Rodney

I do think the flame decal should be applied to a distortable grid. Then you could alter the flame to give it a sense of moving through the air as the object moves and then returning to it's upright burning once the object stops moving. That ol' Follow Through and Drag thing. Right now the flame tilts a little mechanically with no real drag or followthrough.

Ooooo. Pretty Fire! Very nice. I think fire and Thom would work especially well together.

Great video analysis Robert. Me likey! ...and Chris, I like your additional tips here on the head turn. Spot on Commentary. Having some movement in the face would definitely sell the shot. The standard tip out of Richard William's TASK when the head is relatively stationary during a head turn is to push the head out, then down and around. I understand what Robert was saying about the down and around part not always hitting the mark... that's not what I'm trying to relate here. It's that displacing outward that sells the shot. To my way of thinking it's something of an anticipatory setup. In animation its the change that counts. Diplacing the head outward gives you more change in shape. For instance, if you've got the two key poses, 1, Looking Left and 2, Looking Right, the next inbetween (or breakdown pose) pushes the head or distorts it a little over to the left. This gives the sense of dimensionality to the turn as that makes the characters features turn around versus travelling around. The example is on page 87 of TASK (both editions). I recall some debate about Comic Sans but for the life of me cannot recall the outcome or suggestions that followed. My memory says that it was something to be avoided but that was for use in comic books, not animation reels.

Darrin did post some images up there. (Most probably haven't seen the attached bitmap with the dog, car etc.)

The Boy and/or Girl. The Plot. The Villain Vanquished. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Even in that short story there can be found quite a few variations on themes that would set the stage for a fifteen minute movie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I do like the idea of keeping a focus on animation and storytelling. Perhaps we could break our ideas down into a Storyboard/Animatic/Pitch Project for a subsequent Project: The following are not fully framed definitions but general ideas: One panel/Still Frame: (Shot - Establishing Scenario) An image capturing a moment without words [ideas] Two panels/Spatial Art: (Sequence - Anticipation and Action) A Setup for a viewer determined outcome [Motivations] Three panels/Comic Strip: (Arcs - Setup/Reactions/Results) The basic elements of a story or plot [Outcomes] Four panels/Sequential Art: (Acts) The completed story arc [Characters and Personalities] Five or more panels/Serialization: (Plots) A story with a prologue, epilogue or denouement [Precursors and Consequences] Whether drawing or rendering computer generated imagery we have a tendency to stop at that first panel. Note: Because I added "The Plot" into Act 2 that full story above could (theoretically) be told in a minimum of six panels.

TOO CUTE! Even then it's plain to see you were destined for great things Nancy. Like... performing as Mrs. Yoop! Regarding your Doll and Lion dance... now that was superb.

Music is off topic in an animation forum? That'd be a new one for me. It's the rare animation indeed that doesn't benefit from, or require music. (Jake, I was relooking through your PDF comic/animatic the other day and I'm sure I imagined music. I've been looking for a way to tell you I think your artwork/storytelling is great so I'm sneaking this line in here.) That's rather the point here. Darrin doesn't exactly have a good track record of that thus far. He wasn't banned from posting in the forum before... he was prevented. I believe only three people in the history of the forum have been as similarly distinguished. So, "Caveat Visitore"; let the causual reader cautiously proceed. Darrin is off the short leash. Music-wise, that's the part that has me intrigued.

Darrin (RU2D4) was with us a month or so ago but his artistic nature got the best of him and he ran afowl of common sense and the forum rules. He recently asked (politely) if he could post again to the forum and that is the reason he's here with us now. He's an artist and that is worth something. We've had a few artists here in the forum before that had some issues with expressing themselves. Hopefully Darrin can control his artistic urges enough to stay with us so he can share his important contributions with us here in the forum. Apparently Darrin doesn't just create computer art but is also a musician and a programmer. (Darrin, did I get that even close?) He's even got this monoboom thing that he was posting to the forum before. Unfortunately with the nature of viruses and all that delivery method wasn't going to work so Darrin opted to build himself a webpage and he set up an FTP site in consideration of how to better distribute his work. I'm not sure who will be willing to download and run the program though without knowing more about it first. Darrin, That's some very impressive music and the art is off the charts. I hope you'll consider teaming up with some of the talented folks here in the community. As an Animation:Master user you are an important part of this community... posting here is a privilege... please don't abuse that. I look forward to hearing more about your work. If you are wondering why the number of posts are reading incorrectly... it's an artistic decision of my own until I see how serious you are about hangin' with us here in the forum. Best, Rodney

There is an underlying (primordial) artistic reason I am drawn to these Lizardmin... and it has nothing to do with alien conspiracies and everything to do with their design. See, here's the thing... There is a set of characters that for lack of a better term I call 'flatheads'. These generally consist of a head whacked off at the top by a horizontal line with eyes on each side of the line. At the age of 14 I recall struggling to perfect a flathead design with a cousin of mine. It... wasn't a pretty sight. This basic design can be seen in several places with Disney's "Phineas and Ferb" (better known to fans as Nachohead... sorry not a fan so I can't comment beyond the design) the best known publicly accepted flathead design. But most of these flatheads fall short, a product of their DNA, Design Noggin Arrangement that doesn't translate well into sequential comics and animation because of their particularly bad front and 3/4 views. Matt references the inspector from Pink Panther... which is... is borne of the UPA flathead design! But 'Lair of the Lizardmin' represents one slithering step forward in flathead evolution. Simply put... these Lizardmin represent a new and improved two-dee-forced-dimensional-perspective-on-the-cutting-edge of flathead design. ...and they sure are funny lookin'.

