Rodney

Hey... it's Norbert's Birthday! (At least it is here in Japan) Hope you have a happy one.

Sorry, John. I was referring to the idea of an imaginary character's desire to have a legendary character's legacy live on. It was me imagining I was Thom... which I am not... and having a lighter... which I don't... and was at a John Lennon concert... which even if he were alive today would likely not happen. But still, in my own way, it represents something of a tribute from me... to your tribute to John Lennon... and his legacy. Although, now that you've mentioned it... in a perfect world someone would pay you handsomely to tinker all the day long. So regardless of being in the here and now or in the imaginary world, you'd still have no free time. You'd just spend more of it splinin'.

(started a response entitled 'encore' but this as far as I got.... a couple hundred Thoms wishing the show would go on)

Wow. Impressive!

Poor Thom! He has been taking it easy lately though. Glad to see he's back earning his pay.

Wow is right. That's an amazing ride Rodger.

Awesome scene. Makes me want to jump back into creating robots again. You've captured my imagination and I want to see more. Edit: One of the benefits of animated scenes is that each time you view it you see something different. For instance, I was only vaguely aware of the guy walking up there on the right of the robot. On second viewing he had my undivided attention. By way of feedback: It would be nice to have some sense of depth between the foreground, middleground and background that isn't quite clear in the current rendering. On first viewing I thought the mountain peaks were something that had cloth draped over them and I don't recall even seeing the planet. They could all be props hanging from the ceiling in a warehouse or perhaps toys in a scale facimile. The cast shadows of the lamps may be adding to this sense of near-distance scale. I think that the fact that the planet and mountains move through space as far and as quickly as they do also lends itself to the idea that these are closer to the viewer. None of this detracts from my enjoyment of the scene but I offer it for your consideration. Before making any other suggestion besides adding some depth cues I would simply ask you this: Where in the image do you want the viewer to focus their attention? (I assume the robot first and then perhaps the robot's face?)

Here's a Thing... now playing at the top of the forum.

I should have linked to Holmes Bryant's AI Wizard Tutorial! So, here it is: The AI Wizard (Fundamentals) by Holmes Bryant

Very realistic Rodger! That door dent looks like the real deal. Up here in northern Japan we see a lot of those dents in vehicles... you could say it's the bane of our existence... especially in the winter which is just about to hit us. On the plus side, it does give the young troops practice with accident paperwork. I would think that on the rear fender you might also see one or more paint transfers/scrapes. Admittedly a little harder to see than a dent and if touched up in any way with paint would be of a slightly different color. I'm not sure how prevalent patchwork was back in those days. You might be able to get more of a scrape by scaling the width? From what can be seen... great taxi model!

I'm sympathetic to the brick and mortar comic shops but they need to embrace digital comics also. Comics need to... and will get into the hands of those who want to read them. With or without the brick and mortar. As for digital comic books... if I had my way they'd start again at 25 cents a pop. Comic creators need to get back to their roots and one way to do that is to bring the cost of reading comics way down (but not all the way to 'free' comics). Use 'Free comics day' for that. I'll look into the possibility that Ka-blam lost my order. Usually the error is on my end though.

I'm really liking this approach Mark. Very nice. I'm very tempted to support you through Oxicomics if for no other reason than I want to see more of the same... more of your comic books but also more comic books from independent artists at reasonable prices; 99 cents may not generate the artist a lot of money per purchase but it's perfectly priced to sell to the masses. Hopefully people will see 'The Wanna Be Pirates' in that venue and give it a chance. In other news: I'm still waiting for your second (hardcopy) issue to arrive in the mail. I'm starting to suspect someone stole it and is hoarding it away. I thought perhaps my family picked it up in the mail and it's just buried somewhere. Other thoughts: I don't know if there is a market for the production work you put into your comic books but from my perspective that is exactly what I've always wanted to see made available in animation, comic books, films, etc. Behind the Scenes stuff has always been of interest to me. It also gives fans something more to enjoy beyond the characters and stories themselves. I understand the focus is the actual comic book... I get that... but consider Walt Disney and early animation cels... many were just tossed in the trash or given away. These aspects are an important part of your art's heritage and I hope you save them and can present them later. There isn't enough of that behind the scenes stuff out there because frankly and unfortunately, no one seems to care about heritage until its too late. Odd A:M related thought: We lost a great resource when development on HAMR halted because that gave us a 'read only' format that we could use to share A:M resources and yet not actually give the actual A:M resources away.

