So Lech, where do we sign up to say that we want to take part?

If that's the case then I'd love to know how and where, because I only see 13 month license options available.

Software and Skill Level
3DS Max (semi-pro to pro)
Wings 3D (pro) - good free option for anyone who wants to model and is confused by Blender as it has a load of export options.
Blender (novice) - at least until they make that Max interaction preset, anyway.
Photoshop (pro) - we're gonna need good textures for this.

Anyway, there's something we haven't actually discussed yet: we have two rigged bendy minifigs for Blender and 3DS Max, so wouldn't it make sense to work out how versatile and usable each rig is first? I also have a sneaking suspicion that it might be possible to use more than one program for animation and not have the switch be noticeable, but don't quote me on that just yet, I need to work out exactly how it could be done first.

I'll have a picture of my rig up later so you guys can look at it, just need to iron out a couple of glitches.

PS: In terms of shared files, how familiar is everyone with Dropbox? I'm using it to transfer files between my mac and laptop and as file backup, but you get 2GB of space free which can go up to 8GB via referrals, and you can send links to the folders to other people.

Rejecting reality since 2000.

UniBlog | DA

Good question.  Seeing as the majority uses Blender, and if we're using a bendy rig, Carrara users would have to take the backseat until someone builds a bendy rig in Carrara (I find Carrara's weight map very difficult to work with).  Besides that, we've yet to all come to a consensus on the consistency issue across 3D animation medium.  So far we're avoiding the inconsistency issue by put more focus on Blender.  Not a problem for some, big problem for others.

Basically, assuming all animators find the closest matching material/shader across all software (Blender, Carrara, 3ds Max, Maya, etc.), can each animator animate on their software of expertise and let the editor do the rest (I had an idea of a cel-shading/toon-shading theme to the project).

Okay, so unless someone has a ad-free forum for us to set up shop, I'll have to register one in one of those free forum sites.

As for signing up, that should be done in our project forum.

*thanks numerous deities* Cel-shading is probably one of the easiest shaders to match across programs - the only glitches I can foresee are getting the shade lines to be in the right places and it behaving in a similar manner, but if people are given whole scenes to animate in one program then that shouldn't be a major problem.

I still have the raw mesh for my minifig, so I can give that to any Carrara users who know how to rig so they can try and create one for it. Here's a quick run-down of how my rig works so someone can replicate it (click to enlarge):

Rejecting reality since 2000.

UniBlog | DA

Littlebrick, I love your rig and figure. It is a masterpiece. I don't really care if we do Toon shading vs. some other kind of shader. Anything's fine by me. As I said before though, I think top priority at the moment is to get everything organized, such as who is participating, and which participants will be doing which jobs by when, and so forth. That would help to stop people from losing interest and wandering off.

I'd personally be more comfortable having the faces rigged, so I can see how the faces look in context with the rest of the scene. If you can find a way to do that with textures, then I'll be fine with that.

The face would still be flat; it won't be like that Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick thing that came out a while back.

Well, my model was specifically emulating the models from the videogames (I have an issue of Edge magazine that has a picture of the mesh that I could replicate) and therefore it has the same range of movement as the in-game ones do. I'm not about to take away versatility that's been shown to work well for the sake of accuracy.

Also, I have the real version of that minifig and I took dozens of measurements from it to ensure its accuracy (I can also now recite the measurements of a minifig from memory; that's how long I've slaved over this guy). Believe it or not, LDraw pieces that aren't bricks or plates are actually a little out of proportion, to the point where I'm questioning whether the modellers had a ruler on hand while making the pieces. In all honestly the LDraw minifig parts were just so bad to work with that I did it all from scratch.

There is a texture-based expression system implemented on mine - granted, it's basically swapping face images with no real movement, but in my opinion it's something that really suits minifigs, being as it's the only form of expression they have in stop-motion anyway. In theory it can be modded to do lip-synch too; once I find a way to make the eyes and mouth independent of each other, that is. Plus, the face can be seen within 3DS Max's viewports (I spent a week to make sure it worked that way). I tried a rigged face, but it just wreaked the smoothing of the mesh and getting the morphs working would have been a nightmare.

I have a 3DS Max 2010 compatible .max file of the rig if anyone with Max wishes to play around with it.

PS: Nice of LEGO to give us the official colour pallete, but some RGB values would be nice. Until then, I'm sticking to Peeron's colour list.

Rejecting reality since 2000.

UniBlog | DA

I pretty much concur with Nathan Wells here.

I'd add that I am not particularly excited by the concept, especially now that it's to be completely computer animation, but if you guys are interested in doing it I don't mind supporting it in a less-than-official CP capacity for the time being.

To facilitate that, I've created a forum for it:

BiM Community Projects Forum

Whoever is, like, in charge of this thing let me know who to allow clearance to the forums that will be used for more secretive discussions, etc.