Great tips Chris and Michel! (for me animation is a daily learning opportunity) This is something Don Bluth nails very firmly and something that can translate rather well if your character has a rig with a good (single) eye target. The difference in most rigging as opposed to hand drawn however is that the head is generally not a child of the eyes. (Hmmm.... Note to self to to explore that angle for rigging) When in doubt (and definitely for teaching purposes) Don is known to draw an X where the characters attention is focused and draw an eyeline (one single line) from pupil to where the X marks that spot. The eyes then focus on that spot as the character moves forward. Unless interrupted or distracted or shifting to another action, as the character walks forward the eyes (and usually the head) will keep a laser focus on that spot. I don't think I could have said it better than that. One thing to strive toward is a better understanding of where the Center of Gravity (CoG) lies versus the center of visual objects. Our senses can betray us here. For instance, a top heavy character might have to shift more weight up top in the shoulders and a heavy set character might sway back and forth and lift more from the hips while walking. It's so important to consider weight distribution in light of the character's design. Related to that, but not so much walk cycles, I recall Jeff Lew had some of the classic examples in A:M with a moving/rolling character where he introduced the idea of wrapping the character around a stationary Null in a Choreography. That probably would be overkill for a walk cycle but the principle certainly remains sound. The center of gravity can usually be analyzed by drawing a plumb line from the head to the ground. In this way it's fairly easy to see which foot the character's weight is on and determine if a character is balanced or would (in a real world) fall over on the ground.

Hehe. Very nice. I really enjoy your tribute pieces and you always point us to some fun... and in this case really funny... webcomics. I guess that is the whole point? Now you've got me not only interested in the comic but in it creator also. I've only read a few of the comics thus far but I'm finding 'Lair of the Lizardmin' a winner. A+ at first glance assessment! A great slice of life comic that attaches itself directly to the sensibilities of my funny bone. It's not often I laugh out loud while reading a webcomic. Its got to be quite a task to capture these guys because they are so 2D... and so simply drawn. I'd say you've successfully translated them into the 3D world, I can almost see the 2D/3D fully featured animated film now... "Lizardmin vs Lizardmin: Adventures in an Animated World" Speaking of 3D... I simply MUST figure out a better place to store my 3D glasses! Every time someone posts something cool like this it takes me hours to dig them up. Thanks Mark for continuing this webcomics fan art! Added: I hadn't read your text before launching out to explore the webcomic. You said: I'd say you must have sucessfully captured that. My feeling was immediately that these two were waiting in the wings to go on an old B&W talk show... say...very early TV such as Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson. And yet another return because this is a really fun webcomic. I've discovered a valuable tool in measuring the worth of a webcomic: The more times you say to yourself, "Now why didn't I think of this!" the higher quality and intrinsic value of the webcomic. I claim full trademark rights to this cool tool and name him "Urekasama!™". Ahem. That's it. That is all. Um, yeah... so... going back to read more Lizardmin comics...

Out of the blue I was reminded of the classic example (for me) of what post production (and preplanning) can do for computer animation. Consider the example of the original Star Trek TV series versus Star Wars. In the original Star Trek series there were obvious cues that suggested to the viewers that the actors were on a stage interacting with props. A scene in a cave might have a perfectly smooth/flat floor with no obvious reason for the difference. Rocks were betrayed as paper mache... especially when someone picked one up and demonstrated there was no weight to them at all. Sets were ultra clean and nothing looked lived in. Everything was perfectly imperfect. Contrast this to the scenery and props that appeared in Star Wars. Evidence of burn marks near exhaust pipes. Dents and corrosion in metal. Props placed in scenes as if they had been used for an extended period of time. Evidences of unrevealed history and purpose. Sets were lived in, in need of repair and even ancient in some cases. Imperfectly perfect. This is a subtle difference in the abstract but a very important one. In both cases reality wasn't the ultimate goal but it's clear George Lucas had observed Star Trek and learned something from the experience. These imaginary worlds had to appear and (more importantly) 'feel' like real lived in worlds in order for the viewers to suspend their disbelief and get caught up in the moment. Viewers could then be carried away along with the story. Film grain, blurs, fades, vignettes and other 'additives' strip away some of our sensory cues when viewing the unrealistic perfection that pervades most computer generated worlds. They blend, meld and alter everything just enough to allow us to believe in and accept, if only for the moment, imaginary worlds.

