JohnArtbox

it most certainly is, like the test, love the model

another few stolen hours dedicated Added a jittering action to the keylight to improve shadows tightened up some of the actions. Moved the giant's shadow into frame to give Jack something visible to react to.http://www.artboxanimation.com/AmStuff/jack.mpg

Hi Ken Be bold, I asked for criticism I've already added some extra movement on the end and shortened the time. He's only supposed to be surprised by the falling text,and when he sees the content is actually pleased by it(I think i need to add my screams/exclamations, and an "ooo" and a "cool" to note approval for the new voice and better script. The current versions are off a sound fx cd I have. You're not the only viewer to miss the "pleased" aspect so I obviously need to communicate it more strongly. On another note netrender has been running for three days with only one failure(and that's because the network cable fell out).

waiting for the render. Here's what he looks like

Great character Eos...lot's of personality.

The Ocean generator would certainly add another string to the AM bow. Marcel's previous water tests were interesting but it appears that he's cancelled his plugin. I like the loop test.

Hi Rich Very impressive model. I'd agree with Jim's comment about the soft transition of the nostrils to the upper lip and there's some texture smearing where you've mixed different photo angles , but these are very minor points.

looks great . Be interested to see how it moves.

I'm talking to myself again. This is the majority of the animation. It's turned from a test into a trailer I've got to do another pass on the animation but real life is intruding so I thought I'd get this up. I also need to do a proper lighting and render setup. Criticism is good... http://www.artboxanimation.com/AmStuff/jacktest.mov

Sleep when you're dead Sam...We wan't more animation nailed it.

Rig Each of the squiggles on the side are attached to a bone which controls the relevant feature eyes, mouth, teeth, left and right hands. These are in turn parented to a bone which orients them to the camera so they are always easy to manipulate. I use the TSM for the skeletal control.

Moving along a bit further. I've added hand animation to the first section and extended the animation . The end section, after he stops talking, is a floaty first pass but it's taking shape. I scrapped two previous versions because they didn't read well enough. I extended the translate controls onto the hands so that a single bone controls spreading fingers, closing to a fist, pointing and inbetween hand shapes. testCsm.mpg

heh heh heh I needed that. Very Cool Shaun

He's great, I like this image better than the one you entered into the image contest.

Nice expressions and characters Orangemaster

Great image Cyberspark.

thanks Zach, I haven't read the book but it sounds similar. Mouth wide/narrow Open/Close Happy/Sad Eyes Open/shut Blinks&Asymmetry Angry/Happy + there's a teeth control I haven't used yet.

Finally got some animation done. This is only the first pass, but it shows of my new facial animation rig. All of the expressions on the face are the result of moving two bones with translate relationships. Now I need to flesh out the animation, add hand movements, change lots of bad points, refine the timing etc etc. Probably about 3 hours work so far. JackTest.mpg

Great work Emilio, I wonder if you could create a couple of tiled images which were prestretched/squashed to compensate. You've inspired me to create some patch images.

Good to have you back and fishing Robert ). I like the new fish.

lots of fun Alli, very cool

Hi Tiffany. Skycast can be used on inside scenes as an ambient light by setting the render options on exterior walls to not cast shadows. This way the light shines through the walls but cast shadows from other objects within the room. I'll put an image up to show what I mean in a few minutes. A better way to get a similar effect is too create an action which flies a bulb light around the room, and then run that action every frame(just like a SkyCast action). I'll post some images in an hour or so to illustrate. This is the Skycast with shadow casting turned off on the wall

Last character... Now I can animate )

Looks good Ken... and with sound it'll be even better. the only suggestion I'd have is to add some flaring of the nostrils and movement of the lower area of the nose.

Redo on the female giant...I like the varied hair colours. Christina: SkyCast is something we use all the time professionally so we'll keep updating it. Although it 'should' stay compatible . There are a couple of tutorials on the website, and I'm reasonably active on the forum if you have any questions. Skycast will scale any image you load as a base to 512 x 256 before running. The action is dropped onto a SkyCast light model in the choreography. These images are rendered in version 11. Xtaz: Yes, because the clouds have very little colour variation, I'll be trying to add more colour/richness with lighting. Frank: This is my 'simple' project. Expressions can wait for another day