Photo Album project

[Aleina Show]

thedom

It turned out very impressive! The book is like real! I really like your approach to creativity. You do not just apply technical skills when working with the program. You are more an artist. You can clearly see where and how to apply shadows, highlights and other nuances to make the effect as realistic as possible. Bravo!

Aleina

[Alice]

thedom, I just saw the other video you share with us in Youtube, also looks great!, congrats. But, if I have to chose, I will get the one you shared with us first in Vimeo, that one is great

[thedom]

Thank you for your compliments and your enthusiasm.
I’m investing a lot of time and effort into this project. And it seems to be worth it.

Yes Paul, you're right, the visual anomaly will be corrected (and other issues less visible).

Thank you very much Aleina, I am really sensitive to your comment. I'm trying to have this artistic approach.
From my point of view, the technique must always be at the service of the final result. A technically complicated project may not be visually pleasing.

Alice, the two videos are complementary.
The one on Vimeo concerns the pages that turn.
The second one concerns the opening of the photo album.
Both sequence will be in the final style (with a sequence of photo album closing I have to create - should be quick if I use the opening sequence).
I explained what I intend to offer as a style package (see some messages above).

[nelson]

I have said this before, we are so fortunate to have you back Dom!  Your creativity is beyond words.

Kieron

[JudyKay]

On 5/22/2020 at 6:41 AM, nelson said:

I have said this before, we are so fortunate to have you back Dom!  Your creativity is beyond words.

Kieron

Agreed!

[thedom]

Nelson, Judy, thank you very much, it's a huge compliment.

I fixed visual issues and added some details on the cover (mainly lights and shadows). I think this part is finished.
Here are 4 images used and the result after style is applied. Just for fun, please post you own images (1 to 3 for cover and 2 pictures of the photo album), it would be my pleasure to show you what it will look like after style is applied.

Next big challenge for me is to mix the sequences (photo album opening and pages turning) and avoid glitch and visual issues...

 

[thedom]

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[Aleina Show]

Dom,

this is a great implementation of shadows and reflections in your work! Thanks for the screenshots, it is very nice to see everything in close-up. I'm waiting for the finished result!

Aleina.

[thedom]

Thank you for keeping your interest in my project Aleina.

I spent a lot of time watching my photo albums under different angles today ! 
And here are some new screenshots of my observations on my project. It's almost not noticeable, it's little details, may be you can't even notice them but actually it helps to increase realism. 
I think I am almost finished with the light and shadows.

I finished the closing sequence too.

Each sequence I have designed can now be linked one to each other without any visual clipping problem.

I still have to conceive different smooth "camera" movements for each sequence. 
I hope I will be able to release a first demo of the whole project tomorrow night...

 

[thedom]

Here is the first complete demo. It’s a very classic presentation. 
The complete photo album package of styles will include also more dynamic sequences. Other demos of this concept very soon...
The photo album will give you the ability to present as many pictures as you need.

Do not hesitate to leave me feedback please. Thanks.

 

[thedom]

9 hours ago, thedom said:

Here is the first complete demo. It’s a very classic presentation. 

When I watched this demo this morning, I noticed two things I want to fix : 
- the global shadow on back of left page when page turns is not correctly synchronised, there is something wrong.
- th closing of the book at the end is too abrupt. I will start smoothly the change of point of view THEN start to close the book a couple of seconds later. It's at the SAME TIME for the moment and it looks too brutal.

[Bert]

Hi Dom,

The demo looks very good and all the movements look fine.  What started to look a little redundant was the bouncing of the page.

While the page turning is and looks natural, the bouncing of the non-turned page looks good one or two times but becomes repetitious after a while,

and you start to notice it "too much" all the time.  ( Maybe it is just me).

If possible maybe a bounce every 6 to 10 pages so it is not as repetitious.

Just my two cents.

Bert

[wideangle]

I think I agree. I started to focus on that for a while and it became a bit of a distraction. Apart from that - excellent. 
 

Regards

wideangle

[stranger2156]

The same composition / angle when turning pages is too predictable. He cannot keep the viewer's attention for long, everything is too predictable and straightforward. Some changes in the scene are necessary (when turning the pages), as it seems to me. This will create a more lively connection with the viewer.

Regards

Paul

[Tonton Bruno]

Same opinion as Bert and Paul.

[thedom]

Thank you very much to the 4 of you for your comments, to have feedback really helps to step back and is very usefull.

I agree, I will not leave the bouncing for every page.
You’re right, I will only keep it for a few pages. Thanks.

Paul, I agree. The style will not be linear. I find it a little bit boring too.
It is just a demo of the still sequence of turning pages, this is not at all final result.

