JBarrett
-
Posts
267 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by JBarrett
-
-
Here's my first, from back in 2000, right before I graduated from school. It's a short-short-short, and it *was* a test of sorts (messing with weight), but it was my first attempt to do a full piece from beginning to end and tell some kind of story:
http://www.jb-av.com/anims/message.mpg
The only other one I've done that might sorta-kinda-qualify (barely) is another micro-story piece I did as part of an application for work:
http://www.jb-av.com/anims/swordstone.mpg
I do have other ideas for more "real" story-type pieces (longer than 30 seconds), but sadly they're way on the back burner at this stage.
-
What originally inspired me to think about animation as a career was a videotape full of Pixar's early short films. What really jump-started that thought into active pursuit was the first trailer for "Toy Story." That's what proved to me that my interest in CG and my passion for acting and storytelling could be turned into a full-time job.
What keeps me inspired now is still a lot of Pixar's work, but in general it's the work of talented animators everywhere, whether they work in 2D or 3D. If someone's work really grabs me, I'll try to find some way of archiving it for later reference, and I'll review that reference whenever I need a boost of juice. The latest addition is gonna be Sam Buntrock's "No One" clip...some really juicy acting in there, particularly some of his subtle stuff. Go Sam!
-
Wow! That's just awesome! There are a few niggling bits that could still be fixed, mainly in the lip sync, but overall this is a stellar job. Some really inspiring bits of performance in there. Woohooo!
-
Looks like pretty good work so far! In terms of what feels "off" the most, I think you've hit on it with the hand idea, mainly in the final part of the shot. The last gesture he does feels like it's a little too isolated in his right arm. Also, the way the hand is moving and rotating at the very end of the gesture feels odd. The initial overlap you have in it looks nice, but the very last part has the wrist moving forward and rotating backward at the same time, which makes it feel like the pivot point is in the middle of his palm, or near the base joint of the fingers.
One thing that might help is to get the wrist moving in more of an arc instead of a straight line forward and backward. Keep the front/back rotation going, but make the underlying movement of the hand happen in a steady arc away and up from him, then back towards himself at the end of the last wrist "jiggle".
Something else that will help to remove the isolation in this last gesture is to twist his shoulders toward the gesturing wrist.
It also looks like his eyes stay locked on one position, even when he turns away to (supposedly) look at someone else. Perhaps you just haven't animated the eye target yet.
One final thing is to try and get a bit more attitude in his head. A lot of his head motions are forward and backward only. Play with tilting the head to the side here and there...not randomly, of course, but get a feel for how the tilt of the head can accentuate certain bits of attitude in his performance.
Lip sync looks pretty decent. Aside from the stuff mentioned above, I think this just needs some more polish to really make this guy come to life. You've got a great start on it. Keep at it!
-
I forget what version this started in (9.5 maybe?), but you can change the default range of any slider. Right-click on it in the PWS and choose "Settings" from the popup menu. Change the "Minimum" and "Maximum" to whatever values you want. Other slider settings can be changed, too, like the default value, whether the slider is displayed or not, and the default dope sheet percentage.
-
I'm getting an error trying to view some of the clips...
- All of the odd-numbered clips (1, 3, 5, and 7) come back with a "Script error" when clicking on the images.
- with the Dragon clip (end of second row) the new page comes up all right, but it ends up with a broken Quicktime icon
-
VERY nice work! You've created a great sense of personality in this character. It could still be solidified a bit more strongly, but you have a great start on it as it is (understanding that it's at FFN status). Fun choice of sound file for this guy, too.
Keep it up!
-
Thanks! I think I posted something to the Animaster part of the forum about the tutorials. I can't imagine you'd need them, though.
Trust me, I need them. I've done almost nothing when it comes to decals, and what little I've done wasn't even dealing with characters. I've been putting the vast majority of my time in A:M toward animation, with rigging probably coming in second. Decals are so far down the list I need binoculars.
Thanks for sharing! I can't wait to see more!
