pixelmech

Great sneer! The whole face reacts to it which is great.

I had these same problems. Might I suggest simply working in the Chor and not doing so much in the action window at first. It gives you a better feel for things, at least it did for me. You definitely need to learn to use your curves (don't know if you are). Look at your curves that correspond to the direction of the foot passing through the floor (or slipping, or whatever) Y for up and down for example, and adjust accordingly. You'll often need to change curve interpolation to zero slope to get things to "hold" - that took me a bit to catch on. Just play around as much as possible. People told me these same things, but it wasn't until I sat down, struggled, and figured it out on my own that I got going. You have to do the same, so good start.

Great - thanks J.

Ok, I worked on those things stated above. Here's an update. Each time I think I'm close to being done I do another round! Well hopefully I'm close. I want to start adding final touches to the scene, get lighting down and start rendering. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/rr55.mov

What I mean is the forefoot 'flaps' too far- it almost looks like it is moving *upward* as the leg goes back..granted its a bit hard to see though. Edit: watched your new version - you also have a problem with the feet sinking below the floor as it were, so you can play around with that too. I also made a few comments on the image below. I'm not quite sure what you are after with the walk so these things may or may not apply, but just my observations. Stick with it.

That's a pretty good walk. A loop would help to better critique it, even just a full cycle or two - it wouldn't take very long to render that in shaded mode. And you should have him fill more of the screen, you are wasting the resolution showing me the gray scenery. It looks like his right foot on push off, the forefoot 'slaps' *under* the foot too much, and is not natural even for a stylized character. But the head movement and the up and down - good things. That's my .02

Hey I like that..nice! I started using paths and actions for walks, and then just ditched them and decided to just animate without them and life somehow became easier. Although I can see for the vespa, it makes sense to use a path for the smoothness you get of the turns and what not. But you might try without it and see how it goes, you might find you have less trouble. Sometimes what seems like a cool tool can get in the way of getting things done.

Looking good Doug! I like your clouds better than mine Scene looks good and I like the drop. Looking forward to seeing your entry.

Methinks...you better tell me how you did that patch of grass! That is exactly what I need for me robot flick...mind sharing? I think that chick is so thin the ball would knock her over!

AH the foot twitch. Gotcha - I had actually shortened already but yeah - it does need to be a bit shorter. I am taking off the glow after he falls... I should have it fade though but I'm not sure you can - its on or off, ya know. Will post a rendered ending when I get a chance.

Good point Scott, will adjust that. Thanks!

The glow WILL be there hehe - this is only a SHADED render - glows only show up on FINAL renders (A final render of this thing is going to literally take over 100 hours so...now you know why I'm posting shaded ones) Trust me it is there - I don't want to be lightsabred!

First of all thanks for all the nice comments from you guys. Dooooh! Sorry about that guys! Cut n' Paste dumbness. Yeah, what I was trying to do there is have his hands react to his little sleep jerk there, but it's not right. I'll rework that - I may remove it now that I have the other stuff going on. I think I introduced the floaties making my changes. I probably will have the left hand get there first. I'll see if I can add some time there - he looks back at orange fairly quickly so I think I have some room to play there. I assume you mean the hand twitch on orange in the beginning... it is a smidge long. Ah, good call! And I have, and have read, that book! (What a great book) and totally forgot about that. Can't wait to try it. I lost my overshoot when I reworked him there - thanks for the reminder. I knew something was odd about that..good pointer.

ROTFL, well it is! Let me tell you what I did first: - His point is very different, especially the end pose. Also, oranges reaction is different because he turns toward red first. Tweaked reds walk up again, not much tho. Adjusted reds stance all the way after the middle (he was too crouched) shortened the time to foot twitch. Added some little stuff during sleeping...u didn't notice?

Here's an update. OOPS! Sorry wrong link! Here is the right one ...DOH http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/rr54.mov

No problem, I'm curious - is that a sustainable strategy in a film - to use the d-box? Or would you want to have a mouth/face rig?

LOL Mike. Are you doing that all with a deformation box? No bones? I'm in no place to crit this really, having never done a lip sync (a big hole in my skillset so much that I left mouths off my mini movie..ha!) But I noticed his eyes/brows make no movements at all, and they would of course. My guess is though you are strictly working on the mouth though. Anyway, it matches up real well, I like it.

Great - great models! Looks like you put in a lot of work to them.

Excellent man - can't wait to see it rigged (saw the other thread) and moving - something tells me this is going to be a sweet model.

I adjusted the twitch, good point. The fingers... well suffice it to say that without going back and doing a lot of work on the model - the fingers are the way they are. I'd have to re-rig my model, which would mean re-decaling them and a couple other things. I'm not sure it's going to add that much. Really the splines aren't in good places either. The long and short of it is I rushed the models so I could get animating. I'll gladly take that shortcoming in light of the fact that all I have learned in the past few weeks! Working on the skylight, Yves giving me some tips in that skylight thread. I did clench his fingers around his head a bit as the head stops turning. I think I'm done tweaking, can't find much else to do. Time to start wrapping this up and get rendering the final piece!

I've only just found this thread now - great stuff, looking forward to an update. I love the material on your character, would like to learn more about how you got it if you ever get time.

LOL Scott. I hate you! No, seriously - I may try and do that. The sad story with the hands is this: I rigged him with TSM2. Then I added a "clench" pose so I could close his hands. After running the TSM2 rigger - the hand pose clench doesn't work Something conflicts with TSM and my pose, no idea why. It works in the action when I build it, but not after. That means I have to animate each finger by hand (no pun intended) which is a pain. That is why I have not done a lot. But now that I am closer to the end - I agree it would make things better. It's the one glaring issue for sure. You've probably noticed the "bumps" around the knuckles too. That's another issue I'd like to fix. So I will give that a shot before the final version, I still have what, 6 weeks til the due date - so plenty of time!

That is nice - agree about making sure the feet are somehow lit - the dress casts a big shadown on them. It looks good though. I too cannot wait to see the finished product Although after having worked on my simple 34 second mini, I know what you are up against - you have my sympathy Tom

Not sure how many more updates I'll post, I'm getting ready to get this finished up and I'd like to leave some mystery of the final product Here's my first test render that I will be working from to build the final piece. I'm still going to try and add music somehow, if I can. Nothing in this render is final, but it is my starting point to move that way. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/testrender1.mov

Thanks Scott. Interesting you are the first to mention the cloud I'm not sure about it myself either - I have to think about it.