Chris, I'm always fascinated by how filmmakers make the most of the resources they have. In viewing a movie I try not to be too analytical while watching the first time... I just try to enjoy the movie... but at the end I'm usually left with some ideas of how the cinematics worked and the artistic flowed. Knowing full well that modelers tend to model only that which will be shown we can find ourselves unconsciously surveying the extent of 'real property' in the movie. How much of this world appears real can heighten our perceptions and enjoyment considerably... and you obviously know this and your experience shows. Anticipation is such a wonderful thing... and as it relates to this area of concern with a viewer's impression of what is real and available to be explored in an imaginary world I find myself drawn to your idea of the magic of moving between these imaginary 'worlds'. This cinematography is an art of it's own. For the sake of discussion (and a moments reflection of the world of Star Trek: Red Squad) I find what you have in this walkthrough works really well. There is a moment or two while looking around the deck that my attention wanders for a moment... not sure why that was but I assume there may have been distractions in my physical environment (my home). I'm wondering right now if it'd be worth to look back at the walkthrough to take notes with an eye on where those distracted momements were. My thought is that in pushing the walkthrough further this might present areas to focus on for further enhancement as you proceed to work. Given a limited time to flesh out the reality of the world of ST:RS making a few quick notations of where animated blips or even areas in the background where there is more light or shade or more detail versus little detail helps to attract our attention to where you want us to look. My mind wanders to how this walkthrough makes for an excellent tool to help you visualize how the Actors will move into and out of scenes... so creating some storyboards from the image sequences and quickly drawing in the various Actors positions... overlaying their positions and basic poses would speed up subsequent work. Replacing those doodled drawings with renders of the characters in those same poses would make quick work of producing animatics, previz and promotional work. With the resources you've now got working for you, you seem to be right on the edge of producing high quality content with high quantity within a framework of minimal cost and effort without the need to compromise the vision you have for your story. I confess I'm fascinated with the aspect of one man making movies at this level of quality with an added emphasis on quantity. Quality is important but so is quantity I'll call this Rapid CG Visual Prototyping for lack of a better term. Less waste means more of the work done is can be used elsewhere in the production to further enhance levels quality and quantity. I'm rambling so I'll move on. I'm not really making any suggestions here, just verbally exploring the world of ST:RS. It's that inspiring.

Well, the old cloth should still work. Perhaps we should work out a demo that runs through both methods. The frustration is bound to be found in the middle gap where some folks refer to the old cloth... some to the new cloth... and both think they are staring at exactly the same thing. We are sure to see some folks working in the old cloth for many more years to come even if we get rid of the old stuff. As the old cloth presumably still has some benefit understanding how to set it up may not be an entirely bad thing.

Bravo! That's one of the best walkthroughs I've ever seen. Certainly one of the most entertaining. I must admit thought that as you put us in the elevator and the door closed I was really really hoping we'd get a glimpse at another level (I looked at the time scrubber at the bottom and thought for a moment you might go there... but that did make for a great buildup to the credits!

Looking very good Mike. The world just seems a little bit better with you splining again.

Looking very good. You make this stuff look easy.

One useful construct for proportioning is to sketch out (or modify meshes in A:M) several versions of the character that show a progression of the character's ages. I'd say optimally there are three stages: child (baby), young adult (teenage) and aged (adult). Inbetween those ages as necessary to target the age of your character and their storyline. These don't have to be detailed models/drawing but might also be useful later if the story ever dictates a look into the past or future of the character. Even if never used it gives the creator a better idea of who they are, were or will be in the character's story arc. The progression I have yet to do is to take a character from three heads high (a child) to 5, 6 or 7 (an adult). I did a set of drawings once that I thought I might pursue some day where a youthfully enthusiastic teenager is transformed into a overly cynical and frightened old guy. As stories are suppose to being already in progress and don't usually contain the death of a character in old age, the infant and the octogenarian usually won't fit into most onscreen storylines. The use of highly advanced age often conveys wisdom, experience but also degenerative frailty. That'd be quite a challenge but I know it'll be educational so it's on my list of things to do. Usually in 3D each stage of the character is a separate model but I can see some characters being one model morphed and remodeled. Also, some adaptation can be made almost exclusively with textures or animated personality traits (youthful exuberance or a slow methodical painfully unstable gait). Change... animation is all about change. The more change/contrast between otherwise similar thing we can direct at the viewer the better. But there does generally have to a rationale for that change... a grounding in reality. That's were relationships (and proportions) come into play.

Cute. Very cute. If you could create one those fluffy guys to ride in for the real world... and not kill the passengers inside the bouncy character in the process... you'd be rich. It'd be kind of bungy jumping without the rope...

