The Lonely Ranger Rides Again - Lonely #3

Showcase yourself 3D
1

Brooklyn’s loneliest ranger returns to fight for the honor of Gene Autry and to learn new lessons in love and lasers.

Developed this script back in 2024 and managed to produce and edit the short over the last several months. Two great voice talents play large roles here (James “Gooderness” McQuaid as Glen James and Vincent Holmes as Cool Kid) while I play both Ranger, Tonto and all the smaller roles with the help of 11Labs.

Invested in a Rokoko mocap suit for my 50th bday and used it for much of the second half of the film (no, those somersaults and flips are not me…did I mention the 50 years part?) to hopefully good effect. Mocap is a much more fun animation process though the suit has plenty of pros and cons. Also switched to Davinci Resolve as my film editor of choice and I wonder what took me so long. Truly great free software.

Also of note, this episode has more music and sound effects than my previous efforts and I ended up spending a lot of time working on the sound. Hope that work pays dividends but I will admit it has been a learning process.

Anyhow, on with the show. All critiques and/or smoke up my backside are welcome!

2

I liked the story, animation, dialog, and sound. So, yeah, mocap does pay off when you need those motions you can’t just grab pre-made. (I’d appreciate hearing more about those pros and cons of the Rokoko suit one day.)

While I’m not familiar with Gene Autry, I think I noticed a Leone reference during the title sequence.

That all said, I’m not so much of a fan of the render style and limitations (probably partially imposed by iClone) and believe Blender or UE would give you better looking results if you wanted that.

3

Hi Nirwana, thanks for watching and reviewing. I really appreciate the detailed reviews that you write for many of the shorts posted on the forum. Even when the review is critical it allows the creators to feel that their work is being seen and discussed and legitimizes their efforts which is incredibly valuable for all of us. I hope you keep it up.

I’m glad to hear the sound design was satisfactory. I tend to get things sounding ok (to me) on my computer headphones but they sound awful when I put it on the TV. I think I found a good middle ground on this project and will hopefully continue to improve my sound design skills moving forward. I really like how Davinci Resolve has a dedicated editing/sound design/color grading layout which forces me to think more about those elements. I didn’t make many moves in the color grading side but will be thinking about that more on future projects.

Regarding the Iclone render - The thing I enjoy most about this hobby is somehow pulling a scripted story out of my brain to the page. That first completed draft is where I tend to feel most proud. Then the rest of the filmmaking process can be both rewarding and frustrating with much of that frustration coming from the technical side. I dipped my toe in the UE waters last year and managed to get one scene into the engine and rendered but realized it would dramatically expanding the potential frustration levels for my work flow (and take 3-6 months of time to get to a starting level). I may revisit that decision in the future but for now I’m satisfied and comfortable working within Iclone.

Regarding the Rokoko mocap suit - Well, it very expensive (con…hehe). It took me three years of saving and going back and forth about whether it would be worth the money (fyi. The indie creator price, though still substantial, is much cheaper than the list price).

On the suit itself, it is somewhat difficult to put on/take off. Particularly the legs which is like threading a needle (or putting on hosiery…or so I’m told) and the gloves which are difficult to remove without grabbing things that shouldn’t be grabbed (ie. the sensors or the hub). Also, with the gloves I’ve had two instances where the glove stopped working. I ran the diagnostic and sent it to Rokoko and they said it was a connection issue and passed me a video showing how to open the glove hub and reconnect the wires (they also said if I didn’t want to go that route that I could send it back for repairs). I popped it open and was able to fix it but it is small and a bit tricky inside. Keep in mind that your hands will often make hard contact with external things (knocking on doors) or with yourself (clapping, punching etc.) and this could be recurring issue. The suit warranty is one year and you can extend it (within x days of purchase) one or two years for a price. Beyond the warranty range, Rokoko offers repairs on the suit for a flat price (simple vs moderate) that is similar to the extended warranty price. TLDR - I have long term wear and tear concerns.

Now the main pro. I think the results are very good. Particularly in regards to how the software deals with foot locking to avoid sliding which remains a big issue with AI and video mocap. You still have to clean the motions up a bit in Iclone but that has been ‘relatively’ simple particularly with the use of reach targets and basic motion editing. The Rokoko coil is said to help make the motions more precise but that’s another big cash outlay.

When working on a project I map out the performances that I need and then do a weekly session where I do all the performances at once. Exporting the fbx is super easy and then I can spend the week editing those performances in Iclone. So far its working out well and when I get successful results it makes the price feel worth it. For me this is definitely a more fun and effective way to animate and will be used in combination with all the other techniques.

