mouseman

If you ever have time to summarize/organize this into an article or tutorial that would be a fine thing to do. Or maybe it could be added to MMZ_Timelord's write-ups.

If you lathe a circle with 4 points, the magnitude of the bias handles is often about 167%, 122.25% for 6, 111% for 8, 105% for 16. That might get you close if there are the corresponding number of points and they are roughly equidistant (circular). But it sounds like you want better than a one-off with manual editing, so you are probably best off looking at the others' suggestions. Also, I believe your CPs are actually moving, not just changing the bias handles.

Now that the Rear Window project is finishing up, I am coming up for a little bit of air. Here's a fun project/challenge. Friends of mine were building a house a couple of years ago, buying magazines about housebuilding, and occasionally forgetting them at their friends places. One of them that was left at my place had this plan for a bathroom (Fine Homebuilding - Kitchen & Bath Planning Guide 2010); the article's take is that having separate compartments for various parts of the bathroom makes the area more functional. I thought it would be fun to model some day. I've scanned in the drawings (front view that scanned over two pages and the top view) and put them into a blank model. I've attached a project file and the rotoscopes. EDIT: Here's a small version of the top view: The challenge: Download and unpack the attached project. Spend 1 hour on creating the bathroom. (Ignore the people in the rotoscopes!) Then render out to a file. Next, spend a second hour modeling the bathroom, and render it out to a file. Then post in a reply here with those two renderings, along with any text you care to write about what approach you took or what challenges you had. Optionally, post a copy of your project for others to see. How much you spline and where, whether you bevel, whether you break it up into smaller models, or add textures ... all of these decisions are yours! The goal is to have fun, learn a little, push yourself a little, share what you learn, and see what others do. bathroom_modeling.zip

I was quite enjoying the series, and looking forward to seeing more. Life is full of choices. It's really hard to make money with these things, so you have to do it for the love of it first. It also helps to do it with someone else.

This is looking really good! The stride length looks reasonable. Maybe you could just move the outhouse closer to the building so he has fewer steps to take? Or move the door closer to the end of the building where the outhouse is? Not sure about the tracks. It looks like the package just falls off the sled for no reason. It would be good if Santa actually pushed it or something similar. This project is quite exciting! It has a bit of scope! But you're making lots of progress. Do you have a production schedule?

I have made reference video once or twice with the webcam built into my laptop. It just has to be "good enough" for a lot of cases. You could always get an iPhone or Android or whatever. I'm super-impressed with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I was never a camera elitist, so I can't speak on a very technical level, but I am overall very happy with its ability to take photos and videos. I can take more than an hour of 720p video with plenty of storage and battery space still left over, which impresses the heck out of me. Basically the cameras in the latest phones are higher quality than my ability to hold the phone still.

Malo ... excellent analysis on the 3-point patches. I agree they could look better. One question ... how did you get the line outline of the polygon breakdown in post 25? Did you export to OBJ and re-import it as a prop?

I'm coming here at least a week late, but I'd also suggest you video yourself acting to that sound effect. Do it about 10 or 15 times. Make different acting choices each time, and pick what you like about it. Get a performance of yourself that you'd like. Some reasons: Fixing animation is very time consuming. Doing it right or nearly right (in the right ballpark) the first time is a lot faster. We tend to think that since we are human, we understand how our own body moves, AND that we can of course translate that into a 3D character/puppet. This is not the case. So much of what we do is subconscious. Working with video reference -- whether to rotoscope or just use as reference -- is quite an eye opener.

Here, here, Mike! Exactly what you said! It's been a wonderful experience. And now I really can't wait to see what everyone has done!

Some things are different in person.

Apparently about 30 seconds ago. Get it while it's hot.

Excellent concepts covered! The only suggestion I could have come up with is that it might have been nice to bring up the "Hold" and "Transition" terminology as you were going through the first few poses instead of after you had gone through all of the key frames and started looking through the channels. One concept that was important for me to learn in animating in general was that movement (as well as lack of movement) generally begins in one place and ends in another, and the animator must explicitly specify both the beginning and ending points. This paired keys method makes that concept explicit.

Glad to see all the new material! Looking good, can't wait to see more!

A couple of more lists of story focus/components: From Mark Kennedy's Temple of the Golden Camel: Clarity Character Conflict From the author Robert McKee (a book titled Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting): Substance Structure Style

Yes, I agree, much less waxy is better! Is the lighting is different (less bright) or does the lower SSS makes it seem less bright?

But also spending hours figuring out what others might be able to tell you in 10 minutes can't be beat. As Robcat alludes to, a picture is worth 1000 words.

That's beautiful!

Maybe the expression you are looking for is "Animation Demonstration"? I think your animations show a lot of promise. With a little more work you can probably start approaching local companies that have TV ads to create 3D logos and short advertising spots, where animation might show up for 3-10 seconds demonstrating the product. Keep it up, can't wait to see more!

I created a feature request for SVG import. When they were building the new building at work, I thought it would be great to try to import the splines and then extrude some walls and patch up the floor to create a quick 3D version of the model. Someone slipped me a copy of the plans in CAD DXF format and another set supposedly in AI format. The AI import crashed the A:M import function. I could get other programs to read the data in either DXF or AI format, but nothing I could find (without paying) would then subsequently export to a (fixed) version of the AI format. I would guess there would have been more options if A:M had an SVG import available.

I made an ISO file out of the Extras DVD, and then use WinCDEmu to mount it as a drive. I believe that uses less disk space than having a copy of all of the individual files.

Another thing to consider might be getting a collaborator. At its best, collaboration is far more than the sum of its parts.

Cool. Don't forget to use Chrome to see that, FF stalled.FF worked fine for me. To echo the sentiment of others, Robert, be safe while doing this.

So many great choices, so difficult to choose! Every one of them is great!

Glad to have you, Jason. Don't be afraid to post questions! The people around here are very knowledgeable and helpful, and good questions can prevent you from spending hours on something that should only take 10 minutes.

The wiki's down (I thought I was the only one spamming it! Just kidding), otherwise I'd point you to the Newton page on the wiki, which points to that tutorial and a few other resources.