robcat2075

You can make a pose that moves several bones at once, but it would still take a lot of poses to cover all the possibilites. If A:M had a scripting environment that supported bone movement you could make it identify all the cubes that are on, say, the middle level and rotate them all by the same amount around the center. Hmmm, I wonder if an expression could do it? Expressions don't have any looping capability for testing all the cubes though, AFAIK. But I'm still wondering why the white tiles didn't anti-alias. I can't imagine why they wouldn't.

I like the longer hang time much better. And the cartoon shoes. And the squetch on the ball. And cool lighting too! However, I'd make the hang one ease-in to his peak and then the fall. Right now he rises from 03:13-03:16 then falls from 03:16-03:19 then rises again from 03:19-03:21 then falls from 03:21-03:24 which makes for an odd hitch in his motion. Some minor curve editing would get him to move in one arc. When Shaggy is being flung off the ground, make his left toe lag behind his ankle in the upward motion (overlapping motion and all that). It could stay in contact with the ground for at least 1 more frame and maybe two. I think the camera shake is happening a frame too soon now.

That's wonderful. Another charmer!

I'm looking at this full-size and I'm wondering... how is it that the red and blue tiles are anti-aliased but the white ones are not?

Looks good. I was wrong about "just a few frames". Hang him even more. And roll the ball out faster so the shadow clears the frame.

Wow, that's a beautiful setup! As a test of animation controls I think it's successful. Animating just a head will be very challenging. It can be done, that was pretty much what Finding Nemo was about. You might even study that to see how they handle it.

I actually couldn't figure out how to make him kick while running and still have it read. Maybe I was just a bad soccer player when I acted it out... I hadn't thought about Rich's point re: momentum, but I think he's right, too. yeah, I can buy it either way. Unfortunately, I'm already a second and a half over Will Sutton's stated maximum. But you're probably right. Just a few frames of hang would do it. You can gain the time back by not havng the ball lose forward motion when it hits the ground; keep it rolling right out of the scene. How about some little cartoon shoes on the ball so we don't miss that he has legs?

Hi Zach, ok, I'm a little suspicious of him stopping to kick the ball rather than doing it in stride. Shoulda mentioned that on the first pass. hmmm... How about a little more hang time by Shaggy before he falls down? That might give his fall even more impact. However... on the camera shake, I think it might be starting a frame late. What might be interesting is to give the ball some inertia during the shake so that as the ground falls away the ball doesn't fall with it (his legs would stretch out beneath him) and when the ground comes back up it hits him in the "butt" to propel him into the air. But it's a fun shot already!

I'm still troubled by the walk. Sad and tired is all about weight pulling you down but he's not exhibiting real weight yet. Try this... stand up with your feet about a foot apart and your weight evenly divided between them. Now lift up one foot without shifting your weight (not even a little) to the other foot. It can't be done, even for a second. Your body will immediately start to fall toward the unsupported side. But when this guy lifts his foot, he doesn't shift his weight but somehow stays suspended in air. You don't want a weightless walk here, you want gravity to be painfully obvious.

That's cute. I am most curious as to why there is a lightning flash when Shaggy's butt hits the ground. (edit: sorry, we were supposed to comment on "other than that") That aside, I think we might connect the impact of Shaggy falling with the ball bouncing if there was some camera shake at that instant. Some toe articulation would loosen up Shaggy's run cycle, when his heel is bending forward and also when his foot is being carried forward to the next step. Also consider swinging Shaggy even farther out to the left so he isn't obscured by the ball so long.

That looks good. Is there a way to make the cloth heavier or less lively?

It's a fabulous model! He really looks great! Glad you got that faster computer. There are alot of issues about how he's carrying his weight and how some parts of his body react/don't react to his larger movements that keep him from appearing consistently natural. For example, his hips appear to always be completely level even though he almost always has his weight mostly on one leg or the other. But you're in Uncanny Valley territory... animating that guy is going to be tough!

It's a good start and you have lots of time to tune this. -Definitely show an action like that from the side instead of the front. -There's an odd hitch in his takeoff that takes away his appearance of momentum. - on your squash landing, his arms suddenly race down faster than he was falling to begin with. The overlapping motion is the right idea, but his arms have no reason to speed up so it looks unnatural right now. - Onionskin mode is a good way to check the paths of body parts on a move like this. Watch the trails and look for spots where the intervals between frames suddenly changes. Those are clues to unlikely motion. - find some footage of someone doing a flip and see how they get their body to turn in mid air. Don't give up! What are the rules of the scholarship competition?

Well, at least it didn't turn out to have really been made in Poser.

The shape of the character doesn't immediately say "nightstick". It could be a lot of things. Some one might easily identify this as something other than a nightstick. A police hat on top might help. But a group of jr high students probably aren't familiar with nightsticks.

Weren't you -5 years old then? It was really the peanut butter & salmon jello in the school lunchroom.

Suggestion: the character on the right would benefit from anticipations on both his head moves. They don't have to be big, but that will add some life to the moves. and if you slightly dip his head inthe middle of the turn, that will make a nicer arc to the motion. As to the scene... I'm stumped... what's it from?

That's cute one! You might experiment with just a bit of front detail, like a bumper or a grill to give it a "face".

I think it's a really promising model! I agree with R_Reynold's comments. Wavy sheet metal seems to afflict almost all the A:M car models I've seen (including my own). Auto photographers go to great lengths to show off the smoothness of cars by reflecting large white overhead cards in the paint. The great CG cars renders I've seen mimic this. But the surface has got to be smooth for the reflection to be smooth. I think bias tweeking is the most often overlooked part of A:M modeling There also are some small level details missing that would be needed for extra realism, like a rubber seal around the wind shield, or some kind of transition element. But mostly I just think it's the grunt work of adjusting the CP biases that's needed to make the car more real.

Beautiful work! Maybe some more detail on the interior upholstery would get you even closer to the real look you're aiming for?

looks very cool!

I was hoping you cheated and used a displacement map or something but no, you actually modeled that in splines. Good job!

the biggest item is that when he takes his left foot off the cube his center of gravity is impossibly too far back. It needs to be over his other foot or he would fall backward as he lifted the left foot. he needs to shift forward before he can lift that back foot. There are lots of gravity issues here but that's the big one. But I can see that the is some thought going into what you're doing, it's a ver y promising start. Don't stop!

If the lower solar cell wing were actually obscured by the edge of the earth... now that would have to be a HUGE satellite. Bigger than you intend, i suppose.

all that gets me is the warning message as a file.