Simon Edmondson

Animating a walk were the figure is carry some flowers. I'd like the flowers to have some secondary movement to the hand and arm carrying them. What would be the best way to do that ? At the moment the flowers are separate from the figure. Should they part of the figure model or constrain them to the model in the chor. Or another method altogether ? regards simon

Its rendered at HD1080 but this is converted to VGA so there is a slight distortion in the figures. Sound still to be done. Any feedback very welcome. simon Boo.mov

Happy Birthday Karen. I wish you well with your film.

Mark and Mike Thank you for your help. I shall look for it on the extras DVD. Mike I think the Aardman film has been nominated for this years animated feature at the Oscars but not sure about that. Have you seen "Master and Commander" ( I think that was the title ) with Russell Crowe in the lead role? that was pretty good for the detail of the ships being sailed. A few years ago Gt Yarmouth, a port near where I live , had a full size replica of the Golden Hind,,which was the ship Sir Francis Drake sailed back in Elizabethan times. I was astonished by how small it was. Front to back it would be less than than the average school bus. Though my memory might be faulty there ! I used to go to college in Portsmouth UK, this might be of interest for reference ? HMS Victory ( Admiral Nelson's flagship ) is sited there. http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&sa=N...9168cf45cbf2ee3 regards simon

Robert Thank you for your reply. The top one was the test to make sure I had the process right. It is the composite resulting from a shadows only render. The middle one is the visual result I want. Because I want render the red figure separately with motion blur, then composite the blue figure over it to get the contrast in speed between the two. The Bottom image is the result when the same process is followed as with the box. However the Blue figure's shadow is missing from the ground. There is a klieg shining on the blue from in front but, it is on a light list and set to not cast shadows. The only other light source is the one casting the strong shadows and that is off screen on the left. simon

Mike Have you seen the one in the Aardman film "Pirates". The physical model was nearly 5metres long and almost as high. An astonishing set. I don't know anything about using domes. Is there a reference to it somewhere I could try ? regards simon

I found the print out used in the past. Followed the instructions but had a problem. So I did a little test, following the same instructions and it worked. I went back to the Boo scene and It still would not work. This is the scene as it should be, notice how the blue figure is casting a shadow on the ground. However, when I go the route of shadow buffers, this is the result, no shadow from the blue figure on the ground. I'm plainly missing something ( possibly between the ears ). Does anyone have any ideas as to what it might be ? The originals were rendered as TGA files with Alpha but have been converted to jpg for the forum. regards simon

Mike I'm not in a position to offer constructive criticism as I don't know anything about sailing or boats. I do like the pirate galleon on the ocean, especially the glitter of the water and reflections. Might I ask about the clouds in this render and in an earlier test you did. Are they a photo plate in the background or did you use another method ? regards simon

Robert Thank you. That got me the info I needed. The printout was actually from the tech people at hash about 5 years ago (?) when they sent me a page that explained it. I'll see if I canget it in a couple of days then post the link. regards simon

I have a print out explaining the working process of using Shadows only renders, unfortunately I can't get to it because of the weather ( four inches of snow prohibit access to the shed were I know it to be ). Could somebody direct me to an explanation of the process as it is sometime since I tried to use it and am more than a little rusty about it. regards simon

Robert Thank you for your observations. I've changed it in the light of yours and Rodney's suggestions. The first four seconds were blank, that was me leaving a space for the titles as I was trying to fit it in a time limit. The files are being re rendered as I type so the following light in this version will be gone by the end of the weekend. The slo mo section was her getting out of the way by moving faster than him,difficult to show but worth having a bash at (?) . I was thinking of the section in Shrek were Fiona beats up the outlaws and has time to adjust her hair before supplying the kicks, that and several live action films which play with apparent speeds. In this version the male has motion blur added, while she has none, and they were composited in FCP. Not happy with the result but not sure what to do with it yet. I wonder if I should try for shadow buffers and leave out the 'set' altogether, then composite that over the jumping figure ? Any feedback welcome regards simon Boo.mov

Happy Birthday. I hope the cake is not bigger on the inside than on the outside !

