John Bigboote

Yup- If you have cats...everything ends up on the floor... I really like the cars out the window... very Friz Freling-esque

Yup---After Effects was highly implemented in this, as with most all of my work. I've been using AE since it was 'CoSA After Effects' (V1) (Company of Science and Art...1993-4ish)

YEAH! Is that particle hair? Nice job.

Yup! STUPID...MINDLESS...rot your brain kinda stuff. Actually... the characters are TIRES, but they have a hockey puck umbrella over them. Thanks!

Hey- I've been really busy lately... Recent animation for a local Tire chain that sponsors the 'Grand Rapids (MI) Griffins' minor league hockey team. The animation will run on the scoreboard at center ice during intermissions. I had always wanted to do one of these types of cartoons, and had fun doing it. I'm always amazed at sporting events how these mindless cartoons get BIG audience response... I hope mine does. Sorry about the big files sizes. Each is 1 minute long and there are 3 outcomes, and all share a common 1st half. This project took one week to complete, as the main character was already modeled and rigged and I just needed to make 2 other versions of him. Oh yeah--- that is the 'BensLens' fisheye being used on the 'behind the net' scene... AND Thom and his family make a cameo... There is no audio, the in-house announcer will have fun adding live V/O and the in-house DJ music. BT_GR_Blue_winsSM.mov BT_GR_Red_winsSM.mov BT_GR_White_winsSM.mov

Gah. I just searched for a previous discussion where I uploaded a bunch of building mattes but I could not find... Best way is to go to a city(unless you already LIVE in one...) and shoot a lot of digital images of buildings. Preferably, from as straight an angle as possible, but usually you will end up down in the street shooting upward. Take these highly distorted images into Photoshop and use the distortion tools to 're-square' the image back to a rectangle. Now, you have a great image to use as a roto and apply as a decal. Also in Photoshop make a new layer and make a greyscale image that represents depth-differences, slight insets and outsets(darker and lighter greys, with a mid grey as the base.) for the windows and accents. Apply that as a depth matte... make another(with an alpha) for transparency for windows. Applying all these to a simply extruded box (as targas)makes for a nice, low mesh model. HAVE FUN!

Aw, C'mon, Stian...give us the models! GREAT work! I am very happy to hear you found a worthy employer that can make use of your abilities, I just wish I was in a better position to have hired you...SHUX! On the rainbow effect... it looks better softer...maybe add some prismatic light-effects to the ground...?

I think you mean "This screenshot has thickness and kinkiness from 0% to 100%"

No- you can't assign bones to the particle hair. Make sure dynamics are off, pre-roll is set to zero, and your real-time options are at lowest settings. You may need to wait 20-30 seconds after making a hair-brush swipe or moving the hair-controllers around before the change updates...depending on the density of the hair, your CPU speed and stuff like that. Good Luck.

Looking good, Spleenster! Maybe when you get the face smoothed out you can put some time into his eyes... a nice 3D reflective eyeball will make him look alive. Do a forum search om eyeball, there may be one you can copy/paste but it's really quite simple to make on your own.

Looking good... I can see the Michael Keaton in it!

Yeah...when you say 'realistic people' you are sort of referencing the 'holy grail' of computer animation. Sure you want it, I want it...everybody wants it. I've seen Poser images and animations, they are good- quiet good...but not fully realistic in my eye. What you are after is 'convincing' CGI people. The THING that buggs me about Poser imagery that I've seen... is that from user to user, and there are a lot of Poser users... the thumbprint of the work does not change. There is no individualism. It's all out of the same gun... Not so in A:M land. You can sell people on YOUR vision of what 'realistic' really is, to you. And if realistic imagery of humans is what you are after- you should also be familiar and expert with these CGI concepts: -Facial motion capture and expressions -Motion capture full body -Sub Surface Scattering and advanced lighting techniques -Render farms and network rendering solutions (You'll need this) -Particle hair -CGI cloth simulations -Character animation in general And remember...if Hollywood really had the ability to do fully realistic 3D characters... they would have no need for the Angelina Jolies and Brad Pitt's. They might be there in the near future, but the actors are not worrying yet.

Good eye! Yup.

Todays tweeks...

Thanks Gerry... Here's a better example of the 1940's Disney Animator 'Freddie Moore's' button-eye design, I dig it!

