Christmas Show Movie

A short movie I made whilst watching this awesome show.. couldn't resist..
This link will work, even after I update the movie tomorrow with a final render, adding credits etc..

http://www.wba-advertising.com/cellandra/cellandra_celtic_sl.html

Feedback as always welcome.

hahaha...well done..I liked your green screen use and also the kneeling pose as a final shot....I had looked at that one myself but went for the slower air spin and then pulling the camera back to just the light effects on the final shot.....but dramatically I do like that pose which is almost like bowing before an audience as one might do at the end of a live performance...I used that same concept on the last shot of the Phantom of the Opera song in the Halloween video I had made for Cellandra.
...imo AWM working with the operatic quality of the Ave Maria was the most compelling part of this project...Celtic really does have a lovely voice....and you get that sense of classical ballet with the dance animations at that point...I stretched out Cellandra's leg extension pose at 2:45 to accentuate that.
Also liked your use of establishing shots at the beginning to give that Christmas feel, good idea...those beginning and endings can be a lot of fun to create...in my version I went for that concluding section where I looped the guitar part and then had Cellandra and Celtic in amongst members of the audience after the show, lol...anyhow, good work AWM...cool video.

Hi Robertt... thanks for your feedback...

That's what I like about almost all creative artistry.. it can be done in so many ways. Each sees things from a unique perspective.

I have just completed the final render of this movie, adding a couple of effects and the credits.

During the show, lighting wasn't right for me to use on both subjects without making adjustments during the shoot, the best way for me, was to use studio shot green screen inlays, then I could swap focus on both artists. This also proved a good thing, as for some reason Celtics guitar didn't rez.

Nothing was planned, I was TP'd in almost at the begining of the show, and couldn't resist grabbing footage. The plus thing is, both Artists now have 2 movies of their show.

yes AWM the inset studio shot of the musician provides more controlled lighting and clarity then the live concert shot of her....mind you I have to say that the general animations used by musicians in SL are not very compelling to film...the way they play the fretboard on a guitar looks a bit like the Simpsons with that stretched out finger look and no use of fingering at all, makes it hard to keep the camera on them for any length of time...when I was filming my Rhapsody Isles video featuring the pianist at the grand piano I kept cutting the keyboard playing shots shorter and shorter to try to achieve a more natural appearance.
Also having watched yours again I noticed that Cellandra is sitting on a rock on that last shot and not kneeling as I previously mentioned, but the concept remains the same...of a sense of finality in that pose.

Agreed about the animations.. I have made several movies involving musicians and it is indeed hard to maintain some sort of believability to the whole thing...

Here are two which possibly represent the best of what I have acheived... the second being harder as it contains many instruments and a singer.

http://www.wba-advertising.com/efa/efa-show-june.html
http://www.wba-advertising.com/od_designs/od_designs.html

Of course, we have a duty to immerse the viewer, like they are a fly on the wall...
http://www.wba-advertising.com/prowess/compilation.html

I did speak to a animations company in RL about producing Mocap versions, created specifically for each instrument within a sound track... at 3,000 USD per instrument, per song, it is too steep for the average SL musician. I also looked at primed hands/fingers that are scripted, but the delays in script/animation libraries are too great atm... although I know how to change that .

Maybe oneday.. there will be the equivilant of lip syncing to voice, as music interpretations to animations on the fly. One of the issues with animations in SL is the avatar meshes. Control being limited to 2 fingers per hand wont help progress.

I am making good progress with linking the CrazyTalk engine to the ingame avatar, so I don't have to use static pics for closeup lip syncing, they will be dynamicly linked on the fly during the shoot, making it better for vocalists.