Looking good! I can already tell that these are going to be great characters and (if you accept the concept of 'Character First!' great characters tend to lead to great storytelling. You are well on your way! The texturing is really starting to look great as well. Feedback Mode: I'm not smart enough to accurately convey what I want to say about proportions here so I will type toward it and hope others can narrow my focus. Ultimately this is your story to tell and I am not trying to sway you from pursuing your vision in any way. I do want to offer feedback for consideration. I hope you will do the same for me someday. Here's a site I found while trying to find the right words to say: http://www.zebtoonz.com/proportions.htm There's nothing there you don't already know already right? The area that comes closest to what I'm rambling on is somewhat hidden in the webpage: Obviously this is that artist's attempt to formulate his own understanding on the relative proportion of characters. Your mileage may vary. I've certainly seen adults that towered a lot farther than one head above ten year olds. While much rarer, I've seen shorter ones as well. What I'm after here is a sense that the characters belong in the same set... in the same universe... in the same story. Can they can safely and effectively interact (this will make them easier to animate!). When they are in a close up shot, establishing shot or looking eye to eye does everything work... in frame? Are their silhouettes immediately recognizable and compatible. If they were seen only in black against white how might their interaction 'read'. So, this is the underlying area of focus I think... I think... I am narrowing this down to: Why are the head proportions so dissimilar between the two characters? Should they be more similar? If not, why not? Will it have impact on your storytelling one way or the other? (i.e. There may be very good reason for this or even a greater dissimilarity) You don't have to answer these questions here. The important thing is just to ask yourself these design and composition related questions. I'm certain you are already. If you are happy with the relative proportions between the characters as they are then that is an answer in and of itself. It's your thing... "Please yourself." My long winded way of saying... I'm enjoying your updates! Added: Here is an old classic from Preston Blair:

Sweet! Thanks for the tip Rodger. Such a simple and elegant solution. Over the years there have been several times where this underlying idea of creating sacrificial templates has worked really well with splines (I recall sacrificial templates being useful in layering materials as well ala Anzovin). Another example is where we might lathe a sphere but by first lathing a cylinder to get the ideal curvature for the half circle we need to lathe the final spherical splines. It's a lot more easy to do than describe... To achieve better/smoother surfaces with more evenly spaced four point patches I can easily see the benefit of using your methodology.

Hey! You should throw out your models more often. That guy is really looking great! Outstanding even. I like him. Color me jealous. Everyone is surpassing me in tech these days.

With .MOV files you have to consider the amount of RAM the whole process is going to take. When using sequential images programs will usually only require the image currently being referenced to be loaded into memory. Once that processing is complete the image is moved out of memory space, the next image is loaded and any free memory released. If I understand correctly when working with .MOV files all or at least a majority of the files size must be maintained in memory during the whole process. Now, note that this referencing of the input imagery isn't necessarily the whole deal. Are you also rendering out to .MOV? If you are then you are exacting the same/similar price in memory usage for the output in addition to the input. This is one of many reasons why people recommend using sequential imagery formats over movies. How do you eat an elephant? One piece at at time. When we use .MOV as our source *and* render out to .MOV we are passing that whole elephant through our entire digestive system. Depending on that system... that could be... painful. When testing something using movies where ever you can I recommend using a proxy movie. This is a smaller version of the movie you will ultimately use. Once the system is determined to work with the proxy then replace the proxy with the original. If it doesn't work you'll at least know where to focus your troubleshooting effort.

I was looking for movies to put into the cue for playing at the top of the forum and had to search this one out. I'm not sure it'll work in the size/format it's in currently but I wanted to say... This test in particular really captivated me. 'Mesmerized' may be the more appropriate word. I say this rather carefully and cautiously... it may very well be my favorite animation test ever presented in the forum... and I'm not exactly sure why that is. When I saw it I had to keep watching it over and over again. So... not yet playing at the top of the forum... but still great animation anyway... these two kids with stars in their eyes dancing their hearts out to a lively beat: Lothario the Lover Boy and Ida - Dancing with the Stars - On Checkerboard Squares* ...and of course there are the latter versions with alternate music and enhanced environment like this one. Nancy, you've done something great with these characters. *Not Nancy's title. I just didn't know what to type there.

I do. That's why I prefer Coreldraw. Actually, it's probably more of a 'first learned, best remembered' thing. Once you learn something its hard to unlearn that and learn again. Persistence does pay of however and even old dogs can learn new tricks. Not everyone is going to be good at everything and certainly not everyone is going to be great at A:M. That's why you want to get to know some of these talented people... one never knows when the right ship will sail in. PIXAR is much the same way. Their primary program for animation, Marionette, is propriety and exclusive to them as well. We are in the in on that... our proprietary means to animation being the one and the only... Animation:Master. Okay, that's enough slogans and catch phrases from me for today. For what it's worth 'Remedy' would make a fine live action series. But, you'd probably have to CG that crazy cat. I don't see any other way.