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20/09/2016 18:45:27

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Hey guys,
Here’s where you post your entries to this year’s Halloween competition.
This competition will be judged by the Muvizu community, and I imagine many of us regulars will give feedback on what went well and what could be improved.

The rules for this competition are very simple:
  • Entries must be submitted before midnight on October 29th, and judging will take place on the 30th ready for the announcement of the winners on the 31st.
  • Entries must have a Halloween theme, but other than that it’s open to your imagination.
  • Entries must be made within the time constraints of the competition. No using old videos please.
  • Entries must be made in Muvizu. (Duh! )
  • Entries must contain only your own or royalty-free material. We don’t want anyone to have their video taken down due to a copyright dispute.

You can submit as many entries as you like.

There are no prizes for this competition, but you will receive high quality feedback on how to improve your skills.

Here are some videos from previous years that may give you some inspiration:

The winner of the 2012 competition by Artpen:


Ziggy72 managed to get 2nd place with this video:


And 3rd place went to Woztoons:


Good luck everyone!
edited by MrDrWho13 on 20/09/2016
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20/09/2016 19:15:55

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Top tips for stepping up the quality of your films:
  • Experiment with different lighting to get your desired effect. Try to avoid using the ambient light that Muvizu puts in by default. Often a scene will gain a lot of depth with just one or two well placed lights. For larger scenes, you could try the directional light.
  • Once you've sorted out your character actions and movement, add a bit more personality and subtle emotion to your characters by using head and eye movement. If you find that your character isn't quite coming across as you intended, you might want to have a go at animating the "expressive" property with "Prepare/Direct character properties"
  • You may not notice at first, but good sound quality make a massive difference on how you perceive a film. When you record your dialogue, try to keep a good distance from your microphone, and avoid recording around anything loud like a desk fan that could leave a noticeable noise in the final recording.

edited by MrDrWho13 on 20/09/2016
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20/09/2016 21:26:27

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		I just had a great Idea for a Halloween video....I am inFroot muaaaaahahahaha
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21/09/2016 18:33:44

Speedking5
Speedking5
Posts: 50 		Wow those were all really good I'm definitely going to do one! Ziggy that opening scene with the house looked amazing was that all lighting with muvizu or was it those luts effects that you say you add?
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22/09/2016 13:23:07

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Speedking5 wrote:
Wow those were all really good I'm definitely going to do one! Ziggy that opening scene with the house looked amazing was that all lighting with muvizu or was it those luts effects that you say you add?


That was made a long time ago, with the beta version of Muvizu (with the old logo) and the standard Muvizu lighting. Muvizu has an amazing lighting system, but by default when you create a new set it goes to the 'simple' version, which looks like crap. Go to your Environmental settings, set it to Custom, turn off the ambient lighting and shadows, set the upper and lower ambient lighting to zero, and THEN begin lighting your set (with the lights set to 'cast individual shadows', not ambient).
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22/09/2016 15:39:38

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		the standard Muvizu lighting flattens things out and doesn't take full advantage of Muvizu's 3D look and feel. Ziggy's settings definitely add visual interest, as evidenced by just about any of his videos.

But, playing devil's advocate here... the standard lighting can be useful in other ways.

If you have proficiency in one of the 2D animation packages and you want to merge content from the 2D world into Muvizu's 3D world, a flat lighting scheme makes it less noticeable.

If you want to show something that Muvizu can't do, that's a good opportunity to merge content from your 2D package. A very simple way to transfer your Muvizu set to a 2D world is by simply taking a screen shot of your Muvizu set, then apply it to a layer in Moho or other program.

You can move characters to 2D by taking a screen shot of the character from a couple of different angles, then in a garphics editor, cut it into individual features (like arms and legs) that can be rigged in the 2D environment.
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22/09/2016 16:48:31

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Muvizu defaults to the 'simple' lighting system because it's the least demanding on your system. If anyone thinks it looks okay or can use it to help them then great, but I would strongly recommend against using it ever. Flat lighting is boring and fake. Look around you - the world is full of shadows and highlights. If you're making a Halloween video with flat lighting and no shadows then... well, good luck to you
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22/09/2016 19:41:03

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		Hello Ziggy, Is the house a png file?,it looks very real
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22/09/2016 20:11:50

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		It was a model of a haunted house I got on Sketchup's 3D Warehouse (or whatever they call it this week). 3D models always work better than images when you have to move the camera, I find. Also, I knew I had to set it on fire at the end, so an image just wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well. Avoid using images when possible is my advice - flatness is rarely all that helpful in a 3D environment.
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22/09/2016 20:29:21

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		I tried to import a house from sketchup, but for some reason muvizu crashes, and is only like 5,000 polygons...
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22/09/2016 20:38:52

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		How you did that small hill where you put the house?
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22/09/2016 20:45:28

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		tonyob67 wrote:
How you did that small hill where you put the house?

