Raffi
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Posts posted by Raffi
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Hi Tunames, hi all,
here the monkey is a bit further up on the fireplace screen: (EDIT ... this shot has already been overwritten ... see last posting for current one ...)
- I had to move the owl a bit further to the its right.
- I am not sure yet about the way the camera goes; maybe it should stay in front of the screen, but then the monkey's back hides his climbing up the screen.
Open for comments ...
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Hi Roger,
what came to my mind while watching this take:
* When saying "us", the bear curls his "fingers". This gesture looks like "Come here!". Maybe you try something like pointing with one thumb to himself?
* The pointing gesture with hand and head when saying "Woot" seems a bit short and abrupt, especially the head.
Just a question because I don't know the scene: Whom is the bear looking up to?
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Hi Jberry,
first of all: I like the shot!
But for me the bear's punch should be on the syllable "for" of fortitude, because the speaker emphasizes this very much. The puch at the end of the word seems too late for me.
And maybe the left arm could have a short holding position somewhere instead of permanently moving around (not sure about my feelings on this).
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Are you gonna have him climb on up and sit on top of the screen? Thats where I envision him so we can use some hand gestures while he is speaking
Yes, he will definitely climb up! I did it that way because I had the feeling that the screen is too high for such a little monkey to jump on top in one go. Hopefully he will sit on top today or tomorrow evening
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Here is my next try: (EDIT ... this shot has already been overwritten ... see last posting for current one ...)
I did it now without transition between run and jump. Directly put the actions after each other; last frame action 1 = first frame action 2. This gives better control over what actually happens.
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Hi Caroline,
the first thing that came to my mind was: In the side view, where Woot shortly glances sideways and back, there is missing a follwing, longer look at whatever he has seen there and what startles him! It's a first look by coincidence and back, then realizing in mind there was something and looking back in astonishment! And only after that close look he looks back to TW to point him to the thing.
BTW: What or better who is it that Woot shall ignore?
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Finally updated with This Movie (3.6mb)
Hi Caroline, I could not open that file. Are you sure the path is correct? But maybe that server really is down currently ...
EDIT: It worked now!
... as I've had some weird things happening, such as the Chor actions renaming themselves from one version to another.That's really weird! I have that, too. And was also wondering what the reson is. If I make a choreo action "abc" then it becomes "abc1" after saving. Sometimes it changes to "abc2" after some more savings. Strange, but the actions still worked.
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If that's what you get with the tail, it'll need abit of work. But maybe a rigger will see if we can get it better.
I'll have to check whether some tail movements that I have incorporated into the run action disturb the tail animation. I'll probably have to make sure that there aren't both ways of tail animation at the same time, manual and automatic.
I don't think you can influence the interpolation method between actions. I'd be interested in hearing what you're trying to achieve.Well, I made the walk action end with the monkey crouching. The next action starts with the monkey shortly before liftoff. Inbetween I wanted AM to interpolate the straightening up of the monkey. But the hip goes in an arc, not straight, which is inadequate for a jump. I'd like to have the hip linearly interpolated.
Futhermore I would like to put an inbetween pose into the action transition, but I think that is not possible, is it?
On the animation, I think the jump needs (more?) anticipation. It's a big jump. Also, pull his arms back during it.Yeah, the jump isn't good. But you must remember that it happens directly out of a run, so there is fewer anticipation than with a jump out of stand, because the energy for the jump is taken out of the speed. But still you are right: More anticipation is needed!
Edit: A tip!: On the camera pan when he jumps, have it lag a few frames behind. It's like the "cameraman" isn't expecting it and makes it feel more natural.Cool idea!
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Script:
GREEN MONKEY: "Just as—what—what are you talking about!"
GREEN MONKEY leaps up onto the FIREPLACE SCREEN with TIN OWL.
Here is a first scetch of the shot: (EDIT ... this shot has already been overwritten ... see last posting for current one ...)
Remarks:
* The transition between running and jumping is still quite bad.
* I thought the fireplace screen is quite high so that the monkey would not make it in one single jump. He manages to grab the edge and then swings up (still to come).
