Rodney

Welcome Erst! From your site I'd say you are a natural for A:M. I hope your find A:M enjoyable. If I'm not misunderstanding the information on your website. Look out future... we are here. Petri, I've already welcomed you... but officially... welcome again!

With one day left I'd say you are right on time!

I can see where the final rendering would be problematic. Is it unthinkable that a realtime (or fairly close) solution might be possible? Perhaps something related to HAMR? If 80% of the problem is rendering... it might be worth looking into.

You are getting good at this. I know the focus is on facial motion capture and you need to be zoomed in fairly close to see the results of that but I'd love to see these character tests with a bit more of them in the frame. Heck... I'd love to see more of Ernie period! These tests make me think you should play up the newscaster bit even more. Show how ZignTrack deliver not just the message but fits into the whole polished sequence. Those guys and gals seem to do little arm and hand movement anyway except to shuffle papers right? To ease the setup of such a thing perhaps his hands could be constrained to a desktop or something. Assuming Ernie has hands that is. Your tests are enjoyable enough that I wouldn't mind watching Ernie report the news on a daily basis. Tell him when his contract expires with ZignTrack he should pitch his show to the networks. I guess this is the long winded way of saying I like your work. ZignTrack looks like a lot of fun and you have demonstrated it really works! Keep up the great work.

You are going to find a lot of agreement that you've found an optimized spline layout for these characters. I'm looking for troublesome areas and... I sure don't see any. You've redefined the phrase 'economy of splines' for me in the wireframe images you've posted. Another plus (I assume) is that your models aren't 'unibody'. This style of modeling has been of interest to me of late. Can you clarify? Are the arms and legs attached to the body? Are they separate meshes? This effort deserves to be seen in fully animated form... so stick with it. Please! They are indeed practical and efficient from what I can see. The final proof however is in the animating.

Thanks for that Dusan. Not only for the update and imagery of 'Chicory and Coffee' but for the presentation in the GIF format. (I've missed that format) I can't wait to see your project but take your time. I know the wait will be well worth it.

Not at the moment as far as I know. Perhaps Hash Inc will consider that option in the future.

The majority of podcasts I have seen don't tend to distinguish very much between traditional and 3D animation. There are a considerable number of -animation- podcasts out there. My harddrive is getting full of larger files like these. Its creating something of a problem. Its a good problem though! I'm going to have to start burning these resources to DVD or invest in one of those terrabyte harddrives. A good starting place (titled fittingly enough) is: http://animationpodcast.com/ Many of those interviewed have transitioned from 2D to 3D quite successfully. Those are all MP3 audio. In the video category Frames Per Second Magazine (FPS Magazine) hosts some mostly traditional animation reviews: http://www.fpsmagazine.com/podcast/index.php I think our own Zachary BG still has his podcasts online. Those of course are some of the free ones. I'm still quite disorganized on my end. If I find any podcasts that are specifically 3D I'll let you know.

Hey... those aren't my poses. They are 100% Jirard! I just appropriated them from his earlier posts. If you haven't seen those discussions and his WIPs you should check them out: Link to: Every single topic Jirard has ever started!

I just wanted to say that is a great (classic style) Iron Man. Very nice!

I went to the site but got confused quickly... I never saw your entry. When my kids pressed me to move on to other interests I moved on. So, I guess this is something of a critique. Where possible add a direct link in your post. That will help others find your work. Sorry. You're characters do look very interesting! Edit: I do thank you for the image with directions but at the time it wasn't enough.

Thanks Yves. You've given us a lot to think about.

Re: Your new images. SWEET!

