Rodney

Bravo! Very entertaining. Funny too! Community projects like this are a great way to exercise those animation muscles. I'm looking forward to hearing more about everyones segments and how they put them together.

The slap is communicated so I wouldn't spend too much more time there. The issue I have is one of intitially understanding what is going on. Perhaps this will be fixed in post and if so... disregard the following. As the scene opens we are looking at someone intently staring into a mirror-like object but there is no reflection. Suddenly a reflection appears and slaps him. He reacts accordingly. All that works fine except that we have no frame of reference. Is this a broken mirror that shouldn't be reflecting anything and another guy walks up from behind? Is it really his reflection that reaches out and slaps him? As the scene is setup now we don't know and will likely never find out. We are just as confused as the guy who just got slapped. Unless there are additional scenes adjoining this one my suggestion would be to strive for more clarity here. I don't know enough about the scene to make further suggestions on this aspect. If the mirror is missing and this is a second guy, I think moving the camera slightly to the right and having a prop (bushy plant or something appear in the mirror's frame) would convey/reveal the idea. Maybe even have the guy come around the mirror frame a little at the end. If this is a mirror image that strikes out on his own then having the reflection missing in the first frames is confusing the eye. Hope that makes sense. I didn't spend much time analyzing your animation because it reads just fine.

Classy.

Understood. Lara looks like she's in full control of the situation. Compositionally there are a lot of things that could be done, but yours is the only pure view. I'm just enjoying the analysis of your scene. An additional thought is that of camera placement (Note: I'm not trying to second guess your decisions here) The manipulation of the camera can further enhance the dynamics of the scene. A lower angle looking up might amplify the lions feeling of intimidation. (The camera being set to the height of the eyes of a crouching tiger with Lara looming large above them) A high angle looking down might suggest Lara is in control of the situation. (The camera set to at least the height of Lara's eye level) An even higher angle looking down might increase the sense of Lara's isolation. (This would likely require pulling the camera back and setting the camera to a Bird's Eye View) Your imagery invites exploration and I'm enjoying the view. If your action word had been "Trapped" I'd guess she might have her back pinned against that rock wall? With your other pieces... whales, dinosaurs, etc. you are amassing quite a gallery of these scenes. I'd love to see you produce a CG comic book. With your imagery, I don't think it'd even need words! Perhaps just the occasional onomatopoeia, "grrrr..." "clickclick.""clickclick." "RRroar!"

Keeps getting better and better and better Mark! I'm liking the fur on the tigers. Very nice effect. My thought is that the tigers look a bit static. Any chance that you might pose each tiger in action? (perhaps one crounching/one jumping with paws outstretched?) The visual trick here being one of having two poses of a lion's jump captured in a still image via the anticipation of the jump and the actual jump. The viewer sees in Lara's pose her reaction and can determine for themselves the follow on to all of the combined visual activity. Sorry, I'm not explaining this very well. The idea equates to a scene of a half dozen horses galloping. Each horse's pose is essentially a different moment of a single horse's action. Separated out in the scene and adjusted for differentiation the viewer doesn't quite know what is so pleasing about those seemingly random actions. Importantly however is that each pose is a key pose in the given action. If the action is 'jumping', then one pose is captured mid jump while another might capture the anticipatory pose of that action. I believe I first saw the technique in a painting where a pack of wolves were circling their prey. The artist used the idea of animation to capture several moments in time for these circling predatory animals. This not only gave the scene a pleasing continuity but added a layer of tension as well as a sense of the missing part of the sequence (the pending action). He then colored the wolves differently and gave each a distinct personality. In a way you've all ready got this going on now. I suppose I'm suggesting the tigers poses could be further exploited and/or exaggerated? Press on! Press on! I'm obviously being pulled into your scene and it's activity.

Yes indeed. The spherical look better. Nice Mech!

Oooh. Great decision. I didn't realize they had TASK in digital format. Very nice. I highly recommend replicating the penny moving exercises in A:M. It's a great way to practice refinement of animated movement (accelerating and decelerating) over time. For me the now classic example is to create two (or more) setups with exactly the same length (i.e. the same departure and arrival) but Ease In and Ease Out to vary the (in between) travel times. If I had an infinite amount of time to experiment, it'd be fun to duplicate all (or at least most) of the exercises and example in 'The Animator's Survival Kit'. By the time I was done I'd be hard pressed not to have gained some experience with the principles of animation. Attached: Frame 12 of an animation where three circles begin and end at the same time but the the action in between is linear, eased in and zero slope. (Onion Skin effect is used to capture the 10 frames on either side of frame 12)

I say upload it! I was thinking of uploading some other basic examples to explore. (those would be more or less pre-ball bouncing) This might turn out to be something of an extension to the now classic community project "Pass the Ball". With an emphasis on how to work all that ball bouncing out.

