Simon Edmondson

Rodney I was thinking about it when going to bed last night ( as you do ). If the person nominating the sport/game, eg "Leapfrog Tiddlywinks", did their example, then allowed others to use the set and lighting for their characters. Might that be a way to proceed ? regards Simon

Nancy Pardon me I didn't wish to seem rude or affronted. You are correct, I was just opening it up for discussion. Given that UK village fetes feature such delights as three legged races, egg and spoon races, games of leap frog, and there are cow pat throwing contests in other parts of the world, the possibilities are vast before embracing the wider realms. As I wrote that the image of 'tossing the caber', (grown men in skirts throwing a telegraph pole around ), came to mind. My initial thoughts were that, if someone had a character of their own, the challenge would be to work out how that character would do a certain sport or game. One of my Blockheads might respond well to chocolate pudding throwing for example yet be completely flummoxed by Rodeo penguin riding ... I haven't read a copy for a long time but there is a UK comic called Viz that, among many much coarser strips, used to run a staring competition were one character would try to out stare the other, That one was even made into animation for TV, with a renown football commentator providing the coverage. I wonder if anyone else will want to join in ? regards simon

Nancy, Robert, 3D Artz Thank you for your feedback. I was hoping that the context its in, would allow it to be odd rather than bad ? This is the first 8 seconds of the race so far, there is one more runner to come. The runs are not finished yet as, following Robert's and Mark's earlier suggestions, I'm going to revise the positioning on the first two runners to get a less stroboscopic, more even movement. One thing I did notice about Robert's reference video was how readily it matched Richard Williams description of runs as having very little height variation in them, he talks of it usually being less than half a head of variation. Two of these runs break that convention but that was intended. regards simon Sprint_race.mov

Nancy Your last point is well made and I think entirely appropriate. If its does generate a number of participants then it will be the learning experience that is the main incentive. It will be in the software by definition of it being done here, and will illustrate its qualities but thats not its primary function. If we do sports a simple setup using a single light source and a plain set, aside from stadia, sports events are fairly minimal ? My preference would be a toon style but I think it might have to be agreed beforehand for when its edited together just to get a visual unity. But if it was done episodically ( Is that a word ? ) on Youtube then, providing each group was consistent within itself then that shouldn't be a problem. I haven't finessed the details, just posting the idea? regards simon

(This topic is a continuation from an earlier thread. Click Here to read it.) I admit not not having read all the way through this thread but I do have an idea for a collaborative venture if anyone is interested ? The basic setup would be very simple and involve people working with their own model ( or one off the extras DVD ) in their own time, in about 10-15 second sections, and it would then be edited together to make a longer form piece. Basically its a sports day. The original idea was to use the knight model ( in TAO manual tuts ), modified individually, coats of arms/colours/ helmet... and have him do different sports as if competing at the Olympics or sports day event. Each person would nominate a sport, animate his character doing that event, then get it to try the other events. My choice would have been pole vaulting, if only because the prospect of a knight in amour attempting it is very appealing. The lot would then be edited into a longer form in the way that TV coverage of such sports days are done, cutting from one sport to the next with a commentor providing the link. The basic setup would be very simple, a 100 metre sprint for example is 6-8 tracks in a straight line, a long jump is a straight line with a shallow pit at the end of it, a pole vault is two tall sides and a nutter with a bendy pole trying to get over the cross bar. A discus is a v shaped outfield with a launch area, which also doubles for shot and hammer ? Although the comic potential of knights doing track and field still appeals, perhaps other people would be happier using their own models ? The format would be adaptable to people dropping in and out of the overall piece as time and other commitments intervene. Animating your own character across a range of activities could provide a valuable learning program and the series of clips could be a Youtube channel, a longer TV show or a feature. If it doesn't reach full fruition as a community project, individuals would still have a series of set pieces they could use on a demo reel or publish themselves. Just an idea... simon

Robert Thank you for your feedback. I was trying for odd. Someone suggested a while back, that the way to find a reference point was to go to the extremes then dial back from there. The first three were using the Williams book and this one was a memory of, I think, a Chuck Jones cartoon. I was going to go back into it today to get more forward rotation at the start and hip and torso twist. The next one was going to be in a roadrunner style with multiple legs and feet but haven't worked out how I'll do that yet. regards simon.

Heres the first pass at the fourth style of sprinting. Trying for that high stepping prance style beloved of 'Toffs' in early cartoons ? Any Feedback welcome. simon VGA conversion of DV render Sprint004VGA.mov

Had a few diversions of a practical nature but, the sprint race continues. This is the most recent addition. He's in a much more 'comic' style. There are due to be a further two styles/characters. Because of his running style this one takes 18 seconds to do the 100 metres, the others are 12 and 14 second. The winner will be a lot less. Trying to get the basics before going back and revising it. Any feedback welcome. simon Sprint2.mov

Happy Birthday Rodney Thank you for all your help. Have a grand day. simon

Nancy I've only seen TV footage rather than the play itself but, have you seen the stage play of "War Horse" ? http://www.warhorseonstage.com/videos It may be of interest regards simon

