A dive into ways of using SH3D for creating sceneries and backgrounds, and make smooth camera movements in filmmaking
First of all: Thanks to Keet for advising me to divide this post into sections.
Some re-writing was all it took.
That was good advice.
I have tried to not use work-oriented terminology, and explained it when unavoidable.
This first section is an intro where I present the project and the pre-production,
plus a summery of who I am and some technical info.
about ME
My education is composer. My work is film music, sound design, occasional VFX and design.
I also lecture, write dialogue, do translations and lip-sync, and instruct actors
when dubbing foreign films for younger kids.
Occasionally I create presentation films of my studio-designs.
I am listed on IMDB with a small portion of my work:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0090216/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Gear & specs
I run sweet home 3D on a 2019 MacPro with 384 GB memory and 16 cores Intel Xeon W.
Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro W5700X 16 GB
I have an afterburner, but SH3D does not support it ( yet ? )
The system disk is 4TB SSD.
Other internal storage is Macintosh R4i 24TB
Normal rendering time for SH3D using Yafaray is less than a minute (once it starts rendering)
for a 1280 x 720 image, which is what I have used in this film.
With Sunflow it renders a bit faster.
The video rendering times (1280x720) varies. I don't keep track of them.
Sweet home has been given 64 GB memory in my main machine.
In the activity monitor I can see that it is using about 60GB. Strangely enough, these files opens
and renders fine on my 16†MacBook Pro M1 with only 16GB memory.
My third computer is an old "trashcan" Mac Pro late 2013, with 12 cores Intel Xeon 5E
and 64GB memory.
It has an AMD FirePro D700 6GB graphic card.
The TELDA SH3D project has three project files: The biggest is 990 MB and holds the entire tram stop,
the exteriors plus the tram. The tram alone, a heavily modified Trimble model with a driver, new glass
in the windows, several light panels inside plus some passengers and glowing headlights, weighs 211 MB.
The other exterior project is 400 MB, and the interior project file is 145MB.
All camera movements, except the very last one, is rendered with SH3D.
All three machines are on my local ethernet network, and have been busy rendering during this production.
Inspiration & Pre-production
After I posted a couple of short demo videos at the bar, VeroniQ wondered if I would be interested
in making a more detailed description of how I did these videos.
https://www.sweethome3d.com/support/forum/viewthread_thread,13178#62634
I thought that could be fun.
VeroniQ has already made a very nice instructional video on film-making:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Vk5Ho0CeU&t=4s
I wanted to make another kind of film, mainly to show how footage from SH3D can be used in any
type of film, but also a film where I was not restricted to use only footage made with SH3D.
I will necessarily thread on the same ground as VeroniQ in section 3.
Where to find inspiration?
Well, everywhere. In newspapers, other films, books, from experiences in real life, things you have
discussed with friends, other peoples conversations or happenings on a bus, random meetings...
and so on.
There is no limit to what you can use, only don’t steal or copy - just be inspired to make your own story.
My inspiration.
VeroniQ, of course, since it would not have been made without her request.
Remembering my younger days when I was a keen reader of Isac Asimov’s robot stories with Susan Calvin
as expert on robot psychology, was also an inspiration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
And in the back of my mind was EX MACHINA.
The ending of that film gave me lots of thoughts.
I realised that it had to be a dialogue-driven short story. But I would not use real actors for the voices.
I wanted the freedom of changing dialogue-lines as the production developed.
After some research about how IA can make natural sounding speech, I came across “ElevenLabs†on the net.
https://elevenlabs.io
It sounded quite good, so I bought an account, constructed a story and made myself a quick and very
sketchy storyboard - a kind of production pre-visualisation to help me plan what is needed to tell the story.
In my storyboard I planned on using four shots of the main scene with the tram coming and leaving.
This is the scene where my actors meet and talk, and where the turning point comes at the end of
the conversation.
I needed one establishing shot to show the geography of the location, then two close-ups of my
actors talking, and one for the turning-point.
I thought and planned.
Then I wrote some dialogue and had voices from ElevenLabs read my lines.
All I can say is that I sort of got the hang of it after some fumbling and tweaking.
Of course, things don’t always turn out like you plan.
The turning point of the story did not work in a close-up, and I was not comfortable with
going back to the establishing shot at the end. I wanted reactions from bystanders, and I wanted
them in the picture.
So I did the whole scene in one shot.
about The Film:
Having this forum in mind, the film was “shot†in 1270x720 – 720P.
The final output is 1080P, which is HD 1920x1080.
Some details will of course be muddy in the upscale, and some details are so subtle that they
will not be noticed.
The film was 3 minutes 47 seconds when I finished it.
After that I have added an end-scroll, changed the music and moved the the last two lines to
after the end-scroll, so it is now four minutes and thirty-nine seconds long.
I have made a film with English dialogue. Not everyone speaks or understand English.
I am well aware of the fact that Europeans (except in the Nordic countries) prefer dubbed
versions. I have seen and heard Clinton and Monica Lewinsky speak French on television news in
a hotel on the Riviera.
Subtitles are disturbing the image. That I agree on.
So, just in case the dialogue is hard to catch, I have attached an english subbed version,
as well as an srt-file that can be copied and translated - if desired.
The sound is 5.1, which makes everything fine in a surround environment with a calibrated
speaker set-up.
On a laptop with built-in speakers - not so good.
I suggest earplugs or headphones.
TELDA.mp4
TELDA.srt
http://boassen.no/Easing/Telda_subbed.mp4
In the next two parts I will reveal all the secrets, using illustrations and detailed descriptions.
Xiste
_