I believe that's a stretched out hill object from Muvizu.
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22/09/2016 21:08:36

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		If you pause the video at 10 seconds in, when the lightning flashes, you can see how the whole set is made - everything is Muvizu except the house and a backdrop with the picture of the moon on it. The hill is just a hill from the Nature section, yes. The treeline is a picture of a treeline on a couple of backdrops. Everything was scaled to the hill's largest size, since I didn't know how to make my own stuff back then.
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22/09/2016 21:10:05

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		tonyob67 wrote:
I tried to import a house from sketchup, but for some reason muvizu crashes, and is only like 5,000 polygons...

Models can cause problems because of their geometry, regardless of size. Sometimes chopping it up into smaller pieces can help.
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22/09/2016 22:02:22

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		tonyob67 wrote:
I tried to import a house from sketchup, but for some reason muvizu crashes, and is only like 5,000 polygons...


The models in Sketchup's warehouse are uncontrolled. Anybody can post a model, so the quality varies quite a bit... ranging from quite good to horrendous. The good news is that there are thousands of models on just about any theme, so if one crashes, Try another one.
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22/09/2016 22:12:33

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Tony, Try searching for Phantom Manor in the 3d Warehouse - that's where I found that house that I used. Still had to do some work on it to get it 'Muvizu-ready'...
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23/09/2016 00:27:58

Speedking5
Speedking5
Posts: 50 		ziggy72 wrote:
Speedking5 wrote:
Wow those were all really good I'm definitely going to do one! Ziggy that opening scene with the house looked amazing was that all lighting with muvizu or was it those luts effects that you say you add?


That was made a long time ago, with the beta version of Muvizu (with the old logo) and the standard Muvizu lighting. Muvizu has an amazing lighting system, but by default when you create a new set it goes to the 'simple' version, which looks like crap. Go to your Environmental settings, set it to Custom, turn off the ambient lighting and shadows, set the upper and lower ambient lighting to zero, and THEN begin lighting your set (with the lights set to 'cast individual shadows', not ambient).


Thank you I have been using this lighting this way for a while now and its completley better. (even named it Ziggy Lighting) when I turned the shadows up on my old computer it shut down the whole computer lol. When you are lighting a character do you use point lighting or the spot lights. What about the dark lights?
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23/09/2016 08:16:34

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		ziggy72 wrote:
Tony, Try searching for Phantom Manor in the 3d Warehouse - that's where I found that house that I used. Still had to do some work on it to get it 'Muvizu-ready'...



I have downloaded a few houses,...Thank you Ziggy and Pat, lets keep working, when I am working with muvizu, time gos very fast
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23/09/2016 14:20:34

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Speedking5 wrote:
When you are lighting a character do you use point lighting or the spot lights. What about the dark lights?

Usually spot lights (since point lights go everywhere and light things you don't want). Dark lights have only recently been fixed but yes, I use them when the AO doesn't reach far enough. Be careful with the distance slider on Darks though - they can generate black highlights on the character's eyeballs.
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25/09/2016 14:09:15

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Just a brief example of how lighting can completely transform a scene.

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02/10/2016 17:13:33

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		It's October already, but there's still plenty of time.
If you've just started with Muvizu, remember your film doesn't need to be blockbuster length!
Here's a very short horror film:
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02/10/2016 17:20:27

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
It's October already, but there's still plenty of time.
If you've just started with Muvizu, remember your film doesn't need to be blockbuster length!
Here's a very short horror film:



Lol.....Very funny, I will show this to my son hahaha, he is studying to be a lawyer.

I am working on my video...Best regards
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03/10/2016 11:22:33

bigwallyMuvizu mogulExperimental user
bigwally
Posts: 399 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
It's October already, but there's still plenty of time.
If you've just started with Muvizu, remember your film doesn't need to be blockbuster length!


Great example of a 10-second video!
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03/10/2016 14:35:03

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		we should start seeing contest entries trickling in before too long....
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15/10/2016 12:10:20

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		Hello everybody....

4:00 am my time and just finished my entry...I wanted to make it shorter, but I need all the scenes for the story to make sense...I hope you like it...Good look to all


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15/10/2016 13:18:33

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Wow, Tony! That was AWESOME!! I loved everything about it! You put a lot of work into this! Great neighborhood at the beginning.. and lots of cool vehicles that I haven't seen in the store, so you must have created them....

I liked the driving scenes, very well done!

And the costume/head attachment was also very cool.. I'm guessing you made that?
VERY cool house... I liked the texture you used for the driveway... great character development, both physically and also defining the personality through dialog.

