Response curves in Blender

This isn't exactly new, but it's something I don't think that many people realize, and I may want to reference it again, so I'll put it here.

In the scene properties side panel, (this section is between render and world) under 'color management' there's a set of render buttons labelled

Default     RRT     Film     Raw     Log

Try the film option. It really does a pretty good job, and the other options can be good for quick and easy color response adjustment.

Scene one test, now with sound!

I've been playing around with some ideas for the first scene soundtrack and the first set of credits. Here's what I've got right now. Let me know what you think!

The taming of the Frankenstein.

Well, I think I fixed it. It's rendered 300 frames or so (about half) without crashing, so I may have solved the problem. I restarted my computer, and this time resisted the urge to open my web browser. I opened Blender, and disabled Save Buffer, Instances, Free Unused, and Local Coordinates. (I think, if I remembered right). It also seems to be rendering somewhat faster too. I'm seeing render times of about one minute on my main computer.
 The main problem I see when I look at it is that my animation skills are abysmal.
Josh, would you be willing to try animating it, and then sending the .blend file back for me to render?

Update: It's around frame 550 now! I may be able to get a video out tonight!

Minor details

It's kind of interesting to think about the little details, and get some specific ideas about the final product. 

(I know, I should be working on the script, but I've been making progress on that too)

Here are a number of random thoughts;

We should make a total of 12 scenes. I was originally thinking we would have 16 scenes, but I can't think of that many things to fill those spaces, so 12 would probably be better. The reason for 12 or 16 is that in the disk menus you can only fit so much, and I think you can fit 3 or 4 video tiles / icons across, and not more than 2 high. That means that you could fit 6 or 8 scenes on one menu screen, and I think 6 would work better anyway.

Color grading: We need to do this right. Once we decide what clips we are going to use, we need to take them, and exactly match all of the footage. (Except possibly the night scenes) No mood setting yet, we just make all the clips match (white balance, basic contrast, etc.) (probably rendering them each individually before putting them back into the video sequence editor) Next, we do more advanced color grading, day to night, and color mood setting. On the final output we need to do a final grade. The purpose of this is to make sure it only contain legal colors. It may slightly detract from the desired look of the film, but I want this to only contain legal colors. It probably won't matter so much since this will mostly be played on computers or DVD players, but it's good practice.

You might want to check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG_k2wz9mcU&hd=1

We are shooting for a general or PG audience. The only thing we need to worry about is violence. Here are the violent scenes I can think of: 1. The first gunfight. This will be set at night, only one shot will hit, and it will be dark, so not a lot of detail will be shown. 2. The car chase. the following car gets hit, swerves, and gets hit again, blowing up. Again, not a lot of detail will be shown. The first shot will hit a tire, the second shot will hit a gas tank. 3. The car stop. This is when we think that the car has a tracking device on it and one of us gets out to look for it and gets shot at. (They miss) 4. At the CIA when they are surrounded by CIA guards. We could put some action here, but there shouldn't be much.

Check out scene 7 in the script! I've worked a little on it, and I like the way it's going.

Celtx vs. Google Docs

I've tried Celtx and I've tried Google Docs. Celtx doesn't work nearly as well when multiple people are working on the same thing.  So, we'll probably leave the script in Google Docs. Celtix can be useful for making lists, and possibly some other more in depth scene breakdown, but for now, nothing major is going to change.

Workstation

Right now, here's how I've got things set up:

I'm pretty happy with my setup right now. Things are nicely integrated.
Unfortunately, the piano can't stay. I can use it, but its place is in the family room. Oh well, if I need to bring it up now and then I can.
...
And a front view:

By the way, the software shown is Magix Movie Edit Pro MX Premium. (I know, I know, it should have been Blender...)