Training, Training, Training...

Well, here we go with another batch of photographs straight from today's training session. Some couldn't make it but we had a good session nonetheless and worked out some of the logistics of some scenes. Kevin and I also are now very comfortable with the first sequence of moves in Rohan and Jereth's lightsaber duel and are ready to move onto the next batch... can't say the same for other people ;)

You might have noticed by now that I never keep my promises about when to expect the next update, or even just new pictures. Well, it's not my fault... we have things to do and sometimes - okay, a lot of times so far - they interfere with training. I'm sorry about that, but there's nothing to be done about it. So, from now on, I won't say anything about future sessions - there's just no guarantee. We do make an effort to be there, but... no guarantee.

Here, I must also apologise for the quality of the photographs. The problem stems from video acceleration options in all the players I have. We do not stand around in poses so we can get good shots for the blog - what we do is let the camera run while we train, then when I have copied the footage onto my computer, I play through the image and try to get the best shots I can. This has been helped recently by downloading new players that let me go through the footage frame by frame - though it certainly hasn't helped to speed up the process. The problem is that while the footage is playing, we cannot take snapshots of any frame while the video is playing, or not - not with video acceleration enabled. It just doesn't work. So, we have to turn video acceleration off, and the end result is that the photographs look horrible. It has to do with the way the DV-AVI format is pre-rendered by Premiere Pro and saved onto the computer, and the way the camera works. Converting the file to .wmv (which is what I usually do - for the technically minded, the settings are 2.1Mbps PAL, 25fps, 720*576) does nothing to help. So, once again, I apologise for their quality. The original footage, and the final result once it's been rendered, is far superior and suffers none of the clipping problems that plague me during the screenshot-taking phase.

On with the photographs -



Kevin and I in our duel... and going very well it is, too.



Kevin and Mike go through the motions of their fight...



This is the best shot I could get of this frame... I had to cut myself out of it because the clipping was so bad on my side. Kevin flies through the air on the ending move of our first duel sequence...



We focussed a lot today on our facial expressions during the duels, and this is an example of Jereth's anger as he tests Rohan for weaknesses. Again, not a static shot - Kevin is in full motion, about to strike me.



Kev and Mike discuss options on one of the finishing moves...

More... next time ^_~

About Time We Trained...

Today we've had the first proper training in over two months - Mike joined Kev and myself out in the garden. Kevin was late coming home, though, so we had to make the best of our time. Though, as you can see below, we took advantage of the darkening sky for some interesting photographs ^_^

I apologise for the blurriness of the shots - next time, I won't be relying on just turning off the hardware acceleration in Media Player to get them, I'll be using a program like VLC or VirtualDub. We'll see. In any case, the next photographs you'll see should be a big improvement. And the next set of photographs should be coming tomorrow.

While the project is definitely going ahead, I'm very worried about the special effects. Oh, not the lightsabers - as you can see in Rob's posts, we have no worries in that department. No, what I'm worried about is finding someone willing to work for peanuts to do a few sequences, for example a ship firing at another as it dives into a planet. Nobody on the team has either the time or the skills needed to create such sequences. We do have the programs - kinda, I'm not sure yet about Atmosphere and LiveMotion 2 - but not anyone who can use them. Boo. Because of this, and because of delays in pre-production (we'll be at this stage for a long time, I think) I can't give any kind of estimate for the date of release. Boo some more.

On with today's photographs...



Kevin and I in a very blurry shot...



Kevin and Michael, their silhouettes against the night sky.



Kevin and I, in the same situation.



Who knew that Kevin was so acrobatically inclined? Our duel is looking very good indeed, and progressing at a nice pace.