And I thought your use of the piano for the closing credits was very clever!

Did that interior come with the house? Or did you create separate sets?

I'm going to go watch it again, I may be back with more comments.... (Great job!)

follow-ups:

1) where did you get the car with the hood that can be opened?

2) good use of music when we first see the house

3) I like the lines "Only a witch would live here..." followed by "That's why we brought you..." hahaha!

4) at 4:18, is that photo on the wall significant? You linger on it as though it may be somebody we should recognize...

5) at 5:10 I like the imagination sequence, and the fact that you used different shading to distinguish it from the rest of the video

6) I liked the harp music as a transition in and out of the fantasy

7) I like the way you succinctly make the points required to create the story. You didn't linger on the purchase of the costume, but there was enough shown to get the idea across. I also like the fact that the "I have a plan" music started while he was leaving work and continued through the purchase of the costume. That is good directing, because it leads the mood easily from one scene to the next with music.

8) at 6:01 I liked the headlights!

9) at 7:00 I like your use of music again. It creates the feel of suspense and humor at the same time, which is perfect for the scene

10) at 7:32, again.. effective use of music to establish the mood

11) great use of lighting.. it was appropriate for each scene... darker when necessary, lighter what that was a better match for the scene! Another good example of directing the scene, not the technology.

12) I thought the mother in law character was particularly well developed. Nice job all around! Great contest submission! And thanks for the subtitles! They make your videos so much more enjoyable for those of us who don't speak or understand Spanish.



--------------------------------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 15/10/2016
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15/10/2016 14:01:29

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		What He Said Good little movie, and thanks for the subtitles. The lighting still needs some work, especially using them to create shadows to define things better - like at 2:22 when we see the house for the first time, it's evenly lit, no shadows, no real sense of depth or menace. The ambient lighting (upper and lower) can be used in some scenarios, but for these kind of shots I would say you need to turn the ambient off completely and use only spots/points casting individual shadows to get the look. And I thought, at 4:18, the photo was going to do something, like their eyes would move or something...
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15/10/2016 20:24:38

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		PatMarrNC wrote:
Wow, Tony! That was AWESOME!! I loved everything about it! You put a lot of work into this! Great neighborhood at the beginning.. and lots of cool vehicles that I haven't seen in the store, so you must have created them....

I liked the driving scenes, very well done!

And the costume/head attachment was also very cool.. I'm guessing you made that?
VERY cool house... I liked the texture you used for the driveway... great character development, both physically and also defining the personality through dialog.

And I thought your use of the piano for the closing credits was very clever!

Did that interior come with the house? Or did you create separate sets?

I'm going to go watch it again, I may be back with more comments.... (Great job!)

follow-ups:

1) where did you get the car with the hood that can be opened?

2) good use of music when we first see the house

3) I like the lines "Only a witch would live here..." followed by "That's why we brought you..." hahaha!

4) at 4:18, is that photo on the wall significant? You linger on it as though it may be somebody we should recognize...

5) at 5:10 I like the imagination sequence, and the fact that you used different shading to distinguish it from the rest of the video

6) I liked the harp music as a transition in and out of the fantasy

7) I like the way you succinctly make the points required to create the story. You didn't linger on the purchase of the costume, but there was enough shown to get the idea across. I also like the fact that the "I have a plan" music started while he was leaving work and continued through the purchase of the costume. That is good directing, because it leads the mood easily from one scene to the next with music.

8) at 6:01 I liked the headlights!

9) at 7:00 I like your use of music again. It creates the feel of suspense and humor at the same time, which is perfect for the scene

10) at 7:32, again.. effective use of music to establish the mood

11) great use of lighting.. it was appropriate for each scene... darker when necessary, lighter what that was a better match for the scene! Another good example of directing the scene, not the technology.

12) I thought the mother in law character was particularly well developed. Nice job all around! Great contest submission! And thanks for the subtitles! They make your videos so much more enjoyable for those of us who don't speak or understand Spanish.



--------------------------------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 15/10/2016


Hello Pat, thank you for the comments,

I create a neighborhood around Claysters house,

the costume/head attachment it's a mask from muvizu, the only attachment I imported was the red shopping bag.

I made 3 separated sets for the house exterior, the interior and the grandma room from 0,
The house is made with cubes at the abstract objects, the interior I first modeled in sketchup, but the wallpaper texture looks very bad so I used the backgrounds for the walls instead and almost every asset in the house it’s a sketchup model.

The car from sketchup, look for (1966 dodge challenger from Steve S). at the warehouse, he made the car model with separated parts, so you can erase all and leave the hood to import it to muvizu, or the windows etc, I am going to try to make the windows transparent now.

