Hi all,
I just posted my rough blocking pass for my Animation Mentor assignment this week. You can check it out here: http://www.animatedape.com/wk_10.html.
Just click on the Gotchaman image.
The assignment is to clearly convey an idea in about 100 frames. Alright, bring it on! :P
Mahalo,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
—
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
This may be an odd request, but could you post a link directly to the movie? I'm having trouble with the embedded video for some reason (if no, then I'll wait until I get home).
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight
I can't see it either :(
-S
http://www.suetheartist.com
I hope you don't mind, but I looked at the source code for the page (trying to get around imbedded movie limitations on Mozilla at work). There seems to be a space in the name of your movie file. I'd suggest either deleting the space or adding an underscore. That may be the problem.
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight
Okay, I tried a few things. I'm by no means a web designer, and I make no claims that I am one, so you guys and gals have to bare with me. I re-posted a new clip on the original link,
http://www.animatedape.com/wk_10.html which is a .mov file
and here are two more.
http://www.animatedape.com/wk_10_avi.html which is a .avi file
http://www.animatedape.com/wk_10_am.html this is a smaller .mov with some html changed.
If those don't work... well you're all just going to have to suffer :P
Oh, and Mac's never seem to want to play any of my movie clips.
Mahalo,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
and one more for kdiddy :P
http://www.animatedape.com/wk_10.6.html
Like I said, I'm not a webdesigner. I only put my site together after a webdesign class that only met 4 times so by all means check out my source code. I need all the help I can get with that stuff. Thanks kdiddy.
Mahalo,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
None of the links worked in mozilla. What Kdiddy meant was that there is a space in the name of the movie you're linking to, usually a thing to avoid in html and probably why it wouldn't work in firefox (mozilla).
After some cut and paste I managed to open the movie.
I liked it. Maybe a wee bit to fast timing, 1 or 2 frames more in the grab reaction.
Rylander Animation
Striking Animation
That last one worked. I like your site design just fine. Just a tip, never ever ever use spaces in the names of files. A number of web programs don't know what to do with them. And if you end up at a company using a Linux/Unix (like ILM, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, or Pixar), they'll create all sorts of problems in the pipeline (that and Maya just doesn't like spaces). It's just a bad habit to get out of.
That being said.... I really dug the animation. For some reason I liked the thumbnail sketch a little better. I think framing wise it works better when he continues to fall to the left. Maybe it has to do with the ball coming from the right. Not sure about this one though, I'd be open to arguing why he falls to the right.
And when you switch to 3d, it may go to fast on the falls (to his knees and over). But that may be taken care of if you could render it out with motion blur (or add an inbetween to make up for it). Try doing a hardware render with motion blur turned on. It's a little slower than play blasting, but you can use Motion Blur with it. Jumping large distances in 3d usually doesn't look as nice as 2d without the blur.
At a several of the companies I've worked at, the TD's had written a playblast renderer that could do motion blur. It took some time, but it was really the only way you could tell how things would look before you send them on down the pipeline.
Other than that, the poses read very clearly. Strong. There's no doubt that that guy just got tagged really hard. I imagine you could render it out as a silouette and it would still read clearly. And it's not stiff (a huge hurdle in 3d), there's life to your character.
Do you have more of your AM stuff online? I'd love to check it out.
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight
Sorry to hijack this thread but this sounds awfully interesting. Once in a while I do a freelance gig at a 3D production and this bit annoys me very much, having to render to see how my animation is going to look. Breaks can be nice but my stomach can't take more than 10-15 cups of cofee per day...
Do you know if there are any of these renderers publicly available? I would love to have one.
Rylander Animation
Striking Animation
I don't know of one publicly available. Hardware rendering is nearly as fast as playblasting (but you have a stack of images rather than the convenient mov or avi). You could try checking www.highend3d.com. They have a huge number of plug-ins and it may be in there. You could also try the forums there. Someone may be willing to write one for you (or have one they'd share).
And just to be clear, they aren't as slow as doing a full render but they aren't very fast either (depending on how many frames you want to blur over).
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight
Yo ape,
...good start...and some good timing...
I would definitely push that first pose though. You need to arc his back a whole lot more. That way, when the ball hits him, the reverse arc (when he leans forward) will cause even more of a "change" in pose...it'll make it a whole lot more dynamic aside from making it any even clearer silhouette. Push your poses.
-mojo
Hey guys thanks for all the feed back and advice on the website stuff. I forgot - spaces...baaaaad.
I'm going to try to get more of my AM work up there. I'd like to make a page per semester where I can easily add my assignments. As well as a work in progress type of page. But well, you've seen my html skillz so that might take some time. I'll try and to it in a couple of weeks when we are between semmesters, but I was also planning on fixing up some of my previous shots.
