ZachBG

This is an entry for the most recent Animation Showdown at digitalrendering.com. As before, all animation was done in four hours. The topic, quoted from the forum moderator: "By any means necessary" became the basis for my joke. In this case, I wanted to test a new light rig, so I also (after the deadline) added an island, some not very convincing water, and a palm tree which managed to cast shadows in precisely the wrong place. The animation is unchanged, though. Tons of work would need to be done to make this worth watching, but it's in Showcase because, well, I'm not going to work on it anymore. Et voila: http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/saveme_sor3.mov 416K, 10 seconds, Sorenson 3 Enjoy. If you can. (edit: bad file, so I changed the URL)

Damn it, I wish I had clicked on the WIP thread... I figured you were just modeling a coffee cup, and thought, "bo-o-o-oring..." I shoulda known better! Glengarry Glen Ross is one of my favorite movies, and that's a beautiful piece of work. Well done.

Man, you stole my title idea... The reaction definitely adds a lot to the moment, as does the buildup to the giant jumps. For some reason the first waves of the hands look very IK-ish to me. Maybe the movement from the shoulder to the elbow to the hand needs to be offset a bit. Personality-wise, we definitely know what he's thinking. Zach

Wow, that .mov is awesome! I want to see him turn around and scream up the residential street into the distance... Beautiful stuff! Zach

Looks interesting so far! That audio says 'anime' to me--what's it from? Incidentally, you might consider using a different video codec next time. Just as an experiment, I re-compressed what you sent using the H.261 codec (which I think is compatible with a lot of players) and I wound up with a video track size of 1.3 MB, as opposed to your 11.5 MB. That was with keeping things at 30fps, too, which for an animatic is probably overkill--you could go down to 15fps. Sound compression I used IMA 4:1 and got a sound track at 1.8 MB vs. 7 MB. Just something to think about. Means you can put the file up as a .mov instead of a .zip, too. Zach

Cool, glad to help. Trust me, this Fellow is a midget himself...

<struggling... to control... flame...> <deep breath> No politics this early in the morning, please.

Great stuff again. Was it the same music as before? For some reason I didn't like it as much this time. Probably just going crazy. The new bit at the firing range... story-wise... I'm torn between liking it (it's a great joke) and disliking it (it's not part of the same sequence as the rest). It does break things up a bit, which is important... but is it important enough to end the wonderful motif you have, where the Agent makes a mistake, corrects it, then goes just far enough to make another mistake... and so on. Although, I guess that bit _is_ about him correcting his aim, so maybe I'm just not interpreting it quick enough. Or maybe the "fixing the aim" moment needs to be quicker, or different...? ah, whatever. Feel free to ignore. Zach

Well, Gerry, you inspired me to write my first tutorial ever, on using Mac OS X to convert a Targa sequence to MPEG-1. http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/Tutorials/MPEGtute.html Hope it's worth your while! Zach

Gerry-- Beautiful piece! I especially liked the squash & stretch on the vertical pieces. I wonder if there's some way to do that on the other pieces, too? As far as compression: what platform are you on? If you're on Mac OS X I can give you details on a pipeline I use to create MPEG-1 movies that compress reasonably well, and they're completely cross-platform. If you're on Windows, I canna help ye. But there are plenty of documented ways to get MPEG-1 via TMPGenc and the like. Zach

I don't know; sounds like a good film for the Farrelly brothers to option!

