Rodney

Some might say it was inevitable: Link

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. The world needs more bird animation. *I instinctively turned the volume down on this just before pressing play (Didn't want to wake the family). Now, why would I suspect sound on one of the Tinkering Gnomes videos? Eh? Cool fluttering sound!

Looking good!

This Saturday legendary Disney animator Andreas Deja will be conducting a brief Master Lecture online at Virtual Animators. The 1 hour limitation suggests it'll be a bit brief to be much more than a survey/overview but at $25 I'd say it will be well worth the money and knowing how Andreas enjoys teaching I'm sure there will be many learning opportunities too. He has stated his plans to conduct a demonstration. There is limit seating for online attendance so if you are interested it is best to sign up sooner than later. http://www.virtualanimators.com/index.php/workshops Saturday, Oct 11, 11AM PTD And whether you attend or not... don't forget to keep up with his blog: http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/ *And* if there is a specific topic you'd like to see covered during his session with Virtual Animators Andreas has asked for input concerning topics of interest via his blog. For more on Virtual Animators check out their site: http://www.virtualanimators.com/

heh. heh. floaty 2 000.mov

...and here's that previous animation with the addition of a (basic) environment and a prop. floaty 000.mov

They're planning a party.

As a follow up to Robert's suggestion you can manipulate one single hair by turning the density down. He is correct concerning the hair guides emanating from the corners of the patch. I've often wished I could manipulate one that was in the center but it's fairly trivial to manipulate the corners to get the same effect. The sure can! I recommend treating them just like animating with key poses, breakdowns and inbetweens. Also, keep in mind that you can drive all the parameters (or most) via image maps. That perhaps more than any other method is the best way to manipulate specific areas of hair. The color scheme takes some getting use to but it's well worth investigating. Colin Freeman's online application is still operational so check that out: http://www.colins-loft.net/hairbrush.html On that same page (lower right) is a download link for the standalone PC application. It operates the same as the online app.

There are several settings that can ease the pain of particle hair. With the 'Realtime' setting we can have the actual hair really dense but tell A:M to only display a percentage of that. Setting the display mode to Shaded rather than Default can help you see (and manipulate) the Model rather than the hair. There are other settings that can help but those are the ones I'm using at this exact moment. Now as to individual tufts of grass, you could use multiple instances of the same model. And of course, then use the grooming tools and manipulate 'to camera' so that your image looks good from that vantage point. Added: I should mention that while working with Hair it is generally useful to work in low density and then when finishing up crank up the density to the appropriate level for final rendering.

Ha! I like him. I even made him a friend. *Updated attached gif animation to include some secondary animation. birdbrain0.mdl

Although I don't see the specific steam locomotive you are referring I suspect it is likely Rodger Reynold's project you refer to. The steam locomotive is but one of many models he's created. Here is more on that: http://www3.sympatico.ca/rodger.reynolds/vehicles/htm/loco_JF6.htm Of late Rodger has been working on Phillies Diner, which is a further extension of his modeling projects. That project has also branched off into his latest character modeling efforts (which is also in the Phillies Diner topic). Note that we have several forum members with variations of Roger in their name. Rodger Reynolds goes by rodger_r.

Lloyd, I know I'm off topic but... One of the best stories I've heard told of late happens to be your tale 'Woke Up Dead'. I won't say it's perfect... what is? But it's a very good tale. My suggestion would be to take a (short) sequence from 'Woke Up Dead' and treat that as if it were the most important production needing to be made. Perhaps more practically, that sequence would be used to refine the style, lighting, characters, etc. of the larger movie you hope someday will be created. While you could certainly pick from a host of sequences (there are some really nice moments in the script!) I'd say the best sequence to focus on would be where Latimer enters The Raven and first meets Edgar. Now, just that sequence between Latimer and Edgar would be enough to accomplish a lot but assuming you have good success there you could expand the project to encompass the arrival of Death. That would allow you to perfect your three primary characters, their primary setting (The Raven) and test all kind of moody lighting, texturing etc. This 'proof of concept' would also thoroughly test your styling and workflow without committing to five years plus worth of feature film production. The setting *inside The Raven* would also be much more finitely definable than that of the broader scope of settings in the story (in both the lands of the living and of the dead). Now, assuming that short sequence goes really well, you could expand the sequence to include the arrival of Cleo.... and note I'm suggesting just her arrival with perhaps only a short piece of dialogue (if any)... and that'd be a great place to end the sequence because folks would be intrigued and want to find out more about these characters, their environment and how things got to be the way they are. This would work well production-wise because you aren't introducing any new settings... the entire production being confined to the interior of The Raven. And... assuming all of this goes really really well, you could then select a few short sequences from pivotal moments in the story to flash through to tease the audience more and to really crank up the excitement level in anticipation of future endeavors. The goal of these flash scenes would actually be to define, build and refine the assets for those sequences more than actually tell much of the (longer form) story. But then... you'd have the assets available to be able to tell those parts of the tale. And assuming all of this goes well... well, you'd have a pretty decent 'Woke Up Dead' trailer. So, yeah. My suggestion would be to put your energy and focus into something of personal interest to you... something you can post publicly without giving all the juiciest stuff away... something you can entice others to contribute to... to toss feedback your way...you know... something like 'Woke Up Dead'.

