NancyGormezano

Awwwww...perhaps to get back to more "On Topic" (even tho you took your video down) - I found this short interview and one person's opinion of what makes a good animation demo reel. If you are looking to change jobs (while you are also in pursuit of improving your animation skills), I would think that you could get a job as a storyboard artist in a heartbeat. You have exceptional skill in that area already. It looks to me that 2D is making a comeback, and that your skill set also shines there. Forgive me, if I reopened a topic if you really wanted to drop it.

nice one!

They've convinced me. No mystery why Comic Sans fits me to a tee-shirt. I shall continue to use it for all things tooney, but never, ever, in a bazillion-jillion years for when I need to put on my grown-up face, use my indoor voice, write a ransom note, or eviction notice. EDIT: I take it back. I'm switching to Boopee.

I too am shamed. I like to use this font on any images/screen captures I post (on which I've added explanations to forum questions) because it's readable and isn't as boring as Arial or Times Roman types of fonts. Do tell, what font do you suggest using, so that we won't be so uber-pariah-ish?

In case anyone wasn't familiar with the dance and song of which I spoke - . I am particularly fond of performing the Lollipop Kids tap dance part, and is still to this day, one of my specialities, guaranteed to scare the beejeebus outta ya. Yes, I can honestly say there is nothing remaining on my bucket list. My work is done.

How about something like the current open-only-to-UK-resident's BBC's search for free content: "Funny in 15" - you get exactly 15 (no more, no less) seconds to make us laugh. Suddenly my funny bone just went blank. 15 seconds to kill Thom or character of your choice in a funny way?

Patty Duke was introduced, and became instantly famous (won Oscar for best supporting actress) for the role of the young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker", opposite Anne Bancroft. From there on, it seems like it was downhill all the way.

Thanks Winkleman & Kat! Thanks Mouseman for your thoughts. I'm going to continue a bit, and see how far I want to take this. Yes, that works too! Thanks. Works differently than 2008, but will use it for now. I'll see which scheme I prefer after I've played more. Actually I mostly did ballet, toe, but was quite good at tap. I didn't like tap because it wasn't gurly enough for this Princess Cinderella Wannabe. I haven't tap danced in centuries, and I certainly wasn't able to do anything remotely like Fred & Ginger. But I did once beat out Patty Duke in a competition. She is much, much older than me of course. It was for a children's TV program, but I was way too shy, so I declined the opportunity. (photo is the only one I have scanned of me before a recital). Your idea of me tap dancing now has proven to be very amusing to my husband. I'm really quite the spectacle singing and doing the Munchkin dance in "Wizard of Oz".

Ooooo...Looking good! One thing that bothers me some is the tree sticking up directly behind the lion as it looks too connected to him, looks like it's sticking up out of his butt. Perhaps it could be moved left (so it doesn't intersect lion in 2D), and the lion moved right and down more onto the empty path? For me, there is too much empty path in front. I like the nonchalant giraffes with the lion. Lions really do stay away from the adults, as giraffes can do some serious damage with their powerful legs. However, lions will try to go after the babies. A lone lion can easily be chased off by the momma. I'm not so sure about when they are hunting in a group, but I'm sure it would be a fierce fight.

Oooooo yes, that does seem like it will help! I turned off knee follow foot controller (0%), and I translated the ball controller to a better position such that pivoting is easier to control, & coordinate with the foot controller. I haven't tested it extensively but it does initially seem easier, better - thanks! I might even replace Ida's leg rig as well with 2008 legs (had been thinking of doing that even before you mentioned this), unless I can figure out a similar way with literig legs.

