Rodney

Unless someone really wants to take this on I'd like to take this challenge on. It may be possible that no drawing is necessary (if I can find the right reference) but I'm in the drawing mood so... ...just say the word and I'm in.

Okay, who let Stian take over David's brain? Impressive. Very impressive. And it'll be even more impressive in motion!

Happy Birthday Teresa! Live long and animate. (and as they say in Oz... Woot! Woot!)

Nicely done Dan! Regarding the return of Epic Gaming.... what can I say except... Yay!!!

Great looking building! Don't forget the use of proxy models in the short term as well. You can substitute a low count model (proxy) while working on the scene and then substitute the hero model back in for final rendering. The proxy model can even be a cube or simple shape. There are several ways to swap out proxy models. One (probably most used) is to change the shortcut in A:M. Just point it at the desired model. Another (my preferred method) takes some consideration: Create three folders to facilitate your 'proxy pipeline'. Folder 1: Working Folder (This is the folder you will point A:M at to find the models Folder 2: Proxy Models with little detail Folder 3: Hero Models with full detail The benefit to this setup are many but the primary one is that you don't have to change any shortcuts in A:M. A:M will always point to the working model. Because the location of the proxy and hero models never changes there is little risk of corrupting those models. Note that a script is usually ideal for copying files to the Working Folder. When you run the script it simply copies either the proxy models or hero models into the working folder. So... if you are working with only proxies then you'd launch the script/utility to overwrite the Working folder with proxies. If I was a programmer I would plus this idea of proxies up a little more to take advantage of what A:M can already do for us with 'psuedo proxies'. This psudo proxy system (as I tend to call it) is yet another method we can use in A:M that doesn't require us to swap out models. We simply use Object Draw and Object Render modes in the PWS to adjust our model's proxy status which in turn will speed up response from the interface considerably.

The way to tackle that is just to insert a couple frames where everything except the face freezes in place. You've already established that a little roadrunner-style pausing is plausible so that shouldn't be an issue. Here's where A:M' nonlinear rendering capability can be put to good use. Let's say your sequence has 250 frames... (I'm using a random number because I can't check the actual number at this time) Let's say the guy reaches the bottom at frame 150 what you can do is save that Chor/Project as a second Chor/Project and then go back and adjust frame 150 to manipulate the guys face. It helps to think in terms of three frame sequences here. Frame 15a might be eyes closed. So render that out with a unique name (like... imagesequence0150a 000.tga) Render as many frames as you feel are necessary to convey the change that will occur on his face. (I'd say this should probably be no less than 24 frames (1 second) but not more than 72 (3 seconds) *adjust for 30 frames per second as necessary Render out the next look that crosses the guys face as imagesequence0150b 000.tga. Again... 24 to 72 frames. Render out the final look of the guys face as imagesequence0150c 000. Now, in your operating system (or video editor) you can go back in and rename/resequence those frames as you see fit. Splicing this inner sequence into the main sequence can be done the same. If brute forcing the edit you'd just have the following: Frames 1 through 150. New sequence Renumbered final sequence beginning where the inserted sequence left off. Of course you can do this all in A:M without all the juggling but the preceding is what is happening behind the scenes either way. You know how many frames you've budgeted for this scene and if all of the images are already rendered you can renumber and reposiition them as needed. When in doubt you can simply go in and duplicate the frames you need to see longer (again suggesting frame 150 so... name the dupes something that will keep them in computer sortable sequence. Then simply replace those frames if needed. Bottom line: It takes approximately two seconds for a subtle change of expression on the face to fully read so it would be nice to have a slightly longer delay at the very bottom of the guys decent on the tree. If there isn't going to be much of a change of expression then you could likely get away with just inserting a few duplicate frames to pad the held/frozen frame.

Yes. Only select users know where it is.