Vern, that title sequence rocks! I could totally hear a twangy, James Bond guitar as the folder falls, opens... then a big brass hit when "INCOMPETENT" appears. As for the zipper nipper joke, I expect that once it's actually animated (and a zipper sound effect is added) it'll be plenty clear. If I were directing it, I might put a close-up of the bandage being applied, as a cut right after the agent's wince of pain; and then cut to a full shot of the agent and the doc. Great work! Zach

Version Two. Sorenson 3, 1.3MB, 34 seconds I gotta say, animation is hard. Some of the new version is better, some--the step off the LEM in particular--is really sketchy. The ending of this one pretty much expresses my feeling about one-sixth gravity animation. I wish there was some way I could get the "lunar lope"--where the astronaut launches himself from one leg to the other without really bending his legs--to work, but I can't figure out how to make it look good. That, I suppose, would probably the best way to get him off the LEM footpad. I think this'll have to do, though, because I doubt I'll have time to re-render before the space contest deadline. Whoops--there goes my vaunted anonymity. Zach

Oh, wait 'til you see the punch line, it's even better. I think you're absolutely spot-on with (1); thank you for crystallizing that. You know, I've looked at the videos a bunch doing this, but I never got it. I mean, I saw what I saw, but I never thought "Hey, I should just keep the limbs straight." Thanks. I don't know if I'll go that route, because as you say, it'll look like crappy animation. But you've given me a lot to think about. Thanks! Those darn landing pads, I keep telling them to remain in our space-time continuum (New -> Constraint -> Laws of Physics) but I don't think that's implemented in the Mac OS X Beta yet... Thanks, everyone, I'll post another version soon. Zach

I like it! I didn't get the zipper joke at first. Just FYI to maybe make it clearer in the actual animation. Or to bar me from the premiere. I love the drawing style. How much of that do you anticipate will go into the final version? Zach

480x204. (more responses later--must eat--but thanks!) Zach

Hi all. Looking for some CC&C (constructive comments and criticism) on the following: Sorenson Video 2, 33 seconds, 1.2 MB, 480x204 The lunar module was graciously donated by Vernon Zehr from his private collection; all the rest is mine. The texturing for Neil Armstrong isn't done yet. Mostly I'm looking for thoughts on the movement. I'm trying to keep in mind that gravity is one-tenth of normal, but his amount of mass (inertia) remains the same, so he still has a good amount of squash and stretch even as he falls slower. Anyway, I seem to be at a point where it's OK, but not quite right, and I humbly ask for your thoughts. Thanks! Zach

Can't see it (I assume it's Arctic Pigs); any chance of a jpeg or turnaround? Zach

Yep; it's the Olympic freestyle wading pool championships! Zach

Every time I try to produce stella work, it just comes out like Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire... "Stella! STELLA!" It's gotten so bad I have to unplug the speakers when the kids are asleep... Zach

They're at: http://www.digitalrendering.com/forum/foru...lay.php?fid=112 but you'll need to create a (free) account before you can play. Hope to see you there! The animation showdowns are every Wednesday and modeling showdowns are (I think) on Sundays. Zach

Modeling tips: Click on a control point or group, then when you translate it: Hold down 1 (above the letters) to only move it in the X axis 2 to only move it in the Y axis 3 to only move it in the Z axis Combinations of the above to constrain it to XY, XZ, etc. And the lesser known constraint keys: 4 to only translate in the direction of the selected spline 5 to translate in the direction perpendicular to the selected spline 6 to translate in the direction of the surface normal--EXTREMELY useful when attempting to make models smooth. These work anywhere, actually, not just modeling mode, and when working in camera or bird's eye view in Choreography, there's an added bonus: if you want to move something in screen space, as opposed to along the ground plane, hold down 1, 2, and 3, and you've got it.

Following up on robcat's post earlier, here is my attempt at a "Dive!" for the showdown on digitalrendering's forums. http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/blog/DiveTest3.mp4 Quicktime 6 required, 350K, 5 seconds. Animation and rendering done in four hours as per the showdown rules. He must be wearing rockets on his shoes, huh? Comments and crits always welcome. Zach "I can't tie my shoes in four hours..."

That was a tough one, but I thought yours turned out particularly well--it was one of the few that actually got gravity correct. Zach

The thing I liked most about Clay 1.0 (you need a cool code name... maybe "Clay Jaguar") was the squareness at the top of his head. The top of his head is round now, which is just so... normal. But I'd kill for your modeling skillz. That's a beautiful mesh. Zach