Simon Edmondson

Terrific find Rodney. If you used that technique in a horror film ( I'm sure they will ) it would seriously disturb the audience ! simon

You've certainly hit on a key element there. Experience is exactly what is needed and yet it takes time in the trial and error stage to accumulate that experience. That's why sayings like PIXAR's 'Make mistakes faster' seem to resonate so deeply. It's important to try and try often and to take risks when they are appropriate to take. That is one thing we want to encourage here in this forum. Folks have purchased A:M... they want to create their characters, stories, effects with it... the should do exactly that! The best way to do that is to jump in and make lots of mistakes. Those mistakes will translate to the learning that comes from experience. It's only detrimental if we keep making the same mistakes over and over again while expecting some other outcome than what we've repeatedly experienced. Rodney I make lots of mistakes, all the time but I'm trying to learn from them as I do. My background is originally in painting and the 'fine arts' ( as opposed to applied arts I suppose ) and a lot of the time it was about exploring what the materials could do in an open ended way. i'm trying to keep that but acquire a more systematic approach to the development process. I animate until about 21:00, then sit there drawing for "Charlie's Birthday" while the days animation renders through. The techniques used in this short ( and others ) should apply to CB and I can plan it more effectively. Hope so anyway. The old adage of, "if you don't learn from your mistakes you are condemned to repeat them" applies really ! regards simon

... More than anything though, the difference (in time) seems to be made up for in the planning stage. If you only have one go at it to get it right, the tendency is to spend a lot more time in the planning stage, then execute that plan with minimal deviation from that plan. This is no doubt why few people tend to spend adequate time planning when animating with CG. They think they can adjust it/tweak it/fix it on the go and so skim over those important elements of planning. In most cases this leads to considerably more work and rework. (RE: The old adage, 'those who fail to plan, plan to fail'.) ... Rodney Thank you for your comments. The Purves comments were in a book from AVA in their Basics series. I am presently reading another in that series, this one on scriptwriting. The author, Paul Wells, states that, perhaps the dividing line between animation and live action films, comes in that animation is preplanned thoroughly before production, and live action tends to be assembled in post post production. I'm trying to learn the lessons you outline, with my animation projects and preparing them in more detail before they are started. The difficulty is that of knowing what you need to know before you start, only experience provides that. That and the help and advice of others, here and elsewhere. regards simon

Bruce Thank you for your suggestions. I will try to adjust the walk and the weight shift tomorrow. Busy with other things today and working out the next part. I read a book on stop motion recently and the author, Barry Purves, was celebrating what he called the 'flawed process', because you had to get it right first time. He thought the ability to continually revisit and revise in CG was not a cause for celebration. I don't think I agree with that. Certainly at my stage of learning.! regards simon

Dan Thank you for your reply. I didn't take it as a criticism. I wasn't sure quite what the 'funk' was ( I'm an old git, so not up to date on such things ), but got the gist of it. I was trying for the Double Bounce walk in the Richard Williams, 'Animators Survival Kit' book, ( pages 119-120 ). Hadn't tried it before and liked the effect. The reasons for the figures being the way they are ( aside from my lack of modelling skill that is ) partially stems from a book by George Maestri, were he suggests using stick figures, or at least very simplified, because any errors are more immediately apparent with them. At this stage of the learning process that is definitely a good thing. The other reasons are just a reaction to the full bodied, photo realistic, I see in all the comics and, I like to keep things as simple as possible. I should add, learning a lot about modelling too. although it might not look like it ! When these shorts are rendering overnight, I use the time to develop a project I'm working on, provisional title, " Charlies Birthday". That will be more realistically styled figures and settings. I'm hoping the animation lessons learnt with these shorts will feed into that. Had terrific fun over christmas making the first rough storyboard for it (300+ drawings ). Trying to revise it now. regards simon

Nancy, Dan Thank you for your feedback. I've revised the female figure a 3/4 view Top front And how it looks in action. This is the same movement as Friday, just the setting has changed. The movement is to be worked on this afternoon ( painting things green over the weekend ). Simon S3.mov New figure on right in all images.

Revised version of S1 with new hedges, camera view. Feedback welcome. regards simon S1.mov Ps Its rendered at 1080, this was converted to 640x480 to save file size.