Oh, so a few disclaimers :P This is just in the blocking phase, so it's mostly just the key poses with some break downs in stepped key mode. I animated out the end with the stutter just to get that across. We're also not using full renders with motion blurs. They really want us to focus on the character animation foundations as well as adding character and beliveablity to our work. Other wise I'd be adding fur to EVERYTHING! ;) And fun. Fun is always good. Although that motion blur playblast sounds interesting.
Yeah, I agree rylleman, the grab and first fall are running a bit fast. I'm probabaly going to shift back the arms a couple of frames and ease-in and out of that so the hand will read better.
kdiddy13, the reason I changed the direction he fell in is because not it's 3D and I can't cheat a drawing. If I had him fall to the left like the 2D version, he would have to almost fall backward in order for the viewer to see his face. If I had him fall sideward and alittle forward like it is now, but to screen left, all we would see is the top of his head. As for the quickness that he falls, again, blocking in stepped mode. I am going to add a few more frames there though.
I think I'm going to change the begining poses just a tad Mojo. I'm going to start with both arms down and then bring his hand up to his hip when he shifts his weight. I'm also going to change his hand so that it's on his hip instead of it being a fist. I'll try arching his back more and seeing how that looks. I want him to be relaxed and I think arching his back will stiffen him up to much, but I'll try it and see. I also think I'll ease-in to that pose instead of doing and overshoot. I think that'll convey 'relaxed' more than it is. I also want to keep his head rotating more over. Right now it looks like he's looking at us, and that's not what I want. I want him to feel like he's oblivious and doesn't even register that we're there.
Thanks for the clear staging and poses coments. That's what they've been teaching us lately, and so I've been trying to work on that more, along with playing with my timing and spacing which is always a battle for me.
Thanks all, and I'll hopefully pose another update in a couple of days. This version is due tomorrow, and the final, all smoothed out version is due next sunday.
Mahalo all,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
wow... I type a lot huh?
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Blocking phase. Got it. In that case it's looking great. Rock on ma man.
I'm a big fan of using the pose to pose and stepping style in Maya. It really helps keep things managable while you're working out the timing for as long as possible. It also really encourages strong poses.
I'm looking forward to seeing the final version.
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight
Added some new blocking to my AM assignment.
http://www.animatedape.com/wk_11.html
Mahalo,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
hey ape.. for some reason.. i can't see that one.. a bit like the first ones.
I see the G forc image( which, by the way, was one of my very special favorite as a kid!),but no mister Marceau!!
P.
ah ..ok.. never mind ..it was just blocked by my mahine!
got it!
Looks great ape!
I have a question..
out of curiosity..have you tried other camera placement?
further away from him?
closer?
i'm just mentioning that because the dramatic and emotional implications off the camera placement are very important in how you"feel" the scen you are watching...
It may be that there would be a camera placement that would make your action seem even more powerful, hurtful, or something like that!
that's all!
I think it might be a touch fast at the beginning. Have you tried expanding the pose frames by just several frames? I don't think it would take much (maybe as little as 2-3 frames), but I'm guessing that when you go over to linear interp., the poses may be a little quick to read clearly. It's hard to tell sometimes, one of the draw backs of the pose to pose method in 3d when there isn't audio to guide you. You might be dead on, just my first impression of it.
Slowing down the beginning a touch would act as a nice counter point to the sudden action of getting pegged in the sac. Just a thought.
Definitely looking good though.
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight
I initally wanted a low camera angle for this one, and I think it's working for the runway model, but not so much for the mime. When I do the final version I'll experiment with so other camera angles, but I want to be able to have a good view of when he curls up into a ball, and that's limiting where I put the camera a bit.
I'll also check out the timing kdiddy. I still have a hard time seeing the timing before things are moving, but I think you are right and I think I'll add some frames before he gets pegged.
Mahalo,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
You all can check out the final version of my Animation Mentor assignment here: http://www.animatedape.com/wk_11.2.html
Mahalo,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
I have yet to see one of your clips. All I keep getting the the big Q with a question mark.
Ha! Awesome! I really like what you've done. The slight pause before he gets tagged looks nice and accentuates things nicely. There's a nice solid feel to him falling, too. I know that's one of the real challenges in 3D (or animation for that matter), how do you make something that isn't actually there feel solid? You did it well.
Nice job. Could you post what your instructors/fellow students say on it? I'm curious how they would improve it. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your assignments.
He kind of makes me think of a male model strutting to the end of the runway (and not just because of the set and camera setup, but from the acting, too).
Producing solidily ok animation since 2001.
www.galaxy12.com
Now with more doodling!
www.galaxy12.com/latenight