The photo at the 4:18, he is the Mexican President and his wife, the grandma made a comment on the photos haha

Thank you, I am glad you enjoy it ….
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15/10/2016 20:36:22

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		ziggy72 wrote:
What He Said Good little movie, and thanks for the subtitles. The lighting still needs some work, especially using them to create shadows to define things better - like at 2:22 when we see the house for the first time, it's evenly lit, no shadows, no real sense of depth or menace. The ambient lighting (upper and lower) can be used in some scenarios, but for these kind of shots I would say you need to turn the ambient off completely and use only spots/points casting individual shadows to get the look. And I thought, at 4:18, the photo was going to do something, like their eyes would move or something...




You are right I thought I turned off all The ambient lighting on every set and scene, and I leave it on in that scene, I was trying to be very carefull on following MrDrWho13 lightning advices I new at the end some thing was going to be missing.

The photo scene is the Mexican President, you get the joke? Haha

Thank you for your comments Ziggy
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15/10/2016 23:40:15

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		Tonyob67, this was great to watch. I have a short attention span lately but it was easy to sit through this video. I agree with Pat's comments about the scenes, characters, and cars. I loved the subtitles. I might share this with our school Spanish teacher who I share an office with. I think he would like it.

Everything in this video shows a lot of improvement, and the fact that you are using cubes, other props, and Sketch up is very interesting. Maybe this summer I can get into learning Sketch up. You spent a lot of time on details and it made the video very enjoyable and high quality.

Good luck in the contest.
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16/10/2016 09:26:12

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		AllClass wrote:
Congratulations to Artpen, Ziggy and Woztoons.

All great entries. Funny, trippy and visually impressive.

Excellent use of shadows and sound FX. The set design and lighting (in particular the establishing shots for Ziggy) are some on the best I've seen on here


What entries? am I missing something?
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16/10/2016 09:39:39

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		tonyob67 wrote:
AllClass wrote:
Congratulations to Artpen, Ziggy and Woztoons.

All great entries. Funny, trippy and visually impressive.

Excellent use of shadows and sound FX. The set design and lighting (in particular the establishing shots for Ziggy) are some on the best I've seen on here


What entries? am I missing something?


The entries of the 2012 competition in my first post.
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16/10/2016 09:44:17

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
tonyob67 wrote:
AllClass wrote:
Congratulations to Artpen, Ziggy and Woztoons.

All great entries. Funny, trippy and visually impressive.

Excellent use of shadows and sound FX. The set design and lighting (in particular the establishing shots for Ziggy) are some on the best I've seen on here


What entries? am I missing something?


The entries of the 2012 competition in my first post.


Ho, those are Just examples, not entries on this competition, am I wrong?
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16/10/2016 10:41:05

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		tonyob67 wrote:
Ho, those are Just examples, not entries on this competition, am I wrong?


Yes, these are just examples, but taken from a competition which Muvizu ran in 2012.
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16/10/2016 23:48:47

AllClass
AllClass
Posts: 68 		Halloween entry - Not a serious contender but I had a few hours and won't have much time to make new movies soon.. Looking forward to seeing all your entries!

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17/10/2016 08:35:33

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		Rocque wrote:
Tonyob67, this was great to watch. I have a short attention span lately but it was easy to sit through this video. I agree with Pat's comments about the scenes, characters, and cars. I loved the subtitles. I might share this with our school Spanish teacher who I share an office with. I think he would like it.

Everything in this video shows a lot of improvement, and the fact that you are using cubes, other props, and Sketch up is very interesting. Maybe this summer I can get into learning Sketch up. You spent a lot of time on details and it made the video very enjoyable and high quality.

Good luck in the contest.


Thank you Rocque... Are you workng on your entry?
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18/10/2016 02:59:21

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		ziggy72 wrote:
It was a model of a haunted house I got on Sketchup's 3D Warehouse (or whatever they call it this week). 3D models always work better than images when you have to move the camera, I find. Also, I knew I had to set it on fire at the end, so an image just wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well. Avoid using images when possible is my advice - flatness is rarely all that helpful in a 3D environment.


They have ready made models in Sketchup? You can just upload them into Muvizu, or do you have to have some special file extension?
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18/10/2016 03:03:00

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		Tonyob67 wrote:


Thank you Rocque... Are you workng on your entry?


I can not even come up with an idea. Maybe I can figure something out with the new characters. It takes me so long to make anything that I have not been very enthusiastic about even starting lately. Time is running out so maybe next year.
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18/10/2016 07:26:20

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Rocque wrote:
They have ready made models in Sketchup? You can just upload them into Muvizu, or do you have to have some special file extension?