Questions on scene:
* Is the monkey meant to talk while running? Or only when he sits next to the owl? I guess he talks to the owl, doesn't he?
* Will the tail_dynamic_enforcement, which produces and automatic tail movement, do the whole work of moving the tail? Will it do it well enough so that I can neglect the tail? In my eyes it does not look very good.
Question on technique:
* Can I influence an action transition in the sense of interpolation method?
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So you need to:
1. Speed up the cycle or start it in a different frame position.
or 2. Start in a different position
or 3. End in a different position.
Is that what you mean?
Yes, sure, kind of this. But in my opinion the solution cannot be to change the length of the path or the cycle length or the start/end ease factor or all of this as long until it fits. This is like gambling, getting the desired result by coincidence. I am looking for a better method, if there is any. If not, I'll have to live with that 'gambling approach'.
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Hi Ken,
thanks for your patience, but I guess I have a slightly different problem than your solutuion. Or I just don't understand it right. Let's see ...
- My monkey's walk cycle has the crouching position as part of it, because my monkey runs using his 4 limbs.
- Out of this crouching postion I would like to go over to a jump.
- Therefore I want the monkey to be in this crouching position (as part of the walk cycle) let's say 2 meters in front of the fire protector.
So I set up a path and made the monkey run along it. But at the end (ease = 100%), he is not in the crouching pose, but in a flying pose (which is half a second earlier in the cycle). Let's say at ease=84% he happens to be in the crouching position. But there he is too far away from the fire protector for the jump. So I push the path closer to the fire protector. But then the path begins at the wrong position in the choreo. So I make the path longer at the beginning by changing its starting CP. But then all the walk cycle timing along the path changes because the path is longer now and I am where I was in the beginning.
Blending one action into the other is not my problem! Making the first action end at the wanted time, place and pose(!) for a good transition to action 2 is my problem.
Do I see or make it too complicated?
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Draw your path spline up to the point at which you want him crouching. Then you can just ease the walk cycle on the path to 100%.
But that is the big problem ... at 100% ease the walk cycle may be anywhere but the crouching position! Depending on how many complete walk cycles plus in the end one partial walk cycle it needs to cover the length of the path. How much of this last walk cycle you need to completely cover the path determines the last pose at the end of the path.
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Imagine the following:
- You have an actor walking along a path (using a path constraint)
- You have a walk cycle put on the actor
Now you need the actor to be at a certain time at a certain place in a certain pose of the walk cycle. The reason for this is that one action goes over into a second one (walk to run, walk to stop, run to jump ...) and you need a clear transition pose where the walk action shall end and the next action starts.
Concrete example: The monkey runs to the fire protector (2_11_04) and at a certain distance in front of it I want to have it in a crouching position for the jump up the fire protector.
How do you accomplish that? There are so many parameters to play around with (length of path, end point of path, ease of path constraint, cycle length of walk action). Do you just play around with these till it works? Which parameters do you twist then? Or is there a method to determine/calculate this? Or even a better method how to approach the problem in general?
Thanks for your help!
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You can find them on the SVN at Shared Data\Actions\LoonActions_PF.
Just to remind: Each actor under the models folder has a seperate action subfolder for their special actions.
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Thanks, Ken, for sharing your thoughts!
Good work overall. How on earth does SC get up so high?!?! I won't ask.
This you have to ask the person who set up the scene
Could that be you? In the second one, woot stops dead for half the clip ...Yes, you are right. I am not yet finished. I tune the least important person in this scene last. Making SC and TW quite right was my main task so far. But thanks for reminding me.
... and shouldn't they be walking and chopping??Well, this is how I read the script: They should be walking and chopping some scenes before. Then they find SC's hat and stop, wondering. Then in 2_02_47, you see SC flying back to earth, in 2_02_48 Woot and TW stand startled and hear SC's "Aaaaaah" scream. And in 2_02_49 SC suddenly drops out of nothing in front of their noses.
TW is looking up yet he gets a fright when SC comes down.Ok, TW's body language seems not yet good enough. I wanted TW to be standing around, wondering what might come next. He actually does not look in the direction where SC will drop. He stands there, listening. He raises his head and his eyes in a manner how people do it when thinking. He does not really look at a certain place, he is thinking and listening. His head and eyes are turned away from the direction where SC will come down.
