raillard

Thanks, Steven! This looks really useful! Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Hi, Stephen! Oh, that was definately worth the wait! I want to see more! Quite frankly I'm more interested in your stuff, than I am in anything that Hollywood or Pixar has planned. Sad but true. I love how Briar skewers the apple. Is that Mosey as cupid? Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Hello. I took a look at your models in my copy of A:M v13.0e. I had no problem examining your models. Two things caught my eye, zo. Firstly: Both models have an item called "Drivers" embedded in them. This is listed just below the Splines folder, inside the Model, in the Project Workspace. I would advise you to delete these Drivers things. That might help. I don't know what they are, but I don't think they are healthy inside a Model. (Drivers are supposed to be inside Actions -- they are the splines that define movement.) Secondly, there is something a bit odd about the mesh of the soles of your character's feet. They are grouped together (in the Groups folder) and the surface color is dark blue. That's fine. What's odd is that their surface transparency has been set to 100% so they don't render. Is that intentional? If it is not intentional, then you should crack open the group's disclosure triangle, crack open the Surface disclosure triangle, right-click on the Transparency setting and choose "Not Set." This might cure your problems. I'm thinking perhaps your graphics card is having difficulty rendering these transparent groups in realtime. If you want your character to be running around on invisible soles, then your next step should be to update the video drivers for your graphics card. Animation Master runs much more smoothly on machines that have up-to-date video drivers. Respectfully, Carl Raillard PS: The reason the Standard Manipulator does not appear on the Head bone is because, inside the model file, the Head bone has its Limit Manipulators set to ON. This bone is specified to rotate only.

Hello! This is a great picture! Please submit this one for the mascot contest next year! Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Hi, Mike! Yeah, Christina Hanson also mentioned that. I think I might try using an animatable Distortion box to really press Gaty down, in the anticipation. I'd like to make him bulge out on the sides, like a squooshed balloon. I'm glad you like Gaty! I'm certain Gaty would love to appear on the Discovery Channel and wrestle with the Crocodile hunter guy. Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Hi! I've got "Animation" and "How to Animate Film Cartoons." They cost $2.50 each. There's no specific section on takes in either one. I recollect that Walter Foster put out an Andrew Loomis anatomy book too, but it was just a highly edited version of an existing Loomis book. Perhaps my Blair books have a similar history. Anyway, ZachBG, thanks for your interest. I *think* I know what you are talking about. It can be helpful if cartoon characters blink during takes, or before turning their heads, etc. It's a little trick that helps focus the viewer's eyes onto the character's face. It helps to "push" the character's expression. Still, such blinks can be overdone, if you ask me. Just my personal opinion. There are also other ways for cartoon characters to clear their eyes, besides blinking. See the attached mov. Sincerely, Carl Raillard eyerub.mov

Hello, again! I took a minute to incorporate zachtaich's suggestion, of making Gaty's jaw fly up just as he jerks his head backwards. I've attached the results. It does look better. Thanks, zacktaich! I've been watching Jeff Lew's training DVD, and I think I now have a better grasp on the offsetting keyframe technique. Previously I kept encountering the advice that I should move the keyframe one way ... or the other. So I dutifully moved the keyframes back or forth, in a very haphazard way, not knowing what I was doing, and screwing everything up. Watching Jeff at work has helped clarify the technique for me. When a limb is active (when the muscles governing it are tightening), then 9 times out of 10 the limb's movement will be leading the movement of the torso and hips -- the main body mass -- by virtue of the fact that the limb is simply lighter than the body. So the keyframes of the limbs should be shifted to the left in the timeline. In contrast, when the limb is passive (when its muscles are limp) then the limb drags behind the body's movements, sort of like a big fat meaty hair. In those cases the limb keyframes should be offset to the right in the timeline. Well, I better get back to copying stuff from my Preston Blair books. I've got two Walter Foster art books, written by Blair. They are only 40 pages apiece, though. So, sorry ZachBG, I have no idea what you are talking about! Sincerely? Carl Raillard drop3.mov

