Simon Edmondson

`Robert Thank you for the feedback. I shall check again. I made a bit of a pigs ear of it because some renders were set to 720, the others to VGA, so had to redo them.. They are taking a long time and its on minimum settings. Back to the interface. regards simon

While this second global and AO test was going through, the model was beving revised. Hope to test the revision properly tomorrow. Estate.mov

Robert The most recent is now 50mb. This may need to change ! Theres a render going through over night, probably over tomorrow night too at the going rate. regards simon

Robert Thank you once again. I'm hoping to do a test on the whole town set up but it may have to go through overnight as it is taking up to 20 mins to do basic things like delete cps, or copy and paste operations, even saving.I think it must be to do with the file size. ( 40mb ). Was about to do the test this morning when I realised I'd left a lot of internal patches in place, so it then took several hours to correct that. One I get it sorted out I'll set up a test and try to post the result tomorrow. regards simon

Quick first test of using global and AO More detailed work to follow. Global Test.mov

Robert Thank you very much for your help. I shall try it out straightaway. regards simon

With apologies for the delay. Had to rebuild the model, twice. Once because I got carried away with deleting groups, the other because I was starting to get very fussy. It was testing the computer a lot to as its 45.2Mb in size and there were 9 instances in the cho. Coming in at approx 324 houses, thats about 3x the size of the village I live in ! Anyway, enough waffle. I'm going to try Robert's suggestions re the sun location but, I have no experience with Global illumination and AO. Can somebody kindly point me in the direction of somewhere o learn about it ? regards simon

Oliver I'm no expert but, if I understand your question correctly (?) If you import the audio clip into the choreography, by dropping it on the icon in the PWS, you can then either drag it along the timeline to the point were you want it to start. Or, select the clip in the PWS, and then set the parameters in the properties dialogue. If you have done all the lip sync as an action (?) You can drop the action on the model in a .cho, then set the parameters in the properties dialogue. The usual way to do it ( I think ? ), Is to make the lip shapes as a series of poses on the model, Import the model into a choreography, drop the audio into the .cho then step through the timeline, adjusting the lip poses with the sliders, at the points needed. Then, lots of test renders and adjusting until you get it to wher you want it... regards simon

Robert Thank you very much for the information and your help. regards simon

Building a townscape for the new. Happy Families, project I'm hoping to set up the lighting this evening. In 3ds max ( many moons ago ) there was a "sun" seting so you could specify where the location was and what time of day, then the software would produce a sun effect for those settings. Working in V17, is there an equivalent in AM or, is there a global illumination setting. If so, could somebody kindly point me in the direction of the info on how to set it up and use it? What I'm after is a single light source, giving a, very rough, approximation of daylight. Rather than have to introduce lots of lights. simon

John Thank you. I signed up for the course, read through the notes and watched the video's but,sadly. was too involved in another course to do any of the practical work. Looking through the comments and the examples on Youtube it seemed to be very well received by those who did take part. A huge range of people and skillsfrom around the world. regards simon

John Nice work. I wish my space was as tidy !!! How did you get the curtains done? Did you model the folds or was it using fabric ? regards simon

Thank you Rodney. The project was intended as a test for a bigger one I had storyboarded, although that will have to be redone if it procedes . The character of the boy was based, slightly, on my nephew who coincidentally, turned 30 yesterday. He's a professional race driver but, when he was 17 and racing in Italy he still had his teddy bear with him, much to the amusement of the staff at the hotel he stayed in. Don't think he ever danced with the bear though ! regards simon

Received feedback today from whose opinion is always honest and direct,. They expressed disquiet at the proportions of the boy, finding it a bit 'spooky' that his head was not larger proportionally to the body, and his pajamas were a bit too close fitting. Does anybody else share this disquiet, or have any others, about the piece? If so please let me know, whatever they may be, and I'll try to avoid them in the new project. simon This is an early render but the figures stayed roughly the same at the end.

Mighty Impressive work Roger

test towards at idea for opening scene of new project. Trying for a time lapse effect. Any feedback very welcome. There is some mesh pentetration but hope to sort that this evening. simon Estate Build.mov

Some More on the way to character design. The first two sheets should have been posted a few days back and are part of a series towards female characters This was a quick attempt to use different drawing styles for different generations of character. Supposed to be two sets of grandparents, Mother and father, with two kids, male and female. Probably too complex for animation purposes (?)

NFTS is THE post graduate place in the UK. Were Nick Parks studied and any other number of oscar winning or nominated animaters studied. Thanks for the info Rodney. regards simon

First technique test for project. Much needing correction HF 000.mov This was the sequence used Mower Turn.mov

Rodney. Thank you for your feedback. I was trying something I haven't used for a long time, fountain pen ink on cartridge paper, using a brush. The idea at the moment is to use that drawing technique for the figures but have the set done in AM so you getacontrastbetween thge 'roughness' of the figures and the smooth surface of the cg. Hoping to get a first test done soon. regards simon

Andrew I am no expert here but, it might be worth checking what is selected within Tools/options ? AM tends to default to 30fps so, unless you have specifically chosen otherwise, it will revert to that, Especially if the "use this dialogue" option is also selected within the render tag ? If you do use the 'Animation' option, the file size will be rather large as that is an uncompressed format. Personally I use H264 because its a good compression without a great loss of quality. Which version of AM are you using ? regards simon

Working on some initial rough character designs. Any feedback very welcome.

Tore Thank you. The combo might be a way off yet as I'm still working on the characters and developing a narrative.. I keep messing up the cg house of cards too ! regards simon

Some initial work towards the characters to be used. The Mum and Dad started off, but now think the characters needed to be more 'graphic', which is not a style I'm at all used to trying. So did a few ideas towards the Son. figures to follow.