That is looking much better. What I like about your bounce in particular is that you've got good solid contacts with the ground. I've seen that missing in a lot of bounces and quite often a frame is rendered without the contact. We see this a lot, even in slow motion film and photography and it can break the illusion of the ball bouncing on the ground. I'd guess you are familiar with Richard William's book "The Animator's Survival Kit"? He sure covers some serious ground there with that bouncing ball. What he suggests with respect to the timing (usually the key poses or contacts) and the spacing (the activity and motions and movements throughout) help define how our animation turns out. Added: If you are on/off every other month... maybe someone else can pinch hit while you are out.

Whoops. You are right. I must have had one of your older animations open for viewing.

I would suggest opting for no motion blur on these types of exercises. They can literally blur our perception of what is happening with the ball. For instance, in this case your ball appears to hit the ground off screen due to the motion blur blurring in the direction of the ball motion (down). This gives the illusion that the ball hits the ground off screen on one bounce but one screen on the latter bounce. Hope that makes sense. Thus far I've found that motion blur is better added in post once the images/frames of animation are locked down.

Nicely done Jesse! I'm a little late to the wrap party. We really must find a better way of announcing these online releases in the community! I like your stylistic choices and the timing of your cuts. Cinemagical stuff. Just when I was getting into the story, it was over. But narratively the length felt perfect. Revel in the moment... then get on back to work!

Is 'Glenn'... Glenn Anthofer?

Nancy, You rule supremely as the master of stylistic hair. If you ever make an extensive tutorial on the subject I'll buy it. In looking at your image I tried to look at the hair from the perspective of someone that didn't know anything about the CG process. From that view I couldn't figure it out and just stared... and stared... and stared. Thankfully, I do know where I could start. We are so lucky to have this stylistic capability available to us for our projects.

Just another random thought to roll into the mix... One theme that could be used to good effect is 'Advertisement'. It's a rather broad topic that can be approached with considerable variety. It'd also be practical as it would train artists and animators to focus on services and products which is something that given the skills they will be exercising might pay off for them nicely. An Ad might used to demonstrate: - Ads for Animation:Master - Ads, articles or product demos - Ads from contracted advertisements - Ads from a pro-bono or charitable projects - Ads for imaginary agencies, services or products - Ads, trailers or spotlights for forthcoming projects If too broad a theme the subject could be narrowed with a slogan or name for the project: - Bob's Hotdogs (Make a name for yourself. Pick a store or charity in your local area and help them promote a product) - Thom: The Movie (Create a short teaser trailer for an imaginary movie that one might hope given the time it take to create a real film will never get done) - Tinkering Gnome's Workshop (Images for use with a favorite website, person or special topic) etc. The underlying idea: Build some form of reality based activity into these contests. The basic theory: Once completed all entries regardless of status or placement can have a life outside the contests. Direct benefit to A:M Users: Exercise emerging skills and talent while learning to maximize quality and quantity under a deadline. Side benefit related to Hash Inc and Animation:Master: A:M is used in the planning, production and promotion of real and imagined services and products.

I just watched your example of the bouncing ball Robert. I'm sure I've seen that before but if I did it's been long enough that it's like seeing it for the first time. It's a very innovative setup and the transferring the energy to the ball in that fashion I find inspired. To my way of thinking it's a wonderfully pure example that illustrates the 'motivation' of an inanimate object over time. Now you've got me wondering about your approach. Do you recall how you planned that particular animation? Did you establish the over all duration of the shot first or then animate the ball? Did you key the contacts first? Did you work out the horizontal movement independent of the vertical (i.e. did you animate the translations separately via the timeline)? If it's not 'Robert Holmen trade secret workflow' ™... I'm curious and need to know.

Don't DO that. I read my name as the topic title and thought I was gonna get yelled at. Whew and um... You're welcome.

Keep the discussion going. More interest and ideas are flowing. If the contest is open themed couldn't it be a monthly contest? My thought here is that interest sure dies off quickly when it's not a current topic. If you don't get finished with your project by the deadline... just submit it in the next contest.