It's that first part of the scenario that escaped me because right as I was 'seeing' that it was a girl sitting in the lotus position... the guy was doing something (jumping) that distracted me. So I didn't really know it was a girl sitting in a lotus position. (Hope my thoughts make as much sense to you as they do to me) If you plan to open with a shot of her sitting in the lotus position then you may achieve a higher degree of clarity. IMO it's the establishing shot that needs a bit more clarity. You can get away with delaying that establishing shot but it still needs to be there. Again... just my thoughts on this... confusion is not always a bad thing. Mysteries are made of these. I like to understand (and analyze) what I'm seeing. Rodney I think you are right about the establishing shot and I will address that tomorrow, got a revision of the jump going through now . My brother in law ( for reasons I won't elaborate on ) thought there might be something sexual going on. That was certainly not the intention. The shot were it cuts to the woman it does have her breathing but, it doesn't read because of the lighting ( its too dark ) . Trying to fix that now. Changing the follow spot too. The difficulty for me, and I think its fairly common, is that it reads for me because I know what its supposed to be. I'm learning to check that more now. I wrote some live action scripts a a few years back and was in a meeting of about 25-30 professionals and was dismayed that only about two of them got the references I thought were obvious. My bad. I've already started to revise the cloudy idea in the light of this for when I finally get it done. regards simon

Robert Thank you for your suggestions. I will try them later. I was trying to get slight transparency in the cloud and still allow it to look as if it might contain rain. Its for a sequence of stormy clouds. The light used was a bulb with ray traced shadows which might account for the darkness ? Thank you. simon

While awaiting feedback on the sneaky project I did a test for the next one. This is for some cartoon clouds and was done with cycling maps. Back to the other work. simon Cloud.mov

Rodney Thank you for your comprehensive notes. The scenario was ( if thats not too posh a word for it ), The female is meditating in the lotus position. Male spots her, decides to sneak up and make her jump, The awareness of the meditator allows her to detect the 'danger' and get out of the way. Male's prank backfires. I spent a fair bit of time trying to get the male to blur, as if moving fast, while the female moves normally, yet gets out of the way. Having got out of the way he reverts to normal speed. I did get a decent blur on one take but messed up the compositing on it afterwards. H'mm. Back to the mouse pad. regards simon

Happy Birthday!

I think this may be the last version (?) A friend is going to do the sound and his partner ( an actress ) the single word, "Boo" at the end. Which I'll add the facial work and lip synch to. I wondered if her turn at the end was a bit slow ? Any Feedback welcome. regards simon Boo.mov

Rodney Thank you for your reply. I was anticipating it taking this year but, begin to suspect that it may be longer. Trying to get it thoroughly planned and prepared before starting full production instead of jumping the start, which is usually the problem. Simon

This is a low res of a rough storyboard to the project I am trying to develop. No dialogue. No sound, and the story will be revised in the coming weeks. The dream sequences, Spaceman, nightmare and car chase, will be done in stop motion, the rest in AM, possibly with a Toon render. Any feedback welcome regards simon Ps Be warned, its nearly 10 mins long ! CB.mov If you manage to get through it, heres something wonderful to restore the spirits !

Penultimate scene. Any Feedback welcome. She is about to say "BOO" !!! to the sneaky figure... simon Boo_Scene_Five_000.mov

Robert Thank you for your observations. I was trying for something like the Mr Macho walk in the Richard Williams book, " The animator's Survival Kit". I was going to try the sexy walk next. Theres a good video on Youtube of Williams explaining the walks he uses, . There is a good Salma Hayak based walk in the Aardman film "Pirates" and Jessica Rabbit of course, although I don't have that. simon

Thank you.I'm trying a series of basics, while preparing a bigger project. Have you a link to your leprechaun walk ? regards simon

My friend the Theatre Director thought it was " a Black, Male, 58-63, Jazz Musician"... I was only trying for gender ! Here it is with light and an attempted double take at the end. Still need work. Any feedback welcome? regards simon Ray__Walk.mov

Thank you for the reply Steve. I'll refrain from comment to see if I get any other replies. simon The same walk from the side Side_Walk.mov and from the front Front_Walk.mov