NancyGormezano

Blah...I don't like either one of them. I don't like the acting in Bigbird yet - of any of the characters. The "story", so far doesn't get communicated well: She's complaining of being stuck at home having to do all the nest chores all day with screaming baby birds. I was going to add more baby birds demanding her attention, and try to fix Big Daddy Bird actions to look more like he's trying to comfort, be understanding, make "nice". My husband prefers BigBird (but feels the baby bird on ground is distracting). He's probably just sick of seeing/hearing dialog, but probably not as sick of it as me. Steve - It's my opinion, that everyone is qualified to have a preference - and the gut opinion of any audience viewer - regardless of experience, counts. Maybe even more. However, you are not inexperienced either. Sometimes I feel that those who have animation experience, might focus or be distracted by technical aspects, rules, etc. However, they are more likely to be able to suggest ways to make it better, or know why something doesn't work. There's no right/wrong rules for telling someone how they should react/feel - when viewing something for the first time. That is a most valuable reaction/feedback. Usually the animation only gets 1 chance to make an impression, and not many animations get played over. Thanks all for your responses.

looks terrific so far - hope you get the smartskin problem sorted...

OK - In the first movie there's not too much difference, mainly changed the hand moving down the tummy. The second attempt is entirely new (started yesterday). Comments welcome. Still a little time to make mods (tomorrow is deadline). Which one? WiddleBirdH264.mov BigBirdH264.mov

hee hee - Living on the edge, are we? A fish! A fish! A flounder fish? I expect the same ol' same ol' Robcat quality super-terrificness. (umm...no pressure, now...) EDIT:changed my mind: little shop of horrors man-eatin' plant?

Wha?...Ya mean you haven't noticed the incredible resemblance between Santa Myron and Moses ??? Geesh - All he needs is some nice new perky robes and a spiffy mean Smitning rod. That can double as a snake. The rod, that is. Not the Myroses fella.

My favorite frogs are the ones used for making poison darts that'll kill ya in an instant. But we're talking Egypt here ...so best we can hope for is that they slime ya to death: And the Lord spoke to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord: "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs. So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls. And the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants." Ewwwww. Sounds pretty icky to me. That big nice fly looks like it could eat a frog.

I agree, it is kind of obvious ...(thinking to self: hmmm...Now what obscene gesture can I come up with?) tsk tsk...another pantie peeker in the crowd... Maybe the Mothra's should fly out from under her skirt? I mean...as long as your eyes are there? .... Again, I kid. Thanks - I also thought that some too...happened inadvertently when I moved the camera back. They didn't show when I had a closer camera - will see what next silliness I can conjur to fix this...

Okey dokey - attack of the mutant vampire killer moths is now in the planning stages.... John - rules are - can't modify sound clip in any way Myron - It's "Nine cans of aerosol whipped cream" - I repeat - Can't change sound quality. Ummm...actually I think this is a fun clip to animate to...it's HARD to animate this clip or ANY for that matter (for me). Most of the other sound clips haven't grabbed me. Steve - perhaps the Giant Mother Mothra's I'll be adding will distract your attention from the disturbing bird on head? I can only try... Yup - I can feel my inner "going rogue" ramping up...Sista Sarah is calling me to the fold. Seriously, I don't do this to win. I do this for fun, learning, and to see how ridiculous I can push it, and see what works and what doesn't. All this feedback is very valuable. Thanks again all.

Next attempt. Ditched the butterflies - added a new friend. Yes? No? maybe? cocoon19h264High.mov

Oh yes! The plagues! The plagues! I love the plagues! I had in mind to paint the 10? plagues on some Passover dishes sitting in my garage - I've been threatening to do it for years now... Ribbbbit.

You betcha - that's why I like it too. I can understand it! Or at least I can pretend I understand it. Aside from that, I like that I can easily isolate the geometry bones from control bones. I like the naming conventions. And I particularly like that it has some pseudo-squetching with the neck, torso and lower hips, even the arms some. I like the face controls, the hand controls, the IK/FK switching. I find it barebones only in terms of number of bones - it's full featured enough for me. Installation is easy enough. Relying on "black box voodoo" is uncomfortable for me. I offer my feedback only in case you or others might benefit. I recognize you're probably not wanting to maintain this rig ad nauseum

I like it with the shadows too - hadn't thought about using lite list. And I repeat - nice, friendly characters

Thanks Steve - yeah I agree about the wand - thanks to Robcat for suggesting a prop, and his valuable feedback. Thanks to Michel as well for his also helpful feedback. Thanks to Holmes for his Literig. Thanks to Malo for his modeling tutorial. Thanks to A:M for a full featured, accessible and powerful product and forum. I am also working on next iteration ... trying to add some friends for her... trick will be to not have them be tooooo distracting, cluttering, but subtly add to this 11 second story. I did fool around with a swarm of butterflies...That was a bit tooooo much. I think. I have another idea I will try. And Thanks Bruce! Glad you likeee...but I think you're just looking at her undies...ummm...now that I think about it...so is Steve probably... Here's the swarm attempt - would need more control over their movement, like I said - I have another idea I will try. But I also changed the lighting ...I think I prefer this flatter lighting?... cocoonshiny15newlightswarmMed.mov

terrific throne (to go with also terrific Phred Pharoh)! - I think you're onto something...or on something...or something like that.

