Simon Edmondson

Steve Pardon me contacting you this way but, What part of East Anglia are you in ? I live just outside of Beccles ~Suffolk ( about 20 miles south of Norwich). Finding another AM user in this region is not a common oone ! regards simon

John I have to confess I wouldn't ( don't ) know what a limbo background is ? When I read your description I first thought of the dance and then, 'that can't be right... ?' The student in question is particularly vague. I wouldn't mind so much if I was getting paid for it but, in my foolishness, I offered to do it to help out. Next time I will know. regards simon

As threatened, here is a low res version of the peeling back, with John's shiny material applied to the underside. A BIG thank you to him for his help. I sent a copy to the student to get her to check it, only to find that she wants it to peel from bottom to top. I was not amused.! simonPeeling.mov

I did it the way you suggested you would use but spent about 8 hours keeping the two layers apart while they peeled back from the container. I will post a small anim of it later as the HD version for the student is going through at the mo and taking a long time to render. Thank you for your help. regards simon

I've got a small test render going through as I type. In the meantime might I ask a supllemental ( as they used to say ib Star Trek ) I decaled the graphic onto the lid plane but it came through onto the other side as well. Is there a way to prevent this ? and Is there then a way to apply the crome material to the underside to the graphic I have spent the day animating a chrome underside to the top graphic but as a separate layer . Most of the effort has gone into preventing one layer penetrating the other as it peels back. Frustrating. regards simon

John I will try to follow your instructions but, when I imported the material last night to try,I got a warning that it was created in a newer version than I was using ( V15J) and would not load properly. Thank you for your help. simon

Thank you very much indeed. I will try it and post a result later. regards simon

I'm making a model for a student ( although I'd rather be animating ). Its of a lunchbox and she wants a foil top to it that will peel back, like the top on a yogurt carton. The top surface is for her graphic but she wants it to be like a shiny foil on the underside. I don't have a lot of experience with materials or surface settings, can anyone suggest a way to get the aluminium foil type effect ? regards simon

It is indeed supposed to be Berty. I'm surprised you spotted him living in Canada. Do they have Bassets Allsorts there too ? I did an animation a few yeas back of BB dancing with my nephew, to the tune of Top Hat and Tails in an attempt at getting sponsorship for him to go racing. They were interested but, just at that time half the marketing dept came down ( or keeled over ) with severe stress. So we both lost out. I'm hoping to approach Bassets with better results this time. simon

Rob Thank you once again for your comments and feedback. I'll look at the samples you kindly provided later. The eyes are a bit tired now after staring at the screen for so long. I know what you mean about watching something too many times. I have that problem all the while... regards simon

I had a problem with the project I was working on and trued this. UK residents might recognise the design ? Any comments welcome regards simonBerty.mov

Apologies Just after I posted the question the brain started working and the answer came. I parented it to the head for this and will use it as an action object in the future... regards simonWhispering.mov

I'm not a new user but this seems the most appropriate place to ask(?) I have a character and I made some shades for her. It would be fine if I just assigned them to the head bone of the rig but If I want to have the flexibility to have them moveable in an action how should I constrain them ? Would it be best to have them as an action object. If so how should they be constrained to the head ? or I've tried to assign the shades to bones in the original mode but don't know how to constrain them to the head in the action. Is it a parenting question ? Thank you for your help simon

There isn't a transportable version now. Thats unfortunate, for me at least, although I can understand why. simon

Pardon me, I was out of circulation last year when the process changed. Does that mean you can only install it on the one machine? I use it on the Imac at home but have it on my lap top for when away from home ? simon

Tried to incorporate Mouseman's points. Here is another revision. The sliders are behaving today but a glWhispering.movitch in the lips alignment became apparent. Hey Ho ! simon

Mouseman Thank you very much for your detailed response. I will try to address those points later today. If the sliders allow that is. Although Id like to do it professionally my background is in painting and drawiing. Timing has never been a strong point, not the best condition for an animator ! regards simon

I revised the lip sync by deleting all previous key frames and redoing it completely in the light of comments received. Tried to start all shapes two frames before the actual sound appeared and avoided completely closing the mouth. This latter was partly necessity as an odd glitch appeared when using the pose sliders. When setting up the shapes the model would vibrate in the action window and the sliders would not operate smoothly or select full values. This has not happened before. Does anybody have any ideas as to cause ? regards simonWhispering.mov

A further revision to the head test. Following suggestions here and elsewhere, it now has a black background to the mouth. I haven't revised the actual lip poses as yet That will come over the weekend. Unfortunately, in making the background to the mouth some further creases appeared in the cheeks. I''ll try to fix those over the weekend too. Aby comments welcome. regards simonWhispering.mov

John The first Tutor I worked with on animation told us that lip sync was always slightly out in drawn animation because that allowed it to be exported to foreign language markets more readily. He suggested two frame leeway (?). When I mentioned this to another tutor on a different course, she was aghast and explained that it had to be 100% accurate. I tend more towards your view. I'll post a revision to the head test a little later. Experiencing a few glitches in practice at the mo. A posh way of saying I keep making mistakes ! regards simon Ps Coincidentally, have you ever seen an Italian film called "Volare Volari " It came out about the same time as Roger Rabbit and is based around a sound designer putting sound to animations . I sawit once and spent the next 15 years trying to track down a DVD for it.

Thank you both for your comments. I was trying to use the Preston Blair set of phoneme shapes because that was the only starting point I had really. I've not done much lip sync before ( about two short examples ) so hope it will iomprove with more experience. I actually started a lip reading class a few years ago because I thought it might help with the lip sync but had to stop after a few sessions. My hearing is actually quite good ( except for the frequency response age factor ) and when the instructor was mouthing the words I could hear the breath shapes forming the words so it was counter productive. On the subject of stylisation. I suppose the most obvious example of that is with the South Park series which has only about three mouth shapes per character (?) regards simon

Update on the whispering lips. A head with whispering lips ( !!! ) This is a head design for a character ( Winona Blox ) I'm working on. I wondered if the style is too simple graphically and whether it needed a cavity behind the mouth ? There are no surface details as yet such as colour or texture because I'm still trying to get the surface itself 'right', as in an absence of creases were not wanted... Any feedback welcome ? regards simon Whispering.mov

Exactly. Thank you, and Walter, for your very fast and helpful replies. regards simon

Original.tiff Working on an I Mac with OSX 10.68 and V15J a problem started yesterday which has me rather perplexed. I imported a model file from the CD as reference for how to lay out the splines. Selected the group skin colour in the PWS and got the following result when I hid the non selected. Missing_splines.tiff I've tried it on my own models and its not quite as dramatic as that but it does appear to mis out cp's and splines when I copy and paste. Is this a corruption problem, would it be best to go for a fresh install or is it a known problem ? Its not one I've encountered before Any help would be greatly appreciated. regards simon

i think your getting confused a bit of what is real and what is rendered (which is good! thats what im aiming for!) I did mention my lack of qualifications (!). I was going to say that the light in the background looked like film transparency being blown out but not sure of my knowledge in that area. It would appear that my criticisms would apply to the original photo rather than your render in which case, my apologies. It does make a point about carefully picking the photo you want to work with. If your render skills are of the high order you display the photo you set them against needs to be of a comparable quality ? Perhaps I best shut up now. regards simon