As I mentioned in a previous message, the style will mix different angles and movements of camera. You can watch the idea in the first video I released. 

I still have a lot of work and testing to conceive what would the best equilibrium between the sequences with different point of views (mix between still and animated). 
And I will also put in the package individual sequences in order for the end user to compose his own animation with his favorite points of views (like I did with my « flap » style)

 

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

One thing that would be nice is if there were a user switch to change to orientation of the book from lying at an angle to full vertical so that there is no distortion of the image. I modified Jean Cyprien's style to do that because sometime we want to demonstrate the animations while other times we want to show the images in their best orientation.

Best regards,

Lin

[thedom]

Yes, it would be useful and a nice feature.

Right now, I think the only option is to modify the X and Y rotation of the master object. Unless you have something else in mind ?
I will leave instructions about how to do it easily for beginners. Thanks Lin.

[mhwarner]

First off, Dom, it is great to have you back here!  I have enjoyed (and purchased) some of your free and low cost new or updated styles so thanks for your efforts.

I'm enjoying your progress on the new book animation.  I do have one comment on the size/layout of the book, at least the interior.  I (and I assume many others) typically are working with 3:2 ratio pictures from digital cameras.  It would be nice to have page sizes that would accommodate a full-size landscape oriented picture on one page.  For instance, I would love a book that allows me to drop in a 3:2 picture that fills an entire page.  Obviously, if I wanted a full-page spread, I might need to do some cropping.  Or if I wanted to add a portrait-oriented photo there would obviously be borders on the sides.  It would also be nice to have the ability to change the page backgrounds to white or black or something else altogether.  

Perhaps these ideas are all part of your plan when you get the book style finalized, but if not, I hope you will consider them.

Thanks!  

[thedom]

Hi Mary,
Thank you for your interest in this new project.

You raise a point that has been very difficult for me to make.
I wanted the style to be able to display two pages (left and right) with landscape and portrait pictures in a 16:9 format screen, with size of pictures optimized to its maximum. More and more smartphones takes (good) photos in 16:9. I took this in consideration. Pictures format are very different : from 4:3 to 16:9 via 3:2
In this style, landscape pictures are displayed without beeing cropped. And portrait pictures have to be cropped to 8:9 (half of 16:9) because that's the proportion of the leaf I choose. It gives the ability to display 16:9 pictures in "full screen" (on both pages).
May be I was wrong but the 8:9 proportion seemed to be the best compromise.

If I understand correctly, you would like the leaf to be 3:2 ? If I would choose this format, the photo album would be very wide in order to display right and left pages in the 16:9 screen format, leaving a lot of unused space at top and bottom of the screen. And for portrait pictures, there would be large borders on the side.
In this case, the best option might be to display only one page at a time. What do you think ? Anyway, to be honest, I should rebuild my project half from scratch.
If there is a lot of requests for this, I would make an other style in the future.

But I have good news for you about the background pages. The style already give the option to choose your own background page for EACH picture.
Here are examples with black and white pages (with 3:2 pictures)
I will release the package with a lot of background pages. But of course, you will have the ability to choose or even create your own background pages with a photo editor (like Photoshop Elements), leaving a very wide place for personnalisation and creativity.
It's the same for the cover of the photo album and for the ground. A lot of textures will be included in the package but you will be able to choose your own.
This way, for the photo album cover, you can choose your own picture.

 

 

 

[mhwarner]

Thanks for the explanation, Dom.  I understand perfectly now about the size needed for the total 16:9 viewing screen.  I'm also happy to hear about selecting page colors, textures, etc.

Please look at your private messages to see another idea I have sent you.

Mary

[thedom]

A few people asked me questions last couple of days about this project. So here are some news.

I started working again on it. I did animation tests with an empty album (no page turning). I decided and finalized the design of the animations.
There should be at least 23 different animations with different angles and camera effects (+several openings and closings sequences of the photo album).

Several people are currently working on photo album styles. I believe that this provokes a collective stimulation/emulation. That's great!
It gives me courage to finish my style. I still have a lot of work to do but I think I can finalize it within 10 days.

[thedom]

I have a few minor details to fix but the animations in themselves are finished.
The final result is a non linear presentation (with same 8 images in loop just for the demo).

I have also to choose the backgrounds, covers for the photo album and pages textures to include in the zip.
The package should be available in 24 to 48 hours.

Please watch the demo in full screen.

 

[Lin Evans]

Looks great Dom!!!

Lin

[wideangle]

Dom

Very realistic and a great piece of work.

Well done!

Regards

wideangle