Modeling clay for:

Ships, buildings, etc

I have done some testing on this issue, and these are the results so far.
These are not very good, because I made some huge mistakes while making them.
Including my camera running out of battery, wrong angle, bad rotation, some focus trouble etc.
I have found good solutions to most of these problems though, most were due to lack of planning.

The method I used, required a lot of PS processing afterwards, but I think i have figured a way to simplify it a lot.

Equipment:
Camera(you will most likely need one with a macro function). Since you most likely don't have a huge supply of modeling clay available.
Camera rig.
A4 page with a black circle with angle lines.(seen in picture)
Fish like thingy made out of modeling clay.

My setup
Test movie

Some friends of mine needed parts of my camera rig, so I cannot do more testing before monday.
I'll be back with some more testing then.

This post has been edited by modesty_blaise_us : 28 March 2006 - 04:19 PM

Interesting approach. Clearly, lighting is going to be an issue, as is getting a smooth rotation. I suspect that your best bet is to "mount" the paper+model onto a lazy susan or something similar. In fact, if you have a sufficiently smooth rotation, you could just spin up the apparatus and shoot a movie with your camera, so that the individual frames would combine to get you your ship animation. It'd need to be smooth enough that deceleration during a single rotation wouldn't be significant.

Ultimately, I think that a claymation EVN plugin would be interesting, but not ideal. Clever concept, though.

That is an awesome idea. It reminds me of this game. It would be cool to see a TC made out of clay Of course it would take five years to make.

@modesty-blaise, on Mar 28 2006, 01:04 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

My setup
Test movie

You know, I actually think you're going to pull this off. Looks like you've gotta turn off automatic exposure adjustment and go to full manual so the shots match, though.

Also, you'll actually get less "fish-eye" distortion if you move the camera as far away as possible and use zoom, rather than using a macro or wide-angle setting. (I don't actually detect distortion in your movie -- it's just that you mentioned using macro.)

Looking forward to seeing you add an animation to this thing!

Edit: Hey! I passed 1000 posts! Dang, I'm at 1001; not even sure which one was 1000.... :unsure:

This post has been edited by Dr. Trowel : 28 March 2006 - 07:25 PM

That's a very awesome idea. Might be interesting to attempt it with Legos.

Looks like focus and exposure are your biggest problems. Does your camera have a "manual" mode where you can force it to use a particular settings for those?
It will be interesting to see if you manage to get some usable sprites out if this. Good luck!

@dr--trowel, on Mar 28 2006, 12:09 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

Edit: Hey! I passed 1000 posts! Dang, I'm at 1001; not even sure which one was 1000.... :unsure:

It seems to be this post. Congratulations!

Edwards

@mispeled, on Mar 28 2006, 10:55 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

That's a very awesome idea. Might be interesting to attempt it with Legos.

Legos? What's that?

Heh, we had this debate once before didn't we. Well I'm on the "Lego" side of the fence too

This post has been edited by Guy : 30 March 2006 - 04:06 AM

...as are the people who make Lego (which technically should be written "LEGO", but I don't sway much with the whole capitalization thing - "lego" and "LEGO" are arguably still the same word, where as "lego" and "legos" are clearly not...)

I finally got my camera rig back. Here is the result.
I used a needle stuck through a bus catalog and up into the squid to get it to rotate nicely.I have also made a pretty fool proof PS action which takes care of the background etc. The only thing i lack is the applescript skills to automate the process even more.

36 images later this was the result. I think it is much better then the previous one.

Feel free to grab it and use it.

"Oh no! It's a pentapus!! Aaiiiieeee!!!"

Awesome. Do we get shipyard pics?

Not quite, it's a hexapus.

So are you making some kind of underwater TC, or what?

@guy, on Apr 7 2006, 04:30 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

Not quite, it's a hexapus.

Good god. I can't even count to six. :rolleyes:

@guy, on Apr 7 2006, 09:30 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

Not quite, it's a hexapus.

So are you making some kind of underwater TC, or what?

Not really, though that would be interesting.

Seems it is very hard to make hard edges with modeling clay, which makes it perfect for seacritters.

@dr--trowel, on Apr 7 2006, 09:13 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

"Oh no! It's a pentapus!! Aaiiiieeee!!!"

Awesome. Do we get shipyard pics?

I'll see if I have one. The model itself is dead, so I´ll either have to recreate it, or get it from a previous picture.

Here we go.

This post has been edited by modesty_blaise_us : 07 April 2006 - 05:22 PM

Goodbye, Pirate Enterprise. Hello, Pirate Hexapod (245 Kb). No consequential ship stats were harmed (or improved) in the making of this plug.

If you keep at this, Modesty, I hope you try animating a claymation ship.

@guy, on Apr 7 2006, 05:30 PM, said in Modeling clay for::

So are you making some kind of underwater TC, or what?

Hmm... that gives me some ideas... maybe not so good.

Picture_6.jpg (12.35K)
Number of downloads: 134

Map would be along the lines of this, with borders of shades of blue, darkening the deeper you go. Most spobs would be "reefs" or something along those lines. By eating (disabling and boarding) smaller fish, you gain protein (credits) which allows you to purchase bigger fish at shipyards. You can also purchase special abilities (secondary weapons) such as "squirt ink", which could ionize the target, "flashlight", which would work as an invisible tractor beam, things like that.

This post has been edited by Mispeled : 08 April 2006 - 12:02 PM

I think this clay thing is giving you guys a second wind in inovation. I'm getting a kick out of it too. Mispeled instead of using the depth in ft...you should get the actual names for the different layers of wanter for example the thermocline.

Edit: Anyone care to model a submarine out of clay?

This post has been edited by Swithich : 08 April 2006 - 03:08 PM

@mispeled, on Apr 8 2006, 08:57 AM, said in Modeling clay for::

Hmm... that gives me some ideas... maybe not so good.
attachment

Map would be along the lines of this, with borders of shades of blue, darkening the deeper you go. Most spobs would be "reefs" or something along those lines. By eating (disabling and boarding) smaller fish, you gain protein (credits) which allows you to purchase bigger fish at shipyards. You can also purchase special abilities (secondary weapons) such as "squirt ink", which could ionize the target, "flashlight", which would work as an invisible tractor beam, things like that.

That is actually a fantastic idea.

I'm in.

You could even have man-made objects and hazards to avoid.

Don't get caught by the deep sea fishing boats!
Depending on how you wanted to depict the area in the system, fishing boats could appear as a shadow or the bottom hull of the boat. With smaller 'netting' enemies to try and get you. Fighters? Tractor beams? Maybe you could have self destructing dudes that swaps your 'fish' with progressively entangled versions via OnShipDone...

Maybe you could have 'lures' too. If you disable or board certian dudes you become hooked. This could even jump you into a new system that has a high gravity 'boat' spob. You have to fight to get away from it to escape. You could use a beam turret to simulate a fishing line or something. Or Gxxx a special PD turret that fires at an invisible enemy appearing on the spob and looks like a lure with fishing line that points towards the boat.

Watch out for the pollution by the coast!
Entering the system (nebula?) gives you an outfit that slowly drains your health. Or maybe you have to dodge floating junk.

Anyone rember Finding Nemo? Maybe you could even have a fish tank system if you get caught.

This post has been edited by Desprez : 11 April 2006 - 05:17 PM