largento

I think what I've got in mind will work for me, Robert. I'm wanting to finish this in the next few days. I've got another project I'm itching to work on that I can't start until I'm done with this one, which is turning out to be a great motivator. :-) I noticed that colorless thing, too! Somehow the key and fill lights had been rotated down and the rim turned off. I used the original cho I sent you to set them all right again before rendering. I can only guess that the model was only getting some spill from the light blue fill light and maybe the cho realtime view was starting off with the model's actual colors (as if it wasn't being influenced by the lighting) and only displaying the effect of the lighting after a quick render? It stopped happening when I set the lights right. [EDIT] Just saw your last post, Robert. Shirt flapping is way past the level of this. :-)

Boiling would be great. My thought really was just to have some movement in it. Thinking either of just having an image large enough that I can move it in the bg or maybe even do a couple of layers and make them transparent and move them around. The still images worked surprisingly well, so I might just be thinking too much.

The first draft is finished! Whew! It's coming in just under 4 minutes. Unfortunately, I have a laundry list of changes I have to do before I can turn it over to Scott for the final sound. Still, it feels like a major accomplishment! I did the first shot on April 30th, so less than two months! I have the whole place to myself this week, which means no interruptions, so I'm really hoping I can make all the changes and have it off my plate before the end of the week.

Nice solution, Bobby!

Using Newton, it actually simulates gravity. So, you set up your choreography and select which objects will be part of the simulation (as static objects or dynamic objects) and then right-click on the choreography in the PWS and go to: Plug-Ins/Simulate Newton. Then the simulation will run and keyframes will be made for every single frame in the length of the choreography. So, in the first one, I've simulated Newton and this has happened. In the second, I haven't. So you can see how I had everything set prior to running the simulation. Once you've run the simulation, you can re-use it. Simply rotate the triangle by the object in the PWS, so that you can dig down to the Choreography Action folder. Right-click it and select "Export as Action..." Then, you can open a new choreography. Bring in the object and drop the action on it.

It's a great bit of animation and a nice high point for the ending! I rendered it out with a "placeholder" of sorts for the sky and lightning. Turns out my "Aurora" plugin is only for Photoshop and the animatable one is "Aurora Sky" and is for After Effects, so I'm going to have to see what I can do about making a bigger sky and moving it in the background. For this, I just brought it in as a layer and set it up so that it was aimed at the camera. The layer with the lightning is set up the same way, but by accident, I forgot to set it to flat shaded and turn off receive shadows. It turned out to be partly a happy accident since I did the strobing by keying the global ambience. That lit up the layer with the lightning, brightening it. I'll have to do some experimenting, but I think it's going to very cool! Here's a compressed version of it: sail4island_s.mp4

Looks great, Robert! Go ahead and pack up the files and send them over. Much thanks for the help!

Here you go. Same deal. First choreography has the simulation already run, second has everything set up to run. coinroll.prj

Cool, Paul! Is his dangling hair rigged with dynamics?

Here's a project with the basics. I've put two choreographies in here. One has already had Newton simulated (Newton) and one has everything ready to simulate (Setup). spincoin.prj [EDIT] Here's what the pre-simulated cho looks like: coinspin.mp4

Just for fun, I played with just spinning the coin. Here I animated a few key frames to spin the coin around and then the Newton keeps it going for awhile before it comes down. It's a lot of fun just playing around with Newton. coinspin.mov One note: Create your coin model with the center at the center axis.

You could use Newton Simulation and experiment with the results. Here's a quick try. I made a coin model and a ramp. Coin is positioned above the ramp and made a dynamic object (ramp and ground are made static objects). When the simulation runs, the coin drops, hits the ramp, rolls down it and into the view of the camera. I played with changing the kinetic friction and gravity. (I made the kinetic friction .35 and the Y gravity -6.) With a fair amount of trial and error, you might get what you need. cointest.mov

Happy Birthday, Luuk!

You can do it in a choreography. Just click the "show more drivers" symbol next to the item in the project workspace. You can then click down through the Decals folder until you get the image and set keys for the percentage.

Happy Birthday!

Nicely done, sir!

Maybe just a slow push-in on Flemm. I could then pre-compose the sky and possibly scale it to match. I haven't used the animated part of this sky plug-in I use for my skies yet, so I'll have to see what my options are. Obviously, the simpler the better. :-)

I was trying to find a good image, but this is the only one I could find: Remember when Indy and Sallah are digging for the Ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark and they have the clouds swirling around them in and they are dark in the foreground? That's the kind of look I have in mind.

No. It's a dark, ominous scene with a giant lightning strike that will strobe Flemm for a second. This is a pronouncement that they are going to a scary island from which no one has ever gone and survived. Flemm will be dark in front of a stormy sky. I'll need to lock the camera, too, since the vfx I'll be doing will be 2D.

