pixelmech

Thanks guys. On the hand clench: The model is not set up very well. The more I close the fingers the worse they look - they get flat. So I kind of pushed it to where I could. I'll be working on the lighting next and getting the shadows as good as I can. I did lose some of the exaggeration - agreed. I may or may not tweak it one more time Right now I'm kind of with you that it's about time to quit messing with it and move on. I tried putting smoke on him at the end - holy cow what a nightmare! I'm not quite ready to mess with particle systems just yet hehe. I think what's left is maybe a couple very minor tweaks (if any) lighting and materials and then render it out for the contest.

Thanks Joakim Here's an update of the point, I think its better. Have been stuck all weekend on getting the sound in and messing with materials. The lighting on this clip is bad, it's just temporary. I've given up on the sound. I may download a trial version of premiere and try and put it in at the end, who knows. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/point.mov

Edit: MrJage - thanks for the compliment - I don't think the studios would agree with you though! I'm running WinXP Home, 1.7Ghz, 512 MB RAM, NVIDIA 64MB DDR GeForce3 Ti 200 Video Card. Should be plenty robust enough. If by image maps you mean decals...they are all targas, most under 100k. And, you assume I have compo software - I don't . I wonder too about rendering a targa sequence and music - I am adding music (if I can ever get it to work.) Does music get rendered out that way? I would think not. Anyway, it should be okay. I played around with some of the ToonNation metallic procedurals. Not quite where I want them to be but interesting. I did this full render in about 3 hours or so. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/rr46.mov

Thanks as usual Josh, I'll check red at that spot. It's been a troublesome spot (one of many, I know I say that about a bunch of things lol ) since I did it. I'm not sure why the shadow isn't showing - I have the sunlight there, I'll have to check. I agree on the finger not being quite there yet. I'll keep plugging. Thanks for the input again!

Thank you Zev - I had thought about rain but didn't want to get into dealing with that at my novice stage. Although I am going to try and make him smoking, that is coming up next. Ok Josh - here's a test render. I worked on his frightened look and arm point, let me know what you think. The lighting is ok - I did some skylight renders that looked just like I about wanted them - at over 5 minutes a frame That's over 100 hours of render time - not gonna happen. What you see here is an 8 skylight rig with a sunlight, single pass with 5% motion blur. I notice reds left foot sinking into the ground a bit, will fix that. Probably will try and tone down the shininess of the bots if I can. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/test1.mov

I have to say this is a good idea after seeing a couple of them. It lends itself well to tutorials. I'd like to see more of them made. This would be good for some of those tougher topics like rigging too where you could actually see what is happening.

That's looking great, keep up the good work.

Here is the the claylooking choreography as a project file. Using Yves skylightrig. Just import your model into the project and put it into the chor Thanks! Model is looking good, looking forward to more updates.

Holy realism, Batman! If I did not know, you could NOT convince me that was a 3d model. That is unbelieveable work, really.

Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about! Great stuff, Josh. I'll be working on that stuff and will post an update. I totally agree with all of it - especially about the scared part, that has been bothering me since I made that pose. I have read Keith's articles. I agree I still have some poses that 'stick' too much. Good point about the pupils..in some spots you almost can't see them. Off to f-curves!

Wow, thanks Stian - I really really appreciate that. I think I like the glow (I mean he is metal, and he just got struck by lightning!) but you don't see it in the shaded renders - it doesn't show up. I'll post some final render tests soon and it will be in there and we'll see how it goes!

In truth this is what it does - on one frame increments - bolt left side, bolt right side, blank, bolt left side (I think hehe) but it happens so fast... HA! Good one! (I too am very nitpicky!) But I do feel it's close... I didn't take this seriously--because you just don't want to say that to me. <-- VERY nitpicky (that's why I haven't posted anything--nothing's too my standards) No no no no! You've got it backwards, I WANT - NEED - the criticism! I'm not just in this to make mediocre stuff. I want to improve. And you know how it is when you get so close to a project - you close things off that are obvious. At least point out the ones that are at the top of your list! Thanks, will work on that this weekend for sure.

Looks great, looking forward to seeing it.