Nice! I'm definitely looking forward to that. It may be strange for the actors but who knows what the experience may lead them into. They are on the cutting edge!

Now why did you have to go and say that!!!??? As a basic (subtle) walk I think it works quite well but... I'm not sure how far it goes toward demonstrating his personality. It's hard to make specific suggestions without knowing more about who he is and what his role is in the story but for what it's worth... here is where my thoughts fall now: One of the best ways to gain a sense of personality just happens to also be a great way to demonstrate weight in imaginary characters; move/animate the hips of the character up and down. In most cases you'll find the leg supporting the weight of the character will then push that side of the hip upward while the other side not bearing the weight will come down. The shoulders will tend to move in opposition to the hips; when the right hip goes up the right shoulder will move down... as right hip goes down... right shoulder goes up. As you adjust/tilt/angle/exaggerate these two parts of the trunk you will establish and convey their character/personality because that movement effects the rest of the body, the head, the arms and the hands. If there is any one thing that would give your walk more punch... and the character more personality... I'd say it would be exaggeration. Imagine him really wanting to go somewhere! You can always back off from the extremes but it's harder to find more action when it isn't there to begin with. Keep up the great work Steve. It's really paying off.

Do you have some insider info you aren't sharing with us here Gene!?! If I was the band I'd certainly be happy with your treatment. My main crit would be the same as I tend to always give you... you are use to me by now... and you get closer with every attempt! To my way of thinking imperfection here is a very good thing. Dirtying up and obscuring elements of your video (in post of course) helps to push the experience... the sense of being there. Effects like Film Grain and overlays that hint at an atmosphere can chase away the harder edged computer rendered looking images and even make the viewer wonder about how the piece was put together. Imperfection tends to ground far-too-perfect computer imagery into our real world. A little of this may be related to the cuts from shot to shot but I haven't got much to offer in suggestions there. My thought is that fading from one scene to the next (adjusting the transparency for each as it fades in/out) might help you transition with more overlapping action and really pay off. Your sync of music and image beats is really hitting the mark.

Hey... thanks for that link to Zoomit Mr. Mouseman. I hadn't seen that! Even more happy to see the potential of Microsoft giving this capability to all Windows users. In the meantime... a very useful utility!

For a second there I thought the Speaker-Entity was going to transform into a robot with legs, and start fighting off all the army forces. Maybe that occurs in the sequel? That's my subtle hint to say... Encore! Please feel free to destroy us all again.

Keep in mind that when you reinstall/update that Data folder may be created again. All default user data (For the Libraries) is stored in the Data folder.

Sweet. That background (the color and feel of it) fits the Lion perfectly. It even gives off a sense of increased peril to the viewer because that Lion is likely more than a little hungry given the sparse vegetation there. He looks pretty well fed, so perhaps we are safe. Great update.

Very impressive Gene. I can see that being spliced in with some live action of the band which would really take it to the ultimate level. Congrats on the release of yet another fine music video.

This should be a very interesting music video. It's also quite an undertaking. I look forward to your updates! A thought for the repeating scenes: If you render those out to large resolution you may be able to zoom in and or pan a little and keep those images fresh and new as they are repeated. If you end up at the end with time to spare (always unlikely) having several cameras set up and re-rendering from a slightly different angle will help to hold the viewers attention. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that adding even the slightest changes to these repeating sequences will increase their interest exponentially. Whereas the opposite is conversely true and using the exact images will detract from the quality of the piece. The goal I would set for myself were I doing the piece would be to progress those similar sequences just a little each time we see them. The geckos on the wall for instance might progress ever so slightly up the wall throughout the music video but in each individual sequence this would hardly be perceived. (So in those shots perhaps only the background would change) Viewers looking for texturing and detail would certainly sense they were different and perhaps spend more time with your imagery. My concern is that while the words of the song must necessarily keep repeating, the imagery must really strive to avoid that unnecessarily. Planning that progression now will save a lot of time in the rendering stage. This requires a little non-linear workflow but as a test to see how successfully you've accomplished this progression you could play each of these similar sequences one right after another (out of sequence) where observing those in order will allow you to see the progression clearly and make adjustments as needed. There should be something new (even if only a little color/brightness change) in every sequence. At any rate... for your general consideration. Your animatic is looking really good Gerry. Very impressive.

I seem to recall I made a similar mistake with Jim's name when I first started frequenting the community. My only excuse was that I was use to the spelling 'Talbott' based on the name of another artist I was familiar with. If everyone's name was 'Steve Smith' we wouldn't have problems like this. Of course... Nancy might have a problem with that.

Looks great Mark! Note that unless he's changed the spelling, Jim Talbot's name only has one T at the end.

Nice one Mark! I've downloaded your project just in case. I'd love to see if I could create a dust devil.

Nice Mech! My thought with the dust is that you could render out the scene twice, once with dust and once without. Then composite the layer with dust over the other with the appropriate transparency. That would soften then harshness of dust a lot. You are well on your way now. Keep it up!