blender as amv effects tool - example and other stuff

[trythil]

This post is really a continuation of http://www.animemusicvideos.org/phpBB/v ... hp?t=73167, but it's been so long since that thread has had any sort of activity, and considering the ever-shrinking necropost threshold, this seemed like the safer option.

Plus, I get more exposure this way, which also works.

So. kmv expressed interest in using Blender for motion paths and camera positions. I've come up with a quick example that demonstrates

- 3D motion paths for clips
- camera motion (pretty simple motion, but easily extensible)
- integration with existing video

The example consists of 200 clips rotating around the origin at various velocities; it bears some similarity to a scene in the Fancy Comic Island MAD. Blender's Python engine was used for generation of the clip geometry, transformation matrix calculation, and generation of the clip motion paths. The camera motion was done by hand. Blender's compositing engine was used for motion blur.

Video and Blender file:

http://www.planetbrad.com/ros3/trythil/ ... n-junk.mp4
http://www.planetbrad.com/ros3/trythil/motion.blend (you need Blender 2.42+ to use the compositing engine stuff)

The Blender file is set up for my dual-monitor layout. If you don't want to see it, deselect the "Load UI" option when you open the file.

My Python script sucks, but I hope it's mostly self-explanatory. The only thing that might require some additional knowledge is the creation and application of the transformation matrices, but there's enough stuff out there on matrix mathematics and its application to computer graphics that it shouldn't be too hard to grasp. (In fact, I'm pretty sure I made an error in my math, which I gave up on fixing and just turned into a feature -- I'm sure someone will find it :P )

It's pretty easy to extend this to make it even more practical:

- use video in the clip screens (Blender supports this)
- use a different material for each clip (easy to script)
- use different geometry for clips
- different clip motion paths (different mathematics, or you can do something like define a motion path for one object, duplicate that path, and assign it with some random fluctuations to all other objects)
- different camera motion
- synchronization to audio (Blender has a built-in audio sequencer with sync and scrub support)
- ...

Time considerations: I didn't really get started on this until about two days ago, but once I actually sat down to it I think it took me about 45 minutes from scratch to finished animation. A good chunk of that time (I'd say 20 minutes) was spent reading up on Blender's Mathutils Python module, since I'd never used it before. So, this stuff does not have to be all that difficult to do, once you know what you want to do.

Hope this helps. I might get around to doing some more junk in this vein -- I really think Blender has a lot to offer for AMV creation, I'd like to see it used more often, and, finally, the more I use it, the more applications I find.

We'll see what happens, I guess.

[Orwell]

I might get around to doing some more junk in this vein

Do you mean videos of your own, or guides to using blender to make amvs? The demonstration of what it can do has given me a few ideas I might try out.

[Zarxrax]

Wow, i'm definately going to take a look into this.

[trythil]

I might get around to doing some more junk in this vein

Do you mean videos of your own, or guides to using blender to make amvs? The demonstration of what it can do has given me a few ideas I might try out.

Little demos, mostly, though I do have some videos in my work queue that will definitely be making use of all this stuff. I've been using and hacking little bits of Blender for about three years now.

Oh, and if you want a real demo of what Blender can do (i.e. not just my little toy experiments), I suggest Elephants Dream, the galleries on the Blender website, and the YafRay gallery. There's a lot more out there -- I know someone is working on a way to get Blender to use RenderMan renderers*, for instance -- but those are probably the most accessible examples right now.

[BauziOLD]

A few days i was interrested in blender, but i lost the interrest in it.
This gives it back to me ^^