NancyGormezano

Fun! No sound?

I like stop-mo look! I was hoping that when I am done with 1st pass animation for the whole dance (about 20-25 secs more to go), I will attempt to smooth the motion out some first. I have way toooo many keys currently, which might account for it looking jerkier than it should. I have considered trying motion blur, and will try it in AE to see how it works with this dance. I suspect the whole thing would be too much of a blur, as there is just tooooo much motion. I haven't tryed, but have considered it. At some point, I will try a render with step 2, just to see how I like it even more stop-mo looking. For now I will continue on 24fps, as I'm working with a roto at 24 fps. And I'm having a hard enough time coordinating with it. I am delaying animating the tail until I'm done animating the whole dance at least 1st pass. I haven't decided yet if I want to do some dynamic constraint thing or do by hand. I currently have the tail setup for dynamic constraints (turned OFF), but my current settings make it tooo twitchy, distracting. I am thinking I will probably animate tail by hand, and will give the tail "more personality", and a better resting shape. Right now, I just try to move it out of the way. I am also toying with making the tail a "prop" for flirting with Ida Ada Idunno. But with all his turning about, it could end up looking like a whip. If I do animate tail by hand for the majority, I will need some advice on approach of getting nice flowing curves for it. I also haven't yet animated his whiskers, nor ears. Both also have dynamic constraints...I might do some manual animation for them as well. And I will probably have to do some "collision detection" with the hair - either automatic, or by hand. I'm ignoring it for now. Any bits animated with dynamic constraints, will be done after I've coordinated the main animation a bit more with final music (which is still unknown) Nice! Thanks for the seed! I already plan to have them end up embracing at the end of the dance. Thanks JimD and Mouseman (and all) for your comments.

Here's 10 more seconds. (3 pass with FakeAO, 12 secs/frame for 720 x 405). Still figuring out the set. Still trying out different music. This clip is Modern Jazz Samba by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech. Others being considered are in the following genres: Comic (One Eyed Maestro by Macleod heard in previous post), Bluesy number (Niles Blues by MacLeod), Middle Eastern (La Roza Linda by Al-Asdeka), 1930's Fred Astaire (Crazy Feet, Cheek to Cheek). Still to do (besides music): 20ish more secs of the dance, and clean-up, polish Face animation Tail animation Uh....and....um....uh....Think up a Story! (& animate any additional non-dancing) Set, props details Camera work (Thanks Mouseman for your encouragement - sorry I didn't respond early) chor21d2_0000_0622wModernJazzSambaH264.mov

I wonder if the alpha channel is on, inadvertently? I believe there is some funny business with QT mov and alpha channels. Change your output file type temporarily to tga and see if alpha channel is set ON. Turn it off if so, and then try to render to QT. What do you mean by "standard settings"?

I like! The sounds coordinate very well in timing with the foot impact, and the gun ..er...laser fire. Well done! looks good HOWEVER, to me the sound used for the foot stomp sounds as if it is off in the distance, and not located nearby. I looked around on my hard drive for some thud sounds - but nada - however I did find some door closings, metal crashing that you might? be able to edit in audacity to change into some foot stomps for your critter FOOTDoorslam.zip

Excellent, terrific costume, hair

The sound you have chosen currently does not seem like a foot stomp. It sounds more like an explosion. If you want to have a foot stomp sound, as well as camera shake, then the sound and shake should probably be coordinated with each foot plant (right and left, unless he's a limper). You probably would not want to have such a violent shake, nor such an explosive type sound, maybe more of a loud boom-thud?. Any thud sound should probably be timed to be delayed starting 0-1? frames after the foot has planted (but never before the contact). You'll have to play around and see what works. If you stick with the current explosion sound, and have it come in as to where it comes in now (currently it seems there are only 2 blasts), then IMO, I think it would work better to make the camera shake coordinate with the 2 explosion sounds (thus only 2 shakes). EDIT: AND I forgot the most important thing: I LIKE THE SHAKE (good job!) & the current sound - just feel they would work better coordinated.