Ida uses literig legs, Lothario uses 2008 rig legs. Rest of Ida is all literig (with minor mods), Lothario is a hybrid of literig and 2008 rig (legs only, no auto balance) EDIT: Here's both of them - no images, materials Lothario.zip

Yes, indeedy. Figuring out how to approach this is a major challenge, along with my clumsy rigging, and animating level of competence. Hurdles, mistakes so far: 1) the I've foolishly chosen is quite energetic, fast tapping on toes alot. My copy that I've captured (via mediaconverter) is quite blurry, making it even more difficult for me to see precisely what's really going on. This might be a good thing, as then I am forced to insert some creativity. 2) Silly me, I left out the stairs, and other ground reference points. I intend to put in some pattern on ground (checkerboard), so that I can judge movement, foot placement, camera across floor, and then take it out or replace for final clip. I might even resort to putting stairs, or other elevation thingies back in (had originally thought I would just have them move forward in the beginning towards camera). I might have to add animating camera as well as I go, because I get confooosed as to relative distances, etc. 3) I started thinking that I would animate them in one place (similar to doing it in an action), and move the model bone for traveling. Bad idea. So I switched midstream. It's always confusing to me as to how to animate 1 long sequence (with no camera cut) of actors moving across screen. I think leave the model bone be, and only animate the bone bones is the better way to go. Any tips? 4) For me, tis very hard figuring out the major key poses. I decided to look for hip motion (when direction changes, eg reaches extreme of up/down) as well as foot plant and foot extreme high points. I have been keying all bones at those places, but would need to go back and insert intermediate keys so that feet don't slide, weight stays on planted foot, arms, legs don't penetrate in passing. I also want to add some cartoony squishy squashy eventually. As well as overlap of arm, hand motion, cute face expressions. 5) I am confused by both my foot rigs, Ida uses the literig leg scheme, Lothario uses 2008 leg rig scheme (but rest of him is literig). Tap dancing is a lot of tapping on toes. Both the rigs are very awkward as to coordinating heel bone and foot control null, as both influence the thigh bone directions, ankle angle. I am not sure how to approach posing them for least frustration (ie foot null first? heel first? then hip?). I haven't animated any toe control yet either - which is probably another foolish decision. 6) I anticipate trouble getting a pleasing sound track, ie get the tapping beat coordinated with the animation. The youtube sound track is "dirty" and starts mid-sentence. I probably should have started with good sound track, otherwise I'm guessing bad sound track will be annoying.

Thanks thejobe! I've just started animating Lothario & Ada Idah doing the Fred & Ginger tap-dance thang. This is truly first pass, only 173 frames (of 1100). If I continue, the whole thing will be about 50 secs long. Still need to do: animate the faces, Lothario's tail, clean up footwork, arm work, hands, fingers, the remaining frames. Not sure what I will do yet for background, props (there is no fakeAO, thus it's a bit washed out). I am using an existing clip of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers as reference. I am finding that it is very tedious to copy them exactly, doesn't feel creative at all, so I'm trying to introduce some variation for these characters. We'll see if I actually continue with this, because I'm not sure what I'm learning, other than how to use a rotoscope for animating, but I wanted to do a test render & initial test with hair, and dynamic constraints. This dance routine has some potential for being included in an story/animation that I am thinking about. test0_173compresshintloop.mov

If I recall, I believe others have used a background model (eg flat plane, cylinder, dome) to obscure the empty "sky". Perhaps that might help?

Hey !!!! wait just a minute now...Happy belated birthday yesterday Steve-Mr. Tricky-Shelton and Jason!

BitmapPlus is a plug-in (material), that was written by Marcel Bricman (see original thread here), and I think? it is now included normally with A:M. Wonderfully easy to use straight out of box, but comes with lots of tweakability (most of which I don't understand). I usually just tweak size, scale of pattern, and repeat counts. I believe Marcel originally intended the material to be used for things like tiling flat surfaces with repeats and introducing variation in direction, and color. I don't use it for that. You can overlay decals ontop of surfaces that have BitMapPlus material, the decals will take precedence, so you would make the opacity of the decal less than 100%. The "glitter" or scintillating effect is an illusion, and is probably due to the smallness of the detail in the fabric pattern, and the small number of pixels that it resolves to on the screen. The brocade image itself also has variation in lighting in it already. I've uploaded the image for you to try. You can substitute any image easily. chinese0093seamless_copy.tga

