Wednesday, 27 February 2013


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. 


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.  


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! 



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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous28 February 2013 at 09:38

    Hey! This is a great idea although jamming different animations sounds like quite a tough job. Well, I'm interested in joining so here come my questions!
    Is there any deadline for the submission? Also, how long should the animation is? Is there any limit on the background or extra objects which don't bounce? And most importantly, can I use cycles render instead of blender render? Ron proctor also made the fisheye cam for cycles so it should be fine right? I don't mind using the fisheye cam but is it possible to use the multicam rig? Maybe not in this project but in the future. There are certain advantages in using this.
    Sorry for asking so many questions!

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    Replies
    1. Unknown28 February 2013 at 14:02

      Don't be sorry for asking questions it gets me thinking which is great!

      I have not come up with a deadline as yet, but that is a really good point! I'm thinking 1st April, although if you can get your animation ready quicker I would like to get files as soon as possible so I can start putting things together.

      The animation should be no longer than 250 frames and ideally it should loop. I think for a bouncing object a 30 to 90 frame loop is good but I will give a bit more for people who what to bounce all over the place but 250 max. The Blender file I have put in dropbox for you to use should have 250 frames on the timeline. Check out the tutorial I posted for looping animation.

      No background or other objects please and I want the Blender file rather than rendered images so I can link everyone's bouncing objects together in one scene and then I will render it out from there.

      I have started using a multi-rig cam as there are things that you cannot render with the fish-eye. For this jam and for the sake of render time I shall use the fish-eye lens so think about that when choosing materials. Future Jams are up for discussion though so we can talk about using camera rigs.

      I hope this all makes sense and my response is not too long!
      Thank you for your questions and I'm really looking forward to seeing your bouncing object.

      If you have any suggestions/ideas for future Dome Jams please let me know :)

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  2. Unknown28 February 2013 at 13:43

    Just got home from Dome Club. Was a really good night, lots of interesting films and absorbing visuals. Also chatted to some students who are going to make some live action dome content which is really exciting. The Dome Jam trailer looked good on the dome and Mario found some ace music for it so will post that tomorrow. Got quite a bit of interest going for the Dome Jam too!

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  3. Anonymous3 March 2013 at 13:59

    Thanks for your answers. Too bad I live quite far away so I doubt I can visit Dome club any time soon :(
    Now I'm going to give this bouncing ball a go

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  4. Unknown3 March 2013 at 14:04

    Excellent. Remember it can be any shape. I look forward to receiving your file :)

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