Simon Edmondson

Revised_Test.mov Rob Thank you for your comments. I have revised it this afternoon ( UK time ). I was concious of twinning before , but not enough, so have changed that and a few other bits. I did try the flower tutorial in TAOAM for the smartskin but ( in my foolishness), could not apply it to my figure. Do you know of a good tute on applying to an animated figure I could reference ? regards Simon

Rob Thank you kindly for the comments. I will try to address those later this morning. The voice is from a Yogi bear cartoon. At least, that what it claimed. It was the indignation I liked. regards simon

Here is this afternoons work on one of a series of characters being developed ( working title of Blockheads ). The style of figure may be recognised ? Any feedback would be welcome, good, bad or please don't bother us again. I've still not learned how to smartskin so that will be the next stage. Points for spotting the sound clip source but, alas, no prizes. ( it was free... ). Thank you in advance for any comments. regards simonTest.mov

John I did and it did ! Thank you. simon

Nancy Thank you for your reply. You and Fuchur hae been abig help. Ta muchly simon

Thank you very much for your reply. I thought I'd have to wait until tomorrow, it being a quiet Sunday ... Much obliged. Ta. Simon

I am developing some variations on a simple character and had some pose sliders set up for things like eye and mouth movements. The body was retained and a series of heads developed for the changes. Even though the original CP's have been deleted and replaced by those on the new heads, the old pose sliders remain when I try to set up the new relationships. I deleted the appropriate sections in "Relationshhips" but the sliders remain when I try to use an action to test the figure. Can this be changed or do I have to live with it ? Thanks for any help you might be able to offer. Regards simon

Some revisions and the addition of sound. My apologies to Rodney if I haven't followed his suggestions as closely as I perhaps should have done. I'm going slightly gaga on this one. For some strange reason the sync seems to have slipped in a couple of places. I'm working on that .. A bit bothered by the overspill of the spotlights but not sure if I want to go to another three weeks of rendering ! Hey ho.Fred_white_light.mov simon

Rodney |Thank you for your comments. I will look to the changes you suggest in the next few days. The idea was that he started the beat box and it played a sample of each of the tracks on it. The fall at the end came because he was anticipating a continuation of the same and got "The Birdie Song" instead. The bit with the lights was because he was supposed to be living the fantasy of playing on stage. Rudely shattered by the song at the end and his fall down. Something I hadn't considered, and perhaps should of, is that, outside of Europe, the Birdie song might not be so well known. It was one of those summer hits that stuck in the charts for months at a time, always at around the same level and was bought by people coming back off their holidays. It had a certain dance that went with it and was considered extremely 'naff' by anyone who took their music seriously. The whole idea came about because, when I was 18 ( now 55 ), I saw a group of kids in a rock club, not just playing air guitar but being the whole group. There was a bass player, guitarist and singer on the floor and sat at the tables, a drummer and a keyboard player. That was funny enough but, when the record changed, they all swapped around positions ! They kept it going most of the night too.. Thank you once again simon

As you will (not ) hear, the sound on this short is not done yet. The first 40 seconds or so is silent and the music has a click track running through it. At least its obvious that they weren't lifted from the original ! My friend is going to do that in the next few days... This is an assembly edit of the project. There are three versions of it. This one, one were the lights don't change colour and the camera moves a bit more, and one using a Toon render. The movements are the same in all of them, only the setting changes. The quality is not very good as its taken off a medium quality lower res version. The original is in 1080 HD and this is 320 x 240 three generations down the line. If I sound like I'm making excuses (?) I possibly am... The PFG at the begining and end is my animating alter ego. It stands for Pretentiou Fat Git. To borrow and old joke, "Wherever I go, so does he go " I would welcome any feedback you are able to offer. Good bad or, don't darken our forum again. regards simon Fred_Low_res.mov

Thank you for your comments. I have tried to up load a low res version of a larger project but the upload process keeps stalling and won't allow it to finish. The file size is 11.5mb in size ? Slightly puzzled by that. simon

Rodney You'll have to let me know what this inspiration regarding Google docs is ? I don't even know what google docs are ( !!!) I read 3D World mag over here and there was a bit in it the other month where, I think it might have been Lucas Arts or a.n.other big name, were using excell to keep their assets managed on big productions and to keep track of the frames rendered. I have only recently started to use Libraries in AM but, that seems to be a good way to manage the assets. I just need to learn to use Excell to keep track of the frames. I recently had a disaster were a PC crashed and lost about 400 frames out of 2,500 and it was difficult to find out which ones were missing. My organisation will improve next time ! The nearly married saga was like a Hollywood rom com, we are still on good terms but she works an average 80 + hours a week, sometimes 120 for weeks on end. Chicago work ethic I think ! I will try to get the other short posted in the next couple of weeks. Thank you again for all your help. simon

