apprentice

Happy birthday, Rodney!

This is looking really good. Um...I actually like the old "real" bus sign better.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Martin!

Whoa! Wow! I'm speechless. I have no speech.

Okay, fixed the things according to your suggestions. I made one of his foot tripped on the window. Made him fall faster. Made his right foot not slide forward as he got up. I also noticed that his hand and knee were intersecting in some frames so I fixed those too. Lesson learned: Touch up and polish takes up considerable time. I think it looks better. Thanks for the great tips! Knight_Falls_06_09_Hash.mov

Thank you. Yeah, I've fixed the jump float. I want to add some objects that the knight will hit as he falls. Any suggestion what object will fly in the air. A shield is too heavy isn't it? Is there a light shield?

Oh ok, I see it now. I will try to fix it. Thanks guys for the input. You're the best! I'm making his foot stuck on the window now.

Love the style! Fantastic!

I found AM on 64bit Win 7 with 3GB RAM very snappy. Snappier than the 32bit version. I think it's because 64bit handles memory better so make sure you get lots of RAM.

Good idea!, that would've made it funnier. I had to key the bicep/forearm/hands on every frames when they're supposed to be holding onto something so it's seems very complicated to change poses. If I move the torso, the hands will change their position. I could export the present chor action into action and add new animation to it in a new chor. I didn't have much luck combining the action and new chor for this project though. I'm sure I could do that with older AM. Maybe it's just this project file being weird or me. Hey thanks! Oh yeah? I wanted a clank sound too. I banged my pots and pans but I couldn't make them sound good (maybe it's because he fell on a wooden bench so it didn't really fit). So I settled with wood thunk and added some reverb in Vegas. Here it comes... You got that right, Robert. I noticed that one too. Here's the long story. I didn't animate the knight anticipation before he jumped, thinking that I could do that later. I was concern about animating the crawling and turning. The original plan was the knight would place one of his foot on the window, look around, then jump. As I animated, I created alot of keys just to keep the hands in place (FK). When I tried to shift the timing and add the anticipation animation, everything just fell apart. I suspected it could be caused by a model bone or some other bones I wasn't aware of. So without the anticipation, the knight just zipped through and the audience would miss the fall. So I had to settle with the little hold as he fell. I could only think of making a new chor for the anticipation and stitch two renders in post. Hm, but he's pushing himself backward though. I think yours is when you're pushing yourself forward or staying in place, right? Originally, I had the knight also slided his right foot backward as he put his hands on his waist but it didn't look good to me. I think it's because his legs looked thin from that particular view.

Hey, thanks Holmes! I learned from you, guys! Animating this with FK was really painful but it's a good experience. W&F animation? Oh yeah, that would be nice. I've got to think something really simple though.

That's a fun animation! The render looks really smooth. Good job!

Animation practice. Lesson learned: must use IK when hands are interacting with other objects. Let me know what you think Knight_Falls_Hash.mov

Happy Birthday, David!