My feeling is that the camera shake would feel/look better if it was coordinated with the explosion or blast sound, rather than foot impact. Then only 2 shakes needed. The explosion sound is a more dominant cue than the foot strike.

very cute!

Oh NOoooooo!!!! Another BIG ...uh...Happy Happy Birthday!

Ummmm.... animation is about going thru, frame by frame, over and over, till ya wanna puke - however - a trick would be to examine the foot control in graph editing mode (not keyframe mode), note which frames the foot makes contact with ground by looking at the pattern (in my case) in the y -channel, and then coordinate the camera shake with those frames. In my example that would be frames 0, 12, 35 (this was example only)

Uh....A:M is $79.00 (not $79,000) for a 1 year subscription/license per computer (expires). Or if you need to own it forever - it's $299 for a CD (which acts like a "dongle", and you can use it on any computer, forever). Yes you will be able to download v16, for either choice (but it's not officially released yet) Your computer should work beautifully with A:M, you'll probably get better results than what that $150,000 workstation got.

I like it better as well - Another thing that occurred to me, after looking at your new clip, is that it might also look/sound more ominous if you cut out the frames entirely where he is lifting his head (I think this is around frames 236-340) - and cut directly (or a quick zoom-in motion) to a close-up skewed angle shot of his head when he says "witch". The first image is what you have now for frame 358, which is too similar in camera to your first shots. I think it might add more tension, more interest to skew the angle some (as in the 2nd, third shot).

Have to agree - looks terrific!

I like ! But instead of the ground shudder, or in addition - perhaps some camera shake coordinated with the sound of the explosions would be interesting. Looking good!

And the monkeys? How do they sound? Not that I would have any interest in doing a crazed Monkey chatter voice...but just in case, are they: Dulcet, adoring, MOCKING, studious, thoughtful, complacent, EVIL, pathetic, alien, robotic, british...etc?

From Transvestylvania ? (just remember, you all started it, and I have no self-control)

Nice handcuffs, well done! Clip is interesting! To communicate the mood better, I think it would be better to tone down camera motion, or drifting. Maybe? it might be more effective to hold the camera on Onton's face/upper body say from frame 7 - 150ish (maybe closer in for drama?), then straight cut to his legs when he struggles with the chains (with a more straight on camera angle?). Hold til 220ish (but fix sword passing thru his boot/leg around frame 216), and then cut back up to his head/upper body.

Since you are experimenting with AO & the ceiling, perhaps you might try FAKEAO to see how that might work? Won't be the same of course, but it's a quick test. I don't know if it would suit you, but you might see some possibilities to cut down on your render time. I too am curious, what kind of render time are you getting ?

Happy Happy Day of Birth to both Paul & Mark !

I think the higher the spec, the higher the reflectivity, the more it looks like glass? (all done with 3 pass, so don't look at shadows)

looks great. I took your original project (not the one you just posted) and added Matcap shader (diffuse, and ambiant with ambiant intensity = 200%) to your blue glass material (first image - only 3 pass), then added a dome with image projected on it to give the plastic something to reflect (2nd image - also 3 pass). Also changed the reflective blend to 50%, made ambiance color black. Made ground not reflective Different images were used for the matcap, and the dome.

Perhaps try an environment map using some interesting image...maybe even your rendered image? I like how it's coming along. I think it interesting, but crazy to try to copy exactly something that I'm betting was most likely done with cheats, tricks, in some other software. Their algorythm is also an approximation. Not necessarily a more accurate method. Even when commercial images are created using photography, there are always cheats (need I state the obvious: photoshop photoshop photoshop) to get a certain snazzy look, that is not necessarily reality, nor what the camera saw, but more what they wanted the camera to see.

Hmmm...I just experienced this (or a similar problem) when rendering. Unfortunately I don't know what caused it. The only way I could get it to clear up, was to restart A:M. I'm guessing that for the bad rendering (2nd image) to occur, I had started the render while I was not on frame 0?

Yes it seems to add a "snap" (the middle one), almost like centrifugal force, whereas the right most example adds style. Just wanted to let you know I'm trying to incorporate this into my dance animation and I LIKE, I like! Thanks again.