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Cinematics and Machinimas

CiremiCiremi
edited April 2008 in Sam & Max
Hey guys,

I remember with season one you guys used to release a few shorts once in a while, but so far nothing this season. How come? Saved for DVD release or just didn't fit into the schedule?

I revisited the Season Two cinematic trailer, and I still absolutely love it. If you ever do plan on creating shorts again, would it be killer to make them this way? There's something about them that comes off as being really clean, smooth, and awesome.

Kudos!

Comments

  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2008
    We didn't have time in the schedule to do machinima shorts this year. We did, however, get to spend a little more time than last year on each of the trailers, which we tried to make into unique weird shorts of their own. The Season Two cinematic trailer was awesome, but it was produced entirely in Maya (the 3D animation package the animators and modelers use), unlike the machinima shorts, which are produced in the Telltale Tool. Animating something entirely by hand in Maya, and then doing custom scene by scene lighting and rendering and post-production effects like we did on the Cinematic Trailer is definitely awesome, but it is EXTREMELY time consuming compared to the machinima shorts we did for Season One.

    For instance, the machinima shorts we did for Season One, a writer would write them and then they'd be voice recorded, and from there I was able to sit down and churn out the whole finished 2 minute short in about two days work. With the Cinematic Trailer, it took 3-4 animators about 3-4 full days each, plus another guy taking a week for lighting, rendering, and cleaning up the shots with some nice post production color and effects changes. It makes the Cinematic Trailer a very nice piece to show off with and give people a nice condensed flavor of Sam & Max, but it's not the sort of thing we can just churn out like the Season One machinima shorts are.
  • HeidiLynn84HeidiLynn84
    edited April 2008
    I would love to know how many hours Telltale logs in just rendering time. On my MacBook Pro, it takes 8 hrs to render a 5 minute 3D sequence.
  • wispwisp
    edited April 2008
    HeidiLynn84 wrote: »
    On my MacBook Pro, it takes 8 hrs to render a 5 minute 3D sequence.
    you can't really say that, it always depends on how complex the scenery is and how many effects have to be done. by adding some nasty lighting stuff you can easily multiply render time. having a few hours of render time for a single image is possible..
  • ezzetabiezzetabi
    edited April 2008
    As example in the cartoon Monster Inc every frame rendering the main character needed hours since the program had to calculate every single hair.
  • LaserschwertLaserschwert
    edited April 2008
    Since I work HERE I'm pretty comfortable with long rendering times. ;) (my records being 4 hours per frame for an animation, and about 30 hours for a poster-sized still image)
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2008
    In all honesty we really don't spend that long rendering anything, since we've only so far done one pre-rendered trailer a year. Everything done in the tool renders at realtime, in-engine.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2008
    Yeah, with the way The Tool is set up, we don't actually get any sort of render or compiling time. You can make changes to the game and they are instantly in and working. Which is great for getting work done, but really bad for internet trolling time.
  • RabidZombieRabidZombie
    edited April 2008
    Obligatory xkcd.

    compiling.png

    I presume code changes to the tool itself are only done for new features/bug fixes?
  • langleylangley Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2008
    Most of the work being done right now with the tool is getting it up and running smoothly on the Wii.
  • sanguineheartssanguinehearts
    edited April 2008
    RabidZombie wrote: »
    compiling.png

    Teehee!
  • jmmjmm
    edited April 2008
    RabidZombie wrote: »
    Obligatory xkcd.

    compiling.png

    I presume code changes to the tool itself are only done for new features/bug fixes?

    Surprisingly that one is already on my wall at work ;)
    (Though my slacking today is caused by updating Windows, .NET, Visual Studio, ...)
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2008
    Changes to the tool itself don't halt production either, unless one of the changes breaks something. Usually people update their local copies of the tool every few days to stay in sync with the programmers, and (barring the occasional crazy failure explosion) it usually goes on without anyone knowing.
  • ZeekZeek
    edited April 2008
    ezzetabi wrote: »
    As example in the cartoon Monster Inc every frame rendering the main character needed hours since the program had to calculate every single hair.

    A better example is Cars. The scene where they drive pass the waterfall crashed their entire renderfarm. :p
  • KevinKevin Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2008
    Jake wrote: »
    barring the occasional crazy failure explosion

    I have know idea what you're talking about.... when has anything ever gone wrong?!
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