Not so sure if this thread already is here but I will ask some questions I have been wondering about this site and also other people can post their answers 1. Why do most of these videos take place IN SPACEEEE? I mean why can't we try to make animations for ground battles or mech battles something like that? I saw several videos where they took place on the ground and they where OK but why are most of the videos taking place IN SPACEEEE? 2. What kind of program do you guys usually use? I may want to try some animations and art work but I don't know what type of animation program you guys seem to use can you tell me? 3. How long does it take you to make them? If you are making a simple video how long do you take to create some of the video that you are making? That is all I have for now feel free to post any questions you might have and I may add some more if I want to.
1.) Because the site is called SPACEEEBATTLES and not GROUNDDDBATTLES. Most of it comes from the original movies made on the site in the long ago times. In that time they were mainly based on VS battles of Star Trek, Star Wars and Babylon 5 which are all predominantly space based shows. 2.) For my models and renders I use Lightwave but I have been looking at playing around in things like Zbrush. 3.) Some models take a day, while others can take weeks. (note this is just for the model making) Now for animation, you are looking at something that can take months to make. When you make a video you have 3 main parts to deal with. Scene setup, which is when you setup the shots in your 3d program. Rendering, this is when you create the video segments (your 3d program will generate the frames that will make up the video. Each frame can take a few seconds to a few minutes to render and a video can have thousands of them) and post work, which you put all the segments together, do you editing and add your audio to make the final video.
I think #1 is mostly laziness - damn animators don't feel like doing models for everything the ground needs to seem real... lazy bums! Seriously, SPACEEEE is much easier to model... just a whole lotta nothing with a few specks of light off in the distance. Maybe the occasional planet or moon in the distance. No big deal. I wouldn't EVEN want to work on a ground based scene... look at the effort it takes the folks working on games like Red Death Redemption. I gotta lotta respect for those folks.
It's is a helluva lot easier to Animate an Space battle, than an ground battle, with ground your talking about animating hundreds of models. Massive render times, and a general pain in the ass. In Space.... a lot easier, and more fun.
1- see previous answers 2 - I use 3d max 2010 and starting to learn zbrush. 3 - depends, if you are new you need to learn all the techniques. I started some 6 months ago and I've only got 3 models so far. 2 of which are just about finished they just need detailing and texturing. This time includes learning how to do things though. As for rendering, I made a quick camera flyby of one of the models, so about 10 seconds worth of footage at 800by600 which took around 8 minutes to render, which is about 300 frames. This is without any post render additions and just the one model. As you add more to a scene the time will go up. Rendering is also very dependant on your hardware, a faster machine will be able to render things faster.