Jack A quick reply. I don't know if it was possible in V11 but, it is in V17. You can apply a Mov file as a decal. Its better to use a sequence because you get more controls to play with but it is possible. The first Test I did used a mov file, exported from Flash, but couldn't get the transparency set correctly, so went to the sequence as described. regards simon

The only thing I would add to Gerald's explanation is that, once you have rendered the single frames, you can always render them as a Mov file from within AM by right clicking on them in the images folder and selecting "Save animation as ". I usually do tests as mov files, just for convenience, but always render to single frames for the final piece because I've been caught out too many times in the past trying to render animated files, mov and avi, only to have some external factor intervene and lose hours of rendering. I haven't tried it yet but, there is a post production facility available within AM, that allows you to completely revamp the rendered files using EXR format by changing the lighting, shadows and so on. I found it slightly boggling when I watched the tutorial last year... regards simon

Tore I particularly like the way the neck tie contrasts ( clashes ? ) with the rest of the figure and it retains the signature worked texture . good piece. regards simon

Jack It was close to what you suggest. I was trying to learn how to use Flash and thought it might be a good way to learn by making the seasonal card. It would probably work better in Photoshop or another paint package but, the basic process was. Using photo reference to roto the drawn lines. Take away the reference, leaving the lines on an alpha channel. Save it as a sequence. Import the sequence into AM. Apply it as a cookie cutter decal to a single plane, and thats it. Initially I tried to use a mov file but couldn't get it to work beyond the first two frames. So went back and re exported it as a PNG sequence ( after a few errors trying to use TGA ). Did a brief test with that last night, which was posted in the other thread in "Animation Master", then went to bed thinking about it. Up this morning and thought of a slight variation to use. In the process of doing that thought it might work to cut the message out of the blank plane, so the light would go through, and the words would read in the shadow on the ground plane. The reworked version today took about 4 hours, because of the number of errors made in the process, but learnt a lot doing it and it generated a lot of ideas for how it could be developed. With a bit of planning and preparation you could make a lot of 'play' between positive and negative spaces and how they read against the background. Haven't tried yet but it may also be possible to work with transparency and reflective maps to open it up a bit more ? Hope that helps. regards simon

Happy Birthday to you all. simon

I didn't wish to lower the tone with yesterdays awful joke so, reworked the idea so it was more in keeping. Happy New Year y'all simon NY.mov

Rodney Thank you once again for your help. following your info regarding Flash, I went back and re exported them as PNG files then went back into photoshop to draw over them again. Its very rough at the moment but I did get several ideas for how the technique could be used in future. Hope you have a good evening. Happy new year. Thanks again. regards simon NY.mov

Rodney Thank you for your kind offer. I'll have a bash at it the frames again tomorrow. Having recently done a LOT of single frame roto work I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. This was the project file NY_.prj and this was the flash file exported as a QT file Message_2.mov One curious thing that seemed to happen was, the first frame worked, but, after the test render, it no longer did ? I would have posted it to Esoics New Year thread, but didn't want to lower the tine with the awful joke. Happy New Year all. regards simon

Rodney Thank you for your reply. I was using a movie file. Two reasons really, I can't remember properly how to convert the files to have a transparent alpha channel. If I could it might take too long to get it done by the new year. regards Simon

This may sound a bit convoluted but, I've spent the last few days trying to learn how to use Flash and produced a short New Year greeting in it. Rendered that as a QT movie file and want to use that as a cookie cutter decal in AM. NY.mov This is the result. The cutting seems to take place on the first frame but then stops. It uses the background colour rather than an alpha channel. could that be the problem ? regards simon V17g OSX

Mark Thank you for your help once again. I was trying to follow the 'recipe' on the top of page 177 of the Richard Williams book and think I may have over done it with the stride length ? The first one was covering just over 7 metres a second and this one was over 8 metres a second ( 210cm per stride ). I had tried to set as few keys as possible to avoid the jittery quality of earlier work so had allowed the software to interpolate between the contact and the lift. May have to go into the curves to get a more even speed ? Off to my nephew's wedding tomorrow, so may not be able to address this until the return. Thanks for your help. regards simon

Rodney Thank you for posting these. Much to be learned from them. regards simon

Tried a composite against a grid image, as suggested. May have to rethink that one . simonGridA.mov

Mark Thank you very much indeed for your help. Much appreciated. I'm slightly puzzled by the hip rotation as I had tried to include that while setting the keys. Because it was on a 6 frame pattern, the hips were rotated forward with the advancing leg at each extreme position and vertically to get some counter rotation in the torso. Tried to do it on every sixth frame because I didn't want to set too many keys ( a problem in the past ). I will try to follow up your advice later, domestic and family duties first unfortunately. regards simon

Rodney Thank you for your helpful reply. I wasn't sure how to follow up your suggestion fully, so I rendered this sideview of the sequence by constraining the camera to the body null of the 2008 rig used. and putting some bars in the background to give a steady level. There are now some markers at track side to denote every 2 meters of track distance. I'm working on getting a grid at the moment. One thing that I did notice in this is that the is there is very little fore and aft with the torso. There is a lot of side to side ( x plane ? ) but not a lot of z plane rotation ( pardon me if I get that mixed up. regards simonSide_Sprint.mov