Hyello- Martin recently was mentioning the strengths of copy/pasting body parts to make your own characters. Not only is this a great way to learn but it is a speedy way to get custom characters on demand. The other day I did a test for a potential diet supplement advert where a woman who has 'recieved the benefits' of the diet supplement would be the central character in the spot. My potential clients needed a 'mock-up' for a meeting so they could sell their concept, and 'theoretically' if I made the art I would get the gig... (doesn't always work that way...) They initially wanted a 2D traditional animated character, but liked the idea of a 2D/3D look. I used to do 2D character animation but as the years passed and demand for it was SO sporatically low, I turned to 3D graphics as a primary career(with BIG help from A:M). Now, when someone wants 2D traditional cel animation, I wince at the amount of work it will take to do it. I'm no young fool anymore, drawing my days away for some hideously low budget ad in the hopes that I might get noticed by Disney. SO--- I wanted to sell them on a 3D woman with a 2D look...enter Hash and the toon shader. I started by sketching, and my client Googled for women in the age and dress that he had in mind. I thought it would be a 40's plump housewife but was pleasantly surprised by the images I got from him... a hot 30's smart looking woman in a short skirt and heels, I told him- 'I've been practicing my whole life for this!' I then spent 1 day 'Frankenstiening' other body parts to a head I custom modeled with helmet-hair. The eyes are a neat 'stylized' look I borrowed from my Disney's 'The Art of Animation' and some sketches there from the great Freddie Moore. Quick TSM2 rig. Pose and render. I beef-up the toon lines in Photoshop with a thick outside line. Now, I'm hoping it will sell!

29.97 is known as 'drop-frame'...meaning it will drop an entire frame at a rate of about 1 per minute of animation. Is that something to worry about? Absolutely not.

Hey Ben! There's a guy in Asheville who is using an old version of Lightwave to make Car Dealership advertisements that he then leases to small dealerships and makes a KILLING! I talked to him about 2 years ago and he was considering freelancing an animator to make more spots. http://horsepowerads.com/ The thing is... he seems to have no budget for the animation... he kicks the stuff out very quickly- at least he says he does... the money all comes from the LEASE and customizing of the unique dealerships. I thought the guys entire approach was innovative, and it's pretty darned profitable for him... making ANNOYING TV spots that are a BIG step beyond what the dealer himself could do. ANYWAYS- he wanted someone local...could it be you? Thought you should know. PS- I have another innovation to our 'BENSLENS'... I call it 'Xtreme'... will share it soon! PSS--- Look at the 'fisheye' effect in all the Horsepower spots... must be built in to Lightwave.

Wow...that toot was made in 1996! Still pertinent and highly usable too!

Nice and clean!

Hey Walter, WELCOME! My family vacationed near Asheville last year, tis a beautiful state you have there! I have a thing called a 'Frapper' (down under my signature) that is a neat-O Google freebie thing that allows people in large groups (Like this forum) to sort of 'stick a pin in the map' and introduce yourself while showing everyone from where you 'hail'... you might want to check that for Hasher's in your area, and while there...stick YOUR pin in the map! (You will get NO junk-mail from this, I promise...)

I have 1 simple computer, no network involved...I 'WAS' having trouble keeping Comcast online, but they came out and drilled a bunch of new holes in my walls for the signal to come in and heat to go out (Thanks a lot Comcast... I'll seal those up.) AND once was all said and done and I was back in the 'online' saddle again, my Hash suscription went (-4) on me. MY fix was to write support@hash.com... they had me back up and running within half a day.

Sounds like you have it...PLUSH is in the 'MISCELLANEOUS' folder... remember to set the color to your likings... it's default is PURPLE or something. You should be able to use JASC... a tablet helps a lot when painting like this... Also try using google: look for... 3D skin texture texture maps for human skin 3D skin maps etc...

I downloaded the 'Rigtest4' model instead of Thom for these reasons: - It was later in the posts... - I wanted to mess with the fingers, I don't think Thom HAS fingers, so I wanted to see if this one did...and it did! - I wanted to see what a new user could do quickly, as claimed. - I'm tired of Thom, personally. I hope you don't discourage on your quest...as it is a worthy one. SOME of the downloads may have been redirected from the 'Fellows' forum when Martin gave a link to this thread and mentioned the great work you were doing here. PS--- LOVE the finger controls, very natural... GREAT idea including facial bones for AMtrack... And the rest of the rig is quite easy to animate with. GREAT WORK!

Are you using a klieg with shadows? If so, make sure the buffer resolution is nice and high, like 2048X2048... might not be the solution but I thought I would throw it out there...