smudge

Yeah, I know I'm posting a day early, but things look pretty busy for tomorrow (Friday) and I don't know when I'm gonna be able to post again until next week. Paused on animation as I'm waiting for another model to get completed (the 'Son's walking staff). Finished modeling and rigging the 'Mom'. Actually, she's pretty much done except for one texture map. And that'll get finished as soon as I find were my bloody book on Celtic knot work went too. =Grr!= Just when I need something, it goes Elvis on me! Double =Grr!= Current model list now looks like: Fay -- DONE Son -- DONE Father -- DONE Mother -- DONE Sprite 1 -- DONE Sprite 2 -- DONE Will O Wisp -- DONE <--Start Over Buttery Spirit 1 -- Not Started Buttery Spirit 2 -- Not Started Grey Herrin -- Not Started Highlander Cattle -- Not Started Highlander Calf -- Not Started Mouse 1 -- Not Started Mouse 2 -- Not Started Trout -- Not Started Chair -- Not Started Table -- Not Started Stine -- Not Started Dirk -- DONE Staff -- Not Started I guess it's onto the buttery spirits.... MotherWalk_small_.mpg

'Fraid all of the backgrounds are paintings (drawings actually), traditionally inked, scanned, then painted in Photoshop. The Characters are toon rendered in Hash with an Alpha Channel, Ray-traced Shadows rendered separately with Alpha Channel, then all the layers are compiled in Premiere including any cut out mats (like the bush in front of Fay's dress). It's pretty much the same sort of techniques used to match animation in with live action except I'm drawing the backgrounds instead of filming them. Hope this helps.

(Trying to get back into the habit of posting of Fridays....) Mostly animating this week. Got BG11 halfway done. Fay's in, one of the sprites is in, just need to and the 'Son' and the other sprite, then I can more on to something else. I still need to go back in and add the Will 'O Wisp once I get that model finalized. Should also go in a re-tweak the background image matt since it's not quite lined up correctly (hard to see in a small version, but I notice it really badly at full screen). Back to work for me! BG11_Large_.mov

The song, "Stolen Child" is off Heather Alexander's first album, Wanderlust.

Wow! Thanks Guys! That's not a problem. Next episodes are posted monthly, and new episodes are still being printed. Plus my publisher and I have been working on a Graphic Novel deal for a whilw now. It's just a matter of getting "t"'s crossed and "i"'s dotted. Ebin & May on A:MFlims I've had a lot of requests for the next episode of the animation, but I've been rather leery of doing more since after episode two, the plot kicks in then I'd be committed to the next 25+ episodes. That's a little too large of a project for me to choke down at the moment, especially if I'm not drawing a pay-check from it. Anyway, back to Stolen Child.... Been animating for the past few days on BG11, a section of the chorus when the view (and 'Son') first meet Fay. Got her main body blocked in, still need to add facial animation (like you'll really be able to see them on anything smaller than a projection screen ). Once she's all done, I'm gonna be adding the two sprites (one will be resting on her left hand), and the 'Son' coming in from stage left. ...Shadows not being my friend.... BG11_small_.mov

Wow -- A complement from ypoissant. I've been blessed! Sorry I didn't post Friday. Had a 24-hour blackout in my area. Apparently, there was some roadwork down the street and some bozo of a contractor took out the main power line for the entire city. Just as I was saving too. =Grr!= I'll post as soon as recreate what was lost.

Well, I'm not seeing any technical errors in the animation. You're timing looks good. However, your animation is stronger at the end than in the beginning (after he turns his head to the camera). I think it's mostly the eyebrows. You might what to think about pushing his expressions a little bit farther. But that's just my opinion. For compressions, I'd recommend the QuickTime MPEG4 audio and video compression set to medium (50%). The current release version actually compresses smaller than DivX can. Otherwise, I tend to use MPEG1 for all those non-QuickTime users out there, even thou I could get much better compression from an MPG4.mov. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

(Posting while waiting for Hash to finish rendering animation....) Not as much as you think. Hash makes it way too eady to reuse old models and animations. The Sky Caste animation and model was something I did earlier and threw them together to test the lighting system. I’m very pleased with the results. The Stolen Child will be toon rendered. I was just taking a moment to test lighting for my next project when, not if, I get this short done. I have a tendency of piggy backing my projects so as soon as I finish one, I can jump right into the next. Arrg! Too many things to do and not enough time to do them all!

Early update (since I'm back from Washington). Worked on the ‘Mother’ a lot today. Got all of her basic model done. Now it's onto the fine tweaks to smooth her out for toon rendering and such. Also re-rendered the Sky Caste test with the model's textures on. Had to add a secondary light source to fill some of the shadows. With out it, she was rendering too dark to really see properly, her face was almost completely black. But the Sky Caste helped a lot. Will probably throw money at ArtBox after I finish with this project and start ramping up for my next. (I like to think ahead). Enough experimenting for me, though. I need to get back on track.... ... .... ......Phooey modeling! I NEED to animate! Arrg! DesertRose_Strut_SkyDome03_small_.mpg

Thanks for the complement, Entity. Personally, I think I've got a long ways of going before I can match this, though... Pixar's new short preview

Posting early since I'm going to Washington (Tacoma) for a con over the weekend. Upshot: Breakfast in Tacoma tomorrow (Thursday) morning! Down Shot: I fly out at 6 in the F***** morning. I am not a morning person.... Spent all of this week panicking getting stuff ready for the con and my docket cleared for sending stuff to my publisher. As such, I really haven't done anything on the short. Bad Smudge! No cookie! Did have the computer running on a render of a test for Artbox's Sky Caste lighting system. I had it rendering while I was busy doing other things. Good results straight off the bat, but need to run more testing to see if it's really something I can use (but not for this project). DesertRose_Strut_SkyDome01_small_.mpg

Yup! Just sent you the reply, Flog.