Cool, Robert! I'm getting closer and closer to finishing my last sequence. It feels like this has taken a really long time, but looking back I guess it's not really been all that long considering. This is definitely the longest animation project I've done so far.

I think it's just a matter of getting used to doing it. I often just click in the model window and drag select some part of the area that I'm working on. That doesn't take very much time or effort.

Thanks, Rodney! The idea of inflating the chicken prior to the "pop" was inspired by the sound effects Scott had already done. In the comic strip, you do see the chicken turning red, but I thought it needed something more, so I created a pose that inflated the chicken's proportions. To me, what really sells it is his eyes bulging out and how he throws his head back right before he bursts. To explode him out of frame, he is scaled up an enormous amount in one frame and then the explosion's opacity is immediately brought down to zero. If you could see the choreography, you'd see that there's a giant red chicken standing over them like Godzilla. :-) The chicken bits I animated in an action for the bucket. It is turned off in the choreography until the flash of the explosion. The only things added in AE were the lens flare from the ship's cannon and the beam itself. I had worried that this shot was going to require all kinds of multiple layers and all sorts of complicated things, but in the end, it was really easy. I think doing anything complex with the paint would be one of those things that took people out of it while they tried to figure out what the significance was. The graphic novel is finished and available for purchase, btw. :-) Funny stuff Mark. I almost cringed in anticipation of what I was about to see. Very nicely executed. (and for some reason I think the kids should especially love it... chicken nuggets are so primal) This'll be one of those odd observations but I submit it for your considered consideration. Could you perhaps have Flemm paint an 'X'? That is if you aren't saving that master stroke for something greater? Perhaps you could even extend the hat's tracking/reading capabity even further (in the novel if necessary... it might be too much work in the comic book or animation!) - 1 Mark - slash mark (separate) - 2 Marks - X shape (disintegrate) or (if Xs painted on many unconnected objects... reintegrate) - 3 Marks - M shape (microwave) - 4 Marks - Two X shapes (Mark Largento and Mark Skodecek appear to rig the rigging, build ships 'n bottles, animate skeletons guarding treasure and otherwise save the day) - 5 Marks - (insert standardized gag here: um... Flemm runs out of paint) etc. But seriously... it's that tried and true symbology thing. Oh how I yearn for the visual of more pirate Xs! Regardless, you are really hitting your stride here. -------------------------------------------------- Nice breakdown Robert! Looking forward to your next update. -------------------------------------------------- Edit: You posted again while I was typing. Love the evil monkeys!

No, I dont' think that was mentioned. You mean he's not on camera then? That would dramatically simplify things. Yes, originally I had just the "it's far too dangerous" line un-animated, but then when I assembled the animatic, I realized it was better with both of those lines going over the book card. I know I sent you a link to that, but couldn't remember if I'd pointed it out. So, the only animated part is "No matter the horrors that lie before us, men ...we Sail for Greyhawk Island!" and the thunderclap and reaction. Basically, up until the point he starts the "unless...".

Wow! This is why I gave you the last shot, Robert. I didn't want to raise people's expectations early on. :-) I am concerned that it's too much like a "dance" move for Flemm, though. Flemm's a big galoot and this is his "Independence Day" speech. I like the idea of him doing a slashing motion, but have that with the line "No matter the horrors that lie before us, men..." instead ...as if he's dismissing the danger. Then raise the index finger three times to punctuate the words "sail," "Greyhawk" and "Island" ...getting a little higher each time. I like the cower at the end. I get the impression that maybe you had something similar in mind, but clipped the audio? I can't remember if I mentioned it, but the last two lines ("unless it's raining. It's far too dangerous to sail in the rain.") don't need to be animated. I think they are funnier coming after the shot has ended. :-) I've made a start on the sword-fighting monkeys sequence. I'm going to be doing lots of quick shots and go for more stylized to make up for my animating shortcomings. This first shot is just the introduction of the three monkeys. Obviously, the 2-sworded monkey is the boss. In the comic, I did the fight with blue boxes in the background and I'm going to do that here, too, except they'll be in motion. Here's a shaded render. I'm doing all the actions on every 8th frame, so that I can adjust the timing, but I'm also thinking I'm going to play with time-remapping in After Effects to see if I can pull off "ramping" in the shots. monkeytest_001.mp4

I'm not ready to make any announcements yet since things are still in the gelatinous phase, but I thought I'd share this test here. I'm working on a system of doing animated puppets. A system where I can easily create many characters from basic building blocks. Essentially like the generic Muppets that you could stick eyes and noses and wigs on to make any character you needed to. I first worked on this test a few weeks ago, but tonight I experimented with adding hair. Anyways, it's just a second long, but here's the test... hairtest.mp4