Graphics made of clay (suggestion)

Since I can't afford to buy 3d modeling/animation software, I came up with the idea to do plug in graphics with modelling clay and then convert to sprites using a digital camera. However, I won't be using the idea myself in the immediate future since I don't have a digital camera, and I discovered Blender.

I would like to see the idea used though, so I am encouraging any plug makers out there who are interested in unconventional graphics to use this idea to make a claymation-like TC.

Coupled with a suitablyt cartoonish story idea, it could make an excellent game.

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Have you been looking at my Wallace and Gromit plug-in?

"Oh no! We're out of cheese!"

Luck

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Quote

Originally posted by Luck:
**Have you been looking at my Wallace and Gromit plug-in?

"Oh no! We're out of cheese!"

Luck

**

Are you serious about having a Wallace and Gromit plug-in in the works?

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

Quote

Originally posted by Luck:
**Have you been looking at my Wallace and Gromit plug-in?

"Oh no! We're out of cheese!"

Luck

**

That would be so cool...

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(url="http://"http://bbspot.com/News/2001/03/perl_test.html")Test Shows 99.99% of High School Seniors Can't Read Perl(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Luck:
**Have you been looking at my Wallace and Gromit plug-in?

"Oh no! We're out of cheese!"

Luck

**

Seriously?

Because it would be painfully hard to do clay graphics and take the hundreds of photos at the exact right angles. It would probably be much easier to render them, but in a cartoony style.

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All you need is a turntable with every 5 degrees marked, and a tripod for your camera (even nicer would be a remote for the camera as well, so that you don't actually have to touch the camera to take the picture, so the angle's the same every time. Go into a dark room, set your ship on the center of the turntable, set up the camera so that at 0 degrees, the ship is pointing exactly straight up. Light the ship, take a picture, turn the turntable 10 degress, take a picture, etc, etc. It'd take some planning and equipment, but except for the camera, it wouldn't be too expensive, not to mention you'd have a very distinct style for the ships.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."
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You would need a distinctive colour for the table... Something easy to edit to black in photohop. And the camera would need to be at the right angle... But what a claim, to have a clay EV! 🙂

~A~

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"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

The same turntable idea could be used to make a Lego plug. And that would rock.

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Fat cat, small dreams.

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**You would need a distinctive colour for the table... Something easy to edit to black in photohop. And the camera would need to be at the right angle... But what a claim, to have a clay EV!:)

~A~

**

Claymation EV/EVO/EVN would be so figgin unbelievably .......................... spectacular!

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

A claymation plug could be quite cool. A lot of fun. 🙂

As for a Lego one... I dunno. The small size of most of EVN's sprites means that having lego ones would be irrelevant - it would be far too small to see the blocks.

As for the problems of turntabling... I came up with a decent solution a long time ago. Back in the days of EVO I started playing with making a plug with paper airplanes in it. I folded one up and took photos of it at 0, 45, 90,135, 180, and so on, then filled in the gaps by rotating in photoshop. That way I didn't need a turntable (I could to it by eye or with a protractor) and it wasn't hard at all. That said, the paper airplane looked terrible in EV so I abandoned the idea, but it was still a sound idea if you did it with clay or something.

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Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**You would need a distinctive colour for the table... Something easy to edit to black in photohop. And the camera would need to be at the right angle...
**

Well coloring the table isn't anything difficult. Just go to the hardware store and buy some paint! The only thing is that you'd need a color that isn't used on any of your ships, or else you'd edit out your ship as well. As for the camera angle, considering that hopefully all of your ships would be around the same size, you wouldn't need to actually move the camera once you got it set up.

I'd say that I'd do something like that during the summer, but summer's over, and a project like this would take more time than I have. Maybe during a break or something. Might be fun ;).

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."
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(This message has been edited by what_is_the_matrix (edited 09-18-2003).)

I'm gonna try that paperplane idea right now. That would be so cool. Then you could have a carton box as a space station. Hehe, so funny, hehe

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You can run but then you die tired

Wow, I'm glad to hear so much enthusiasm for the idea. I've been re-inspired to pick it up again myself if I can find a digital camera.

A few years ago I saw an insert for a traditional SLR camera that would go in where the film goes and convert it to digital. It might be cheaper than the whole camera. Does anybody know if you can actually get these?

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Quote

Originally posted by TrevorG:
**
A few years ago I saw an insert for a traditional SLR camera that would go in where the film goes and convert it to digital. It might be cheaper than the whole camera. Does anybody know if you can actually get these?

**

Now that is an interesting contraption, but I have never heard of it. If it does exist then it will probably cost a small fortune. Otherwise, I suspect that you'll have to waste a lot of time developing pictures and then scanning them into computer via prints—a very slow and time consuming process.

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

Quote

Originally posted by TrevorG:
**Wow, I'm glad to hear so much enthusiasm for the idea. I've been re-inspired to pick it up again myself if I can find a digital camera.

A few years ago I saw an insert for a traditional SLR camera that would go in where the film goes and convert it to digital. It might be cheaper than the whole camera. Does anybody know if you can actually get these?

**

I remember reading about those. No idea where'd you'd get one though. The price would probably be high enough that you'd be as well to get a digital compact. You can get a decent 3 mega-pixel model for Ł200-250 (around $300) these days. Well worth the investment. I think I averaged a photo for every hour I was out of bed for big chunks of last year.

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Quote

Originally posted by getcrack4me:
**Otherwise, I suspect that you'll have to waste a lot of time developing pictures and then scanning them into computer via prints—a very slow and time consuming process.

**

Not to mention expensive. I don't think you could buy a 36 exposure roll and get it developed for less than about $6 Canadian, and that's for low quality film and 3-day developing. That's $6 per ship.

The digital film insert I was thinking of is not on the market yet. It would be expensive, but would be a goo deal for people with a lot of money invested in traditional camera equipment, or people perverse enough to enjoy photography with an ancient, fully manual Pentax like myself. Check it out at (url="http://"http://www.siliconfilm.com")www.siliconfilm.com(/url)

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well you would definetly have to do it w/ a digital camera.

that would be so cool.

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Quote

Originally posted by TrevorG:
The digital film insert I was thinking of is not on the market yet. It would be expensive, but would be a goo deal for people with a lot of money invested in traditional camera equipment, or people perverse enough to enjoy photography with an ancient, fully manual Pentax like myself.

If TrevorG is like me and already have a big investment in an SLR (I have a Pentax ZX-5n) and some various lenses then this digital conversion thing is an ok interim solution. I hope in the future that Digital SLR's don't cost a arm and a leg and a kidney or two.

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne