robcat2075

Stop the presses... You can CTRL-select any arbitrary set of items in your chor in the PWS and then turn Active On/Off inthe properties window to affect them all simultaneously.

right-click in chor window>view>cameraX If your lights were all in one "model" rather than separate objects inthe chor you could make a "pose" that would turn Active On/Off for any arbitrary set. Even if you made a pose for each light, at least they would be easily accessed in one window. Lights are treated as bones in a model so they would still be animatable.

Those look real good. I especially like the first one because it doesn't have that "boiling" look that most of the water animations seem to have.

It's awkward to crtique a first movie, even a "mini" movie. Theres' just too much work that goes into one to dismiss it. But you're asking for fault finding, right? Begging even? I'll try to oblige... -The titles and credits take too long to write out. Keep the blackboard motif, but in cartoon time the writing can happen WAY faster (perhaps with a broken rhythm) without confusing anyone. -The male voice was unexpected and added an element of confusion. It looked female to me at first. -You manuvered the character thru the door rather well, but the walk cycle seemed mechanical and out of place. And there didn't seem to be a reason for him pacing the front of the class. - Since your character is a biped like yourself, you can easily analyze motions before animating them. For example, the sideways shuffle while writing. Would you be able to balance your weight on both feet and then move one to the side, without first shifting all weight to the other foot? Nope. Maybe if the floor were greased, or if you had casters instead of feet. Not the case here, however. -The pose of the hand makes it look like he's rubbing his fingertips on the blackboard rather than scratching it with his nails. -The dust effect on the hands is nice but dissipates too quickly I think. -You might have done more with the paper airplanes, perhaps having one narrowly miss the teacher. - The set and lighting are very well done. They leave no doubt that we are in a school setting. -Seeing the teacher outside the class first being nervous is a good story "beginning". Good visual story telling. - Zed? Zed?? hmmm, let's try that out... I think that I shall never see, A letter as lovely as a Zed. But all-in all, a successful mini-movie. I hope you will make more of them.

One element missing from this run is a truly extended leg at the end of the stride, pushing him forward. I think that's part of what gives me the sense that his legs are just keeping time below his body rather than supporting and propelling him. However, it's not that you haven't communicated "Run" with this animation. No one's going to mistake it for a walk or a sneak. I just think you're missing the opportunity make him more substantial by giving him weight, inertia and momentum.

Ben, I'm really glad you said that! That's exactly why I did not add the hip motion other than the twist. Lets see some reference footage in which someone is able to run at the pace this character is running without their hips ever changing distance from the ground. Can't be done. Even in the fastest run, it would be impossible to hold the hips at a constant height.

Looks real good!! Suggestion: Leave the left hand on the brake handle while he's shaking his right fist. Then move it to the horn. The wandering in the middle is distracting us from the fist motion. And if you can, move the shaking fist so it isn't so obscured by his head. Someone watching it once probably won't catch it amidst all the car rocking

You've got an IK Arm thing happening at the end. Her hand stays locked in space while her body leans forward. It looks like "mime leaning against invisible wall".

I am so dying to see the Ravel Epic! You've got nice rounded edges almost everywhere; is there anything you can do to about where the pavement meets the steps. The intersection looks unnaturally sharp. This shot has alot of head turns in it. You can make them less robotic by dipping the head slightly in the middle. Especially the last one. You could also loosen him up by slightly turning his torso with his head on some of the back and forth. Just a degree or two would really help. Lag the torso behind the head a few frames. What section has the lightsabre dual with Stravinsky?

One thing I notice, objects flying near the camera appear to move slower than objects far away. The reverse should be true in flyby situations like you are presenting in this movie

The first thing that struck me is how fuzzy the shadows are for sunlight. The sun is a rather narrow source of light; it would take a very wide source of light to cast the shadows we see in this pic. But as Peter noted it's great that you want to improve in your lighting skills. Let's see what v2.0 looks like!

Make that an A:M Report. Include the movie and the chor that makes the movie.

Looks beautiful! Is there any way to get rid of the reflections in the window of the overhead light housings? The seem to draw an undue amount of attention to themselves.

Small but cute. At first I thought she was being mercenary, but then I decided she was waiting for a marriage proposal. I hope that's what it was about.

Great looking beast! I think a yeti needs longer, shaggier hair to stay warm in the Himalayas

The paradox of a modeling a realistic character is that the time spent refining it subtracts from the time you will need to animate it well. And that will be excruciatingly difficult. But it's a fine looking model, I'll be looking forward to see what you do with it.

It does look engaging. How about making the yellow "head" portion of the flower bigger (in proportion to the petals)? It will read better.

Broader shoulders. Lower crotch.

I was expecting to see Whataburgerman giving hamburgers to Mr. Incredible.

Thick neck on that guy! looks real good. Is this "Whataburger Man"?

I'd do some other gesture that isn't timed at all to the numbers being counted out.

a short motion test with gratuitous textures. turntexd.mov

well, that would be a tough clip to use as ref since it's not locked down and his legs wander out of the frame. The thing that strikes me as odd initially in your anim is how his left leg suddenly darts over around frame 22-24. I don't think that could happen without some opposite reaction motion in his hips. Inertia, momentum, physics and all that. The sense I get from the reference clip is that his left leg made a smooth arc overhead. Do the right arm IK, it's basically a leg in this situation. Have I mentioned that's a great looking character?

High patch counts seem to slow down real-time "shaded" rendering, but they're not the major slowdown in "final" rendering. Textures and combiner materials have far more influence. Greg Rostami demonstrated it in this thread http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...indpost&p=42701 Limited memory might be a reason to reduce patch counts, however.

There's so little of the mouth the mouth visible, I'm not sure it matters, but generally do whatever works for you. I think common practice is moving away from automated solutions back to manual keyframing for mouth animation. As far as the gestures, the part with the left hand while the off screen voice is reading out the combo is too in synch. How does Rabbit know when the other guy is going to start or stop? An acting teacher would probably start shouting "dont' anticipate". And the right hand flick after "amazing" might have done better to actually hit on "amazing". But that's a fun clip, I enjoyed it.