Here's the 3D warehouse: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/?hl=en
You import these into sketchup and then export from there as .ase but often they have faces facing the wrong way or too many polygons.
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18/10/2016 10:24:21

unlimitedmagic
unlimitedmagic
Posts: 53 		Here's my entry...
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18/10/2016 14:18:52

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Now that's scary lighting!
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18/10/2016 15:27:33

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		I'm going to wait until the deadline before watching any of the entries.

Remember, there's still over a week to get your entry submitted!
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21/10/2016 20:35:07

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		Very Scary Unlimitedmagic!! I liked it.
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22/10/2016 01:04:40

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Well, here's my entry...

(reference to old video deleted)

the house and car in the video should be in the store on Monday, I'll post a separate demo video for it


===============update===========
yay! House is in the store!

latest and final version:


Cut out a lot of walking. Sliding the wolf in while the background scrolled wasn't working, so I used a fade instead. Added a light to the front yard to justify the shadow directions, removed most of the disco-esque fire flickers, added more supporting sound, re-recorded all the dialog so it doesn't sound like actors are in a barrel. Frankie was walking right through the pine tree, so I moved it out of his path. Added an extra set of door knocks to add urgency to the moment... also retained the monsters shadows on the house to add a threatening element to the scene. Consolidated two scenes into one because it looked like there should have been a commercial inserted when the two similar scenes transitioned.

Thanks to friends on the forum who shared their insights on changes that were needed. I didn't have time to fix them all, but I got the ones that I knew how to fix.
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/10/2016
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/10/2016
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/10/2016
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22/10/2016 04:31:25

AllClass
AllClass
Posts: 68 		Wow Pat that is truly wonderful!
Your design, sound effects, use of fog and lighting is absolutely amazing - especially impressed by the shadow work.
Great ending too
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22/10/2016 06:37:03

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		You are very kind, AllClass! I know there's lots wrong with it, but it's the best I can do right now. At this point in my learning curve I figure it's more helpful to get a lot of projects under my belt... hopefully learning something from each one... rather than obsessing over a few.

For years I obsessed and didn't do anything because nothing was ever good enough. I'm learning to let go of that, knowing that at my age the main thing I get out of it is fun anyway... and if I make it too complicated, then it won't even be fun anymore.

Anything that's good about it was probably one of Ziggy's ideas. And I'm OK with admitting that. He's a smart guy at this and he shares his knowledge. Gotta respect that.

Speaking of contest entries, I really enjoyed your scarecrow video! Man, that poor crow is gonna need therapy for the rest of his life! ;-)
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22/10/2016 07:08:05

AllClass
AllClass
Posts: 68 		I agree and know completely what you mean about needing to 'let go' of a project.

You are right that it's better to keep making content and try to learn from each one. I also am a perfectionist and stress about little things but what you wrote is true - the main aim should be fun.

I saw no flaws in your video. You must have a beast of a computer to produce such high quality imagery. I think you should be a Muvizu mogul as you are always giving good feedback and tips to newbies like myself.

Also, speaking of which, I used your birds character pack for my traumatized crow - so thanks
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22/10/2016 15:04:08

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		PatMarrNC wrote:
Anything that's good about it was probably one of Ziggy's ideas.


Not fair (on yourself) - you already had a good video before you asked for feedback.
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22/10/2016 15:44:08

unlimitedmagic
unlimitedmagic
Posts: 53 		COOL! I love the opening tracking shot with the moon in the background. Great use of lighting. How'd you get so many fog effects? Muvizu crashes if I put more than two - must be my crappy PC. Jealous. Beautiful job PatMarrNC
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22/10/2016 17:08:00

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		ziggy72 wrote:
PatMarrNC wrote:
Anything that's good about it was probably one of Ziggy's ideas.


Not fair (on yourself) - you already had a good video before you asked for feedback.


Much of the first draft and concept was based on cumulative advice and observations you've made on the forum.

Speaking of which... I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge so freely. You are one of the last remaining gurus from Muvizu's glory period, and without your willingness to share the things you've learned the hard way, all us newbies would be in the position of having to figure it all out from scratch. Don't underestimate your influence ...
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22/10/2016 17:18:44

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		unlimitedmagic wrote:
COOL! I love the opening tracking shot with the moon in the background. Great use of lighting. How'd you get so many fog effects? Muvizu crashes if I put more than two - must be my crappy PC. Jealous. Beautiful job PatMarrNC


Thanks for the kind words! Interesting to hear about the resource hog-ness of the particle effects. I recently added a GTX-1060 video card and 16 more gigs of ram, and I wasn't sure if any of it made a difference because my sets still take forever to load.