I'd only add that when you can express a character without using the usual facial expression, it gives it a certain interesting quality. If pulled off well, it can be really neat. Look forward to it.

Updated: I tweaked the ending walk yet again, finally to where I'm fairly happy with it. I slowed it down a bit using the curves, tricky - got a lot of keys in between frames and everything didn't quite line up so I had to adjust a lot - ugh that's painful. But I *think* it reads better. I also added some anticipation and follow through stuff on him as best as I could. There's a few tweaks, minor, I want to make on red. After that its time to decide on the final decals for their fronts (thinking about it), title and maybe one or two more scene items (not sure on that yet either). Then...get it ready for the contest! Have appreciated all the C&C - especially you Josh for taking the time! I'm getting close now so if you see something you think needs fixing let me know now! FYI - the lighting is temporary - I will work on the lighting when I am satisfied with the animation and scenery. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/rr42.mov This one is Sorenson 3, 12mb.

Yeah, Stian - been waiting for your next project dude! Looks good so far, get cracking on some updates! Fans look great. One question - how do you get the gray on gray look? I really like that for modeling for starters it keeps you focused -- can you post settings for that? Thanks Tom

Nice, I too love the dress/shoes combo - very 70's too. I also have to model a girl for a book my daughter and I wrote together, so I'll be interested to see what direction you go. Nice work.

Oooo-k. After much tribulation (trust me) I completely redid the walk down the hill at the end. It's not finished, it's needs lot of tweaking. He more walks off in a huff at a steady rate instead of shuffles. I may try and slow it down some, but I have had so much trouble with it... let me see what you all think. I've made other changes that are probably subtle as well (and lost some changes in the walk debacle) but I don't want to mention them yet, I want to see if they are noticeable at all. I did adjust the fall at the end a bit. http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/rr40.mov P.S. Anyone know the difference between Sorenson and Sorenson3?

Very nice! For a short perhaps?

I thought there was something different from an f-curve and a curve ! I've been using the curves all along to animate, can't live without them. Anyway, I worked on the walk at the end tonight, and basically lost 3 hours of work. Tried to adjust the time in the dope sheet and really screwed it up. Tried to rework the walk and it just totally bombed! I figured I better quit for the night before the monitor goes out the window

Yep, that's been a troublesome spot. Gonna work on that tonight. I'll take the glow off - that was from earlier when I was trying to change his color - might leave it on when he gets struck - but not after. At this point there are just a lot of little things, timing that is not quite there, jerky motions, etc etc that is in a good animation that is missing. I don't have the skill to fix it all, but I'm gonna try and tweak it as best as I can.

An update. I finally rendered it out with lighting (skylight at this point) as targa images so I could play with render options. You get a much better view now without all the artifacts of what is going on, so you might be able to see some of the more subtle things or offer some more items I can work on. I am finding that my rigging is not what it should be - but thats no surprise. Even though its TSM - it's still up to me to build a good model and assign cps well, which I haven't done as well. The glow on red at the end isn't working real well, I have a lot of work to do with the ending. This is Sorenson compression http://www.pixelmech.com/movies/rr35.mov [7.5 MB]

Thanks newbert. The hands actually don't touch, but its very close. I'm thinking about the beginning and the length. Once I add some music, I'll know better if it is too long or not.

I understand the curves, but what is the f-curve specifically?

My advice to you is to read and re-read everything Roger tells you - seriously. He helped me a lot on my Mach 5 - and that was not supposed to be realistic. Doing a realistic car in AM is tough. You aren't going to be able to get a car like these guys punch out in Maya and 3dsmax, we kind of lack tools for that - but you can get really close. Take a look at the McLaren threads (Search McLaren) - his car came out about as good as I've seen one in A:M - that one and Colin's Mini Cooper of course - I'd say those are the two best I've seen. Like Roger said, get away from the displacement maps and model EVERYTHING. yeah, it's tough and time consuming - but you kind of have to do it! Look at everything he modeled on the McLaren - look at the open door shots. Something about the license plate really bugs me - it looks wrong. Might be colors, might be that its just a decal in the front? Not sure. How about just taking it off? Having said that - you've already done some great work, so be proud of that too Tom