Next iteration: Moved camera back, added prop, tried to fix penetrations, tried to fix lip sync, added some more (subtle) body movement across/within camera frame, changed some gestures, tried to loosen up and yup - different acting choices are coming to me - might add a widdle bird/insect that flits around as a side kick if I have the energy, inclination cocoonshiny15MPEG4med.mov

Datsa some Phunnie Pharoh - terrific character! Your modeling just keeps getting better and better

Nice friendly looking characters! I believe the black specs are an artifact of AO (and insufficient passes? not sure) You might try adding a klieg light, with z buffered shadows. Add a rotoscope (an all white image) to the camera. Make the ground plane front projected and flat shaded. I think? it will work with AO (I know it works with AI). You may have to decrease the AI value, and/or you may want to set the klieg to just be spec ON but diffuse OFF, and definitely shadows ON.

Just checking...(I changed normal to bump in your sash project) Are you viewing with Render lock (green button) ON screen (which looks bad and is not how it will render) as well as Render mode (blue button - which looks good to me and is how it will final render based on whatever settings you have in your render dialog?

Yes - it's the very same song...Have your people call my people and we'll take a meeting...

Yup, looks like a mighty fine Chickbot magnet to me.

Thanks Steve! Thanks Michel for your comments - I agree about screen movement, didn't notice the index finger - but I've changed it, as well as toned down skirt movement on "yesterday" (was trying to go for belly bounce) I've tried to address the issues in the next iteration - But - of course I'm messing things up, making more problems and having some difficulties working with a prop. Also having some problems with body movement, so I don't think I'll rework my mundane acting choices too much (would have to start over) - but when I get more confidence & control/knowledge of this rig - I will definitely try to be more creative on the next effort.

Hi Holmes This is primarily a question. And maybe a FYI. I noticed when using the lite rig (for doing the 11 sec club animation this month) that I was missing being able to rotate the HIPS Null and have the body (torso,pelvis, arms) rotate with it. Perhaps I missed some instructions to reparent the torso geom bone, and maybe the Biceps as well? So I just did some experimenting. I dragged the torso, bicep bone hierarchies to under the Hips null If I didn't miss the instructions, and that wasn't your intent, you may find, like me, that there is more flexibility and ease of use if you do that. Everything seems to still work. However I did not test extensively. I think when I am done with the 11 sec animation, I will do this to Rita. I think this works better as you can still isolate torso, lower hips movement, as well as move them all together. I took a look to see what the other rigs were doing - and its all over the place. So obviously it's a preference of mine.

HAH! they are great! I do a very sophisticated rendition of singing "Fairy Tales Can Come true" in chicken squak-speak - if you ever need a voice for them. Bwack bwack bwaaaaack...

Thanks Robert - I appreciate your input. I will try to take it to the next step, and incorporate what you've suggested. Ah yes. You shoulda seen it BEFORE I loosened it up...And my husband said - yikes that looks sooooo blocky stiff! Normally I don't do blocking, or pose to pose. I usually wing it - do straight ahead, or a combo of the 2. And usually the comments are - it's tooo floaty, need more holds...So this time I thought I'd try guessing at what I think the procedure is that other animators seem to do. Notice I said GUESS. I can see why this method might make for the "everything moving at once" and "too stiff" look. But it was good to do it that way - and now I have to figure out how to get the fluidity back, without being floaty. Delete keys, move keys, and change biases, I'm guessing. UH YUP. I had also thought the same things. Thanks for reinforcing. At this point - I was trying to try different technique (for me), without getting too creative, difficult. And yes - the result shows lack of creativity. I was also trying to work on better hand emoting gestures. I couldn't resist. This dialog just begged me for demonstrative hands. Again it was good to do for me (at this stage of my fooling around). I found my acting choices "obvious" as well. A GUN, you say? Now THAT has creative possibilities. I was thinking more along the lines of adding the same ol', same ol' fairy wand and petite butterfly wings...and...and...a tiara...a twinkly, glittery, sparkly, motorized, gurly tiara... Thanks again for the feedback and suggestions. Thanks John also.

Ok. testing, testing 1 2 3 4 with this month's 11 second dialog problems I see: 1) rigging, modeling issues with arms, hands 2) lip sync for "yesterday I ate" starting around frame 155 3) hands penetrate around frame 95-96 4) ??? (not done with costuming, texturing) Comments welcome (and nooooo...ya won't have to go vote for me...unless you absolutely, positively want to wade thru 6 billion entries all with the same dialog) coccoonshiny8mpeg4medPCMhintedstream.mov