Apparently loading the sets is a CPU task but processing particle effects is a GPU task, so the new graphics card may well have enabled the fog. Interesting

I think YOUR sets are spectacular and total eye candy... so your machine must be pretty beefy! I can't even imagine creating sets with the amount of detail you put into yours!
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22/10/2016 17:39:11

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		AllClass wrote:
I agree and know completely what you mean about needing to 'let go' of a project.

You are right that it's better to keep making content and try to learn from each one. I also am a perfectionist and stress about little things but what you wrote is true - the main aim should be fun.


I should qualify my statements to be only for myself... younger people may have reasons and opportunities that make it advantageous to take all this seriously. But at my age, having fun is pretty much the whole goal.

I saw no flaws in your video.

lots of consistency errors... things I did differently in one scene than in the followup scene... color mismatches... terrible sound quality.. the voices sound like the actors are in a barrel. I recently added a flat screen TV as computer monitor, and it added new sound drivers to my system which screwed up the good settings I had previously. There is something weird happening around the windows when the monsters sneak up on the house, and nothing I tried fixed it. Ziggy suggested adding a flower box, which is a great idea... the mummy's accent changes from scene to scene etc etc etc


You must have a beast of a computer to produce such high quality imagery.

well... it's better than it was 2 months ago, but I think Santa needs to bring me something better


I think you should be a Muvizu mogul as you are always giving good feedback and tips to newbies like myself.

mogul or not, I see value in encouraging others. Especially on forums, you tend to get more participation when people know they are liked and appreciated. Participation leads to fun, so we all have an incentive to encourage one another. Which leads me to say "thanks for your encouragement!"


Also, speaking of which, I used your birds character pack for my traumatized crow - so thanks

yeah, I noticed that right away! It always tickles me to see my stuff showing up in other peoples' videos! I'd like to thank you on behalf of the crow! You did a great job of making him look upset by what he was witnessing. ;-)
edited by PatMarrNC on 22/10/2016
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22/10/2016 18:09:31

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		ziggy72 wrote:
PatMarrNC wrote:
Anything that's good about it was probably one of Ziggy's ideas.


Not fair (on yourself) - you already had a good video before you asked for feedback.


I agree with Ziggy! When you say there are lots of mistakes in it, maybe for you there are, but for those of us who saw it as highly entertaining, it was great from the beginning to the very end. The moon was awesome only lighting up the circle. The sound effects were spot on, and the characters were scary enough as they approached the house. Your use of shadows helped set the overall spookiness of the scenes.

There is a lot of growth in techniques in all of your videos. Maybe you are too much of a perfectionist, or too critical of your own works. I saw it as very well executed, and just the right amount of suspense for those of us who do not like to be over scared. I am happy that you were having fun making it, and it shows because it was all very smooth to watch, and I am inspired how you got the scene to pan across effortlessly.

I am not sure what you used to make 99% of your video.
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22/10/2016 18:29:31

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
I am not sure what you used to make 99% of your video.


can you elaborate on this? Do you mean you aren't sure where the assets came from? Or how the scenes were constructed? or something else?
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22/10/2016 20:15:33

unlimitedmagic
unlimitedmagic
Posts: 53 		I've got an intel (laptop) motherboard. 2.5ghz, 8 gigs of ram, terrible integrated graphics card. It's been a good unit for most things and I've been surprised at how it keeps chugging along - I burden it repeatedly. Part of my fun is seeing how much I can get away with. It forces me to optimize my sets which is kind of cool.

I did one shot in my entry where the walls seem to stretch down from overhead. I had seen this type of shot used in horror films before. They call it a "Dolly Zoom". It's where you zoom out while moving the camera forward. I didn't think it would work in Muvizu but it worked nicely.

Here's a great compilation of it used in movies -

https://vimeo.com/84548119.
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22/10/2016 20:30:34

unlimitedmagic
unlimitedmagic
Posts: 53 		If anyone would like to see how I did the "Last Message" here's the file. It was done as a single take. I did re-edit some of the timing on the camera cuts and added audio in Sony Vegas Pro.
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22/10/2016 23:54:10

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		PatMarrNC wrote:
I am not sure what you used to make 99% of your video.


can you elaborate on this? Do you mean you aren't sure where the assets came from? Or how the scenes were constructed? or something else?



Yes! to everything you did! How did you do the panning? It looked so smooth to follow the moon across the view like the camera was on a conveyor belt or wheels. I did not know you could travel so far across a set so smoothly. My scenes are short and choppy, and I would love to be able to have something like you did there.

The wolf howling was also amazing. The timing was perfect, and I was expecting a wolf and got the wolf man, but the wolf head was very realistic.

The lighting throughout the video was very well done. I enjoyed the scene with the witch around the fire. I will have to watch the video again to ask more questions. I totally missed the car the first time through because of the house and person inside.

