impressive technically as Id Tech 5.

Hey Drach, sorry if I offended with the 'bollocks' comment, (I was chillin with Mary J last night) and like you said we'll find out in a couple of days. I think you may have missed my point though.

Either:

.A. Channels and water are real, some columns MAY be added/removed in post-production. (My explanation.)

OR

.B. He created whole 'machine' entirely in a 3D program. (Your explanation, I think?) He would have had set up the same 3-point lighting in the program for the shadows to match. In addition he also had to have either an animated alpha map of himself, or a 3D model (animated to match his movement) to create the shadow that travels across the structure. He also did a pretty good job with the dynamic animation of the fluid flowing up the channel. There would also be several smaller additional scripts for the water as it falls, and splashes off the wheel.

So to conclude, as I said before, it COULD be entirely 'CGI',(not my personal belief, but I'll certainly accept that) but to describe the process as 'a simple trick' does not give the creator the credit he deserves.

.A. = Several hours of carpentry + 2-3 hours on the computer + Setup and planning time.

.B. = At least a week in 3D program (That's being conservative, that alpha mapped shadow animation would be a bitch, no?) + Compositing + Setup and planning.

HOW IS .B. 'A SIMPLE TRICK'. If you can elaborate on this for me, I'd really like to learn the process you would use. Again no offense meant. I have only worked in the field for 10 years and I really only know Maya expertly, so I might learn a thing or two off you if you could explain how you would do it. Cheers J.

I think Payback pretty much has it. Except, IMHO, I think some of the columns (vertical) were cropped/created using AFX/Maya type programs.
I work in Maya , Max , CAD , AFX etc... Drach's comments about shadows and 'his eye' were as vague as him saying "I work in CGI". Sorry, but 'bollocks mate'. The only shadow (raytraced) inconsistencies are on 'some' of the columns, and their corresponding shadows. Dystopian, I'll bet money that the water is real, as well as the channels it runs in. However some of the columns do not receive or create shadows as they should. If he did create the water in a 3D program, he should be working for one of the major animation houses as a fluid dynamics animator, but I don't think he did. I could be wrong though, because this was NOT a simple trick.

I love the sift, mostly because of the level of intelligence often displayed in the comments. But "CGI" is a vague term that could be used by anyone who's seen Lord of the Rings. If you know what you're talking about, be more specific please. You don't need to 'dumb it down', this isn't YouTube. >> ^Drachen_Jager:

Yeah, you can see it in the shadow-interaction if you look closely. The whole structure also stands out as a bit 'off' to me, but I work with CGI so I guess I have a trained eye.
The giveaway is the shadows though. Freeze frame it when his shadow is half on the structure. The edge of the shadow is blurred on the waterfall, but it's crisp on the floor.
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
CGI water? I think you could pull something like this off with a hidden pump. I'd be disappointed if it were just CGI. >> ^Drachen_Jager:
It's just CGI guys. Pretty simple trick.
Very well done though.

wow... she must have a real phobia of snakes.

And poor Maya Rudolph had to be used as a climbing post for both her and Maria Bello.

Wait... that's actually pretty hot.

@blankfist our CG artist used Maya, I believe. We have another go like this, with games without limitations next march, which I'm really looking forward to too.

The main limitations for this one was that we had to make it for kids (within the age group of 3-7 years old) and control with a mouse and only the left mouse button. It's hard to make a game that uses just that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_%28software%29

*videogames *animation

There are plugins for Maya, and Blender among other things; that was my justification for adding this to the animation channel.

It's a library used in a bunch of games, and some movies too.

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Gmail must be 20 years old for this to be made in 1988..

Just to clarify:
This animation is from 2008 or something like that.
The "Copyright 1988" is for The Pixies song, not the animation.
Programs used are no older than 5 years old. (Maya 8.5)

I appreciate the effort, being made by a single person and all (except the voices), but it must be a student project or something like that and it's not a very impressive one.

I bet people of Easter Island and Maya Civilization said the same thing just before they became history!

Haha fun with early versions of Maya

In reply to this comment by enoch:
In reply to this comment by Desviada:
>> ^enoch:
what about the deists?
everybody is so worried about the atheist and the theist,but what about the deists?
ya know what?
i dont really care,cuz if you dont chew big red then FUCK YOU!


I care about deists! I also like animism. Both are belief systems that I find attractive and non harmful to society (such as imposing one's morals on others, or fundamentalist-driven wars). I believe quite a few of the USA's founding fathers were deists, and if the lyrics of Pocahontas's song from the Disney movie are any indicator, the Native Americans were animists ;-) I do think both belief systems should get more recognition. The problem is defining religion in the first place. There really is no line between certain religions, philosophies, and belief systems. So, imho, there are actually many more atheists in the world currently, and historically, than people realize.

Honestly, I'd rather have this conversation in a classroom, or drunk, or both.
i was bein a smart ass,and i wanted to use that awesome line from tallidega nights.
there actually is a definition of religion,which i have posted..and it got me nowhere.i think people conflate certain properties much too easily concerning theism and deism.
you are correct about america's forefathers being mainly deists..also freemasons.native americans have an incredible array of belief systems concerning the great spirit.
i loved the video you posted =)

Hmm . . . yeah, I knew you were being a bit of a smartass, but I use any excuse to act pretentious and discuss difficult topics.

I don't actually agree about there being a definition of religion, but yes, I agree that the Native Americans have a variety of amazing belief systems (and not just the ones in North America). This semester I studied the Lakota a bit, and learned of Wakan Tanka (did I spell that correctly), and I've studied the Maya quite a bit. There are so many things we can learn from the cultures we've destroyed/are destroying. So, I don't understand why people are so anti-atheist, when atheists seem to appreciate the "array" as you put it of dying religions, and it is often the fundamentalists of the current era that crush those cultures and their religions. Have you ever read Lame Deer? If you haven't, I think you would love it.

:-)

Edit: ha, I feel like a dumbass after looking more closely at your profile. You teach comparative religions? From an anthropological perspective? And which definition of religion do you ascribe to? Geertz? I'm very curious. Btw, I'll probably post the other videos featuring Albert if I can keep getting them sifted.

I do enjoy a good spaghetti dinner in the shower, but I also hate the residue left over after I end up having a food fight with Fred Savage and Maya Angelou. Luckily for me, there's Kaboom!

ambiguous... should i avoid train wrecks or not, i cant understand their conclusion it's in the lost language of the maya

No problem! I like to scour the recent comments when I have nothing better to do, and you seem to do a lot for helping steer conversations on contentious topics towards a more productive direction.

I use zbrush primarily for my stuffs. Still learning my way through maya (previously I had used 3ds max, which I'm really tired of and not willing to upgrade on, so here I go again!) Zbrush has some second life sculptie export tools available for it, too from what I understand.

In reply to this comment by dcmisha:
Thanks for what you said! Btw, what software do you use for your 3D and animation? I used to use Maya (have to reinstall it) and have been doing a lot in second life with 3d and some animations.