Very astute Yves. I do have a few questions though about the underlying premise. I would like to hear your opinion further. Your thought was: In the case of 'Peanuts' this seems to fit perfectly but I wonder if its all that simple. 'Peanuts' has been welcomed in a variety of media including limited animation (TV and Video) with the same popular appeal very much intact. Perhaps their appeal is in the repetition of similar patterns itself? Perhaps it was the exception to the rule and escaped the medium? At first I thought Jirard's characters were going to suffer from having too many similarities. I set out to show that. The third page of my piddly e-critique is an attempt to identify how little change exists from one character to another. The closer I looked though the more I found I had to abandon that way of thinking. The similarities seemed to have some intrisic drawing power. Are there other precedences for 'same height and porportion' outside of newspaper comic strips out there? They certainly do seem more prevalent there. Think 'Family Circle' there. The closest I can think of at the moment in animation might be 'Rugrats'. I can think entire worlds of examples in limited animation. Think Hanna Barbera! This case though is a little different if you examine each show. Accross the board however on the larger scale the similarities are apparent. There seems to be some design principle at work here; 'keep things as similar as possible in a design so differences become all the more appealing' or something along these lines of thinking. Think Snoopy and Woodstock compared to the rest of the Peanuts gang! I'm confident they are classified as the most endearing of the characters. The design seems to work toward (or at least complement) this purpose. Trying to think of an example in 3D I asked myself, "Has Pixar ever used this design tactic?" I immediately thought of 'For the Boids'. I think its a pretty good example of the principle in 3D. In there short they play up the 'Odd one Out' theme. I think you are on to something here Yves but I'm not sure if it is wholely constrained to a medium. I do find it facinating. Your thoughts?

...and the crowd all chants together... WIREFRAME PLEASE! You are amazing Xtas. Someone needs to keep Stian on his toes. Looking forward to it!

I agree with everyone up to a point here concerning modifying the design of your characters. There is one major precedence set that tells me you should trust your instinct, stay on track and keep on going as you are. Think 'Charlie Brown'. Its possible that in not seeing your characters interacting together we are seeing them largely out of context. As you apparently have been creating an entire world of differently sized characters the design suggestions may not be as valid over all. Some similarity can work to your advantage. The similarities suggest to us these kids are all part of a team. I do agree that little changes can make a big difference. Changes in height alone would suggest interesting possibilities. For instance, it would automatically suggest age difference between the kids. That is something the current renderings don't seem to have. I've attached a wordless piddly e-critique exploring a few possibilities. Apologies if I've taken too many liberties with your work. Keep it up. This is great stuff! TheKids.pdf

That should get an award as the most beneficial modification of Thom we've seen in a very long time. Usually Thom just gets battered, bruised and blown up! Great acting Thom! (Watch how they snub him at the Emmys again this year) Seriously though, nice modification.

Its become something of a holiday tradition around here to watch that every year.

Correction. "Nothing says "Christmas" like a wannabe pirate who is pretending he is missing an eye." Keep up with the story!

I think the websubscription installer doesn't add them in automatically. Look in your v14 folder (or previous version) and you should find them there. As you state they are easy to create but can be nice to save away for a rainy day... especially those you've customized extensively. I always thought the Presets would be a great thing to share with one another but there's been little interest in that. Nowdays its probably more likely we would share Camera files that store those presets instead? I dunno.

Tell me about it. There is nothing like the dreaded deadline doom to get us motivated. But really... This works in another context too. I'm always interested in the learning process. I want to learn all there is to learn. That you managed to get this production packaged and presented in time for Christmas is quite a feat too. Congratulations.

Lighting makes a huge difference. Lighting has always been an essential element of animation. 2D... 3D... its still just as important. It permeates a work. Don Bluth lists Lighting as one of his 'Seven categories to Consider' in making any animated film. The list includes: - Character - Setting - Layout - Action - Pace - Lighting - Message All of these elements should be considered and work in concert to focus the eye on what is most important. Lighting is all about focus but it also establishes mood and tone. A:M has lightyears worth of lighting features to explore. Keep things as simple as possible as you go. Keep focused! A search on Lighting here in the forum will turn up excellent discussions on ways to approach the subject from A:M. There are also many scenes and projects on the Extra DVD to explore. The first image you posted is there to investigate.

Very nice! Your character in his first Christmas special. A Jolly good show. If I may ask... how long from concept to creation did this take?

Aha! We might as well have the final raffle now then? The big fish is hooked! Nah... 7 days and counting... tick... tick... tick...

Looks like its time to announce the prize. The winner of the third raffle will recieve a DVD (either the Modeling, Rigging or Animation DVD) from Barry Zundle's A:M training course; a $60 value. While I would recommend the Animation DVD to anyone just starting out the choice is completely up to the winner. Want to do some rigging? Need to do some Modeling? Into Animation? Any one of Barry's DVDs is well worth the winning. Should the winner already own all of Barry's DVDs an alternate prize will be awarded. Good luck, and thanks for hanging out with us here in the Newbies forum.