larry_b

Thanks dan. I'll dig out the little drip later and see what I can do to improve it. Its just going to take a little more time than I was hoping. Work has me full time now -Larry B

Hello Nancy: Actually, I was thnking about a firewater dance, or some other kind of Fantasia type animation. i have LOTS of ideas for this character combo, but the time it takes to work on it is not as much as it should have been. Anyways, This is one of many project sI am running in parelell. -Larry B

Thanks Nancy: I have downloaded the ZIP file and seen hte MOV. I'll look into it a little biut later. If you loved the fire blob, you may love to see the WATER Dude that was created to start me on my first production: Of course there is the rigging, adn the texturing thing that needs to be done on the characters, and the Local (location of action) and Props to make. Not to mention the story but it is a GREAT start. Thanks again for your help -Larry B

Hi Wegg: All I can say is ABOUT TIME! I remember putting the Work Order in like.. oh, close to ONE YEAR AGO! HeH it wasn't that bad. I remember putting the order on hold anyways. It sure is enjoyable to get into the GUTS of this rigg. Moved very nicely. Especially the tail. THAT is very smooth. It will be a GREAT pleasure working with this Dinosaur. For only $59 is Definitely worth the small price for such a High Quality Model! (AND works great in V11 A:M too). Overview: If you love Dinosaurs, Easy to manipulate models Get this excellent model. it is well worth the time and energy it would have taken me to have textured/modeled/rigged! I am sure the Fun Factor will increase once I figure out exactly how to move this heavy thing. Last Note: Rest Assured: Wegg PROMISED me that this Dino is already been House Broken. (I seen pictures of the messes Wegg had to clean up) So, what are you waiting for for only $59 you can enjoy this amazing EggProp! Get it before it's extinct! -Larry B * Wegg.. Thanks for finishing this project .. Now GET ONTO THE OTHER THREE DINOSAURS (please) *

Hi nimblepix: Fun?? Pff... its an adiction!! I do need to add lean.. probably good for when we add squash and strech.. there is what.. 21 or more things to consder with animation. isn't there? Anyways, thanks again.. not much to look at, but it is a great start for a first. Larry B

Hi: Just thought I'd share a first pass attempt at animation. Second step on this will be to add squash and strech to the thing. Then change teh background and add a simple face to the thing and carry on. Just thought I'd share the lill project. -Larry B hopper.mov

Hi Seven: Nice tutorial. However this is using a Quatunian method. With the Euler method I was trying to figure out, all you need to do is rotate the bone a little to set the key at frame '0'. then at frame 1 second you can rotate the wheel 360 degrees. With Quat method (default) the bone will rotate from where it is and take the shortest rout to complete the circle. So it will move backwards a couple degrees. With the Euler method, the bone follows the exact way you turn the wheel So once you convert the drivers from Quat to Euler then you get an unlazy bone (one that goes all around and not look for the shorter way to do what is wanted). I am not putting you down, Just want to help you be a better A:Mer. I AM grateful that you took the time to create this tutorial (with wink ). I remember I once had a Reel player I made in a:m (just before casettes were on a box they were like filmstrip reels). I remember I was fighting with this and did figure that one out at one time. So once I had it done, I found that I had 1 bone, as the seconds number wheel has made 1 full pass I had another constraint move the 10's colum 1 number (roll like i think it was) . Then had it setup so after the 10's colum made 1 round the 100's colum would make 1 number move. Essentially I could animate the 1 bune and as that bone spins I was able to have all the others automatically spin. Next time I'm making a record player instead (no counters on that sucker) Anyways, thanks again -Larry B

Thanks david for the time you put in creatign this video. I have also beginning to choose MOV formats to cover compatibility issues with mac and pc (you need the cross platform). I suppose the X-CD ][ could contain all tutorials, adn should be easy enough to put together. Containing your videos, Jims video, and the hash VM shockwaves How long have you taken on creating these tutorials? I suppose of you were to edit them to make them leaner it WOULD be more of your precious animating time. Anyways, having every click is GOOD TOO cause then I can follow you along on monitor 1 as I dublicate your rig in a:m on teh 2nd monitor. For people on all kinds of connection speeds I'd suggest a Download Manager. (freshdevices.com has a free one for pc). This splits larger files into small chunks and stitches them back together oce downloaded. AND supports resume in case the download is almost done, and then freezes, or you wish to resume it at a later time. anyways, thanks again for your contributions -Larry B

