Nosferatu

Here's an idea... It might look cool to restore the wingtips & nose to the original look, with transparency. Then you could have the same shapes (but smaller) with that new texture inside of the wingtips & nose. It might look more mysterious & less cartoony (not a criticism).

Beautifully done. How did you do the snow? Nosferatu

Jefferson, Very cool "high tech" look. Here are a few suggestions: 1 When the sphere bounces on the floor, don't have the camera tilt up & down to follow the bounce. Aim the camera at a fixed point on the floor and the bounce will look more realistic/dramatic. 2 Raise the sphere up off the floor more slowly & deliberately. This will build a little suspense & drama. 3 Reveal of projector pod is way too fast . I would slow it down because it's hard to tell what is happening. 4 Slow down the action of the sphere rotating to face the screen. 5 For all "in air" sphere movements, you could consider soft stops, where the sphere shows a barely perceptible deceleration before stopping. 6 At certain points while sphere is hovering, you could utilize moving holds, where the sphere moves very slightly up & down and back & forth as if some kind of mechanism or force is stabilizing it. This movement would be very slight but noticable. 7 Experiment with slowing down the fan shadows. This might give it a more dramatic "Blade Runner" kind of feel. Just some suggestions. It's a great piece. Keep up the good work!

He looks potato-riffic!! Brian

Great work. What made you decide to fade between every scene instead of cutting?

You might want to reconsider portraying fuel direction with external moving arrows. This might be more consistent with the very clean look you already have.

That's about right. Blobbies are hugely expensive. I would suggest making a test model consisting of one simple length of pipe, and your blobby emitter. Experiment with preroll and run bare-bones (no specular, no shadows, etc.) Brian

Right now, the sail looks more like a flag. Why not put a boom underneath it and then orient it as if the wind is pushing the boat along? Brian

Have you considered a blobby emitter pushing blobs up from underneath? Also, what about a higher densisty mesh for the current mud? Now that I'm thinking about it, what if you constrained a blobby emitter to the bottom of the foot. You might get very realistic results. Brian

Hi Rodney, LOL, you're right about the name. I'd better change if from "Nosferatu" to "Skippy" or something like that! I appreciate the encouragement. I am planning on making this a series, so you never know about Saturday mornings... I'll periodically update so I can get some constructive criticism from the list. Brian

Jim, Very nice work. I would like to see a representation of fuel flowing through the pipes and being diverted by the various valves. THis would make the function much clearer. You could either use arrows showing flow direction or you could get fancy and make the pipes partially transparent with the fuel flowing along inside. Just some suggestions. I like your elegant simplicity. Brian

Hi Folks, Well, now you all can finally see why I've been pestering everybody with my many questions for the past year. Here's my first WIP. It's not perfect, just a Proof-of-Concept. Here's what I'll be improving: Better sounds Fill light on left-hand character's face Rock firmer in bucket Better roller rotation for right-hand character Mountains will be darker and maybe some mist http://www.briancarabee.com/animation.htm Comments welcome. Thanks, Brian

Simon, That's a cool song in your trailer. Who is it? Brian

Hi Adam, Nice job on your first animation. As requested, here are some suggestions (feedback): As the camera tracks toward the model, you could force a gradual slowdown to make it seem like a real camera with mass. I would raise the arm after a small delay, rather than immediately upon his torso turning. This would make it look like he took a second or so to recognize the viewer and then decided to wave. You might also want to tilt his head up & down very slightly to show him trying to identify the viewer. You could flex him at the wrist while he waves. Not sure if the knight is rigged to allow that. Keep up the good work!

Great work, Shaun. Would you tell us exactly how you distorted (stretched) the ball? Did you use distortion mode, or a bone? Brian

Looks good (though I'm not sure what it is). Might I suggest a little less yellow in your keylight, or else making the yellow mottled surface blue? Just a suggestion. I just think the wood is a little heavy on the "yellow" side. Excellent work, nonetheless. Thanks for the link to the grunge pak. That will come in very handy. Brian

Nice effect, Jim. I just might use your technique in my current project. Whare do I send the royalty checks? Brian

Hmm...Couldn't get to your link or to your site. I'll try later.

Very good work. It might pace better if you sped up the yellow sunburst, and another subtlety that might help would be to slow down the rotation of the planet at the end. I think it would look more massive that way. Just offering a fresh perspective...it really is very good! Brian

Hi Sean, Yes, I'm planning on animating this character. I'm thinking along the lines you are for adding dirt and rust. I'll post when I've dirtied him up a little. Thanks, Brian

Hi ZachBG, I'll just give them a couple of bones each and create pose sliders for them. They will bend both up for angry looks and down for happy looks, and they will probably rise and fall according to the emotion I'm going for. Thanks for looking, Brian

Thanks, Xor. If I remember correctly, I used a Simbiont texture, but I did some MASSIVE tweaking in the settings to get it to scale. Brian

Thanks, Gerry. I'm thinking of making the grass fairly plain, maybe with a Simbiont texture. I think the hair type grass would overwhelm my PC (AMD 1800 Mhz). I'm probably going to add some rust spotson the body, too. Brian

Thanks, Dagoos, I'm working on controls now. Regarding the caution light, did you mean to say the "roof"? Just want to clarify. Thanks for your comments - they're appreciated! Brian

I hope this isn't a double post. My post on the mail list doesn't seem to want to go through. I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look at "Rusty" the steam roller. Thanks to all of you who have helped during the past few months. http://www.briancarabee.com/animation.htm Thanks, Brian