Hello! Impressive model. Nice lean patch count! Your ability to sculpt a mesh puts me to mind of Jim Talbot. Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Good suggestions. I like the idea of a head-bob! And the blinks! Yes! I've attached a revision. By the way: Preston Blair had *nothing* to do with this jawdrop animation. Sort of shows, huh? I think Gaty's surprised expression at the end is a trifle too exaggerated. I really wanted this to be more of a deadpan reaction shot, with the dropped jaw as the prime indicator of Gaty's inner feelings. But I had to have some sort of look on his face, after he reeled his jaw back in, and so this is what I wound up with. It needs a sound effect. Something like: "CHUNG!" when the jaw hits the ground. Sincerely, Carl Raillard drop2.mov

Thanks, fellas. Well I'll just have to give offsetting keyframes another try. Thanks for the extra input, David. Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Hey, that's a cool model. He should run for governor in California. Sincerely, Carl Raillard

Thanks, JohnArtbox. You've given me some food for thought. I've attached a piece of jawdropping animation. This piece was remarkable for me because I felt the offsetting technique actually improved it. I offset the keys on the arm, to keep them from looking symmetrical. Usually when I try to offset Gaty's limbs, he winds up looking gangly, and I don't like that. I don't want Gaty to be gangly. He's supposed to be a spry child. Perhaps this quirk of Gaty's character is what's making it difficult for me to get a hang of the offsetting technique. Here's a question for you guys: Does offsetting keyframes lend itself to characters that move boldly & decisively? Or is it better suited for lazy, loose-limbed characters, such as Goofy? Oh, thanks for picking the nit, Smudge! I think I agree with you, a little extra scrunching, before Gaty jumps up, might help. Another thought is maybe I should use a Distortion box to squeeze the entire character down and outward, like a balloon pressed down by a hand. Sincerely, Carl Raillard jawdrop.mov

Thanks, guys! I'm glad you liked it. It's amazing how my animation skills perk up the moment I begin to slavishly copy Preston Blair. At the present time I'm avoiding offsetting keyframes. I haven't had much luck using that technique. If anybody has any insights (like which bones should be offset in which direction, exactly?) I'd be all ears. Sincerely, Carl Raillard PS: That's a swell dwarf, Jim. And that's a good-looking chick, Shaun.

Hello, List. Here's a brief animation test, featuring Gaty, my alligator boy. It's very short (30 frames, 226 KB). It just shows Gaty jumping back in surprise. My reference was a page out of a Preston Blair animation book. I think I have the same book that Smudge has. Right now I'm copying animators I admire, 'cuz I want to animate like them. Thanks for taking a look! Sincerely, Carl Raillard jump_back_in_surprise.mov

Hello. I've got two cents for you, here. The joints of fat, pudgy characters are the hardest to do, I think. I think it'd be helpful to break the job into several phases. For starters, get a decent fan bone system into the shoulder. If you can spare 30 bucks, I would recommend getting Mike Fitzgerald's COG tutorial. Mike's system benefits from a careful placement of splines, which might be different from your present mesh. Fortunately AMv.10 & up have this new "stitch" tool, that makes altering mesh a lot easier then it was in v8.5. As a test I took a model by Joe Cosman that I've always admired, and added a COG joint to it. The splines were not laid out to work well with COG joints, so I just stitched in additional splines, and deleted the awkward ones. I was very pleased with the results -- I maintained the shape of Joe's model while gaining the smoothness of Mike's joint rig. Once you got a fairly decent shoulder joint going, you can start worrying about how it interacts with other body parts. Again, v10 & up offers all sorts of options. The cheek problem might be handled in this way: Add a child of the arm at the shoulder joint (start = same as bicep) and have this bone point up, at the cheek. The end should rest on the cheek. At this point, on the cheek, there should be another bone, a child of the head, that will be used as a target. In your default constraints pose, apply an Aim At constraint onto this bone, and dab the eye-dropper onto the cheek target bone, and activate the Scale to Reach feature. Now what you've got is a little piston that shrinks and grows as the arm presses into the cheek area. You could then apply a Relationship onto the Z-scale driver of the piston bone -- essentially a smartskin that works with the bone's scale rather than it's rotation. When the bone shrinks by a certain amount, use muscle animation to deform the cheek, to make it smoosh. Bottom Line: The job is still tough, but there are tools in v10.5 that will help you. This is a well-crafted model, and it deserves further effort! Sincerely, Carl Raillard