Hello again: I have a posted update. but first, the feet are smartskinned. the one is rotated up the other is pointed down slightly. just to give a 2-views of the feet. I have turned up transparency as many were saying, and thanks to Martin I also tried to make it a little see-through. I had trancparency to 100% yet reflectivity was too high to let a see-through apperance. So, here is the new and slightly improved water droplet (not as many pass-rendered though)

I was planning to do that as soon as I figure out how dynamic constraints work. a confusing thing is that the constraint is asking for a target like the other constraints and i thought it just would bob along without being connected to interact with another bone. This is probably the first character that survived. I have many others that are now in my graveyard of characters. The waterdrop has also been the first attempt at smartskinning and will probably be used to start animation training from. 3D is very time consuming. It would be nice to find timesaving tips and ways to automate tasks. anyways back to the digital drawing tablet. -Larry B

Thanks for the suggestion. I believe there is a very little transparency to the model. I am guessing i need to add a little more. I was also thinking about flipping normals (so they point inward) and perhapse adding a blobby material effect so the inside is liquidy (of course i'd need the transparency higher then too I'm glad you like it. Sharing with a few people teh comments I was getting from almost all of them were 'smurfy'. -Larry B

Here is my latest and best creation yet. I still need to make a couple other characters. What do you think? -Larry B

Hi: Ok.. let getting close Her eis the link to your eyeball .mov Click here. Now lets say you add eyelids to the model (half spheroid cups encapsulating the eyeball) and lets say that you want to make the eyeball squashed down and out and have the eye lids conform with the eyeballs and still be able to shift the eyes.. I think i will examine the prj you asociated.. ti is very close to what I am looking for.. perhapse a distort box (depends on the iris in the project). Thanks again (and anyone else.. any other ideas are well worth exploring)

Well.. To answer this a little better, I'd have to say the following: Lip poses ( the preston blair set) has the basic sets.. these are GREAT for 2D animating. It gives you a better idea on how the shapes are made. With the 2d medium it is all penciled in so the mouth shapes are never really exact. With 3D the poses are computer made which are really exact. kind of makes the mouth look phoney as the character speaks. To make the character look more organic/natural you need more control and the ability to add thousands of ways of making the mouth poses. Instead of the pre-made Poses and the help of the dope sheet you can make basic mouth shapes that can be tweaked to make mouth shapes for sounds and use the poses to shape the mouth to the sound (look in a mirror and see what shapes your mouth can make and the variations and use that as a refference to make the characters mouth). Something else to consider: Many words can be broken down to basic phonetic shapes, but many of the words can be spoken with different moods and emotiond. Even different ways like some accents. Setting up the character to pronounce words with a sounds (using a mirror to mimick) helps make more natural talking of your characters lips. It adds the variation needed and gives you the flexability to create more natural lipsynch. I strongly recomend the Animating a Face CD (anzovin store). It is one of my favoirates and even teaches how to add emotion to the characters face as well as the poses and how they can drive the mouith shapes neded for sounds. Anyways hope this answers your Question

Hi: I remember the Veggie Tale characters eyes.. when the character was 'thinking' or showing some hold-pose reaction to somethign said or done the eyes changed rfom the spheroids to squishy half-moon, or slightly indented.. If you have seen veggie tales you may be able to understand what i discribed above. My question though: the veggie tale eyeballs are spheroids and the eyelids are half circled that roll over to cover the eyes (from waht i can see).. but when you squish the eyelid to indent, the eyeball should theoretically pop through the lid unless you squish the eyeball sphere into the eyelid so it is covered by the lid. Since these two objects are seperate, how could you do various poses of this? IE with the lids closed and the eye objects squished (ball and lids). then open the eyelids and the lid indent doesn't match with the eyeball indent. if this makes any sense, and if anyone wants to enlighten me, please let me know how i could replicate the same results as teh VT chars thanks agin for everyones input -Larry B