ZachBG

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...

Howdy: Have an idea for the mini-film contest (shhh!) and decided to test to see if my ending is feasible. Shaggy busts through a curtain. Not much yet, but I decided I'd share. All settings are default except that I lowered the collision radius to 1. endtest.mov

Yup. Lip sync is the key to funny animations. That must be why this is so boring and unprofessional-looking.

There's all sorts of settings which I haven't played with yet. I expect upping the Friction could do that. Maybe Particle Mass? Stiffness?

Here's a screen grab which shows the settings. Everything's default except the collision tolerance, the sub-steps, and the solver precision.

Howdy. I took some mocap data I got from a reputable source and put Shaggy on it. And Shaggy said to me, "Zach, man, I love this motion and all, but GEEZ is it COLD in this computer!" So I gave him a shirt. I think it turned out nice--there are some penetration issues at this point toward the end, and it fails completely when Shaggy actually penetrates himself and leaves the cloth with nowhere to go. More experimentation is in order. Next up--PANTS! ShaggiZachTwo.mov

Actually, you're better off increasing the number of sub-steps (in the Chor properties) rather than the frame rate. The effect will be the same, but there will be far less data in the file. If you're doing 90 fps (for 30 fps normally, I assume), try doubling or tripling the sub-steps instead. Do you have any "attached" groups in your project?

But it wasn't just about tracking... it was about being able to move those CPs, as a three-dimensional channel editor, that made Dearmad's idea really revolutionary.

I think that was an acid trip I had back in '67...

<raises hand> And I even have the proper projector adapter this time.

I'm not fit to critique but what the hell. I found the movement of the ring-hat after the landing to be somewhat distracting--I'm watching that instead of his eyes and his smile. But what a smile! I can actually see him thinking: "Whoa. That was cool!" When are we going to see some other shots? Please please please!

OMG, he's gorgeous. It's amazing how evocative he is already. Damn. Please make him move!

Simple, easy blending between FK and IK is key. IMHO, the best way it was ever implemented was in the late lamented Raf v3 rig, where you could just pull the hand bone off the arm and it would automatically become an IK goal. However, I'm one of the few people for whom that actually 'clicked,' and so it was changed to pose-slider blending in the later Setup Machine rigs. Which is still better than the on-off switch of the Hash rig. However, lately I've been using the Hash rig a lot, and have come to admire its simplicity. A little really does go a long way...

Any of the mentioned dates work, except the 7th, because it's Mother's Day weekend, and I have a mother. And a wife who's a mother. Sorry, I know I'm so difficult!

My only crit (and maybe you've already done this in the final model) is that the dome seems to be a single surface, based on the specular highlight. I would suggest adding a specularity map to set off the blue rectangles, since they are separate in the real R2. But that's one hell of a model, nonetheless. Good job!

I think Jeff linked to the wrong image. The one he was talking about is this one.

If anyone wants it, I made a soccer ball, following Alain's tutorial. This isn't an offical, regulation ball or anything--I just threw it together for my contribution to the "Pass the Ball" project. Soccerball.mdl.zip

I remember Bob Croucher posting something about the IsRod property. Have you tried fiddling with that at all?

I think Don Davis is planning another one soon.

Ha! Now add some scratch lines, and a splice or two, and send it to Smithsonian Folkways.

Looks very good. Can we see a wireframe?