It is. Both the Timing Charts you'll see on the Extremes (Key Poses) as well as the breakdowns on the Exposure Sheets (xsheets). The same thing is accomplished in CG but generally the computer is doing all that stuff behind the scenes. The problem with this is that when we let the computer do the inbetweens (which it always will unless we use stepped/held keyframes or tell it to do otherwise) we get a very mechanical result in our animation. Unless we specifically are looking for a mechanical result this is rarely a good thing. There is a really simple exercise that will demonstrate Ease and that is to set up a ball (or other object) and set to key positions. (for demo purposes I like to create these on frames 1 and 2) Frame 1 is the initial Extreme and Frame 2 is the final Extreme. These two 'keyframes' are your storytelling poses/frames. With Frames 1 and 2 in place, then move frame 2 to frame 3... which then leaves an automatically generated (but unkeyed) inbetween on frame 2 in between. Keying frame 2 then gives you a mechanically generated Inbetween exactly between Frames 1 and 2 that can be altered/manipulated as a Breakdown. It is this Breakdown that will dictate the Favoring or Ease of the motion from frame 1 to frame 3. This Breakdown is the sequences primary performance Extreme. You can then spread this three frame sequence out to the desired time and create additional Breakdowns if/as necessary.

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. If not keeping him in that trajectory it would probably be better to leave him out of appearing again in front of the camera with the second fall entirely. As it was he was barely noticed. I had to go back and look again to see what had occurred in those last few frames. Since nothing else was moving in that general direction I assumed it had to be him. Added: The only crit for this last one (the pre-domestic with him falling twice that is) is that I personally wouldn't end the shot with a crotch shot.

That looks good! The part that stands out now is after the launch where the guy goes up and forward when the tree is going up and backward. It seems to me that he needs to go back up in the direction of the the top of the mountain again (as launched by the tree) before falling again in front of the camera. I hesitate to even mention this because you've got the earlier problem solved.

I hesitate to upload this because it's more of an exploration than it is an answer to your quesiton but... it might be useful? If there is a specific place of interest perhaps you can suggest that and we can narrow the focus. Note that this the video near the end I adjust the camera's focal point. I think this might be the secret to getting the character up close and personal. The trick would be to do that without too much distortion. My apologies for the size. It's about 20 minutes boiled down into a 4 minutes speed video. raw_exploration.mov

This is another animation that blurs the line between CG, stop motion and mixed media in general. Tore set out to create a style that demonstrated just that and it appears he was very successful in that endeavor.

In order to really see what is going on you might have to share a project file. Ease (Slow In/Slow Out) is mostly just a matter of increasing/decreasing the spacing of an object or character so that an effect of acceleration/deceleration is generated. I still think the easiest way to get that face up close to the camera is to cheat it but you can do it manually or through adjusted focal distance or a combination of all three approaches. But back to your question... concerning Ease in the Timeline. If you have seven keyframes then you would likely stagger them out. 12.3..4..5.67 (This would be a slow in/slow out) 1.2..3...4....5.....6......7 (This would be a slow out) 1......2.....3....4...5..6.7 (This would be a slow in) If you consider the entire motion of the tree moving down under weight and then launching upward that a reversal of the slow in/slow out: 1...2..3.4.5..6...7 (The center keyframes 3, 4 and 5 would be where the characters face delays just in front of the camera) Because of A:M's splinebased animation you might be able to accomplish this with only two keyframes and by stretching out the arc's tangent. Let me see if I can draft up a quick animation...

Congratulations! Can we expect to see any more sneak previews?

Happy birthday to the guy who made me believe in gif animation again. I'll credit his animation as part of the inspiration of the forum banner as well.

Here's a quick... and failed... attempt to show how close to the camera I think the character could be: Edit: This should work better: If you had the time and inclination you could have the characters eyes closed when he gets to the bottom of the arc and then one eye open as if he thinks he's come to a safe landing (delay a few frames... just enough for the audience to register the face) and then.... whoaaaa.... with both eyes wide open off he goes again. Interestingly, given the new perspective hinted at by the exaggerated movement of the character toward the camera the goat almost appears to be looking in the right place.

Hehe.... I like it Simon. Excellent physically based humor. Some minor observations: That goat (he's still being subborn even though he looks great)... He's looking too far down too fast. Suggestion: Constrain his head to Aim At the character and then adjust the enforncement percentage of that constraint to taste. Perhaps better yet, Aim it at a Null and constrain the Null to the character. Then you can just move the Null if the goat doesn't appear to be looking at the right place. The rebound from the tree quite read correctly. It seems to me that his movement should be: Impact with tree. Tree goes down Tree goes down Tree goes down Rebound and launch the character. There should be a noticeable buildup (of at least three beats/seconds) before the rebound. I could be wrong about this... I'll look again. For what it's worth, you made me laugh. Edit: In looking again it appears that the tree stops on the way up for a few frames rather than move all the way up in one fluid motion. Fix that and I think the motion will work okay. To plus it up even more though I think you need to have the treetop lower just a little bit more. Not only is this a matter of gravity... that tree needs to store up some serious energy in order to launch our hero (that far) up into the air. Well done! One more edit: Okay, I can't leave well enough alone on this one. New suggestion: In order to exaggerate to the nth degree AND to see the characters reaction to his situation I hope you'll consider bring the characters face full up into the camera (cheat and move his face up to the camera (or render out a separate set of images of his face and composite those over the character if necessary). This would solve the issue of the tree having enough energy and really let us experience the character's dilemma. Draw overs are available upon request if you need them.