1 Like
4

You are welcome. I re-watched this on my TV (yesterday I was on a computer using headphones) and it sounded fine via TV speakers as well. So it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.

And thanks for sharing your experience with the Rokoko suit. Yes, wear and tear and any issues putting the thing on/taking it off, are just the kind of problems they neglect to mention during product demos. :wink:

As far as I know, the Indie bundle is not available everywhere and at regular prices plus the Coil and perhaps stuff for facial mocap doesn’t exactly make this entire getup a bargain. (For that kind of money, you can get a ton of pre-made motions.)

However, I’m still thinking, because there is so much “daily activities” stuff that professional companies (mostly working for the gaming crowd) don’t seem to bother mocapping).
Still, one other point to consider is that a lot of motions I couldn’t “act out” even if I had a suit (because of age—my 50th birthday was some years ago—and overall physical shape) plus the limited space available to work in (unless I go outside, which probably brings about a host of new problems).

5

To each their own of course but the Rokoko suits cost between $2300-$4300
if you want to capture hands and face.
That is insane,IMHO unless you are a studio making serious money from creating games etc

If I were to ever consider a personal mocap solution this would be reasonable at around $600 for the entire set for a single actor and my Auto rig pro addon for blender has a preset for retargeting Mocapi motion to ARP rigs.

https://electronics.sony.com/more/mocopi/c/all-mocopi

but I honestly would not even buy that as I know how to hand key frame those “every day” acting motions.

I only need canned motions for the labor intensive locomotions and other full root action animations

6

You are correct. It is expensive. However, I think it opens up previous limits that I would likely have to hide through camerawork and editing or live with canned motions that I’ve likely used several times in the past. For example this particular project has many many zapping and getting zapped reactions (and in this case geting zapped is much more about the reaction than dying or falling to the ground). Yes there are many canned motions free and for sale but the suit allowed me to think about what I wanted, perform the action and get a relatively realistic motion in the scene pretty quick sans foot sliding and such.

A good example of this is at 5:13 where the two girls pop-up and zap Ranger who falls awkwardly behind the bar. He then turns around and peeks over the bar . All of this was mocapped very quickly. Is it perfect? No, but its better (smoother) than I could have key framed and I’m pretty happy with it. 3K happy with it? Not yet, but there’s a lot of projects in my future that I’m much more excited to move forward with and the price will get offset a bit in other ways.

(I’d say 80% of everything from the Laser Tag tournament forward was mocapped)

To each their own…of course.

One more totally off topic note. Its pretty funny that a forum for software that features many gun motions and is used to sho-ot scenes with a camera does not allow the use of the word sho-ot. Just saying.

7

Well, it ain’t exactly cheap, but who said that hobbies gotta be cheap? Or that financial decisions in the hobby realm need to be vetted as “business investments”? Anyway, the financial component is just one aspect (and perhaps not even the most important one). Personally, I’m more worried about other things, such as technical set-up, durability, etc. than the initial financial outlay.

Well, I wouldn’t know how to key frame those by hand. My previous attempts at manual key framing have all been laughably bad (I’m not an “animator” in the classical sense and don’t have the time and discipline to acquire those skills) and since I’m more into a realistic than a stylized look, that’s not really an option.

Moreover, a lot of canned animations—as an alternative to key framing and motion capturing things yourself—have no weight/don’t consider real-life physics. For example, some motions with characters effortlessly wielding heavy axes, swords, shield, or war hammers, manipulate those objects as if they weighed nothing and hence lack impact. As a result, the motions are often too fast and seem less realistic even if actually motion captured. I think this is because during the capturing, the actors use light props made of plastic or foam instead of the “real” thing (yes, I know, there are safety issues with wielding for example actual swords). This unrealistic speed/lack of realism may work for games, when players just want the move to be over with, but I don’t think it works as well for narrative/cinematic or realistic animations.

The “what I wanted” is an important aspect. Even if you have an extensive library of canned motions, finding the “right” one gets tricky and time-consuming (and, even if you do find one that is close, it will probably still need editing).
That said, there are motions, for example those requiring actual stunt and/or wire work, that I’ll gladly leave to the professionals.

Yep. I have noticed on a number of occasions that the word-censoring algorithm of the forum software can get pretty ridiculous, but I guess there may be legal reasons why RL feels they need to use it.

8

For my larger projects I’ve always enjoyed creating promotional posters so here is one with a spaghetti western vibe. I do love that “exclude effect” feature in IClone that allows these nifty silhouettes.

Poster1wText
Poster1wText850×1100 118 KB

I’ll post at least one more poster later this week that mimics a different famous animated cowboy (and a third in the series as well) so stay tuned for that :yum: