danf

Funny, I was just imagining making a ball-shaped character. You're on!

Oh, and I couldn't help myself, Here is my bouncing ball with the Ken Harris correction. I had to force some of the pre-impact frames closer than they would be (usually this is the most distant moment in the ball's arc) to get the pre-squash contact down, but I think it ends up looking better and more natural, despite this cheat. It probably helps that the curve editor grabs all the keyframes and pulls them down with it, making the first contact of an impact simply represent some of the time that the ball's squashing would occupy, (the bottom-most part of the bouncing graph is slightly under the ground, and that time still needs to be represented somehow).

That tradition and formula is pretty counter-intuitive to me- it seems odd for a ball to anticipate its own impact, although I see how that makes the motion smoother, and makes the ball more lively- heck, it's reacting to stimuli, that's one of the definitions of "alive." So what's the next difficulty setting on this? What's the next thing to work on?

I'm in love with these bias handles! Here's my first try since then- I had so much energy left over from making the bounce, I added a wall, and a little squash & stretch! What do you think???

Ahh! Show bias handles! Perfect!

Ahh... this looks like another one of those "Mac version is more difficult" situations. Unlike in the modeling mode, simply clicking on a timeline CP does not make the bias handles pop up. I've tried all the usual key combos, but I can't figure out how to make them appear, while in the video it seems you just click on them. Does anyone know how to bring up the bias handles on a mac?

That makes sense, since it would never behave this way without a prior fall, it's weird to not show that fall. And yes, I was keyframing every frame-- WHAT CURVES EDITOR??!!!! I'm suddenly suspecting this was all for nothing... I know how to see those lines in the PWS, but I don't know how to control the curves they make. Is there a tutorial for that?

I've made an updated version which includes a visual representation of the arc you are creating. Note the horizontal motion of this graph is only time, not the horizontal motion of your object.

Come to think of it, you could use this to do MOSTLY falling already, the one key is that the "S up" value (s means position, Si means initial position) still needs to be the apex of the arc. So if you knew the fall length, you could use the first term kindof like the drawstring of a bow, pull it back equal to how you want it to fall (let's say dropping from 5 to 0), you would just enter 0 for S down, and 5 for S up, enter the number of frames you want it to last, let's say 30, which is nearing the table limit (the C of R field only affects the "Next Bounce" result). The resulting numbers rise up to the apex, which you can recognize because the velocity is 0. Now if you record the (x,y) data for the frame right before the apex, enter it as your "S down" position, and change the number of frames to "1," you will have your fall with one frame before the apex, but the table auto-fills everything after the apex, as if there were no ground.

I actually have a similar story, and don't consider myself much of a math whiz. I employed a friend's help to figure this stuff out, and it is possible to learn this stuff with just basic algebra (like balancing the equation). It's all thanks to Excel that I can make open-ended equations that solve themselves. Understand it once and forget it! Oh and btw, I've now updated that link with a better version of the spreadsheet- now good for up to 40 frames from the initial ground departure. If anyone would ever prefer one that starts with the falling, I could probably conjure one up too. This isn't only good for a ball, this could be great for making any object fall realistically, as far as a vacuum is realistic.

Is Newton Physics a program, or are you referring to physics as a whole?

Well I made it so you can enter your own "C of R," or coefficient of restitution, which is the ratio of the first bounce to the second. So if you want a really barely-bouncing ball, make it low, like .05, if you want it some theoretically impossibly perfect bouncing ball, make it 1. In my example the C of R is .62, as you can see in my screenshot.

So I've made my 2nd bouncing ball attempt: http://homepage.mac.com/somniac/.Pictures/bball2.mov Of note is that the first two bounces should be perfect. That's because I made an Excel spreadsheet that applies the Equations of Motion: Download Spreadsheet By typing in the first contact coordinates, and then the coordinates of the first apex, as well as the coefficient of restitution, (as long as the x-coordinates stay positive) and the number of frames between the first contact and the first apex, it computes up to the first 20 frames (for now) and the coordinates of the 2nd apex. Now the problem: You'll notice the third bounce looks like crap! That's because although I've generated the most precise coordinates possible, A:M only allows coordinates entered to two decimal places! So despite my rounding and approximations, a low-value bounce is significantly less precise. Is there a way to access finer-tuning controls than the "Show Manipulator Properties" allows, or should I just work on a bigger scale next time? Also I'm curious if you think this is horrendous cheating and will help me none.

How do I slow an action to a halt?

Sweet, thanks!

I've made the new ending, the way I was starting to previously. On this forum, that feels like a controversial move. But having sat in with two different groups of 10 people, watching either ending, it's clear that the anonymous ending leaves the viewer feeling ever so vaguely unsatisfied, while the new ending is an unmistakable gimmick, that gets a vocal "Ahhh!" every time from new viewers. There are interesting arguments for all sorts of different endings- one I'd had in mind was the last shot is the clown giving the guy a ride in his now-crushed car. I'd call that a sweet ending, too. But this one gets a great response already, I don't want to get overly philosophical with the "message" of the cartoon, they both work, they just make the clown out as slightly different characters. Thanks for all the feedback, I've loaded up on it, unfortunately so much of it is contradictory, I've had to pick and choose. But regardless, I've appreciated the extra thoughts.

Oh yeah, I don't mean to disgrace TAO:AM, I never would've learned without it! But while it explores and teaches all the fundamental skills, I hoped to convey the workflow itself, something no single tutorial gets a chance to explore. This is meant as a supplement, since after all, it's really just a compilation of my frustrations from trying to animate, post-TAO:AM.

I was already imagining the wacky sequel that tries to explain how the Clown beat him there... Also there's a problem I've noticed with this "new" version, where it's easy to miss the "price" label on the dial because of the clown's wink... I might need to work a closeup of the dial in, to make sure the message is conveyed. Anyways, I'm going to think about this more in the morning. But overall, it seems to perfect to pass up.

You know, I'm finishing up my first animation and all, so I'm a total pro... hahaha. But I've hit hundreds of hurdles, and I've got to say there's some basic stuff that would be well to place in the TAO:AM routine. Call it my A:M wisdom to this point... call it me venting my frustrations. Either way, it's healthy for me, it's healthy for new students, so drink milk: While Lesson 1 does a good job of introducing one to the "talent" pool, and notion of a "pose," I think it fails to properly represent the workflow intrinsic to the design of A:M. When understood, the design of A:M is a beautiful thing that puts everything at your fingertips. When not understood, you backtrack, lose files, get inconsistent shots, and more! Understanding the "File -> New" submenu is a great way to grasp the workflow early. What's in this submenu? -Choreography -Model -Action -Material Notice these are ALSO all main folders in your PROJECT WORKSPACE. Grow to love your Project Workspace. It is your home. To the right, it even has the keyframe sliders you'll use to animate later (get a second monitor). Sure, make a folder to keep your project files on in your hard drive, but that hardly matters once things are in A:M. What matters, is that you have all the ingredients in your Project Workspace (PWS for short) to create your final animation! Your final animation will be renders from cameras within CHOREOGRAPHY files! CHOREOGRAPHY files are the sets, the locations, the only place in the program where you bring multiple different objects together, set up your own lights and cameras, and record them. It is very helpful, once you have designed each "set" of your movie, to right-click on that choreography file, and "Save as..." a file named something fundamental, and then "Save as..." AGAIN, as a file named after the first scene using that .cho file!!! THIS WAY you DO NOT EDIT THE ORIGINAL, AND IT REMAINS UNTAINTED WITH YOUR VARIOUS SCENES!!!! But what composes your "set"? MODELS, of course! TAO:AM goes over modeling quite nicely, but here's what else I learned: When you have your movie in mind, the models can seem like a real pain to get through, like hoops to jump through on the way to your great vision. Well GUESS WHAT? Hahahahahahahahaha, THEY ARE YOUR VISION!!! Animators in the Golden Age of Animation had to draw each character and prop anew in every frame of their movie. YOU only have to draw each one once! BUT IT HAS TO BE GOOD FROM ALL ANGLES. (Not if it's only seen from one angle of course) BUT- You OWE IT TO YOUR MODELS to give them plenty of TLC to repay them for the amount of time you're saving by only "drawing" them once. I can't speak on skeletons because I didn't create any after TAO:AM, I used stock characters! But what I can speak for is poses! Skeletons and poses are the ingredients that will bring your models to life in the .cho file. Skeletons are great because they make posing on the fly very easy, but BE WARNED!!!: Do not enter the .cho file without everything you need to get out!!! Bwahahahaha! That means you need to gear up! (Your models!) Emotionally, and in every other way they will exhibit their livelihoods on screen! So don't slack designing your poses either! Spend some time acting in the pose creator with your character. This is the time you get to design your character's range as an actor. Make sure your eyes (number of poses) are AT LEAST as big as your stomach (the final performance). While at first you might say to yourself: "My character only has like, five emotions in this movie, so I'll just make a pose for each emotion." WRONG!!! Do not confuse EMOTIONS with POSES!!! A POSE is a UNIT OF EXPRESSION. When you're creating poses, you're messing with the control points of your model! That's a pain! So get economical! Find the LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATORS of emotion! I have "Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right" on my Amazon wish list this holiday season, because my money says the author spent some time whittling this down for us. But until I get that book, I'll do my best! What do lots of emotions share? Eyebrows raised! Are they always raised together? It's a personal issue! Decide for your character, then create poses accordingly. Mouth Open! Eyelids squinted! Personally, I LOVE having a slider for EACH EYELID, and I'm talking ALL FOUR. If your character speaks, obviously you're making all the phenomes, but don't forget the building blocks of nonverbal communication, this is animation, so you're going to need each emotion to develop. It's going to be more nuanced than sliding their face from "neutral" to "surprised," although if it's a quick transition, that just might work. Also don't neglect that when building new poses, they INCORPORATE ANY ACTIVE POSES WHEN CREATED. That means once you've got all your eyelids, eyebrows, cheeks puffed, nostrils flared, smiles, frowns, scrunches and raises down, you can create new poses composed entirely of pre-existing elements! And then in the .cho? You can fine tune them. Yeah, it's awesome. Your poses are the bullets in your acting-gun. Don't go into battle without plenty of ammo. But poses aren't the only weapon in your .cho file arsenal! You also have ACTIONS!! They're like poses, but they MOVE! And they can involve poses... makes sense, don't it? I don't know how everyone else does it with A:M, but you've got two distinct ways of giving a character movement, once in a .cho file. You can either activate skeletal mode and create keyframes by hand with all the rest of the set around them, madly clicking on the wrong things and making objects invisible just to get a hand on them, or you can make action files, which you drag on the character, and that makes them move fine too. (Once you add the action to an object, it'll show up under their shortcut in that scene's .cho file in the PWS. If you want them to perform more than that action, you'll need to slide the action's box wider... I don't even know how to explain what I'm saying. I'm guessing everyone has to start a thread about this to learn it. Don't be afraid to start a thread on the forum, they're nice people.) There are advantages and disadvantages to either method. Typically, I do everything I can as Action files, especially if it's anything I'll use twice. Lots of the time you'll need to do some tuning in the .cho file. This is healthy and normal. None of your objects are in a vacuum, after all, right? Unless they are. Isn't this a beautiful art form? You can really go anywhere. I also have a strong feeling that I need to spend more time making my environments, but don't ask me how to do that!!! They add a lot to a project! No wonder the studios have... studios of people!!! In case you haven't considered this very basic fact: You're entering the world of animation. This is a hundred something year old tradition (http://www.hash.com/ftp/VM/Hx_animation/hx_anim.html). It's been mastered in the past, and people know crap when they see it. So if you're going to breathe life into some lines of code, you might as well do it convincingly. I found "The Animator's Survival Guide" by Richard Williams to be PRICELESS. Also, listen to the "Splinecast" podcast. It's a free series of interviews you can find in the iTunes music store, composed almost entirely of professional animators working at Pixar, talking shop. A great way to learn while in the car. It will give you a feel for the tradition you are continuing when you set out to create the "Illusion of Life" (another book that everyone recommends, which I haven't read far enough into yet to understand why). Well, I hope this helps someone someday, it's been fun to write. Just remember, each step of your animation is composed of ingredients. And each ingredient is a mix of ingredients. As long as you mix the ingredients with care at each step, your final cake will be a real pie.

