I know I'm late to make a thread about it, but I figured I might as well since it's the cool thing to do.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzNr9xIlHKg[/media]
[url]http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=108127349[/url]
Out of a panic to get SOMETHING into the Saxxies, and after having about zero ideas for anything that was actually feasible, I was struck with inspiration after seeing [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwbOSanFG_Y"]this video[/URL] pop up after watching some other SFM video. Rather than making a dialogue-heavy drama or complex action film, I could let the visual style do most of the talking, and so I, not a week before the submission deadline, I spent the last weekend fervently creating the thing.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EAQqN.png[/img]
Ir originally started as a Portal 2 thing, with my main motivation being the sex appeal of super high detail models (compared to TF2 bots at least). I think the story was of Atlas finding P-Body and reparing him or some shit, I don't know, it wasn't really that fleshed out, despite having the buggy, Atlas and the hole complete with rubble already set up. The core goal of the movie was essentially, "Weird sci-fi thing in a dark void," so the actual meat of the story and the events just evolved organically. In the end, I decided the story would be way better if it were about an MvM bot having a nightmare about his single life purpose, even if the models didn't look nearly as good with the outline effect.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ccob9.png[/img]
I ended up using 78 bodies for the ol' pillar of bodies, not including the main Heavy. As you can imagine, there was a lot of copy and pasting involved (in varied sets of thirteen uniquely positioned bodies), but that didn't make things any easier on my rig as it slowed things down to a crawl, to a point where it was frustratingly difficult to do hand-done camera movements. Even the copying and pasting was tedious as I had to apply rigs to the original thirteen bodies for positioning, then un-apply them so that SFM could let me copy them, then RE-apply rigs to each one individually (so I could make them wriggle around), and then lock their root positions to that of the main Heavy's individually, as for some reason SFM doesn't do what every other animation tool does in terms of multi-object selection capabilities.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/RxAiv.png[/img]
Add all of that to the stupidly massive number of rubble pieces from Portal 2's rubble objects, and the tricky workarounds I had to use to get the flying bombs to rotate around the center (which involved placing a random object in the center of the hole and using locks to use it as a sort of pivot for surrounding bombs), and you've got a recipe for a huge amount of work, though not necessarily very difficult or complex work. It was more quantity of work than difficulty. Then, after some editing, technical headaches and a little sound design (which aside from the music didn't turn out great but whatever), I got that shit finished up and entered within four days of starting the project, which I'm a little proud of, not gonna lie.
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/h1ej8.jpg[/thumb]
Anyway, I would appreciate it if you [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=108127349]liked/voted for my video[/url] during the Saxxies. After seeing some of the entries, I don't have a lot of confidence in winning, but I also think there's a pitifully small range of categories this year, especially compared to last year. I think I might have had a shot if there was like a sci-fi category or something but I'm satisfied with just getting my name and work out there.
Also, in the spirit of Zacharia, I have here the source files (you must have Portal 2 and MvM content for everything to work right, I ain't gonna hunt and peck for that shit and make the file bigger to boot. Also I went into the project to grab screens and some of the models were fucked up so I can't guarantee success) for the project, which you're free to peruse or remix at your leisure.
[url]http://www.mediafire.com/?uogqvdiua37az1o[/url]
Plus, as a few people were saying that the video looks overblown and/or that the lines were too thin, I'm placing the blame on youtube's compression as the original video file (below) looks perfectly fine.
[url]http://www.mediafire.com/?my2u8210mb7ab3u[/url]
If you read through this whole thing, thanks for reading, and good luck to all you Saxxy entrants! I hope to at least be in the upper rung. v:v:v
I really do like the title name.
Dreams of Electric Sheep Anyone?
Also Fun Fact.
Blade Runner was Actually based partially off the plot of Dreams Of Electric Sheep
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