Post 34: Hoping for a Faster Computer

    Since I have been doing these projection shows, I have been on a quest to make my computer faster, and faster, and faster. It is never fast enough, and since I am coming up with more complex 3D constructions and more complex animation all the time, this is a never ending quest.
    I started by buying the fastest maxed out 2.4 Ghz Quad Core MacPro in 2010, with four 1TB Hard Disks, 2 of them in a Harware Raid  0 array using the the top of the line Apple Raid Card, and 32GB of RAM and the best ATI Radeon Graphics Card .  With the Monitor, that was a $10,000 machine back then... I did the two PTTR Shows with that machine and the 30 " Apple Cinema Monitor in 2011 and 2012.
   Then I wanted to run 4 x 1920x 1080 monitors, and added a second matching Graphics Card. That worked for a while, and I did the first Light Dreams Show that way. But I had rendering times of 17 hours on some sequences, and the 3D work I was playing with was getting more complex.
   I then wanted to have HDMI Video in and out, so I added a Black Magic Card, and live video processing required more power. The very fast 200 or so Mb/s read speed I was getting didn't cut it.
   So I struck out hard, and replaced the four 1TB hard drives with four 412GB SSD's from OWC, and the two Radeon Graphic Cards with two faster GPU NVIDIA QADRO K 5000.
 That was an expensive update, that I chose to do over buying one of the new Tin Can MacPros. I am not sure it was the right decision. There was a substantial increase in speed to over 400Mb/s, and the GPU on the Graphics card allowed Ray Tracing. I was disappointed to get only 400, I had hoped for 600 or even 700 Mb/s. The problem is the bottleneck of the SATA connections, and of the Apple RAID card. I switched to Software RAID, and the speeds remained the same.
   There was a way to get faster, using the then new OWC Excelsior PCIe based card and put it in my RAID card slot. It has 2 SSDS in a Raid 0 array, and PCIe is much faster than eSATA, possibly allowing speeds of up to 820 Mb/s....I wanted the biggest one of course, and that was another $700, so I put it off...
    I am finding now 5 weeks away from the show that I am still getting bogged down with long render times  on the more complex sequences of the requiem, . So and I don't like to waste time. So, after talking to a rep that told me I could return it if I was not happy with the new speeds,  I just decided to order the 960 Gb Excelsior Card:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe/OWC/Mercury_Accelsior/RAID

     I am very excited, and can't wait to get it in a couple of days and see just how fast the machine gets! 820Mb/s would be a dream, but I would be happy with 700Mb/s...
  I will have to install a new system on it, with minimal software to avoid bugs due to interferences, just the software that really needs these high speeds: After Effects of course, Photoshop, and later Isadora and Resolute Avenue. 
  I will keep you posted!
   

Post 33: Back to the Agnus Dei for a change

   The Offertorium is well on the way, but Marie Antoinette's very complex "small theatre" is quite taxing for the computer, and myself as well, so I am "taking a short vacation" from it to work on the last movement, the Agnus Ei and Communio. That is the one I rebuilt Versailles for out of "virtual paper". 
  The Opening section was done a long time ago, as well as the animation "demo" for the first castle built by Louis XIII. I am now making the rest of the buildings emerge from the ground in various ways and with various camera angles and focal lengths, going from a telephoto for the first "small castle" to a wider and wider lens going further and further away as the castle grows exponentially through the reign of Louis XIV from this

to this

  The final movement is about 7m 30 s in length, and full of energy, but with a constantly changing tempo, where quieter lyrical moments slowly increase to faster and louder moments. This is repeated three times with the same words. 
   First, I have to decide how much time to devote to each stage of the construction, and animate the emergence of each new building either next to or over existing buildings.
  I would like the pace of it to get faster and more frenetic toward the end. But I have to deal with the fact that unlike most symphonies, the movement does not end "with bang", but rather IS a succession of three short crescendi for the Agnus Dei(which is a little strange since the words are : "Lamb of God, would who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest")and ends with the Communio, which is very slow and quiet("May everlasting light shine upon them, O Lord,

with your Saints forever, for you are kind.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may everlasting light shine upon them, with your Saints forever, for you are merciful").

