ZachBG

Daaayumn! Congratulations, Patrick!

BASED on a photo? That IS a photo...! My gosh! The only nitpick is that it looks like some of the hair might be interpenetrating the pillows. But geez! What incredible work! That smile...!

OK, I'm calling it done. With sound, even! Try it with headphones for the Great Subtlety. Sorenson 3, MPEG4 audio, 712K or so. Ball_zbg_sor3.mov

But alas! it is PC only, and I'm a Mac-hed.

That's a good idea. I'll try. (Of course, I've already promised a bunch of video tutes and never delivered...) And thanks for the kind responses.

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=104620 Zach, is it showing up now? Phil No... but I looked at the BB Code (by quoting your post) and it looks like you have three slashes after http: instead of two.

See below. Um... was there supposed be an image below that? I got a question mark (Safari equivalent of a red X). Here's some screen caps (I moved the adult Shaggy back in, for didactic purposes). And here's a final render for reference: Basically, all the planes--floor, back wall, and entertainment center--were set as Front Projection Targets. I added lights to simulate the table lamp (a bulb), the sun (a klieg, high up), and the ceiling fan light behind the camera (another klieg with a very wide angle--I could have used a bulb, but didn't want the raytraced shadow rendertime). I used the Fill sun light from the default chor as a bounce from the red rug, and turned the other default lights off. The most important step in matching the perspective was determining the focal length. My instamatic digital has a focal length of 35mm. After extensive, painstaking research, I developed a proprietary formula to convert this to the A:M focal length setting of 35. Then, I lined up the chor grid lines with the edges of the rug & walls. Just a lot of turning and tweaking, basically. For the entertainment center, I created a simple four-point square patch and placed one corner directly over the model bone. Then I dropped it in the appropriate place in the chor and rotated it 90 degrees, hoping that my entertainment center really was parallel to the edge of the rug, like I thought. It was, so I switched to modeling mode in the chor and dragged the top two points straight up until they lined up with the photo. That was it.

ROBERT, I JUST CAN'T PLEASE YOU, CAN I?! (How long I've been wishing for detailed critiques... careful what one wishes for...) Yeah, the curve in the hang time is on my list of things to do. The camera shake... sigh... I'll see what I can do. I'm still debating whether the ball should go out quicker (for the shadow, as you said). But the fact is, I like watching the ball's feet flail in the air. The lag on the left toe could be tough, but is a good idea. It's so hard to do that with the 2001 rig; I just made a Shaggy with the TSM1 rig for the Mother's Day thing, but I don't think I want to swap it into this one...

Here's a new one. Added some more scenery, hang time, cartoon shoes, and squetch. There will be a quiz later. The lighting is messed up in this one, since it's a 1-pass render and I'm using the JSLSRU. Getting closer, I think. (Sorenson 3, 406K) balltestagain_sor3.mov

Thanks, y'all! Yes, well, I don't know why I posted this on the A:M forum, when all I did was grab the video camera and film Drew and Emma, obviously!

The Shooting Phase, to toot David's horn before he has the chance. I really don't know why you're so nuts about Lip Sync being the KEY to animation; IMHO, that's exactly the WRONG way to go about things. The real challenge is to make a spectator believe and feel for a character who says no words at all. Would you rather look at a character who says, "I am frightened," or one who makes you feel the fear in their eyes and expression?

Thanks for all the helpful comments. Dearmad, the "shaggy in the shadows" is me! Who you calling creepy? Dan, thanks--as it turned out, changing the focal length properly made the grid lines line up exactly without needing to roll the camera. Here's what I accomplished in, I would guess, about four to six hours of animating, and what I sneaked on to my wife's PDA as a Mother's Day gift. Hope y'all enjoy it. (Sorenson 3, about 700K) MDAY_sor3.mov

Here's some lighting progress. I think I also fixed the perspective by taking the radical step of looking up my digital camera's focal length and plugging the appropriate number into A:M. C&C always welcome. I wonder who the tall guy in the corner is supposed to be...

I like Shaggy a lot (duh). 90% of it is just that he's so low-patch I can actually watch him in real-time while animating, despite the slowness of my vid-card. But besides that, he's just plain appealing.

OK, down to business. Here's a screen grab of the camera view, showing the grid lines: Does it look like I did it right? If needed, here's a brief movie of them sliding along the floor (Sor 3, 180K or so). Obviously, the lighting & shadows are not matched yet. But what about the perspective? Do I need to fix it, and if so, how do I do so? DandEtest_sor3.mov

If you'll pardon me for a moment of indulgence; I made this image and it made me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd share it. It might be funnier to me since they're wearing my kids' clothes. Oh, and if you know anything about camera matching (to a still photo), please watch this space. I'm gonna need help putting these guys into my house.

OK, last rev. before Mother's Day probably. This one isn't toon-rendered. Sorry, but I'm still pursuing the elusive goal of Good 3D Lighting. Reworked the hang time slightly, re-lit it to make the soccer ball stand out more, added animation for Shaggy's left hand. And, um... trees. C&C still welcome, of course. Thanks for all the input and kind woids. MPEG4, 432K. ball_v3_mp4.mov

That's what I tried. It'll be rendering overnight, but from what I can see it does look better. Oooh! Good idea! I was worried about that.

I actually couldn't figure out how to make him kick while running and still have it read. Maybe I was just a bad soccer player when I acted it out... I hadn't thought about Rich's point re: momentum, but I think he's right, too. Unfortunately, I'm already a second and a half over Will Sutton's stated maximum. But you're probably right. How can you tell? I moved it from my initial position. I'll try it where I started it first. Yes, that would be interesting, wouldn't it?

Haven't done the sound yet. Patience, grasshopper.

Well, I'm actually hoping our focus is more on the ball than on Shaggy. I'm going to make some lighting changes to fix that. Here's a new version (toon-rendered for no good reason) which adds a slight cam-shake and reworks Shaggy's final look. MPEG4, 372K. ball_v2_mp4.mov

I'm actually not a huge Woody Guthrie fan; I've just always liked that quote, and it pretty much sums up my attitude on copyright in particular and intellectual property in general. Buddy Holly, on the other hand... I've had an animated video in mind for a couple of his early tunes for a while... hm... ANYway, I couldn't tell if you got my original point or not, which was simply that lip sync is NOT the key to making Living Characters. Remember, a silent Felix the Cat was the biggest cartoon star in the world before "Steamboat Willie" came along and changed everything.

I'll bring along some cans o' Coke. And my own ugly self too.

Here's a WIP of my contribution to the Pass the Ball project. I was gonna try to keep it secret, but what the hell. I know there's a lighting glitch when Shaggy hits the floor, and that his arm penetrates the ground. Other than that, comments and criticisms are quite & very welcome. Sorenson 3, 212K. ball_v1_sor3.mov

Wow... that's niiiiice...