You've got a great idea starting with this exericse. More power to you. Robert's critique is perhaps the most concise I've seen with regard to bouncing a ball in Animation:Master. He has a solid foundational understanding of it. I'm of the opinion a majority of animators (hand drawn and CG) never master the bouncing ball principle and those that learn it well, often forget the lessons they've learned or fall just short of learning it's most important lessons. And yet that silly ball remains so essentially fundamental. So eternally basic. In order to properly analyze a given bounce it helps to have a conceptual beginning, middle and end. These paramaters help define and limit the scope of the exercise and suggest tools that can be used with it. Often these parameters are set by asking the basic questions of Who, What, When, Why and Where, How and To what Extent. Otherwise, we must make assume and in that act may misunderstand and misinterpret a lot of things. For instance, in the case of the classic bouncing ball we may assume the absence of almost everything. Is it just a round shape moving across the screen? We observe when it makes contact with something else and with that observation comes the interpretion of what we think we are seeing. What is the ball made out of? What was the ball doing just prior to it's appearance? Was it dropped from a fixed point in space? Was it thrown downward? What of internal and external forces? What of size and weight? How massive is it? Should we assume normal earth gravity here? Where is the ball coming from? Where is it going? Is this a perpetual/eternal energy bounce? Shot from a cannon? Tossed up into the air? Self propelled? Is the same force being applied at the beginning as in the end? Will the ball always follow the same trajectory? What of the surfaces it comes in contact with? What of atmospherics and wind? Is there a particular reason we are seeing the first frame of the bouncing ball as we are seeing it here? If the ball has a mind of it's own one could even ask, "what are the ball's intentions?" Too many questions to answer for such a simple exercise! So, perhaps the first and perhaps most important question is, what kind of ball are we bouncing? This may seem trivial but it becomes important when the object we are bouncing evolves into something else. Fundamentally, through observation of the bouncing ball we are gaining a better understanding of how objects move through time and space. It's a fund-of-mental knowledge we carry with us as we strive to master animation.

It is a reality check. A contest is a good idea. But... contests are also a recurring theme around these parts. It's also something of a lesson to be learned. Namely, if there is a freakin' A:M Contest with a prize of several thousand dollars you had best enter your stupid animation in that contest!!! (um... yeah... something like that) For what it's worth, I think the majority here thought they didn't stand a chance of winning those dollars. After all there were tons of people more talented who were sure to win it. Lost opportunity is a price we tend to pay for what we lack in (self) confidence. Gaining confidence is one of the reasons we should enter contests.

Let me tell you a funny (tragic?) story about folks who champion image/animation contests. About five years ago someone suggested we have a really big contest (the monthly contests had been slacking off and they didn't focus on animation). Said individual(s) pledged a considerable sum of money for the prize (several thousand dollars). The deadline was set somewhere beyond six months. Time passed and the deadline loomed large. Tensions rose until... finally the day came to announce the winner of the animation contest! The prize was split between the two entrants. Disclaimer: I'm recalling facts from my poor memory.. there may have been three or four entrants.

Hey now... don't be blaming me for Matt's lame-o idea!!! It's a good idea (it would however take some pre-contest setup and most likely require intermediate level experience to create). It would be nice to shake a few of the talented folks around here out from their hidey holes. We've got a lot of talent here in the community. As I mentioned, some create really awesome stuff but apparently don't care to enter contests. Hmmm... I wonder if the Hash Fellows would be up to grading (or critiquing) entries. Let's think big here. What would it take to create a contest where EVERYONE couldn't wait to enter?

If the idea can't go through a few more rounds of discussion I don't think it will have much staying power. People tend to suggest contests pretty regularly around here. I'm not suggesting having a contest by committee but if we want the contest to continue it's probably a good idea to brainstorm some ideas. I'm not a big fan of Polls (they rarely cover all the important variables) but if you itemize the variables we can poll it for the community. If you can organize a Poll you may have the makings of a contestanteer! There is another reason I suggest the polling. To keep Jason from pulling his hair out it may be possible to grade the contests via polling. How exactly would you plan, organize and grade these contests anyway? Hmmm... 'Spring Free'? Edit: In reading back through the topic (I'm trying to pull out all of the suggestions from everyone) I see that you mentioned the origin of your idea as 11 Second Club. In my response... I hadn't seen that but naturally suggested that venue. If we are primarily looking for a contest like 'The 11 Second Club' I still think we should encourage people to compete there.

Just to stir the pot some more... here are the topics of the former Monthly Image contest: (I agree something focusing on animation would be better) - Mascot - Sci Fi/Fantasy - Anything Goes - Photoreal - Mechanical - Landscapes - Architectural - Hairy - Toys For what it's worth... the Holiday theme seems to reach it's high point from October (Halloween) through February (Valentines Day) with Christmas being the peak. Toys is the obvious theme. Themes of Mechanical, Sci Fi/Fantasy, Landscape and Archetectural tend to rule during the summer months. I wonder if a contest could allow voters to place an entry into one of several categories everyone month. Some would win in the Sci Fi/Fantasy category Some would win in the Mascot/Character category Some would win in the Landscape/Achitectural category Some would win in the Special Effects/Anything Goes category Some would win in the Film/Photoreal category Some would win in the Story/Character Animation category ...and at some strategic time of the year all the winners would congregate and fight for the coveted 'Best Image' and 'Best Animation' Category. Just crazy thinking at the extreme of the extremes here. Yes, that would be a real bear to maintain. For the record, when it comes to contests we don't have a lack of people creating cool stuff. We have a lack of people submitting their cool stuff.

oh oh. That can't be good. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!