NancyGormezano

Now crazy fruit (so excited - hit the wrong button)

crazy fruit

try again - this time jpg (duh!)

me too, me too! (not able to render in chor unfortunately - go boom) Wisteria type wisteria.tga

That is the most amazing, fascinating site - I have added it to my list of favorites... Incredible work! beautiful! Such depth..I could just gush on & on - what a valuable web resource...Thanks so much..Nancy

Thanks y'all for the comments. Glad you enjoyed it. Always a surprise to hear how "twisted" I come across ... I forget that when I'm sitting here, eyes aglow , possessed by the dark spirits I just know are lurking in my computer, ... (could be the reason they don't let me out all that often?)... Nancy

Here's an animation exercise I did to familiarize myself with ver 10.5 - (after coming from 8.5) - boy did I have a lot of habits to break - still needs work - but time to move on - hope you find it amusing...Nancy http://www.intercad-inc.com/nancy/bopthebozo.htm

Thanks Stephen for the reply, and that wonderfully thoughtful, helpful & very understandable description of your technique for working with props/action objects. Lots of very good info. Especially new idea to me was about applying the constraints late in the animating process. Boy am I dealing with this. And boy am I dealing with transferring control without "jumps". Yikes. When I get a bit further, and some courage, perhaps I'll post my wip Since I last posted - I had discovered my silliness by not also using the Orient like constraint as well as translate to (duh - didn't think I needed it as I wasn't trying to change orientation of prop) - and found out what was causing (as well as solution) to some of the problem with using successive actions with the same prop, however there are still problems with using more than 1 action with same prop in the chor, and so I have resorted to just starting a new chor - bit of a pain having to setup the end of the entire scene keyframes into the beginning of the new scene. (wish there was some automatic Command: - like "Start new chor with this frame for all active components") As for animating in an action versus chor for non-repetitive activities, I had developed a habit of setting my keyposes in the action, checking the in-betweening, but not being real picky about the timing. I would then use the ease channel for the action in the chor to work on the more precise timing of the action - lazy way - that way I'm mostly dealing with only 1 channel for the actor, and it's easier to coordinate with the action of other actors in the scene. Also I find it very difficult to animate in the chor with the splines/images of all the other cameras, lights, ground plane, & other actors getting in the way of my view (even using front, side, etc), not to mention it's seems to have a more sluggish computer response, - just found it less distracting and more fluid in the action window. But I should probably rethink my lazy ways... Again thank you so much for your response, I have read & re-read it many times as it contains very relevant, and helpful info for me (and anyone else, I suspect, trying to work with props) - Nancy

Must add my cheers: Absolutely Terrific work! both the model and animation, very, very envious of you both - And now please, please share some technique about animating with props. I am having the most difficult time (ver 10.5o, PC) with action objects and having them stayed "glued" to the character's hand motion - I am doing something very similar with a character trying to hold something in both hands while walking or doing other things (coincindently also trying to manipulate paper as well as other objects). I have tried 1) action object translated to a hand bone, with compensation, without compensation, 2) having the hand bones translated to bones in the prop, again compensate, no compensate. In all cases the prop/hands seem to drift apart with motion, and I end up having to re-position constantly. And it doesn't look all that convincing (as yours is brilliant). Stephen, What is your technique for animating? Do you work in the chor with the prop or in an action? and how did you get them to stay so attached? Did you use kinematic constraints? as well? Another problem I am having is that if I create 2 different actions each containing the same prop, and then drag to the chor, the prop disappears in the 2nd action! Huh? wha? Anyone else experiencing this? Please share the secrets... Thanks - Nancy

Ooo Ooo ... My turn... Just figured out how to EASILY get my character Models on a flat white background, where the groundplane only shows the shadows of the models - without doing shadow buffers, alpha buffers, and recompositing in another program: In the Chor - 1) make the Camera have a Rotoscope that is a plain White square (or any color or any image of your choice) 2) Make the ground plane model be a Front projection Target, Flat shaded, and accept shadows (do NOT say shadows only) Render away, et Voila ! The trick seems to be the ground plane has to be front projection target ... if you just set flat shaded - no shadows show up on the ground. Oh I am sooooo happy. (or perhaps I'm so simple minded, that it took me so long to figure this out with all the bewildering array of options) Nancy

Hi - oh yes - I like like it alot also - very cute - love the background, love the models, color scheme some suggestions, composition wise: the far tree is confusing, appears to be part of the front tree - maybe move it a bit? to break illusion, or change color to darker?, or change camera angle some?. separate the bug a bit more from the background, his silohouette(sp?) gets a bit lost. perhaps add some more foreground interest, or items on tall hill (smaller plants, bugs,)- for some side activities extraneous to the story... "hot spot on mushroom" is a bit shiny, maybe tone down the specularity? As I said very cute..thanks for posting - Nancy