Do you have an idea how I could better convey this?
Also, SC would be screaming as in the first clip......so, maybe include that sound? But then if you do, the other's definitely won't get a fright.You are right, but as the scream can be heard from 2_02_47 till probably 2_02_49, the final movie cut would have to insert a continous scream instead of the same (newly starting) scream in every scene. But I could insert it to better convey this scene. Will the sound be exchanged in the final cut?
But still I think the others will get a fright! Imagin, you hear something, you can't see it, you stand there, listening, concentrating, trying to find out what is going on. And suddenly something drops right before your eyes. You will get a big fright being torn out of your concentration like this!
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Hi Yves,
that looks nice. One can see her frustration! But I have one thing that bothered me about the shot: The witch's last hand/arm movement starting with fists in front of her chest (about middle of the shot) until the end. When she brings down her fists in rage, it looks like a curve to the front and back, as if she was pushing herself off with ski sticks! I think her forearms should go down fast without moving (much) forward.
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Hi together,
I again have some questions about a new scene.
2_02_49: TIN WOODMAN and WOOT look around, startled. SCARECROW drops down in front of them. TIN WOODMAN: "Quit playing around!"
1) The scene was set up for 30 fps. I guess this is a mistake and setting it to 24 fps is okay?
2) When I activate the forest landscape, then the scene is hidden behind trunks and twigs. Am I supposed to change the forest positioning, the camera or the forest itself?
3) SC has been thrown into the air before this scene and now comes down again. When being thrown up, he loses his hat, so here (as well as in 2_02_47, also my scene) he should not wear a hat. But he does. Shall I take some different SC model? Or make one by myself?
Thanks!
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I couldn't see keyframes for the blinks so I thought they weren't working.
The blinks within that folder where modelled as (reusable) action which I put into folder "shared data/actions". Presumably you have not synced it lately and therefore didn't have the action in the project. But don't worry ... with your tip I could fix my project and put it back into SVN. Thanks again!
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Yes. But if you have REPLACE then the action higher up the list will replace the ones in the lower one.
Wow! I have learned something important today ... not the last actions (as I had thought) but the first ones in the list have highest priority! Thanks Ken for taking a look and for explaining. You really helped me a lot!
BTW: The folder "blinks" contained all of SC's blinks
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You have so many actions on SC that they're all competing and over riding each other....
Ok, I understand what you are saying. But I thought, if there is an action with mode REPLACE it replaces all the competing actions! Even those with mode ADD. Isn't that correct?
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And has anybody worked with it so I can take a look at their constraints?
Hi Caroline,
I had a scene with a loon holding a thorn (2_3_??) and Woot holding the same thorn (2_3_99). In both scenes I constrained the thorn's bone to Woot's hand bone. First a Translate-To constraint (with Offset-mode turned on) and then an Orient-like constraint (also with Offset-mode turned on). Worked very well for me!
2_11_04 Green monkey leaps up fireplace screen
in TWO Animating
Posted
Hi together,
I had to redesign the scene a bit regarding the camera path and the way monkey gets up to the fireplace screen in order to have him finally sitting next to tin owl. Furthermore I gave tin owl some first movements.
What is still missing:
* Some more fine tuning on monkey's jump
* Fine tuning on monkey's straightening up and sitting down on fireplace screen
* Correcting some frames where hands and/or feet go through screen
* More movements on tin owl
* Body language on monkey while talking
(oh man, I thought there was less to do
... maybe I was too quick in setting the scene's progress in dotProject to 60% 
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new scene >>> (EDIT ... this shot has already been overwritten ... see last posting for current one ...)
Questions:
- Is it okay to move the camera path from monkey's right side to the left side? Only this way I can have everything important in sight during the whole scene.
- I don't like the turbulent background behind the fireplace screen; expecially the table and chairs very much distract from the two actors on the fireplace screen. Is there a way to get rid of them? I tried other camera angles, but there are always disturbing objects in the background.