Weekly update: Thanks for the feedback, Ross Smith & entity. It’s nice to know I’m not just talking to myself here. I’d probably continue the WIP even if I were, though. It’s turned into a great way to make sure I continue progress on the short instead of it being shoved onto the backburner of ‘projects I’d like to finish someday’. Been working on the 'Mother'. Got her clothes redesign done and colored. I think she’s going to work now. Also went in and did a final full figure model render of the completed 'Father' and his final walk cycle (with knife). Father Walk cycle (final) MPEG1, 632kb Now, I'm onto modeling the 'Mother'. Started by using the 'Son' as the building block. With how often I'm taking and remolding him, I'm seriously considering after finishing this project, going in and creating generic male and female models to use as starting points for the next project. Poor kid, first I beef him and have him grow a beard, now it's a sex change....

Not much to report this week since I’ve been sucked into php coding hell again. Did get the 'Father's' bangs hooked up, and I went and ripped out all of the 'Son's' skirt rig so that I can hand animate it. =Blarg=. I want to get on to animating.... But I have to eat my beats before I can have my pudding, as it were. Also, for those who haven't seen it yet, the pick I entered for the Hash Image Contest last month (Sci-Fi/Fantasy) was my screen test render to make sure all my elements were working correctly. Was rather pleased how well everything fell into place. Yeah! At lest I know everything's gonna be happy with each other shy of the motion. Fay screen test Still need to texture the dagger, then it's onto the 'Mother'. The 'Mother' might take me a while since I'm debating on whether to redesign her or not. Her original clothes are not going to work as things stand right now, so I'm thinking about going with a tunic/dress that's a little more period. But I'm still debating on whether I should change her more drastically than her clothes. After all, the last thing I want is to have people confuse her and 'Fay'. That would be disastrous. Slowly going forward. . . .

Ugh! Dagger done, short of final texture map. Suddenly realized I never hooked up the 'Father's' bangs. Stupid me. Need to do that next week after I recover from Labor Day weekend (currently at small con trying to do the art-sell thing). ... Need sleep....

5 min short. Of course, this is assuming I can survive the modeling/rigging stage of things....

Oh, and here's the final 'Father'. Grumpy, isn't he? FatherWalk_small_.mpg

QUOTE=SHADOWMASTER]I've seen a number of toon rendered things, but this is the first 3D model I've seen that actually looks drawn. Thanks for the complement, SHADOWMASTER. Now you know why I don't want to deal with a modified toon renderer at this point for this project. I know how to get the effect I want, I don't need to spend time to try and re-learn it. Well in weekly progress, I've got 'Father' done. I ended up ripping out the automated skirt rig leaving only enough boning to hand animate it. Will be doing the same for the 'Son' and probably 'Fay' as well. Also, went and animated 'Father' to have his own character walk. Next up, I'm gonna be modeling the dagger since the 'Father' needs to wear it in the first shot. Baron, my fiancée came up with a totally cool design for it. Yeah, Baron!

Humm -- Some good things to think about, Rodney. I'll probably implement posting to the main forum & writing Hash Support (got a bug report to do anyway) on Monday, seeing how today's docket is full trying to get a demo reel together & get scans off to me publisher.... No rest for the weiry!

Tunic's done. Got most of the rigging done on the 'Father' too short of the skirt (which is in and working, but not correctly) and his braids. For the moment I've thrown the 'Son's' walk on him but should probably do one of his own. Next week will be finishing up his rigging, then working his poses for expressions and dialog. FatherWalk_small_.mpg

Beautiful work Raf! The flat(ish) styles really working for the most part. Actually, animating looks like it will be a fun challenge since you'll have to keep your characters silhouettes incredibly strong to get everything to read correctly. But, you already knew that, didn't you. Only (very minor) problem I'm having is that his chin keeps blending in with his neck to create some strange color shapes. No sure how (of even if) you would want to fix this.

Yeah, but if you didn't take the time to set them up right, they'd have stuck out like sore thumbs and made everything else in the pic feel "off". Good work!

Glad to be of help. Can't wait to see the final results.

Not much to report this week. Still waiting to hear about my upgrade questions from the peanut gallery. So instead of working on getting the rigging all done, I've been painting texture maps. Got most of the 'Father's' new textures in except for his tunic. Will probably finish that over the weekend. I'll post the final textured model when the Tunic's in.

Does your color (RGB channels) extend beyond the edges of your Alpha Channel? It looks like the Alpha is (every so slightly) larger that your color channels. Try filling in your color channel to match the base color of your leaves. Quickly thrown together example below-->