Synfig Project Forum

About

The main goal of Morevna Project is creation of full-lengthened animated movie, utilizing Open Source tools only.

Other goals:
* Promotion of Open Source software and its ideology.
* Improving existing Open Source products by giving appropriated feedback to developers and community.

Main production tools:
* 2D animation: Synfig Studio.
* 3D modeling and animation: Blender.
* Static images: GIMP, Krita.

Project page (mostly in Rusian): http://zelgadis.profusehost.net/blog/pr ... a_project/
MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/morevna_project

Production files

• Russian fairy-tale "Marya Morevna" on which screenplay is based.
• Story plot
• Screenplay (sorry, in Russian only, not translated to English yet)
• Characters profiles
• Character layouts: Ivan Tsarevich
• Characters drafts: Ivan, Morevna.

Help

We need creative people to help our project:

• Characters designers (drawing in anime style required).
• Keyframe animators (making key extreme drawings of characters/objects moving in scene, drawing in anime style required).
• Inbetweeners (making smooth animation in Synfig Studio based on drawn keyframes).
• Background painters.
• 3D designers (knowledge of blender required).

FAQ

• Q: Is there any organization financing the project?
  A: No. We are not recieving any funds. The only money invested into the project is my own.

• Q: Do you publishing sources of your project?
  A: We are planning to publish source materials under one of Creative Commons Licenses when, where and if it possible.

• Q: I'm not good at drawing, animation or 3D modeling. Can I still help the project?
  A: Yes you can! You can support us in following ways:
  
  • Translation of project documentation from Rusian into English. Even if you don't know Russian but know English very well you can help the project by correcting our existing translations.
  • If you are good at C/C++ programming we appreciate if you help with the development of Synfig Studio or contirbute to Synfig project in any other way.
  • Any constructive critique also welcome.
  ...And there are many other ways to help. Just contact us.

Project demo

The next milestone in project development is creation of its demo. The demo is 3 min scene from a movie where two main characters meeting each other for the first time.

The demo planned as a music video and could be watched as standalone piece. I want to use Per Gessle's composition "Hey Mr DJ" which is NOT free music. And I HAVE NO rights to use it for now. My plan is to produce the animation footage first and then try to get permission to use this song.

Demo production:

• Storyboard (English)
• Background music available on the myspace-page of original artist: http://www.myspace.com/gessle
• Simple animatic
• 3D-models: Katana, Morevna's bike, Helicopter

Demo snapshots

• 29.06.2008
• 30.07.2008
• 07.09.2008
• 07.10.2008

Feel free to post corrections for message above. I'm not strong in English enough.

Translation of storyboard will be finished this weekend (I hope so).

Katana 3D model
for 24th shot of storyboard



http://zelgadis.profusehost.net/files/m ... tana.blend

Lightning template

To make all materials in 3d models consistent across the movie we need to tune them against different types of lightning.

This template file contains lightning models for different daytimes: morning, sunny day, cloudy day, dawn and night.

All 3d models will be rendered against one of this presets.

Do you mind posting a short description of the personalities of Ivan and Morevna? Also, what other characters will there be? (Names and short descriptions).

I did a couple of doodles last night before I saw this - I'll upload them as soon as I get home. They're not particularly relevant as I had no idea about the plot, but as potential character designs, you can tell me what's good, what needs changing, etc.

Task-0: Size template



We need to keep all models in the same scale. So we need some size template. I chosed for this a figure of one of the main characters - Morevna. She is about 1,7 m height (with her boots).

You can see from attached .blend file what we took 1 m = 2 blender units.



For now Morevna's figure is just a plain contour. But I think it makes sense to develop it to a simple 3d doll with, so we can draw some complex poses from her.

As you can see, I modeled it against the Morevna's body layout draft:



...so steps to finish this task are:

* draw sideview draft of Morevna body
* make 3D model based on those two drafts
* insert bones and do rigging

Task assigned to: nobody.

Yes, I surely write personalities! And also try to write a story plot. I understand it is essential to know such things while working at any part of the project.

Now I alsoo see what translation of screenplay could become a top priority task soon.

Task-1: Battlefield (3D background layout)

We need to have an idea about place where the first part of the demo happen.



The place where Ivan and Morevna fighting with soldiers is a ghost town across the road. It seems what some combat apperations took place here recently. Some buildings are damaged, all civillians left, but the town not become heavily ruined yet - some buildings looks like completely undamaged.