   I also would like to include "credits" as part of the video, rather than after like in a movie. The video simply cannot continue with no music. I am using quotation marks because they not belike "regular credits", but rather "tongue in cheek credits" that are part of the story, thanking all the historical "actors", and all the players involved in the making of the wonderful objects and buildings of the Golden Age, and of the show itself. These would run over the Communio.

Post 32: Hardware Limitations

   I have pretty much completed the built of the chandelier 

   It comes down from the ceiling and the ten animated candles get lighted by an animated figure, and it seems to work:

   But introducing multiple point lights and turning on shadows seems to be more than my computer can handle, and slow things down so much that it becomes impossible to keep a reasonable work pace.
  The fact of the matter is that I am pushing my machine to it's limits, and may have to scale back on the lighting, because it takes so much processing power.
  Tests have shown the effect of candle light would look great, but that may be beyond the capabilities of the machine... Bummer...
  I have also continued to refine the stage area, and created a complete new set of an alley of trees receding into the distance, based on pictures of actual sets:

I had of course to also create the back of the sets:

 I tried to render what I have so far of the theatre scene last night, and the projected render times were around 20 hours, so I ended up rendering only about a third of it, and it looks good. I suppose I will have to render in sections and stitch them together.

Post 31: It Always Takes Much Longer than I think!

   Since the last post, I have been as planned been working on Marie Antoinette's Theatre.I built the basic structure a while ago, and that was a very difficult process, but a lot of the detail remained to be found and put in place.
  I want to be able to move the camera every which way, so even the back of things have to be created, and some things given thickness with an edge. 
  The doors have to be made to open, the sets have to hang on ropes and be able to go up and down into the floor, the curtains need to have ropes and pulleys to open and close, there are ladders leaning against the walls, sand bags on ropes.
   I just had a new idea that will of course complicate things: have a chandelier in the main theatre that comes down with extinct candles that get lighted one by one by an attendant, and then goes back up. I would like the candles to actually burn with an animated flame. I would like the lighting to look like it is actually coming from the candles. Same thing for the stage, with a row of candles burning, and candles with reflectors attached to the back of each set, the way it used to be:

  But that is an enormous amount of work, and I don't know if I can take it that far by myself. The Offertorium is in two parts, and lasts about 15 minutes...

Post 30: Mission Accomplished, for the moment

 Well, the building of Versailles has at last been completed, as shown in the screenshot below:

 The Menagerie is not in it's proper place, but I wanted to get a tight aerial view of the whole thing.

 But the animation remains to be done at the tune of the Agnus Dei.

 I am a little tired of looking at the damn thing for days on end, so I will move back to the Offertorium and Marie Antoinette Jewel Mini Theatre for a change...

Post 29: Long Hours, Long Days of Tedious Architect Work

  I have almost finished putting together the buildings of my Virtual Paper Versailles, and need a short break before I assemble the small but very intricate Menagerie building:

  So I took some screen shots and am posting them to give you an idea of the complexity of this crazy project. I definitely know the layout of Versailles now!

  Top view:

   Front view:

  Back view:  

  Left view:

   
  Right  view:

   Front aerial view:

  Back aerial view:

   I will be able to put a camera on a path, and move it all over the grounds as the different buildings come out of the ground in stages.
   If time allows, I would like to start adding trees, bushes,fountains, and small paper figures. 

Post 28: So Much to do, so Little Time in a Day

   I have not posted for a while simply because I have been too busy to post. Working on the theatre of course, but also working on the other sequences, day after day.
   Some are about completed, but some still require a lot of long hours on the computer.
   I spent a lot of time refining the walk through the gallery of paintings, adding more figures, and turning them to face the camera as it snakes through the virtual space, refining and smoothing out the camera path up and down and around the paper figures trying to achieve the best angles. It is getting close:

  So I put it aside and got to work rebuilding Versailles, virtually of course and out of paper. Still, as any construction job, it is taking way more work and time than expected. The castle was added on and on and on and modified for over a hundred years... 
  The building of the paper replica is divided in 8 stages:
 

  Every building has to be broken up in single flat components, either wall or roof, that have to be named. And there are hundreds of them, small and big:

  Then, every single component has to be made a layer in AfterEffects, placed in 3D space , oriented properly along the x,y,z axis, and fitted together precisely with its neighbors. Every piece of roof has to be angled and fitted properly. It is like a huge jigsaw puzzle IN SPACE. I learned a lot about the castle that, and love doing it.