Rodney

Very cool. Congratulations!

No. That is the beauty of the subscription. It's great to have you here sinking your teeth into A:M with us again.

Now... if you can just get those DVDs into Walmart. Congratulations on this (first) print run and best of luck!

That is a really cool aspect of your movie.You'll be forever glad that they voiced the characters and especially in later years... they will too!

As Jason (Hampton) might say... top dollar! It's a really short clip so this may not apply but... it'd be nice to see the intensity of the lighting on the wall diminish and intensify a little with the movement of the flames. That may be more than you care to mess with and not in your budget but if you have time to kill that would further plus it up. If further perfecting... getting the fingers to fall a bit unevenly (tap... taptap or something like that) would give us the idea that there is a brain behind the hand and avoid any perception of floatiness in the fingers. It's a beautiful piece of work.

I'm glad you commented on this one. I was hoping to get a little more info on that.

A new forum member (Mario) emailed me asking for assistance in posting. This one's for you Mario! If you look down and to the right of the screen (while reading this post) you should see an AddReply button. Click that and type your note. Then at the bottom (middle) you should see a Submit button. Click that and you should be well on your way to posting. Welcome to the A:M Forums!

Nicely done!

Sorry I've been out of commission of late. I'm not sure this'll be of any use but for what it is worth... When I first read your script there were a lot of things that captured my attention and imagination. Many were those that were little details or turns of phrases that suggested depth of character and interpersonal relationships. One of those that stuck in my mind was the initial meeting of Latimer and Death and in particular the exchange they had "I always pictured you as being different" opposite "Yeah, I get that a lot" or something to that effect. To really make that exchange have depth it almost begs for Death to appear different than how we would normally imagine him (i.e. skull and black cloak) although I confess that is exactly as I pictured him. While I don't think you need to design him as a short Jewish man that looks like a guy on a street corner it might be worth considering a few stages of Death so that the audience can connect with him. Of course the final look could be exactly what the average person might expect... that of a skull and black cloak). Based on the dialogue alone we can work backward and learn more about what Death looks like. Perhaps he even looks different to everyone who views him but predominantly appears (to us) only as Latimer would see him if'n he was real? The thought is that if Latimer says, "I always pictured you as being different" and Death confirms that... how exactly did Latimer picture him before? What were the influences that impressed that imagery upon him? At the risk of killing the fun of creativity this might be where reference and inference have their space. Of what religious affiliation are Latimer's parents? Catholic? Armenian? What are their general views on death? Perhaps they have a large library of books and Latimer once picked out one that had an illustration that formulated an image that stuck with him? While never stated explicitly, all this background is what really forms Latimer's early expectations of what Death 'should' look like and that provides the contrast/conflict in appearances. Another aspect of this could very well be how Death himself wants to appear... and (to me) that really seems key to his appearance. To my way of thinking this is what really grants depth to the story arc of Death that allows us to empathize with him. I won't add any more here because of spoiler potential but it seems to me that when Death first meets Latimer he looks the way he does because that is exactly the way he wants to appear to him. Of course that would make the design challenge for Death more complicated but after all as character arcs go... while designing Death... Death is the most important character. If going for the skull and cloak look you might have to consider changing Lamiter's dialogue to "Wow, you look just like I always imagined you" to which Death still responds (but perhaps a bit more cynically... or sadly), "Yeah, I get that a lot."

I like it! Very nice.

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. The really neat thing from my perspective on animation is how that becomes such a great opportunity for anticipation (and exaggeration). For instance, a character might know exactly what he's going to say so he takes in a big breath of air as preparation, squints his face and closes his eyes and then lets it all out in one long expression. He might go on and on and on until something or someone interrupts or he needs to take another breath. Then the cycle starts all over again. You mentioned above a desire for some video reference of the lady that is singing and that suggests some other thing that are definitely something worth considering. Knowing what preceded the words and what follows after can often heavily influence lip sync and facial gestures. For instance, the singer might be smiling throughout, barely moving her lips or performing in some way that is completely unanticipated. (If actually whispering those lips may not move much at all). There is also the lead in and follow through. Perhaps she bites her lip a little at the beginning or end. It's harder to gauge the delivery of words and phrases without a context or setting to place them in.

For anyone having problems voting... I got a 'Page not available' but a quick refresh of the page had it working.

I haven't looked at your earlier test but in looking at this latest it doesn't seem to be in sync. I'm not sure if this is something on my end or no though. Have you ever heard of the animators who speak the words while placing their fingers on their lips? That might help in this instance. I'm thinking back to some of the lessons Don Bluth shared a year or so ago and the main point I think he would emphasize here would be the phrasing rather than the wording. For instance the words of the song: Why do you whisper green grass. Why tell the trees what ain't so. Whispering rocks. The trees don't have to know. The first thing I might be tempted to do is combine elements of the phrasing that blend together. Why/doyou whis/per green/grass. There are basically three beats in this first phrase with the the middle beat getting the emphasis of the hard P sound in 'per'. Open/close Open/Close Open/Close I think you've got to hit those beats strongly before you can get the nuances to work for you. The lips will vary their position but those openings and closings are really important. The way I interpret the two frame lead/leeway thing is that we always have to gauge the difference between the event's visual and audial communication. Consider for instance, the difference between thunder and lightning (the three second rule) where when we first see lightning we can begin counting out seconds and then divide the number of seconds by three to get how many kilometers the lightning was away from us when it struck. Similarly, some sounds begin before any visual representation appears to us. Think of a guttural yell that begins with a low intensity then builds up in intensity as the character begins to tense up then suddenly explodes into full visual fury. If we place the beginning of the sound at the moment we see the visual signal it will likely be too late to register properly. When we move the sound forward two frames it might suddenly work for us. I have heard more than a few animators suggest they don't know why dropping the sound out of sync works but I don't think its all that mysterious. While I'd be hard pressed to prove it, I'm convinced its mostly a matter of physics.

