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Dearmad

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Everything posted by Dearmad

  1. Rats and here I was about to mention the channel window and all... <shudders>
  2. That leap shot is vey vey nice... yes... vey vey nice.
  3. I *love* this stuff. She kicks ass- I think I have a crush on her. My only two crits: His initial grab motion- reads a little slow to me. Seems like he could hit the grab on the same frame but start his motion to grab her about 3 frames later (assuming 24fps). Maybe even 4 with a strong overshoot (his hand) once he's got the grip. So it's really quick but with that strong initial pose and (again) a strong overshoot. Then his body begins the whip motion he does (like you have already- which, BTW is GREAT) and his hand pulls her that much harder from where it's at: a little further away from where he grabbed her. Does that make sense? Other one: I'm not sure how she gets him to let go. Possible confusing issues: the camera makes a large move as she's doing something to the guy. I get that she IS going to do something, BTW (brilliant use of her eyes to telegraph that and let the viewer know something's up), but then I lose focus. Oh and a personal wish: Can my sweety lower her left foot in the kick? Oh... about 6 inches lower...? Heh. Ok, I'm sad, I know it.
  4. Scott, I see the moment where it goes wrong now- it's totally clear. Consider it fixed... Breaks over- dagnabit. But I have a *very* odd schedule this coming term: preinternship, final clinical rotation (minor stuff), and studying for comprehensive exams... It's entirely conceivable I could continue to animate a bit as I go through this term... The end is just coming into site enough that I get anxious now and want to finish!
  5. The clip. Most crits acted on. One little detail hard to see in quick renders like this is the lighting- the right headlight goes out after a little flicker. Well, *I* liked that little details- right as the cat looks at the car. Stuff still needed: Cat head dip when he returns to looking up while walking forward; possible slight repositioning of Ravel and how he's looking around the canopy. Maybe add some more "bounce" to the ambulance when it hits. Anyway, moving on to the next shots. My crit notebook remains open, however. While I'm moving on, when I go back over the whole film before final renders, I WILL be going through the crit notebook and working out any last things. DiVX- 400x224 size. 0803c_divx.zip
  6. Scott, Funny thing is, Ravel solved how to get out of the ambulance himself. See, the actor is too short to even see over the canopy top if he was standing on his tiptoes. This is a short man. Also, his initial concern is for the cat who caused the accident. There's more to this sequence than this one brief shot- it's a whole build up where the cat is the focus and clearly the cause of the problem. I understand your concern for wanting to know the state of the character- injured/not? There's narration over this portion, and a previus long sequence of near-accidents he gets into again and again and again on this stretch of road. The narration indicates he was always OK after the accident and so was his ambulance... and that in fact for him there's an encounter coming up that he's talking about as the important detail he remembers of this night. -shrug- maybe the wider context will make that a non-issue when it's all put together. Zach, Yep. Hands weren't locked down at all at that point- that was just a rough sketch of the shot to ensure things were about where I wanted them. Next post will have the latest version. Thanks very much for the compliment. Wow. And as for TWO, I will certainly be updating AM versions, refamiliarizing myself with it, and then wanting to do something for TWO once finished with BPMF. Here are some stills from this shot. Next post the updated animation.
  7. Thanks guys. Crits noted. I've made some changes to the camera (good call), with it reacting faster it seems more kinetic. Added a quick bone to the canopy and have it reacting with a little lag to the body. Hard to see in the 60 frames or so it gets, but maybe the "gestalt" of it will mean improvement. Made a few changes to the ambulance timing, but... I'm still looking at it. Thanks again- as usual, the crits are spot on and helpful! Paul: 'twould be nice if 2006 is theyear. I'm about to finish section 8 tomorrow that leaves 9-12. The finish will happen, oh yes it will... sometime.
  8. Weightless, hm? Interesting. I tried for heavy looking. Maybe with the street part put back in (I removed it for quicker render time), it'll look more "grounded." When I finish up the scene, I'll repost it, if I tweak that part at all.