I hardly ever 'like' anything.... but you've got me looking for the 'like' button. Nice. Suggestion: As you move forward consider building him modularly. It might be something of a challenge but having Franky in separate parts might pay off. (You might be able to bind the parts to a standard rig like the process used to connect to BVH motion files)

Saw this and thought it might be of interest to game creators. If nothing else you might be able to port/update an older game over to win some prizes etc. Other than that I don't know much about it: https://www.scirra.com/ You can play a very basic HTML5 shoot-em-up game here: https://www.scirra.com/demos/ghosttutorial/ The tutorials walk you through making this and other games.

"I hope we never forget that this all started with a goat." - Dart Wisney Nice update Mark!

Hehe. I like it. It's like watching celebrity battles.

He looks considerably more geeky than I was moving toward. Here's what I came up with when the word 'hulk' was mentioned. The image isn't what is important here... it's the spine that I was most interested in. I started modding your current Franky but the head splineage was a bit too dense to move everything to the places I wanted them. I do think the spine is the key here regardless of the final look of Franky. Interestingly, you used Eddie's legs as a starting point... I grabbed Rabbit's. Hehe

Mark, I'm going to post a few observations. Make what you will out of them... One thing that I hope my image doesn't subtract from is the nice sense of blurring of light that you have in your current image. Example: The girls legs and the horses body almost seem to blend together. In the time tested and true fashion of Frazetta/Boris this is a good thing in my opinion. What I have suggested in the attached image may seem to contradict this but there is no contradiction, in my effort to show you what I'm thinking I'm just working the same thing from different angles. The important thing to note about the 'Frazetta effect' is that he's using that mostly as a matter of light and shade. For the girl's leg next to the horse's body this works very well (you might consider giving her an ankle bracelet if you want to add some contrast there... and at the same time suggest to the viewer that you fully understand what is going on with regard to light and shade in that area). Conversely, the slightly confusing color/tint of the horse's front legs are mostly a matter of positioning. This leads me to my second observation; that of the position of the horses legs. There is something that seems off in the horse's leg positions, particularly the hind legs. and I've been meaning to google up some reference imagery to research this to satisfy my curiousity. In the meantime I'll speculate and point you to that as an area to consider. The other observation, that of the horse's head orientation, could be attacked in several ways. The first thing I note is that its head isn't oriented in the same direction as the girl... while that is okay in and of itself the attitude (that is to say motivated direction) is definitely not with her same motivation. In wondering where these two are going I cannot help but wonder if the horse is sufficiently motivated (particularly by the girl who we presume has prompted the horse to "Go there... now!") The head certainly can be down... that might actually work quite well... but if down then I think you'll need to work out some additional detail in the horse's face to suggest it's motivation/concentration. Added: By raising the horse's head just above the horizon line it seems to me that it also makes the horse (and therefore the horse and girl) pop out a bit more from the background. When they overlap they are cemented together onto the image's 2D plane. All this for what it's worth. And I hope it makes sense. Added: I really wanted to spotlight some of the cool stuff (flow primarily) you have going on in your image. One is how from the horse's head going down the horse's mane to the girl's loin cloth the viewer's attention whips up her arm and then over to her face. It creates a feeling of space at the most important part of the image... traps the viewer there for awhile even... I really like that!.

I thought I recognized your balrog in there. I agree, it constitutes a very nice modification. Very appropriate for the story as well. This is the first animation in some time that I have genuinely been 'creeped out' by a character in an animation. Having that beast go after the main character with the timing as it was (and with time artificially manipulated via slow motion to prolong the event) must have struck a cord from many years ago for me.

Tan realista! Realmente impresionante! No puedo esperar a la proxima actualizacion!