Yes indeed. That is an impressive piece of work. I was just casually watching, thinking... cool plane... nice smoke... really liking that camera work... Then the dragon moves into the scene. Oh yeah. Awesome.

Thanks. I've managed to stop calling it the 'Retopology tool' but haven't quite got the correct nomenclature lodged into my brain yet.

Something you'll love in v17 is the Spline to Surface tool. With it you can model on top of an existing construct and even change/replace that underlying construct too. It's also great for modeling extra (unconnected) details right on top of a model. Note to those using Spline to Surface in a Modeling Window: I find it best to lock down the template after drawing a small 2 CP spline using the Lock key/icon. Then delete that spline and model over the locked geometry. Of course... make sure you select the Spline to Surface icon before splining or else you'll model a lot of geometry that isn't on the intended surface. Doh! I hate it when I do that.

Hey, that's that famous Bugbots guy! Happy Birthday Gerry!

The shadow color seems a bit grey in comparison to the other shadows which are bluish but other than that I'm really liking it. What throws my eye off a little more than the lighting is a sense that the girl is a bit large for the scene she is in. I'd guess she is appearing at least twice as large as she would be if she was really there. IMO reducing her scale to 1/2 or 2/3 would help. I just read back and have been enjoying all of your tests!

The best to you in your effort at ComicCon. I'm optimistic you will sell out of your stock in no time. With that prediction under consideration, the two things come to mind: Take a small TV/laptop so that you can show outtakes from the DVD. This will be mostly be used to give folks something to see after the supplies have run out. Consider how those who are too late to get a copy might be able to order the DVD at the Con (perhaps even at a slight discount for being willing to invest in a second printing). As for any concern of selling out your entire inventory at the convention I can only say... you will. Think positively!

Hi Rob, I suppose there might be two primary approaches to consider here: Modeling circles and Modifying circles. In the first case of Modeling it helps to us A:M to create the circles because A:M will almost always create a better spline layout than we can on our own. In the case of creating your shape it might be optimum to create a cross-section with extra Control Points (CPs), lathe that into a cylinder or torus shape and then keep only those parts of the shape you need to move forward. In the second case of Modification it'll help to understand how Bias settings help to peak and smooth splines as they pass through Control Points. For instance, selecting a spline and adjusting its Bias properties from say... 100% to 167% can produce a nicely rounded curve whereas the 100% setting will produce a sharper angle which smooths out only nearer the control point. Note also that if you Right Click in a Modeling window and open your Wizards there should be a Primitives plugin that will build some of these shapes automatically for you. Of course, just because the plugin creates a bunch of splines that does mean you have to keep them all. For what it's worth, I usually prefer modeling my own primitives over use of the Primitives plugin because that gives me fuller control on the end results. In looking at your model I see that adjusting the in and out Magnatude would solve much of your curvature problems (I'm liking 133% a lot). The main issue with the model however will be how the holes in the shape connect to the Control Points around the outer edge/cylinder. The presence of multiple splines all going through the same control point creates an illegal patch which will produce the artifacts (the dark rim you mention) at those locations. The most common solution to get around those problem areas might be to use 5 Point patches after extending that area one step further inward so that the inner spline and the holes don't share those same CP nodes. Depending on your goal, the use of Boolean Cutters to place/cut the holes into a solid cylinder would also work. For what it's worth... the Basic Steps: - Lathe your main cylinder and close the top/bottom (If you Lathe with 5 cross sections you can select and close the top and bottom with the 5 point patch tool). - Lathe your holes (they could be copies of your main cylinder assigned to a different bone) - Assign the splines/CPs to at least two bones. - Set the bone assigned to the holes as a Boolean cutter. - Note the results when the shape is rendered. The two things that most people have problems with when using Boolean cutters is enclosing the shapes (Boolean Cutters always work better when the shapes are enclosed) and understanding Specified Booleans; where we can tell A:M what to cut and texture based on the hierarchy of bones.

Very well done!

I'm slow to get the birthday greeting out to you but hope you had a great one Mark. Happy Birthday!

The most likely candidate to my recollection would be Jeff Cantin's "Basic Splinemanship" SIGGRAPH video. Another (less likely?) candidate might be Greg Rostami's video demonstration. Greg's demo isn't particularly humorous but it is certainly an overview. Both are online via A:M Films: http://amfilms.hash.com/video/117/Jeff-Can...IGGRAPH--99--LA http://amfilms.hash.com/video/148/Animatio...emoGreg-Rostami

I haven't looked in on your project since you first started... and you've been busy! Looking very very good. (You should enter these guys in the Mascot contest! Hint Hint)

Thanks Gerry. I confess I haven't had time to do much blogging these days but hope to get back to it. There is a ton of stuff to blog about and thankfully there are many sites that explore the periphery of animation. The blog's real purpose is to explore things that are very loosely connected to animation that other blogs might not have considered or considered briefly but could use more attention. I'd say my own personal favorite posting at this point is probably the Leonardo Davinci as animator posting. He may not have been an animator in the sense that we consider animators today but there is no doubt that he was a student of the art of animation in an old world precursory way. Although I don't plug Animation:Master much there, almost everything can be related to A:M in one way or another and I figure it won't be hard for anyone who follows the blog to discover my interest in A:M. Of course, I should drop a note about the public Beta release! Thanks for reminding me that the blog is still there.