I placed some cameras and numbered them correspondingly to particular shots in storyboard. I hope this will help to understand where main actions of the demo happen.

This scene also will be used to make general 3D panorama (shot number 7). But we need to do a lot of work on this scene before that.



Assigned to: ByeZif

Animation test #1



This video - a kind of "proof of concept" for me. Is synfig really capable to produce anime? I think it is.

* ogg video (2,1 Mb)
* avi video (3,5 Mb)
* low-quality version at YouTube

This video is licensed under: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Animation sources available here under conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. You need svn version of Synfig Studio >= 2026 to view them.

Task-2: Helicopter 3D model

Battle helicopter model.



Modeled by: ByeZif
Editing: Zelgadis



Need to:
* finish with materials
* fix doors
* separate wheels in undercarriages
* scale to conform size template
* smooth some parts of fuselage
* apply textures
* make drivers for the motion of door and undercarriages

Assigned to: Zelgadis

Task-3: Soldier's uniform

I need a design of soldier's uniform. There are a group of soldiers who acting against main characters during the demo. I think before designing soldiers themselves we must develop their military uniform.

Some info about soldiers:
They are the soldiers of the state, but must resemble bandits in some way. They are not have any fire weapon (it supposed to be completely destroyed in battle preceding demo), that's why they are armed with bottles, bats, sticks, chains and other crap.

Assigned to: nobody.

That helicopter is pretty snazzy - better than anything I've ever got blender to do.

Here's those doodles - possibly the dude could be the prototype for the leader of the bad guys? Dunno where if at all the other two would fit.

Slightly confused about these bad guys: soldiers and bandits are very different things, and I don't know what 'look' you're going for. I'll wait until the plot's released in English.

The scenario is based on the Russian fairy tale "Marya Morevna".
I think it makes sense to become familiar with it while I making translation of the plot. You can read it here.

Very nice. I liked the girl on the left - the way how she looks, her sight resembles Morevna very much. But Morevna have a different haircut. The main part of her hairs laying close to the head. But on the right side she had a long lock. I mark direction in which hairs falling with red arrows. Then painted over.



And also I missing eyebrows in your artwork, so I added them. Remember, that as her right eye is closer to us, he must look a bit bigger than left. According to perspective. I suppose you tried to copy the nose from my animation, but (oh!) nose was not a strong point there. ^_^''

I also liked the dude on the left. He is too cool for the gang leader, but I think he could be a third Ivan's brother-in-law - The rocker.

Generally I liked the propotions and the main tune of characters.


I'll try post some ideas managed in graphical form tomorrow. ^_^

Marya Morevna, The Beautiful Queen.

Gender: female
Age:20
Height: 1,59 m
Hairs: violet
Eyes: blue
Formula: Do what you will, go where you want & take care of everything

She is the biker-girl, riding the roads of the country armed with her katana. Not a bird of passage - she owns a luxury mansion - but can't live without road and wind. She not falls in anger over trifles, but if she did, becomes a very dangerous enemy, especially considering the fact she handles katana in an expert manner. In the past she was a biker-gang leader, but all her gang members were killed. A tempered person, she could look very confident, but she just a very lonely in fact, and that loneliness could hurt her more than anything else. Hotblooded by nature she not used to trust people and often forced to hide her true feelings behind the mask of coldness and senseless. She gained a great power and should know how cold it feels being on top without anyone else on the same high. Loneliness is her worst enemy and feeling of guilt as shadow follows her.

There are quite a few people who earned her credence: Ivan, Nazar the Brave, Baba Yaga, and a her gang members.


Ivan, also known as "Tsarevitch".

Gender: male
Age: 20
Height: 1,75 m
Hairs: orange
Eyes: blue
Formula: Shake it, break it, fix it, take it.

He definitely could be identified as a smart guy. Not genius, but defenitely smart and that's suits him.

His parents died and he managed to raise his three sisters undertaking the role of elder brother (while not being the elder at all). Not too confident and not always aware about his own actions, but he is not looser at all. When it comes to his devotions or justice he rarely will stand apart. His main passion - a car tuning. Also have a knowledge in electronics and cybernetics. Generally he's just exposed to curiosity to know how the things works. Not paying much attention to his own reputation and never holding his emotions.