smudge

*poke* *poke* still working... Messed with the first shot(combined the first and second shot into one), and with the Rose/panel shot. The other shots are there for context. LongingForHomeSnip(320x240)3.mov LongingForHomeSnip(640x480)3.mov

This any better? LongingForHome_Snip320x240_.mov

I didn't mean to hurt... really.... Seriously, luckbat, take is as a complement. I usually only critique like that if I feel the animation is worth it, can benefit from it, and that the artist reviving it is actually advanced enough both skill wise and character-wise to "take it". You've got some good stuff here. And I think you can make it spectacular if you push both it and yourself. Even if this only "shows in your living room" you can honestly say that you've done it. You can't go forward and get better if you do nothing. But you are doing something, and your doing it well. GOGOGO! This is true of all of Hollywood, not just documentaries. Most of it comes down to the distributors want a *very* large piece of the pie, but the only way they can demand a peice that big is if they funded it in the first place. Also, because they funded it, (and not the artist on spec), they want and have a say in how it all comes together. Unfortunately this smacks into too much of del Toro's problems with Hellboy; "can he have a dog? Can it be red? How 'bout a hell machine? Why does he have a tail? Can we get rid of that?" <-- quotes from execs repeated from del Toro during an interview. It's rather a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" system. But there are ways around it and a lot of it does revolve around nitch markets. One of them, *is* for more violent animations aimed at older audiences, so you're doing all right.

This is so untrue it makes me want to laugh. If one dose not have a particular market in mind for a project, and/or are not willing to throw one's self into marketing it, the only place it will ever show will be the creator's living room. Just because you put something out on the market, does not mean that folks will flock to it. More than likely they'll never know it exists. Doing some market research and aiming for particular markets is good. Being a slave to marketing info is just as bad as having no info at all. It's a delicate line to walk. With that said, there is a few different animation markets aimed at more mature views. Anime is one (and a strong one at that). The Film Festivals are another (think high-brow artsy). Sick & Twisted is a third. If there was no market at all, there would not be Aeon Flux (original), Ghost In The Shell, or Bill Pylmpton (sp) (who's on his, what, 4th feature length?). The trick is to identify the market you want to work in then tailoring your marketing accordingly. With that said and outta the way, I've got a few critiques for you luckbat. Take them, or leave them as you see fit. Overall: First thing that struck me was that a lot of your motions were very linier in nature. Are you remembering to put in your archs? I don't believe Monk's pull forward due to his non-shifting waist. Also, you’re being very timid about animating your hands. But your overall timing and weight looks good. The kick was very well done, the impact believable eccept for a minor amount of followthrough. Details: Monk's arm grab & pull: The biggest issue here I think is that while Monk leans back in order to pull her forward, he does not shift his weight and as a result, he looks off balance (not something you want to be while pulling this sort of maneuver), as well as creating the illusion that she's passing through part of his chest. The main thing he's trying to do is transfer his momentum to her but its not currently reading. Try having him step back as he grabs her, transfer his weight to his newly planted rear foot, then have him come forward again to press into her and pin her as she hit's the sink. Also, having him slightly (it does not have to be very much) push her hand away from his shoulder (as an anticipation) just as he starts the pull her forward would help create a arc swing so the motion isn't so linier. As her hand is being pulled forward I'd think her fingers would want to splay out as they tried to follow the motion of the hand as it's being pulled. Think of it this way, His hand has suddenly become the driving force for her motion all of her actions until finally pinned are follow-through motions. After all, for a brief moment she is no-longer in control of her own actions, he is. While her head is the last to recover, it currently comes back up into the same position/angel as it started. More than likely, it'd try to bobble to one side slightly. Again, watch and fallow your arcs. She might also turn her head ever so slightly when she tries to peer over her shoulder at Monk just before she wails on him. It will help give her a little more life. As Monk hits the wall his arms stop their follow through and start leading the action. Let him start to peel away from the wall before he regains control over them to pull them in front to soften his landing before he hits the floor. Sorry if this doesn't make much since. This is one of those times I really wished I had a way of marking up a movie file so you could see what I'm trying to describe.... Hope this helps. You are free to disregare any of this if you think I'm blowing it out my bum.

Sorry, 180-degree rule. ... Brain still unpacking boxes....