No kidding. I often catch a glimpse of my younger self... the one that didn't have access to a scanner... drawing tablet... A:M... heck... not even a computer. And of course just the general level of information and experience I have now versus then... it's head shaking stuff for sure. I know for a fact time travel doesn't exist because if it did my younger self (perhaps prompted by a visit from my older self) would have long ago paid me a visit and dealt with me.

Glad it's working out for you.

I thought I should try the two null setup again and this is the results. It's a no frills (i.e. no secondary animation) rabbit run where four rabbits carry a knight off the battlefield. Other than the setup itself the only thing adjusted (animation-wise) was the rabbits ears (to differentiate them a little and to suggest direction of movement). The characters are stock (from the library). The run is stock (from the library). Only the Primary Null is 'animated' by moving it in the Z axis. Of course the fun itself would be turning such a thing into a performance... a clanging hand on the ground... a sense of heavy lifting on the faces of the rabbits... background explosions... a story being told with the characters. RabbitRun000.mov

Very nice!

A lot will depend on your layout and camera (and I'd say you want to animate such complex shots to the camera). Not knowing more about that detail I will suggest the following ala 'divide and conquer'. I would animate the major movement first. To me this is the group of four characters. This might best be accomplished by adding a Null to the scene and then constraning the four characters that will be walking to that Null. In this way wherever the Null goes... that main mass will go. As a test I set this up and it worked quite well. Where I ran into problems in overlaying additional animation on top of (generic) walk cycles. This might not be a problem if you are animating each of the characters' walks from scratch. You *could* attach an additional Null to each Walker's shoulder. In this way the carried character's appendages will be automatically animated. This was a second problem area I ran into in my test as keeping the fifth character in line with the primary action can be a chore. But that is the key (IMO). The carried character is all secondary action to the main movement (ALTHOUGH!) it's no doubt very important that that fifth character be visible in a way to bring focus toward him/her. Note that I don't really know where the focal point in the scene is... I assume the intent to be to suggest that these four are carrying the fifth to a specific location. I further assume they aren't under duress and aren't in a rush... nor are they carrying the fifth on a chair set on top of two poles. There is a lot we don't know here. Is the carried character conscious for instance? If he's dead weight that presents a different animation problem than if he's looking around or directing the other characters. The basic approach though remains much the same. Animate the main action first and then add secondary action afterward to support it. That primary action *could be* that of the fifth character but I didn't test for that. I suppose that could be mostly just a reversal of constraining to Nulls. The carried character though... his follow through from the primary action... that of moving up and down primarily... is key to selling the whole thing. Keeping all characters in readable silhouette is also a challenge and the full solution rests with the intent of the shot as it plays out in your story. The pass-throughs in the attached obviously need attention. In the attached I ended up adding a second Null that is constrained to the first which the fifth character is constrained to. In this way the main mass (four characters) can move and drag along the fifth but the fifth can move subtly moved via that second Null. I'm not saying this is the best way... and the project file may just be confusing because I smashed things together quickly and didn't delete stuff that wasn't working... but there ya go. FourManCarry.mov FourManCarry.zip

That would be most awesome. Thanks for fixing that. I was wondering where it had gone off to...

Is there a particular reason that property appeals to you or an approach that would make it an ideal community production? In other words, why 'James and the Giant Peach' as opposed to another property? Added: Unless creating an homage of sorts I don't expect gaining the rights to the property would be cheap. I'm not sure how it would work but perhaps such a thing might fall into the realm of a 'play' adaptation (link). Although note that royalties for play production outside of K-12 schools is driven by estimated ticket sales. Regarding how the film got made I find this snippet:

Is that mostly displacement?

I should have said 'leaving frames out of the sequence'. In other words, setting the step option to some other number than 1 in the Render Options. I was playing with options of Multipass and Motion Blur too but my patience level wasn't sufficient. I don't know how effective that method is as I've been running into odd behavior of other sorts. I keep thinking I've got some settings that work well only to find out they don't. Example: A:M wants to keep computing dynamics for every frame of the Chor so I set the frame range to 1 frame for the length. This seems (seemed?) to suspend the computing of dynamics but then... it didn't.

Ouch. Well, that would explain why A:M was 'locking up' on me when using small size particles. Regarding the jittering... I was experimenting with stepped rendering and in my test that helped tame that considerably. The idea being to render every five frames or so out of the sequence rather than every frame.

I'm going to guess that using 64bit A:M is preferred when using Fluids as that allows for the use of more memory?

I like that last very last one.

It's all hush hush mysterious. (Gotta get that word o' mouth round of purchasing through the online community first, then the official announcement can be made) I have to hand it to them... they do know how to raise cash while generating buzz. They've been quite good at that over the years. They got $10 from me during their last major campaign... wonder how many others did the same... After an initial look I never used the program again.