That is all for now.
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23/10/2016 00:05:50

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		Thanks for all you shared Unlimited Magic. Hitchcock was a genius! He had ideas that are still being used today in film making and special effects.
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23/10/2016 01:29:43

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Rocque wrote:
How did you do the panning? It looked so smooth to follow the moon across the view like the camera was on a conveyor belt or wheels. I did not know you could travel so far across a set so smoothly. My scenes are short and choppy, and I would love to be able to have something like you did there.


Did you buy the keyframe pack? That's how I do all camera moves... it's very easy. You position the camera where you want it, then click to add a keyframe.... then move the time marker ahead to where you want the camera to end up, position it to frame the shot and click to keyframe that position... then hit PLAY and Muvizu smoothly moves the camera between those 2 keyframed positions! It's one of my favorite features of Muvizu, because it works so well and is easy too!

The wolf howling was also amazing. The timing was perfect, and I was expecting a wolf and got the wolf man, but the wolf head was very realistic.

This is where different tools in the toolbox comes in. The actual wolf howling was animated in another animation software, then saved as a green-screen clip. Then HitFilm removed the green so it just looked like a wolf howling over my Muvizu setting. The same wolf was exported from the first software as an OBJ file, and I just used his head to make a head attachment for Beefy. In order to transition from the howling wolf clip to the wolf man, I lined the two heads up and faded the one clip out as I faded the other clip in.

The lighting throughout the video was very well done.

like everybody else, I just followed Ziggy's environment settings

I enjoyed the scene with the witch around the fire. I will have to watch the video again to ask more questions.

please do!

I totally missed the car the first time through because of the house and person inside.


that's one of the interesting aspects of making videos... you have to put in a lot of details that probably won't get consciously noticed in order to make the scenes resemble real life. Real life tends to be cluttered with the stuff that defines us. The extra stuff in scenes is an easy way to tell the audience about the characters without taking time to specifically dole out the information through dialog. We may not consciously acknowledge the presence of items in a scene, but subconsciously, everything in the scene gets factored into our perception of what's happening. Ziggy is particularly good at this. Watch his videos with an eye for all the miscellaneous stuff... it's all there for a reason.
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23/10/2016 17:44:17

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Just under a week left, so any last minute entries will need to be wrapped up soon!
I look forward to watching all these films. It's great to see all your tips and tricks being shared!
Good luck everyone!

(Voting will start at 9AM BST on October 30th and end at 6PM)
edited by MrDrWho13 on 23/10/2016
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23/10/2016 23:59:11

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
Just under a week left, so any last minute entries will need to be wrapped up soon!
I look forward to watching all these films. It's great to see all your tips and tricks being shared!
Good luck everyone!

(Voting will start at 9AM BST on October 30th and end at 6PM)
edited by MrDrWho13 on 23/10/2016


I thought there might be some chance I could have an entry, but maybe next year. I have enjoyed the entries I have viewed so far though so thanks for hosting the contest.
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24/10/2016 06:43:49

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		Rocque wrote:
MrDrWho13 wrote:
Just under a week left, so any last minute entries will need to be wrapped up soon!
I look forward to watching all these films. It's great to see all your tips and tricks being shared!
Good luck everyone!

(Voting will start at 9AM BST on October 30th and end at 6PM)
edited by MrDrWho13 on 23/10/2016


I thought there might be some chance I could have an entry, but maybe next year. I have enjoyed the entries I have viewed so far though so thanks for hosting the contest.



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25/10/2016 04:24:18

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Rocque wrote:
MrDrWho13 wrote:
Just under a week left, so any last minute entries will need to be wrapped up soon!
I look forward to watching all these films. It's great to see all your tips and tricks being shared!
Good luck everyone!

(Voting will start at 9AM BST on October 30th and end at 6PM)
edited by MrDrWho13 on 23/10/2016


I thought there might be some chance I could have an entry, but maybe next year. I have enjoyed the entries I have viewed so far though so thanks for hosting the contest.


Rocque, I hope we're not losing you! Don't put pressure on yourself just because of a contest... please hang on loosely but don't let go! You have friends here... even if for now you can only hang out and watch but not participate... your time will come.

Gee that whole message was a collection of old song titles. ;-) But you get my point.
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25/10/2016 07:11:50

magic-man
magic-man
Posts: 4 		My cartoon for the contest!

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25/10/2016 07:14:20

magic-man
magic-man
Posts: 4 		video 360!


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25/10/2016 18:27:57

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Hi Magic-man! Welcome to the forum and to the world of Muvizu animation! You have some cool stuff going on here! Nice mirror effect! And I like the hulk-style color change! And I especially like the window... did you make that?
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25/10/2016 20:26:50

magic-man
magic-man
Posts: 4 		PatMarrNC wrote:
Hi Magic-man! Welcome to the forum and to the world of Muvizu animation! You have some cool stuff going on here! Nice mirror effect! And I like the hulk-style color change! And I especially like the window... did you make that?