Rodney Thank you for your comments. I'm not sure I have a good workflow, I always feel like I should get more done in the time I have. The changes only took about half an hour to 40 mins to change the animation in the action file and about the same to render out the animation as a QT file. It was basically getting the foot target to slip and then adjusting the other bones accordingly to compensate. You may be getting me mixed up with someone else re the Google Docs ? I wouldn't wish to take credit for someone elses idea. I have some friends in the Chicago area, almost got married to one of them five years ago ( !) but, I'm actually a UK resident. We have a village called California not far from here and there are still several US airbases in the area ( east anglia ) but thats as close as I've been for a bit. Did study at EIU in 79-80 though. I'll try to post the other piece when my friend does the sound for me. Thank you once again simon

I followed all the suggestions ( I hope ) and here is a revised version. The skirting board has moved, He breaths more before he starts and he now slides on the floor to cause the crash. He also moves his hands around a bit more. I did keep the harmonica the same size as before, only because I come from a very literal minded family and, blues harmonicas are usually smaller than the hand, my hands anyway !!! Thank you for your time and trouble simon Mopping_Harmonica.mov

Rodney Thank you very much for the comments, they are very welcome. I will go back and make the changes you suggest, it shouldn't take long to do. I have a high res version rendering in the background, fortunately in single frames... I hadn't noticed the bucket in relation to the skirting board, to focused on the movement, I shall adjust that too. Regards simon

Thank you to Rodney, Mouseman and Rob for their comments and feedback. Here is a low res version of the complete piece which might answer some of the questions. I posted the other because that was what I was working on yesterday. I had thought that the reason he fell backwards was because he overbalanced due to getting carried away. However I think I will revise it so he slips on the floor he has just mopped instead. He does take a big breath before he starts but perhaps I need to revert to the earlier version as that was more readable. I was worried that it was too exaggerated. I was hoping to make a whole series of these in the coming months while developing other ideas on paper and working through some tutorials ( can anyone recommend a good one on smartskin in figures ? ). This one was made between xmas and New Year, about four hours a day while working on other things. There is another with the same character ( Fred ) which lasts 2 mins 30 but I'm waiting for my friend to do the sound for that before I post it here. I hope to get the full sound ready for this one sometime this week, have to record the bucket and mop sounds first. Thank you once again for your feedback. simonHBE.mov

_Harmonica.mov]This is part of an animation I was working on for New Year. It started on Christmas Day ( I think ? ). Theres another 15 seconds elsewhere but this is the main part. Theres no sound at the begining for 2 seconds and another two seconds at the end. The Instrument clips came courtesy of Garageband. There is no smart skin on the model as I have not learnt how to do that yet ( !!! ) Any feedback would be welcome, good bad or.indifferent... Harpy Blues Ear to one band call. simon

Nancy That worked. Thank you very much indeed. It has been annoying me for a long time. Now I know !!! regards simon

Nancy Thank you very much indeed for your kind reply. I shall try that straight away and see what I get ( if I have understood it correctly ). Thank you. simon

I have worked through the tutorial in TAoAM on how to install the 2001 rig. and applied it to a simple model I have built. At the end of the tutorial it says " You may have to assign ~CP's to finger bones" but it doesn't explain how or where to look to find how to do that ? There is an earlier reference using the rabbit model to how to use the hand controls of the 2001 rig but I didn't see an explanation of how to assign points to the elaborate controls. I am probably missing something that is very obvious here but, could somebody point me to an explanation or tutorial on how to assign CP's to the hands in the 20001 rig ? I've got around it before by using non standard finger set ups but, given the controls are there it seems to make more sense to do it properly rather than fudge my way around it again ? Thank you for your time and consideration. regards simon

It's possible you have a fractional keyframe at the end of an action, Perhaps you scaled some keys or animated at a different frame rate. Rob Thank you very much for your help. I think the fractional rate possibly arose because I opened and ( made the mistake pf ) saved the action file in a project with a frame rate of 30fps. I work in 25fps ( PAL TV standard ). Its a bit frustrating that it has happened, even though 25fps is set as the default in the tools/ options. Back to work. Thanks once again. simon

Hope this is a little better ? It seems to be working better today although, for some reason, a few of the actions are shown in the PWS with durations of, for example, 05:13.45, instead of 05:12, regards simon

Rob Is this what you require ? simon

Thank you. I found it this morning. Would that I had been as awake last night ! simon