robcat2075

If you can show the exact same PRJ doing different in v16 than in v15 that's something to investigate. Best of all is if you can make a simple case that demonstrates it.

I suppose the two extremes would be the old brownstone like you have on the left with fairly small windows and a modern office building where the entire wall is the window. Anywhere along that continuum are trade offs on what can and can't be plausibly done in that setting. Do some more research and see what all the possibilities are.

Is this something you can post?

I don't think we want to skimp on the set. One reason BUS Stop works is that the set looks great,it makes the movie look like it might be something good from the very first frame and it gives even the most minor efforts a bit of pizzaz. We also don't get tired of looking at it. What does our rear window look like? Is it an old NYC apartment? Is it a modern condo with sliding glass doors and a balcony? An office building with a ledge?

Be prepared for opinions and revisions! Expect that you will have to change something. Show us a concept of what you're thinking of before you polish it off. I can think of ten different sorts of apartment windows ans some will be more useful than others

We only need to build one "window" set, enough to cover the view of the camera. Of course "the voyeur point of view", being stationary, would see each window on the building across from him from a slightly different angle, but we can simulate that by shooting the same window from many different angles. Some high, some low, some right, some left. The set we distribute could have all the various camera angles built into it and everyone who joins in either claims one or is assigned one. The transition from one window to the next would be covered by a blurry swish pan carefully edited in between. The camera could have a rotoscope on it to simulate the "binoculars" view

of course there's enough room on your hard drive and you set a valid save path, right?

try this... -under Render to File Settings check "advanced" -Do Format>Save Options>Set -Choose "Uncompressed" This will make a very large file, but should render OK.

I assume the same way wooden boats kept the water out. :-) Every wooden boat I've been in had a bucket to bail water out.

Thom springs a leak.

terms again... it's a Relationship window. Did it really say "Action"? Yes. I presume you were doing this testing by putting the model in a Chor or Action, of course. Yes. The blue shows that at that particular angle of the driving bone, those CPs are keyed I recommend doing the most extreme position first if possible, then testing the result out to see if any intermediate keys are needed at all. Generally, SS keys should be at evenly spaced angles. Keys at 90° and 45° will give a more predictable result than 90°, 85°, 32° and 29°.

If I had to declare one right now, I'd go for "Rear Window"

I realize it was my idea but I'm doubtful about Monster Audition at this date. I don't think most people will be able to get a proper monster done and animated in just two months. I think we should save that one for next year and launch it earlier. On teams... the paradox about projects i have observed is that individual efforts are more likely to get done than groups efforts. It's possible that small groups might get very elaborate segments done but it only takes one person to fall out to cause the other team members' efforts to be wasted. BUS Stop and Pass the Ball were ideal because it didn't matter if anyone dropped out, everyone else's work was still usable. I've only supervised Bus Stop. I spent more time agonizing over having to do it rather than doing it, I suspect. It did take me a while to come up with an order that appropriately paced the long vs. short segments and gave them all their due. Looking at my AfterEffects files... I can see that I got started editing that thing in earnest on March 6 and got the "release" version out on March 16. A more modern editing app might speed things a bit.

May all your trains not go off the rails! Happy birthday!

There are many good ideas here, enough to last us for years of projects. The bottom line however on any idea seems to be that one person is willing to... ... supervise it, get people to make the required common assets, make sure they all work and fit together, define the guidelines for participation, set a schedule, collect all the entries, figure out how to make them fit together when someone didn't follow the guidelines, edit everything together, post it and promote it. that's all it will take to get going!

Yes, i think that's on track to the sort of hard edged flame we cant really get with sprites.

- I think the initial fade-in is late - I'm afraid to ask what these three pills do!

The side roto looks much closer to a side view than the front is to a front view. I think the front is too far off for exact splining.

If gutsy, investigative reporters still existed, that would make a good exposé.

Hey, those first few frames have real promise as a flame effect. I wonder how we could control that.

Rodney, can you post a sample PRJ that shows glow working on a streak particle? I couldn't get it.

Sprites and streaks are two different things, which do you mean?

For TWO we made a background character who could be easily be varied in such a manner. A rig that includes stretchable limbs and spines like the Squetch rig or TSM2 would likely be the easiest initial route. This won't be a novice endeavor. In that Youtube clip, Someone put a lot of work into making sure that all that characters various parts would hang together even if they were set to absurdly contrary settings. For further investigation.... I've been thinking, now that we have a constraint that will attach a bone to mesh (Group constraint), one could make a basic mesh with bones at the various landmarks. You could push and pull that mesh in the modeler then run some rigging wizard that would use the the bones that had been pulled along with the mesh to properly place the real rig.

Typical or not, it's certainly illegal. You have to pay people for the hours they work. "Animators" are explicitly included in such laws. If it were a meat-packing plant charges would be filed.

Paramount is threatening to open a new feature studio in Florida after Dreamworks Animation leaves them. That will perhaps add 100 animator jobs to the US total. But Dreamworks is scaling back its schedule, and Disney is laying off so it may be no gain over all. VFX work in the US is declining as other countries, like Canada, lure the work with large subsidies. That may have a lot to do with ILM releasing its first feature, Rango, this year. It would be great to be part of all that but I read many disappointing stories about top-tier animation work. Aja Bogdanoff a former Animation Mentor classmate of mine and the 11 Second club moderator tells how she got hired as a temp at a major studio (I suspect it was Blue Sky) and having to give 30 free hours per week on top of 60 paid in order to not get fired. All that for about 2 1/2 months "in the industry". And that's top-tier studios. Imagine what the also-rans are like.