Hello!
I have long started to learn Muvizu.
All the time is not enough. Now bought a powerful computer and decided to check Muvizu! For the mirror I used the camera with water effect and added a bluish color.
The table and mirror I made myself in the editor of Kompas 3D.
Then saved in STL and transferred in Sketch up . They added texture and then saved in the ASE .
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25/10/2016 20:43:14

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		magic-man wrote:
PatMarrNC wrote:
Hi Magic-man! Welcome to the forum and to the world of Muvizu animation! You have some cool stuff going on here! Nice mirror effect! And I like the hulk-style color change! And I especially like the window... did you make that?

Hello!
I have long started to learn Muvizu.
All the time is not enough. Now bought a powerful computer and decided to check Muvizu! For the mirror I used the camera with water effect and added a bluish color.
The table and mirror I made myself in the editor of Kompas 3D.
Then saved in STL and transferred in Sketch up . They added texture and then saved in the ASE .


nice work! I look forward to seeing more from you!
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27/10/2016 03:00:31

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		Welcome Magic-man!! Very nice character design in your video, and the mirror was great! Thanks for sharing how you made them. I love the hulk, too. You did a great job on your video. I watched it about 4 times to see everything Pat was mentioning. He has the sharpest eye around.
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29/10/2016 05:24:41

zayha
zayha
Posts: 8 		Here's my entry " Trick or Treat"
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29/10/2016 16:39:14

clayster2012Muvizu mogul
clayster2012
Posts: 645 		Nice, but be careful he may be out next president...lol!
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29/10/2016 20:36:24

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Voting starts tomorrow!
I'm really glad to see so many entries, and I will be watching them all for the first time when I vote.
I hadn't realised our clocks go back an hour tomorrow - meaning 9AM BST is 8AM here now. (I can't keep up with all these clock changes!)
I'll probably start the poll at 8AM tomorrow then, although I may do it slightly earlier or later since I'm a tad busy. Voting ends at 6PM.
Good luck, everyone!
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29/10/2016 23:35:26

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		This competition will be judged by the Muvizu community, and I imagine many of us regulars will give feedback on what went well and what could be improved.


Hello MrDrWho13.

By the Muvizu community you meant all people like you and I? or Muvizu staff...
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30/10/2016 07:25:15

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		I'm going to set up a vote on the forum so users can choose the video they think did the best.
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30/10/2016 22:14:08

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		clayster2012 wrote:
Nice, but be careful he may be out next president...lol!


That was funny Clayster. I was thinking of making the same type of video but the scary person was going to be Hillary! However I did not want to be labeled a hater. I enjoyed Zayha's humor and think that they are both very scary people, so they should have had equal scary time in videos.

My grandparents all came through Ellis Island, and they were screened before the gates of the USA were opened to them. They did not get a free ride into the country. They learned the language, my grandfather went to Rutgers University, and all grandparents became citizens, etc. When I asked my grandfather to teach me how to speak Italian when I was little he said, this is America, you speak English here. So I never learned to speak Italian other than certain words my grandmother told me not to repeat.

Maybe the wall is not such a bad idea, especially for trick-or-treating little kids who are told on any other night to stay away from strangers, and do not go up to their cars or houses.
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30/10/2016 22:17:24

Rocque
Rocque
Posts: 359 		MrDrWho13 wrote:
I'm going to set up a vote on the forum so users can choose the video they think did the best.


Can we make more accounts and vote more than one time? Just kidding. Maybe I need to start learning how to make videos again instead of reading 200 page propositions to vote on for the election. I would rather watch the videos and vote 2 or 3 times.

So far they are all very enjoyable and I do not feel qualified to be a judge since I know how much work they all involve, and I would vote them all #1.
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30/10/2016 22:22:08

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		The vote has taken place, and winners will be announced tomorrow.
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31/10/2016 06:08:32

tonyob67
tonyob67
Posts: 211 		Maybe the wall is not such a bad idea, especially for trick-or-treating little kids who are told on any other night to stay away from strangers, and do not go up to their cars or houses.



Really? You are kidding, right?
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31/10/2016 11:29:44

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		Here are the results: http://www.muvizu.com/forum/topic6020-muvizu-halloween-contest-2016-results.aspx?p=f#post33729
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Muvizu is easy to use 3D animation software that allows anyone to create high quality animations quickly and easily. Muvizu’s animation engine is ideal for storytellers, animators, teachers and businesses looking to engage, enchant and delight audiences with animated content.