largento

Just an FYI, if you've been putting off picking up the digital copy of Stalled Trek: Amutt time, you can save money by doing it soon. On June 1st, I'm going to raise the price from $3.99 to $5. I'm looking into getting cards printed so that I can sell digital copies at conventions, so I'm going to have to up the price to cover the cost of the cards. This is still half-price when compared to the DVD and you don't have to pay for shipping. Just click on my banner in my signature and it will take you to my store.

Thanks, Gerry!

That's a good idea, Robert. Thanks, Nancy! I did play with that a little, Nancy, but the rigging is really basic. I cheated by pulling the leg bone up into the body, but I didn't have the ability to tilt the hips to allow for it. Afterwards, I took a look at a Huckleberry Hound cartoon, and he pretty much walked on the toes, so, his feet never tilted back.

Thanks, Steve! I hadn't intended to do any of this, but it was a great exercise for thinking about how to make an odd-shaped character move.

Thanks, Rodney! You know how much I love the old viewmaster stuff. Years ago, I looked into creating custom viewmaster reels of The Wannabe Pirates to sell, but the cost at the time was prohibitive. I just checked today and there are now options for ordering a single reel. They're still too high to make for sale (unless you knew you could sell lots of them), but as a novelty, it's not too bad. You can get a single custom reel with a viewmaster in a white box for $30. I'm totally going to do it! :-) The images have to be 1112x955 pixels. I can't find any specific info about 3D settings, but obviously a viewmaster just does plain old stereo images. The fun would be to make the shots as dimensional as possible. I once read an interview with the woman who did a lot of the sculpting work for those old viewmaster reels and she said they would use a single camera and take two shots from different angles. They would even move some of the elements between shots to exaggerate the 3D. Might be fun to experiment with that sort of thing.

Hadn't planned on doing this, but thought it would be fun to Walk the Dog, as it were. :-) Here's a 90 frame shot of Huckleberry walking down the road. I modeled Huck with no knees, so I had to figure out some way to reload the foot without scraping it on the ground. I used a sort of clown like waddle and turned out the feet at that point like you would do if your shoes were too big. huckwalkin_s.mov

Thanks, Robert! Well, I got back to him today and finished him up. I'm thinking I may do up a bunch of old HB characters and put them into some kind of poster I can put in my portfolio. Here's Huckleberry Hound in full. And for comparison, here's the wireframe:

I would bet Pixar and the lot composite all of their shots, Kat! This is all looking great and kudos again for sticking with it and seeing it through.

Way to go, Paul!

The plan would be to finish the one I was 2/3rds of the way through when I stopped ("The Amulet of the Apes.") That will give me the material for a second graphic novel. Unless something were to change, this would be followed by a complete re-haul. All of the characters would get updated designs and be remodeled. Flemm was modeled by me waaay back in 2007 and was one of the first characters I ever modeled. I like to think that I've gotten better since those early days. :-) These updated versions would be used for the grand finale, "The Sword of the Rightwise King," which starts with Flemm as a youngster and goes all the way to the epic event of 1692. This will give me a nice trilogy of graphic novels, which could even be combined into a single, massive 600+ page tome.

Do I do it? Do I bring The Wannabe Pirates back from hiatus? Is the world safe with more Flemm? Giving readers a say here.

Thanks, everyone! Those old character designs are deceptively simple, but they were really made for 2D and getting things like the front view and side view to co-exist is a challenge. Took me awhile to realize that part of the trick is that Huck looks slightly down when he's facing the camera, so you can see his eyes over his nose. :-) I don't think anything could have saved HB after the networks assassinated Saturday Morning Cartoons, Rodney. Besides, we're seeing how Warner Animation handles the HB properties after Bill & Joe died and it's not pretty. Thanks, Sebastian. It's just way easier to tweak the model when you don't have a bunch of control points. Same with doing weighting when you're rigging. It's less about efficiency and more about me wanting to take the easy way out. :-)

I often see cartoon characters and am seized by the urge to model them in A:M, but never seem to have the time (or a good reason.) I've thrown out reason and decided I'll make the time every once in awhile. :-) One of the ones that I've always wanted to do was Huckleberry Hound...

Having a little fun with post production. Added a lense flare to draw the eye to the approaching car. Did this in Photoshop. os_shot_001a.mov Not going to turn into JJ and start adding them to every shot, but it not only works to draw attention to the car, but it keeps the car alive while it's behind the tree. This shot cuts to a close-up of the side of the car making a rolling stop (revealing the "SHER'FF" gag) and serving as a cover for the character getting out of the car. A sound effect tand then pan up to him already out of the car and walking forward.

Bravo! I was thinking it was a wall with notches around a small rectangular building. :-)

Thanks, Sebastian! I'm guessing there must be something new with the setting for the lights that the new choreography places, but I can't find anything in the settings that tells me what it is. Now I get to go render the whole shot *again*. :-)

It's frustrating, because the expectation is that you can delete everything from a choreography and not have any issues. I finally went back to an old choreography file from before the change and set it up and made it my new default. I had to set up the whole shot again, but this time I just manually placed trees rather than messing with flocking. I get the shadows and the lights seem to work like expected. This is out of v17, too. It's strangeness. I think the slight tinge of halo around the trees comes from the depth of field. There aren't visible white pixels around the clipped art. It doesn't bother me, though. This is all of a seven second shot and more times than not, the background isn't going to be in sharp focus.

I went back and forth, but prefer the 2D trees. I'm not sure what's happening with the shadows, which clearly aren't there. I checked all of the settings and am baffled about that. I've been having shadow problems ever since the default choreography was changed. The 2D trees are set to cast shadows, too, but aren't. I've tried removing all of the default lights and putting in new lights, but the render then comes out really dark (progressively darker as each pass of the multi-pass is rendered.) I ended up having to go back to v16 to do these renders, because v17 doesn't seem to be able to handle large memory setups anymore. I can't even preview the Sea Anemone (Flemm's ship) in v17 without A:M immediately crashing.

Happy belated birthday, guys!

Rendered out the opening shot last night! Decided to go with 2D tree photo instead of models. I think they actually start to look like the miniature trees you see on elaborate model trainsets. I also abandoned using hair for the grass. Too much render time for too little effect. I might use it in some closer shots if needed, but I'm satisfied with this.

I'm with you, Lloyd. That's why I look to the pro's. Yes, we can build exact replicas of homes and stuff, but sets were designed for making movies. They were built to allow camera space, to tell the story, not just so happen to be where the story gets told. Google for set designs and see what set designers have done. When you really study them, you can see the choices they made and how it helps tell the story, rather than being an obstacle to get around. Take for instance, something like this stage set: It's not particularly realistic, but look at how many different shots and opportunities you can get from a single set. The staircase, the different types of doors, the furniture and the windows. The curves and the open walls, give you plenty of space. A square room, with right angle walls would be hard to shoot in. I gained an appreciation for this sort of thing when I was recreating the Star Trek sets. They're designs were amazing practical and stylish. Even to something as simple as designing the bridge in wedges so a wedge could be removed to place a camera anywhere around the 360.

Thanks, Gene!

Thanks, David. Looks great. Shows how in-the-know I am that I didn't even realize this was based on a real thing. :-)

Very cool! Love to see a low-angle shot to get a sense of just how big it is.

Say, that does have a nice ring to it... :-)