  9. I love it when I get a break from school, 'cause then I get to ANIMATE! I've moved ahead completing 2 scenes (about 11 seconds of footage). Here's the latest 17 seconds worth that I'm still working on. I think I'll be able to finish section 8 by the time brak is over! Then there will be only 4 more to do! For those who are curious, this scene is pretty much blocked out timing wise, and needs cleanup now, along with final detail animation (eyes looking, blinking, small things like that), and then the camera jitters added to the last bit. I call this scene: "A typical damned cat!" This bit wasn't storyboarded like this at all, but as I animated it, it sorta hit me exactly what the cat was gonna do. The scene to this point took about 6 hours of work. It's in the DiVX codec. 0803divx.zip
  10. LOL. Yeah... that is a good one. Makes me wonder what was supposed to happen though...
  11. I can't believe it's been a YEAR already since the last one you guys did! THANKS AGAIN for sharing! I love your stuff...
  12. Nice nice nice nice nice stuff... funny I saw the angle between the patches and just though hook- but yeah it's pretty obivous a 4-point now that I LOOK at it. :o/ Thanks for the top view too.
  13. Wow. That is an INTERESTING mesh. Are those two hooks at the finger tips? Obviously it reads OK in rendering, but that mesh would fall apart for me in 8.5. I wonder if the latest versions are subdividing better. Fascinating mesh though. Can we see the top of it?
  14. Heh. Uh... That's gotta be about one of the dumbest mistakes I've made since I'm so anal about lighting. I left the practical light that goes through the glass at 200 intensity(!)... -sigh- Thanks Ken. Colors are not blown out into white anymore...
  15. Nancy, Sure- anytime I have the time I'm happy to share. Scott, Ok, here's an updated still with the changes. I think it's much better. Thanks, and respond to my PM.
  16. Nice overall shape. An interesting little... device? One thought- if I were making that, and the egg is going to do anything, I would probably make the egg seperate from the machine part...
  17. Scott, PM'ed you with an image. Let me know. Nancy, Her scarf is handled mostly by the 8.5 cloth feature- but the settings change for every shot depending on what I need it to do- sometimes the settings are dramatically different. Also, in nearly every shot I'll add a force to help manipulate the cloth further in the manner I want it to move. Once that's done, I double check the collision interaction (visually) and then will manipulate the channel data to fix any problematic collisions I can't fix through the simulation- this is rare, but coincidentally I had to do it for this last shot). It usually takes about half a day to set up and get right. Her skirt: While I eventually came up with a very simple solution to how I wanted it rigged, it took a lot of experimenting and pulled hair to arrive there. Basically I rigged it as if it was controlled by her two legs, but then there's an intermediary bone in the center which orients as an intermediary (within certain spherical limits) to the outer calf bones to smooth the center of the skirt. Since I designed her so that her feet are never seen, this simple solution works perfectly adequately because her feet never to lift from the floor (much). In addition, when I designed her dress, I added little sleevelets (whatever they're called) to enhance secondary motion at her sleeves- those are hand animated, two different rigs depending on the situation. I got cocky and added *two* bracelets to each wrist too, to further lend life to her motions... those are hand animated as well. However, animating secondary motion is practically a snooze compared to animating the motion that *drives* the scene- since secondary motion only reacts depending on what is influencing it, it doesn't take too much time. It's relaxing and I enjoy doing it it after finishing up a tough scene. The other mother in the film (the blonde one- rig on the right) has a long skirt on too, but her feet and lower legs are exposed... this posed a whole MESS of problems which required a center thigh bone to be added and another control bone (orange arrow points to it- the vertical blue bone) which by it's rotation (animator controlled) further tunes the rotation of the center bones, whose orientation is still controlled by a balanced orient constraint and spherical limits of the leg bones which are manipulated by moving her feet control bones. Shew! Anyway, this way as I move the leg, the skirt keeps the correct distance from the lower leg to look like it is reacting to her legs underneath. On top of this, for the skirt to properly fold, and drop with gravity (especially on the blonde mother- since the viewer can see her leg it needs to look right), and for buttocks, lower back muscles, and belly to properly tense, etc... I added smartskins controlled by the leg bones. Some of the smartskinning changes the geometry a lot. Oops, long answer alert!