Nancy Thank you very much for that. I will see what I can sort out tomorrow. Been a little busy with the green paint today ! regards simon

Robert Thank you for your help. I'm re doing Scene one which should show it to better effect, when the walking figure casts a shadow on and over the bushes. On a related question, Both figures have the 2008 rig installed. If I re model the blue figure to make her shoulders narrower, would that necessitate re installing the rig from scratch or could I just move the shoulder joints ? regards simon

I modified the hedge into lots of separate bushes, rather than one continuous bush. Is this any better ? I'll have to give the shoulder narrowing suggestion some thought tomorrow. regards simon

Robert and Rodney Thank you for your responses. I've modified the hedge further and changed the camera angle, Here are two large renders of the view and below a small render of the scene. The view is more readily identified in the stills perhaps ? I haven't, as yet, introduced a tracking shot as it was only a very short take. S2.mov Once again, any feedback welcome. regards simon

Revised Hedgerow, lighting and camera angle. simon S1.mov

Rodney Thank you for your feedback. I will modify the hedge straight away. I had a render going through overnight with the new clouds. The standing action will be done this evening. regards simon

[Rodney Thank you once again for your response. I've tried to address your suggestions regarding her getting up from the bench in the accompanying clip. Standing_Turn.mov The flashes amongst the trees were a "happy" accident. I don't know what caused them but, it was appropriate, as Lightening comes into it later on. I've changed the clouds and got rid of the sky dome, replacing that with more cartoon type clouds ( tested the idea couple of weeks ago )/ I'll try to post a still later. The other figure is walking along besides a hedge with the trees and mountains beyond that. I'm glad they read as mountains. I had lowered the camera view to avoid the landscape between the hedge and the tress in the middle ground but, if you think its more appropriate to include that depth cue I can try it to see how it works. Thank you for your help. Regards Simon

Opening Three shots of current short. Any Feedback welcome. simon Why_S1.mov Why_S2.mov Why_S3.mov

Rich I would concur with Robert's observations with regard to the camera moves and add that, part of the reason they don't work to your benefit, is that the change of direction, speed and shot is too too large from cut to cut. Sometimes within the shot too. For example the opening shot does what my brother calls "hose piping, moving from side to side as if watering the garden. There are three changes of direction, at least two changes of speed, in the first 5 seconds. While the colours and lighting are strong, the camera moves overwhelm their strength by disorienting the viewer. The section were the object falls to the earth might work better if, rather than follow the object, you let it travel through the frame with the planet in the background. The movement of the object is a bit sudden in places. My guess is that is because it hits the atmosphere. It might read better if the speed changed gradually as it encountered resistance and the flares of friction came off ? That goes from a downward movement into a left to right pan, which moves upwards without a cross fade. The result is slightly disorientating. It might be better if the the shot was wide and static and the object fell into it then move into the impact. Hold on that, then fade in and out before the shot of the rocks? The visuals are strong but the speed of the cutting and camera moves undermines their strength. A more relaxed, less urgent, approach would work to your advantage ? regards simon

Happy Birthday. Thank you for your help on numerous occassions. Much appreciated. Hope you have a grand day. simon

Thank you Mike. I was trying for the "Double Bounce" walk in the Richard Williams book, "The Animator's Survival Kit". I tried it on 12's first but, it was just so fast it looked like he was pogoing. Extended it to 16's for the basic steps then offset the arm swings in the PWS. regards simon

This was the context for the flowers question. First time with a sky dome and dynamics. lots of learning. simon Cloud.mov

I closed and reopened and it seems to have worked. Apologies for the post. simon

Rodney Thank you once again for your help. Here is the model. I checked in the chor but there were no actions on the model that I could find. I did find the model had been embedded but is now saved separately. I'll try closing and re opening and see if that helps. regards simon Why_Set.mdl I haven't included the decal as I didn't think that would affect the mesh ?

Having a strange problem I've not encountered before. running V15 on OSX 10.68 Built a simple set for the current short, all straight lines. They were all scaled in the respective axis to make sure they were straight and level, then peaked. Model was saved. When I open the model in the next session the splines have reverted to non peaked. Redid that and re saved. This happened several times yesterday. Today the problem recurred, so it was reset again. This is what it looks like in the model window. But, when I go to the chor The model looks like this Has anyone else had this trouble and, if so, how can you fix it ? regards simon

Mat Thank you very much for your help. I tried to implement your suggestions, with the following file. Flowers.mov It took a while to sort of understand what was happening and it may need further work. Sleep calls for now though. regards simon

I love the lighting in the render . It looks like a slightly darker sky in this one compared to the earlier version, although the cloud shapes are the same ? Could you soften the horizon using depth of field or is it the mist you want ? simon

can you show shot of it? Robert Thank you for your reply. This is the flower This is a boned version of it And this is the Double Bounce walk I was hoping to use the flower(s) with, ( still working on that). Double_Bounce.mov regards simon