-
Just discovered this thread. As someone else said, I don't know why I missed it when it first came up.
Wonderful work as usual, Jim! And very inspiring to see this guy come together piece by piece. I'm also glad you re-posted the links to your tutes (downloaded them all...will investigate after sending this). Where were these links originally posted? I'm really curious, as I've never heard of them before finding them in this thread.
-
Andrew,
It sounds like you're looking for very specific "rules" on how long things should take at different frame rates. Personally, I would shy away from that line of thinking. Whatever frame rate you're working at, take some time to experiment and play with different options for things.
You said yourself that a blink that closes in one frame and opens in two seems unnaturally fast, so you're already learning that how something feels is more important than following a set of rules. If a one-closed-two-open blink feels wrong, try something a little slower...but at the same time, pay attention to how that one-two blink felt because there may be some time down the road when that will be the right feeling for the animation you're doing.
Study, experiment, and learn.
-
Here's another one done by my friend Michael Comet. Made several years ago, but it's still a great place to start, with examples of everything...
-
Glad you got it working. As a postscript to this little episode, here's another tool (free) that will allow you to extract an audio file from AVI and MPEG movies:
Most think of it simply as an MPEG encoder, but it's quite versatile in other ways, too.
-
What exactly are you looking for in terms of help? Do you want feedback on a shot you're working on? The more details you can provide, the easier it will be for us to help you.
-
Very nice work on this so far!
Lip sync looks pretty good, although it could still be touched up in a few areas. Some of the pursed mouth shapes don't appear to be as strong as they should be, and some shapes don't quite look appropriate for the sounds.
Movement and acting overall looks pretty good. Some of his accent moves are a hair too subtle. The vocal delivery is so low-key that it's tempting to make it a tad too mellow.
Can't wait to see it finished!
-
Cool! Nice work for a first project. Glad to see you're enjoying A:M. Keep working, and keep learning!
-
This also works when A:M is the only thing running. I typically don't do anything else on my machine while rendering in order to leave my lone CPU's full attention to A:M. Anyway, I noticed several versions ago that if I minimize the A:M window after I've started rendering, the render times are shorter than if I left the window open. Not quite the huge difference that scooter mentioned (maybe 'cause of the project complexity), but it's still several seconds per frame, which adds up to quite a time savings after rendering several hundred frames.
-
I've been looking at some of Hank Ketchum's Dennis the Menace drawings for inspiration - he got a lot of character and directionality out of dot eyes.
Don't know if you've got easy access to any episodes of "3-2-1 Penguins!", but if so, you might take a look at Jason and the way his dot eyes are setup. Rob Dollase did a great rigging job on him and gave him poses that made what we called "comma eyes" to give the impression of looking in different directions. It's similar to some of the shapes used on Peanuts characters' eyes from time to time (Dennis the Menace might have been another inspiration...I didn't get there until after Jason was rigged, so I don't know). There were also poses for Jason that flattened the top of the eyes into a "shelf" to give an impression of low eyelids.
Thanks for sharing your rigging ideas! Some great food for thought!
-
Looks like a fun critter! Curious to see where this goes.
-
Man....I know I already replied, but this is getting way too cool! Very inspiring work! Keep it up!
-
Pretty cool model, and the deformations are working fairly well so far. Looking forward to seeing more!
-
Wow! Very nice work there! I need to get off my duff and try modeling some characters one of these days.
-
Very fun stuff! Nice "thinking outside the box" approach. Can't wait to see/read more about this technique!
-
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Inspiring work, even for a test! I think the level of expression in the face is working QUITE nicely. Can't wait to see more!
-
Nice job, Rob!
I'd love to do one of those 4-hour challenges one of these days, but Wednesday is the busiest day for me. Perhaps they'll let me get the clip at 9pm and turn it in a 1am the next morning....naaahh...not likely.
Re: Hash Road Trips::I live between philly & A.C.
in (2003-2004)
Posted
I'm in northern Joisey for the time being, although if things go as planned/hoped, I'll be moving to the Dallas, TX area pretty soon.