TITLE: Droiderdance
NAME: Matt Giwer
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: jull43@tampabay.rr.com
WEBPAGE: http://www.giwersworld.org/artiv/ & artii/ & artiii/
TOPIC: Dance
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: droidanc.mpg
ZIPFILE: droidanc.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    povray 3.5 and 3.6

TOOLS USED: 
    gimp, mpeg_encode, ImageMagick
RENDER TIME:        Celeron 400, 64M, linux 2.4.18-3 kernel
         PII 333, 128M, linux 2.4.18-3 kernel
         5627 frames @ 374x220
VIEWING:        the usual highly recommended computer

GENERAL INFO:        http://www.giwersworld.org/artv/mpeg.phtml has generic
         comments on size limited animations.

THANKS FOLKS: 

        For your kind comments on my last entry at
http://www.irtc.org/anims/2004-04-15/ Most improved? It is also the one with
almost all of the techniques in previous animations included.

        Watch for a high resolution version of this, 25Meg, at
http://www.giwersworld.org/artv/ See Comment: below.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

        It is a dance performance which in a no sound competition is a bit
of a challenge. So a style of dance which does not actually require music
only rhythm. This Russian, I believe Cossack, dance is one of the few. So it
starts with establishing shots which are clearly that dance hopefully
getting the rhythm in the head of the viewer. After the rhythm is
established it is time to make the animation more interesting.

        But always the question. Would you, as a Grey or a Bush or a
Hussein, pay good Quatloos to see this dance? By definition dance is
repetitive but with variations to keep it interesting. It needs a kicker
beyond control of the animated objects to win the Palme de Or`pressed
Latinum award.

        Yes, it does feel a bit obscene. 

        8Ball reprises his Jetball role in 8 Ball Conquers Mars playing the
Tin Man.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

        Reminds me of <A
href="http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/anims/2001-01-15/rob.mpg">my first
entry</a> in an animation competition. I could barely spell Povray in those
days. Buzby Berkley never told much of a story in his movies.

        The basic rhythm is 24 frames per cycle overlaid on 30 frames per
second. There are four segments per 24 frames. This is eyeball aesthetics and
includes results with a GOP of 16 so scene lengths are multiples of 16 and
24 but where it gets hairy, move the camera. I now understand why I got such
a low score of the Famous Choreographers' School test. 

        The unreality of these creations fascinates me. The emphasis on
realism makes additional unreality less expected rather than more. So an
establishing shot has the Land of Oz as stage scenery and the dancers enter
the scenery. The Emerald City of Oz is from <a
href="http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/anims/2003-04-15/8balljrn.mpg">8 Ball's
Journey</a>. When Oz is the reality the audience is an image mapped to a
rectangular mesh. 

        One of the tricks I have learned from watching the pros on TV and
the movies is scening. Splicing scenes is arbitrary. It is possible to add
scenes in the middle of perfect sequences and the "test audience" never
notices what you think are fatal errors. 

        Everything dances towards the end. Even Captain "Tinman" 8Ball and
his clones appear for the grand finale. 

        Why were the zooming around scenes used? I wanted to do it. When you
fail the Famous Choreographer's School test you have to make up with style
what you can't deliver with art. 

Memo to file: Come up with a rainbow that is not the povray effect. It
doesn't work as a lens effect.

========

        The Zip file is complete and permits one scene to be recreated. Of
course it is absent meaningful comments so take it for what it is worth.
Comments are for QA/QC weenies not me. 

        How long did it take? So long that 10 days before the deadline you
realize you have made an error in the style of animation and don't have the
time to redo it. 

Comment: 

        The less pixelation and the more complex the scene the shorter time
of the animation for this maximum file size competition. If you take points
off for pixelation you should put them back if you like the extra scenes it
permits. Similarly if you think the modeling is too simple but like the
scenes it permits, put the points back. There is no way around this
trade-off. You can't have it both ways. But if you don't like either the
pixelation of the scenes I guess I'm screwed. ;) 

        EXAMPLE: The scene approaching the theater -- all else being equal
-- without stars mpeg encodes to 221K and with stars to 580K.

        If you like complex rather than simple scenes the same rule applies.
The more complex the scene the larger the mpeg file all else being equal. 

        If I am in error in this, someone tell me how to get around the size
problem.

        Look for a hires version of this on http://www.giwersworld.org/artv/