I have both a mouse and a tablet, and understand where both sides are coming from- the wrist argument actually depends largely on the size of your tablet!!! Everyone rushes to pay the big bucks for an Intuos3 or something, while a major draw of the pen is its ergonomic method, and this huge tablet actually makes them move their wrists more!!! I have a Wacom Bamboo, the most basic one, and it's great... FOR WHAT IT DOES. In most cases, I don't use it in A:M at all. A tablet is useful for creating things you'd create better by hand, on a piece of paper. That can totally have to do with texture maps, or elements that are supposed to be hand written, or character design. But if you're looking to increase your animation workflow within A:M, go with robcat's advice, get the second monitor. I have an iMac Core2Duo, just like you. And it does indeed support an external monitor, although you might have to dig the adapter out of your iMac box. It absolutely does increase your human workflow more than any other ingredient. I too have always had the render problems, but am excited to hear your "hide it then unhide it" workaround, and can't wait to try it out! Usually when it's time for me to render, I save, click render, and when I can't rename the file or pick where to save it, or click anything anymore, I force quit, restart the program, and then render with no problems. If you're right, you just saved me hours off my next project. A:M for mac may not be rock-solid, but it's light as a feather, and I've never minded rebooting the app when things go awry. And yeah, render times are a huge chore. Do them overnight. I hear each light is a multiplier to render time, and textures and roughness can add a lot too. That's about all I know on the subject! Good luck!

Little preview for y'all on the forum. I'll record the chuckle @ my friend's studio on monday, hopefully have the new vid up on tuesday. I'm so glad I shared, I knew the ending had a bigger punch somewhere, but I couldn't see the forest for all the animation

I'm doing it. This feels so crazy!!!

WOW!! Such great feedback!!! Rodney- Seriously, I GOING TO DO THAT. I struggled a lot with the ending, and one common theme me, my girlfriend, and a buddy had was "someone could be controlling the price." But that never struck me as perfect. Combined with your advice? PERFECT ENDING. I wish I hadn't posted it on YouTube yet!!! I don't care, this is short film 2.0 for all I care. The car pulling around was actually a remake of one of my first shots, but it was my second to last hand-rendered shot, so that's a really good guess, although the rearing warp was an action I made near the beginning. The getting into the car shot LOOKS good from this angle, because I was so frustrated with it. There's basically a keyframe on every frame of that, and the location of his arm is not consistent at all. That's what gives it a stop-motion animation quality- there's a lot of inconsistency under the surface, but that amount of attention to a single motion paid off in an unexpected way. That shot drove me crazy, but it wasn't the last... The last one was actually the shot where he has the nozzle in his hand, ready to pump, and turns around slowly. That was my big chance to make up for how unrealistic his other two step turn-around was, and I think I conveyed a lot more weight in it. And PF Mark- I'm interested in your proposition... I'm curious what ways you need help doing, and how you'd go about training me. Feel free to email me for a more personal conversation, danielfinlay @t me d0t com.

Oh, bonus points to anyone who can guess what the last shot I animated was. My skills certainly improved over the course of the project, so I am very aware of at least how much better the last shot I animated was.

There's 2.5 months of work, INCLUDING learning A:M! I set out working on this before I knew a lot of the basics, and got people relying on me to finish it (like a sound effects crew who were using it as their final project for school), so I had to drive ahead rather than learn some parts. While I'd nailed the TAO:AM, I knew little of character animation, or the many advanced features of this diamond-in-the-rough of a software package. Thanks to this forum, I was able to gather as much knowledge as I needed along the way. I've learned there are very deep levels that one can learn to animate characters on, and I had to rush over them to finish this. In other words, I have a lot of bouncing balls to animate now. I never would've learned a single thing without all the wonderful help of this forum, but more importantly, I'd like to thank you for all the help I know you'll give me in the future as I improve. Making this movie has been a huge learning experience, and a real blast. So that aside, I'd love your feedback, I don't mind hearing you point out technical shortcomings, that's what this forum is for, learning. I'll be interested to see if you notice anything I haven't banged my head against the wall about already . If you'd like, I could try to compile full credits based on who answered my questions, but the list would be long. Feel free to gloat in this thread if you'd like to. I think the helpers know who they are, and have been happy just to help. This is an amazing place, this is amazing software, I feel so lucky to live in a time where the internet can allow us to educate each other regardless of space or simultaneity. I teach a digital video class to kids, and some of my students have been getting into hand-drawn animation. When I show them this, if they get excited, I'll be sure to recommend Animation: Master, for its ease of use, versatility, and of course, community. I could gush all night but seriously I'm tired now, so good night, thank you all so much for this thrilling ride, I can't wait to continue it soon. -Daniel Finlay