Paul Forwood

The party is growing. MJCK_A00c.mov

Not at all. Just ensure that your camera and cutouts don't rotate and turn up the ambience on your models to avoid shadows, etc. MJCK_A00a.mov --------------- Edit: Actually, after reading that article about Southpark production I should reintroduce the shadows. I haven't used any textures/decals on these models yet. This is just a bit of fun and helps my son out with a little project that he is involved with at university.

Pretty much, Steve. I 'm fairly certain that when Southpark started the animation was achieved with traditional construction paper techniques but they moved production onto computers at some stage. If I'm not mistaken they used Alias Wavefront, but you might want to check that. ---------------------------------- Edit: I have just found this description of the Southpark workflow: Southpark Workflow Cool!

Great start! Keep it going.

Thanks! Yes, just simple flat geometry, in the fashion of construction paper animation. You can see the layers in this example, as Cartman moves through the other two characters. Simple, fast and fun. MeganCartmanKyle_A00.mov

Thanks for all the compliments! Does anyone recognise this guy? Test_A00f_toon_.mov

Much better!

Nice work, Steve, but her breasts don't appear to be moving with her torso. Are they assigned to bones? (Try dynamic bones).

I guess that's where the saying "get the lead out of your a$$" comes from. (sorry, that's not very Christmas like, is it?)

This looks terrific! I agree with Robcat about matching the curves at the beginning and end of the sequence.

Wowzers! That's beautiful! I can hear Strauss in the background.

I haven't managed to move forward much with this model all week but this is about where I left him: BarackA04fcomp02.mov

You won't see much change in your mesh if you have already peaked your splines. Make a copy of your model first and then select all the CPs and hit "P", which will should turn all your splines to curves again. (It actually toggles between peaked and not peaked so if you had and curved plines they will become peaked.) Then try messing with the magnitude values. Nothing beats modelling the bevels into the geometry but magnitude can work in some situations.

Ha ha! The Dead Pirate sketch! :

Thank you, Dusan! That really is a masterpiece! So much attention to detail from start to finish. Marvelous!

Very enjoyable, Mark. I second Kat's comments too.

Thanks, guys! Mark, I didn't manage to do any expressions for him today but I am hoping to get some roughed out tomorrow evening. Maybe then he will start to look more like Obama. Ken, I will post something to YouTube when I have something more complete. At the moment I am still tweaking the geometry and weighting. Robert, I haven't done the texturing yet but those features will appear when I get to that stage. Later in the week. Some minor tweaks.

I'm kind of glad that we no longer have the mechanical contests. You and Eric and Stian all produce the most excellent, first class mechanical models and it would be a crime to put any of you in second place. Nice work, Al!

Oh, here's the toon version: Barack_A04a_toon_2.mov

A small update: Barack_A04a.mov Still no proper Obama expressions. I will try a few of those today. Still tweaking the face.

He looks great, Ethan! Good luck with the rigging and weighting.

You know I always wondered why, with all that armour plating that almost every space craft in, and out, of science fiction is clad in, that the designers go and put all that delicate, vulnerable pipework on the outside. Bad design but it sure looks great.

Don't worry, Gerry. I think you have enough splines around the mouth after all, I just couldn't see them in the smaller image.

Great post, Rodney! I often wonder what I am missing by sticking at the 3-5 pass mark. Isn't there a feature that doesn't kick in until the 5 pass mark? I vaguely recall some mention of this a long time ago but can't recall what it was. Maybe it was hair jitter or something to do with Depth of Field? Anyway it is good to be reminded of those points. Thanks!

Cool stuff, Myron! Looks like you've got yourself a jewellery business.