Rendering Problems and Character Design

So I spent my entire day yesterday wrestling with Adobe Premiere.  Heck, I even spent the time I was supposed to be here typing an update about how I was wrestling with Adobe Premiere wrestling with Adobe Premiere.  What a pain.

The problem I've encountered is that it wants to be very snooty with how I set up the project.  I've tried several identical projects with different settings and different render settings, but it will not render in widescreen and still allow Quicktime to play the file.  I can get it to do one or the other only - either it's widescreen and Quicktime can't read it, or Quicktime CAN read it and it's smooshed.  Obviously there's something I'm doing wrong but I can't figure out what.

We'll get there.  Also, don't mind my idiocy in my last post... rendering it then recording in Fraps, eh, was definitely a Monday...  But the Chroma key's quality is rubbish, so though I'll take a peek again to see if there's a way to improve it, I'm mostly going to move away from that idea and see if Adobe Premiere understands empty space on layers.  Since Photoshop does I'm guessing Premiere does too, but we'll see.

This morning I've been trawling Conceptart.org for faun designs and I've found a few that interest me:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=207015&highlight=faun

The Faun character viewable in this thread is of particular interest because it actually has the same shape that the brief said my character had to have: skinny.  Character just has to be skinny.  Though I do like this work and the way they've taken a reasonably well-used concept and made it interesting by embellishing the character, it's a bit too flowery and nature-oriented, that would suggest they're going down the usual fantasy-elves-live-in-peaceful-forests-with-magical-trees type route, which isn't really what I'm aiming for.  I'm wanting something a touch tribal with some modern trappings for familiarity.  So though I do really like it, don't think I'll be doing something all too similar.

One faun I found that I really like is this one from 'Pan's Labyrinth':

http://www.americanneopaganism.com/2006_pans_labyrinth_wallpaper_002.jpg

 ...because it really has an interesting way of embellishing the whole inhuman side of the creature; this faun is not just a human with goat legs, it's something else entirely.  That's something I'd like to nail with my design - hopefully the mannerisms involved in the actual animation will make up for what more human characteristics I'd remove physically - as well as the whole tribal thing.  Let's be honest, though, that faun is incredibly interesting looking but also very creepy.  Let's try to steer clear of creepy.

On the other side of the spectrum completely is Mr. Tumnus from 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'.  Now this character is, honestly, just a bloke with goat legs.  But he's so cute and endearing I just had to give him a mention.

http://jamesmcavoy.fansiter.com/pictures/james-as-mr-tumnus-narnia.jpg

I also found some pretty nice 3D models of a faun character, among other things, here:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=faun+character&view=detail&id=0F89312BF43D43E95C4A7C32B798EAE17F883149&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR

Now to be fair, these are obviously for video games, not animated film/shorts like the kind of stuff we're shooting for, but still, they're fantastic.  Same problems though, too familiar...

I'll figure something out.  Hopefully.  But it's gonna have to be soon, because I don't have forever to finish this model, and it's best to make changes while it's still in progress.

Here're some other pieces I enjoyed:

http://www.conceptart.org/index.php?artist=Exeivier&cat=updated

I just adore the simple and warm style here.  It's quirky and easy to get into.  I wonder how it would come across in 3D?

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=194252&highlight=faun

This man is so creative with his creature designs it actually gobsmacked me.  Fantastic, make sure to look at every page of that thread, or your life is incomplete!

Next thing to do is to brush up on my tribal research and finish touching up this character so I can make appropriate changes to his 3D model before I get too far along into it.  Rigging starts soon and I don't want to fall behind and miss the rigging!

'Til next time.