Heh! I extended the close shot of her at the panel because people were complaining that it was too short and they couldn't read her emotion. There's no pleasing some folks. LOL The last Med. Shot of her turning towards the panel was added to avoid breaking the 90-degree rule. Folks were getting lost when it just cut between the close headshot and the close panel. If I pulled it back any father, you'd get a hanging panel model in space since, in order to get the short, I had to remove that wall the panel was attached too. That was the best compromise I could come up with. I do, however need to work on the panel. It should flip once she touches it and the room goes black to saying, lights: OFF, window: OPEN. That's the next thing on my agenda to do. Thanks for all the feedback guys!

AAARRRRGGGGHH! The boxes! The BOXES!!! Longing for Home Snippit Large (640x480), 7.7mgs, Quicktime 7 Small (320x240), 2.7 mgs, Quicktime 7

More poking while trying not to trip over boxes. Mostly at shot 5. Got the lighting I want, short of possiably a rim around the control panel and re-doing the star-dome model/texture so it looks much better. She's also got a strange vibration on her hand that's agains the panel, but I'm going to have to wait until after I get settled in my new place before I tackle it or more modeling. More to come. OpenWindow_320x240_.mov

hey, amarillospider! Believe it or not, the actual solution was stranger than that (which is why I really need to right that tut up, in my copious spare time). One version I did try had perfectly straight legs and I was still getting popping. It was annoying. >.< But I've worked it out and am rather happy with the solution short of the fact that I still wish that Hash had a min/max scale constraint. That would make the new leg system perfect. More to come.

Thanks for the complement, arkaos! Sorry that it's taking me so long to get off my bum, we're actually moving to a new abode starting next week, so I've spent more time playing "pack-mistress" than actually working on anything A:M wise. But I have finished Rose's model. At least I *think* I have. And I like the rigging much better now. I've also finished up texture mapping the Observation Room, finally. I've also poked (but not very much) at the walk as Rose crosses the room. It's still not perfect, but it feels better. I'll poke at it more after I get more of the shots together. Any case here the compile of what I've completed so far. LongingForHome_Snip320x240_.mov

Ug, things have continued to be been crazy here. Sorry for not being here much. But cross your fingers. If all goes well, I'll be moving to new and better digs this month. It's all a matter of if I pass the credit check or not for the new place. But to prove that I haven't been sitting on my duff all this time.... Been poking at the model (still) for Rose, texturing her jumpsuit. Have a couple more patches to go on her shoulders and three different pockets (two large cargos on her hips, and another small one on her left arm). Still need to address her face, hands feet, slippers, and hair. But she's coming along. **Note to self: Still need to write up tutorial for non-popping leg constraints. LookTest_small_compress3.mov

Nope. I'm pretty much using Premiere to composite the renders from Hash. The cloud motion was done in Hash as well (I get a smoother motion out of it than in Premiere). Personally, I'd love to tell Adobe to go !@#$% it's self (I have not been pleased with company policies for the past few years) but don't have the money to jump to Apple/Final Cut/ect. So, I make do with old licenses and such. Ah, well. Such is life. ....Obnomauk, any word on the heron rig?

Clouds on BG09 Done! Next upto bat is Polishing up BG10 and adding cloud movement to that too. Onward! BG09compress.mov

... 0.0 ... Man, I'm glad I have this WIP. It's been so long since I've been able to poke at this project (due to outside contracts) that I forgot where I was. ^.^; uh-hum... (check through prior posts...) Ah! BG09: clouds. Got it. Thanks for everyone for their encouraging posts. And I'm sorry it took me so long to get back on track.

Just a quick note: Got the finalized paperwork today concering the Rights for Yeates' Stolen Child! YEAH!!!! This was the last real hurtle I had in making my current animation project. All I have to do is sign and drop the deposit in the mail. Stick a fork in it, it's DONE! All world-wide copyright clearnces have now been obtained. Now I just need to clear my work docket off so I can, you know, actually animate it... At least I can do it with a clear mind. ^.^

Just a quick head's up. Sorry I haven't been posting for the past few weeks. I've been buried by work and probably won't see the light out of it until next week. But it means that I can pay bills for once. Hopefully, mid next week I can get back to 'Stolen Child' & 'Longing for Home'. That would be nice.