  18. Wow. This week has been hugely productive. About 10 seconds per day. Here's another clip from later in the scene above- skipping over about 4 intervening shots. The mother exits her daughter's room then spies something out the little window in the hallway... Here's the clip. And here are some stills so you can get a sense of the look, not just the animation. The lower still is from the next shot where the mother is looking out the window. After this very contemplative moment in the film, the next scene involves some action and a near death accident... that'll be a fun contrast to animate.
  19. And, axiomatic as usual (in Zach's hands at least), Shaggy is funny as hell! Awsome little clip- fun fun!
  20. Found it: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=A...e=post&id=96580
  21. One word: JohnArtbox. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...hl=pills&st=45# http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=A...e=post&id=40970 His technique for jittering the edges to his cloudy shapes might work very well. There's another image he did of a Knight and Magician walking up some stairs to a castle in the clouds that I can't find quickly, but it has even better clouds.
  22. Basically yes. I needed to readjust my volumetric settings on that light to get them right too. Some further details: That effect is actually two lights. 1: The practical that shines through the window projecting the colors onto the bed through the transperent stain glass window (which also has translucence set so it gloes when in frame a bit). 2: A volumetric light set to NOT light every model- in fact it is on no light list at all in the chor, so it lights nothing. Everything is turned off on it except volumetrics. Then in the chor I added a gel using the same image map as used by the window to this light. Trying to do this effect with one light didn't work for me because of how AM (8.5) handled shadows interacting with volumetrics out of one light source. And a lot of other little details that added up to using 2 lights to get it right.
  23. Scott, Fiddled with the light settings, and added in a gel. This ought to make it much clearer as to source, and, for my money, this makes the scene that much stronger. Again, thanks for your crit- you got me thinking!
  24. You're right. But your crit reveals a slightly more complex problem at heart- and I'm glad you said something. That pattern on her bed is from a stained glass window above the little girl's head. The viewer knows it's there at this point from previous shots, but the volumetrics I have going from the window to the bed aren't quite right... need some work there.
  25. Paul: Thank you. Putting in the extra time- acting it out, and thinking "what the heck is the point of this scene- I need to remember to focus on that," paid off. The girl IS hard to read- even for me. I'm not totally happy about the initial framing angle, and have it down as a concern for this shot in my notes for when I return to it. Luckbat: I respect you skills involving cinematography, and I agree. The mother should probably be pulled in more to frame a bit, also the girl at the start maybe, now that you and Paul have me thinking about it. Excellent crit. Something I'll change first thing in the morning- THANKS you two! And yes, btw, I am using full frame as my space, so my third crosses are from those extreme edges, in most shots- I like the more extreme geometric (or harder) feel it gives framing for most of the scenes in the film. However, there are some moments in the film when I pull in the frame of focus considerably to "soften" the feel, sorta make the picture feel "safer," more symmetrical. Yeah the wind is- actually the very air is also an element to the story. Things flying through the air in a previous section (airplanes, obviously, but some other things too-which will remain secret) and represent an important element to Ravel's final realization about what the heck matters to him. The dance becomes a flightless way of mirroring motion through the air- dance is human flight, sorta is the idea... Dang, but you are observant. Yves: Wow. Praise indeed. I can't tell you how releived I am that you viewers are getting the thought behind this brief scene- it means the following scenes that build from it in this room will actually make sense to people when they watch it edited together! Nancy: Glad to know someone with your unique and artistic take on things (which mesmerizes me) likes some of what I'm doing. Thanks, all- I appreciate the comments and crits. Again, feel free to nitpick- this is a learning process for me. Gotta say AM is just rocking as a tool for animating- I am more and more impressed with how free I can be to approach the animation in layers, each one deepening the performance.
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