Did the band give you feedback as to what they didn't like? I am assuming they are this group " Finding Reason is a modern/alternative rock music project from Houston TX, created by a small band of musicians on a quest to find some sanity in this world, some meaning to it all, some reason for being." One thing that jumps out at me is that neither their name, nor the song's name is easily evident. Was this a commissioned piece? Did you have conversations with them with respect to ideas before starting? Great effects (way too much violence for me in these troubling times). Now, if you had blown up some cute bunnies... Congrats on getting another one done!

hee hee - I just grabbed the first giraffe photo I had handy - absolutely, do NOT do a 2 headed giraffe. But I thought the pose was cute, if it was made more obviously better, I didn't want to spend too much time on this.

Oooo yes giraffes! good idea. Unfortunately they get lost, and their relative size to the tree, grass is too subtle to pick them up - perhaps eliminating the tree and making them more prominent, and obviously nervously eyeing the lion might work? Perhaps the camera angle should be changed slightly (or the lion's mane changed some) to prevent the head of lion lining up with the horizon line behind it as well? The tree foliage could be less dense, more scraggly, and show more of a straight cut browsing line at the bottom, due to creatures nibbling the vegetation at their maximum height line, to be technically corrrect - but not necessary for this composition. The grass looks good, maybe a little more variation in height, angles of growth would add more realism - it's the right kind of grass, right color. Keep the sparse look - these habitats are very stark, dry, thorny, taxing on the survival & adaptation skills of all. EDIT: Just noticed you addressed some of the issues while I was posting.

Oh yeah, much better environment! Nice! It would be neat to see a herd of zebra lined up, spanning across the entire hill horizon (like Cowboy & Indian movies), onguard, warily watching as Mr. Big Fluffy Wuffy saunters along, probably looking for shade or water. You are safe if you can see and/or hear the lion(s). It's time to be more cautious if you DON'T see or hear them. They blend into grass extremely well, when crouched or lying down. Lions will announce their presence from miles away by roaring continuously as they are walking along. It's mighty unnerving when sleeping in a tent (ok, TRY-ing to sleep). Especially when the roaring keeps getting louder and louder.

I agree, I don't like how parallel his feet are. I could have done better with his feet. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm currently entertaining doing a Fred & Ginger dance routine with Lothario and Ada Idah (that's raggy-doll's name for today), or perhaps a "Les Twins" new style hip-hop dance type animation. Either choice will challenge me greatly for a posing exercise, if I do.

Doing a terrific job on the lion - great mane, great texture on body coat. The set is excellent as well Since it appears that you are going for realism - there are a couple of things that instantly jump out at me: 1) the habitat is inconsistent to where lions are found (in africa) - the vegetation is too green, and too reminiscent of rain forest. If you made your vegetation more like that of desert, savannah, it would probably look more realistic. There are some areas that are more lush, green, where lions are found (India - gir forrest), and perhaps in the rainy season in the Masai Mara - but tree vegetation would still be thornyish, probably not have ferns. You could probably just change the colors of your hair vegetation to more sandy, desert colors, and it would be less disturbing. 2) Nails probably wouldn't be extended whilst walking (especially in the back). The coloring of nails would be beat up, dark, with some transparency 3) lion would have battle scars, unless he's a zoo or hollywood type. If you are not going for realism - then never mind.

the smoke2.mat uses dim.tga dim.tga

Enjoyed this! Good story telling!

I noticed the foot sliding as well, was a bit distracting. But rest of the animation is quite good. Some parts might go too long As for the transition when he gets punched - I feel like it happens without enough setup, anticipation right before. Perhaps the main character could lean into the mirror (& hold) while mirror guy (MG) doesn't follow the lean in, but reacts differently, eventually with a startle perhaps?, then MG pulls back arm, (or some other anticipatory pose/action with hold), and then does the quick punch. Or something like that. Neat idea for animation!