Standard Friday Post (if not a little late in the day....) Been busy this week. Between 2 diffrant work contracts and fighting with rigging, I havn't gotten much else done. At lest I'm getting paid for my stress for once ... Did, however review BG09. Found that the popping knee problem I was having on a diffent model was affecting things here too. So I saved off the 'Son' model under a new name, re-rigged his legs, touched up his animation and re-rendered the shot. Still need to touch up the clouds and get them moving. That'll be the project for next week, I suppose. BG09compress.mov

Okay! By God, I think I've got it! NonPoppingKnees.mov If you can play this and the popping knees version side by side, you can really see the diffrance. I've had to move the original knee joint forward (to in front of the mesh's knee), add a new bone (starting and the knee rotation point and ending at the ankle rotation point) parented to the UpperLegBone and IK'ed to the same Ankle Target the original Leg structure is targeted (a one bone IK chain, as it where). I then parent my original foot structure to the new leg bone. I also changed how the foot control interacts with the toes. I should write up a tut to explain how this all works. Essentially the original IK chain is driving the Upper leg mesh only, and does not affect the rotation of the New LowerLeg Bone. Because it is longer than the leg itself, it will not pop when the leg is straightened but everything stays relative to each other because it's all referencing the same end point without being a circular constraint. Now to finish adjusting the mesh to fit the final model design....

Unfortunately, luckbat, moving her hips/pelvis down == not straightening her legs. She needs to be able to straighten (either from tension generated from the hips or the ankles) without popping. In a perfect world, she should be able to hyper-extend her legs as well. If this was being done in <unnamed program> simply reassigning the neutral potion of the IK chain would fix the problem entirely. However, you can't do that in Hash, so I am left to seriously contemplating ripping out the IK and simply animating her FK and just dealing with the feet slippage. GRR!!!!!

Vern, thanks for the responce, but how does your solution differ from the failed solution I described above? The knee and the anckle (as it stands) *have* to rotate from their current pivot locations. Moving the pivots will result in the mesh not deforming corretly. Any other suggestions?

I have been fighting with this rig on Rose all <CENSORED> afternoon to get absolutely <CENSORED> nowhere! This isn't brain surgery here, <CENSORED>! This is "suppose" to be a simple knee rig, right?! Then why the <CENSORED> can't I get it to stop popping when I straighten the <CENSORED> LEG?!?! Here's the current leg rig. Only the UpperLegBone & LowerLegBone are involved in an IK solution. If I try and move the Knee Joint forward (so that when her leg is straight but the IK chain is still bent, and thus not pop) the mesh will not move correctly (no, Dah!). If I leave the bone joints the way they are, I cannot straighten her legs with out the bad popping! And here's the animation... (only lower body animated for testing) And, no, not straightening her legs during animation is *NOT* the solution! AARRRRRRRRRRRGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If anyone has any brainy ideas, I'd love to here them.

Well... Drat! I'm goning to have to repaint the bench. After checking the test render, I discovered that, for some reason, the holes in the texture map are vibrating when rendered. I think it has somehting to do with the tranparency map fighting with the flat-shaded model that is accepting shadows. Ah well, better to know now than half way through the production cycle. So, expect the bench to change, painting wise, anyway. Also, just the other day I burned the current working versions of the films off onto DVD and took them over to a friends' place to view them on their big widescreen tv to see if the images hold. (Sometime's it's hard to tell when your working with little postage stamp renders on a monitor.) The images did just find. The sound however.... Oooggg! Premeire's doing something to the audio again! I think MP3's and the MPEG coverter aren't getting along. It's taking all the highs and spiking them. Painfully. Not Good. Very bad. Well, I guess I know what I'm doing next week; tracking down the audio problem. Yes and no. There is are 2 small, simple tubes that are wider at itheir bases (against the wall) than at their tops (where the bench starts) resting at the painted location connecting the bench to the wall. Both they and the wall were stamped togeather for texture-mapping. The idea is to let the models be just complex enought to show form when moved in 3D, but letting the texturemaps take care of all the real details. More to come as I poke.

Also painted up the bench. Don't know if I like it yet or not.

poke. poke. Did a render of the second shot to shot and combined it with the first to see if closer shots are going to hold just as well as the far ones. So far so good. LookTest_small_compress.mov

Finished repainting the background on BG08 and re-rendered everything. I can finally stick a fork in this scene and call it done. On to BG09 and fixing the 'Son's animation. BG07_BG10snippetCompress.mov