JH: So what software did you use to create the short?
MM: Poser3 was vital for the dino animation and Bryce 3 rendered the luscious Japanese landscapes.
It was the first time that I had seen software available that was very user friendly and accessible to any like minded designer or animator. I had seen Poser as an essential 'must have' tool kit to have on your drive, much like how as Photoshop & Illustrator installations are.
I had been following Poser's development from its first incarnation a decade ago and it has come such a long way in each progressive version. Once I saw the Dinosaur in the Poser model library, all my 'Jurassic Park' dreams came to light with technology finally catching up with my ambitions and budget.
JH: What are areas of your animating that you feel Poser 7 and Anime Studio 5 Pro might come in handy with?
MM: There are so many new features that E-Frontier have upgraded in Poser 7, its hard to focus on just a handful, but for me personally, multiple undos are quite valuable as previously I had to save several versions of the same piece.
Poser 7 has a walk cycle designer that allows much more customised control to the quirks to your figures swagger.
Along with the figures from Runtime DNA, splitting the work flow among different characters, lip syncing and enhanced rendering engines are going to do allot to raise the production value of the work at hand. This will also streamline the turn around time for a scene to be done.
In a time of video game heroes behaving like mindless automatons, movies over using motion capture suits, and vacant looking avatar figures online, having the tool box to breathe some personality back in to a computer generated character is an absolute gem .
Anime Studio Pro covers the more traditional 2D animation, ranging from styles from South Park through to 'Japanimation' style Anime cartoons. Drawing from a classical animation background, tedium, patience and junk food were the mainstay of a working week!
Back then, there were many nights at 3am where I had been cursing the volume of work required to 'Tween' a character. This was a process that involved calculating motion timing, charting it, and then draw the numerous in-between frames from one dramatic pose to another. Anime Studio Pro has a feature that gives a rigging for the 'bones' of your character, tweening is created automatically from one pose to the next, so there may still be late nights and junk food, but the production will have dramatically advanced for the hours invested.
Time and timing is everything in animation, so it fantastic to have the resources freed up to allow in subtleties to your animation.
JH: I know you've worked with your brother John on his award winning spec trailer, The Mark. Many filmmakers find Poser very helpful to create realistic storyboards, in addition to animation purposes.
MM: These days 'Previsualisation' is now a more commonly used 3D technique in big budget Hollywood movies. Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars had used this technique extensively for to get a feel for the flow of the more complicated special effect scene.
I am definitely curious to know how different the scenes in our short The Mark would have looked using this process, as you can pre plan the camera angles along with focal depth in the storyboard.
This would have taken off much of the experimental setup time for any dramatic or critical scene.
MM: Poser 3 was vital for the dino animation and Bryce 3 rendered the luscious Japanese landscapes.
