Here is the next bit of the full-dome test....

The beginning of my latest full-dome test made in Blender inspired by visuals in Chaos and Order which is being screened at Dome Club next Thursday...

Here is the second Dome Jam-mer Giang Tran's contribution. I have rendered it out to show it off!

Also Giang enjoyed the bouncy ball thing so much she made another film you can view on http://vimeo.com/61406259

I really love it and suggest you check it out!

Looking forward to getting some more Dome Jam files so I can start sticking all the scenes together in Blender.

Here is the Dome Jam trailer, with music, I previewed at the last Dome Club and will use again to publise Dome Jam tomorrow

Just received the first blender file for Dome Jam from Caya Kukulska. Really impressed and happy she has made her first full-dome animation.

Here is a video of her bouncing object...

Looking forward to receiving some more soon so I can start linking the scenes together in blender and make the finished full-dome film.

Dome Jam

I'm launching a new collaborative project for Dome Club and invite as many people to get involved as possible!

The project is called Dome Jam. 

The idea is that we have a 'Jam' where we all make something for the dome in Blender and then I shall link it all together into one short film that will be shown dome at Dome Club. (domeclub.co.uk)

I will put the names of all the collaborators up on the dome as well.

So.....

Dome Jam #1

The project for the first Dome Jam is very simple and is one of the first things animators have a go at in 3D software - making a bouncing ball.

Here is a link to the Blender file in Dropbox that I would like you to use. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zly9jnuiy27yyh4/domejam01.blend

The camera in the scene is Ron Proctor's fish-eye camera downloaded from http://blendertarium.ottplanetarium.org

There are two red balls (of the same size) and a circle in the scene. Do a render and see where the balls are positioned on the domemaster, that is the outer edge of the dome. 

Please try to keep the objects bouncing within the circle, they can go as high as you like. 

Now delete the red balls and model whatever you want. Keep it simple! We need to keep the scene sizes small for the jam to work. 

Please do not use any physics or particles as this will make the scene too complicated. Just a key-frame animation that can be looped in the graph editor. 

Here is a tutorial to help you.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLNMVJEiHE

There are lots of bouncing ball tutorials out there so feel free to watch a few, I think this one is easy to understand though. One thing to note is we are using 30 frames per second so this will effect where you place your key-frames.

Take a look at my first post on this blog for information about downloading and using Blender - Blender is open source and completely free.

Here is a short film I have made for the dome advertising Dome Jam #1 

Once you have finished your bouncing animation send your Blender file, with your name in the file name, to me at coralann.manton@gmail.com or send me your email and I will send you a link for the dropbox and you can add it to the collection.

If you have any questions about Dome Jam or comments feel free to add a comment to the blog or drop me an email.

So good luck everyone and get jamming! 

Here is the video of my first Blender fulldome test so you can imagine what it looked like in the dome. It was screened last Thursday at Dome Club.

It took far longer to render than it did to make since to render for the Dome Club dome is 4000 x 4000. This is an issue I'm currently pondering and need to factor into my work flow.

From first opening Blender to finishing this test took about five hours. To render it out of Blender for the dome it took about a day. It was completely worth the wait, to see it on the dome was magical for me!
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