robcat2075

the third quarter at AnimationMentor is... acting! Well, such as it is...my first dialog test: You're right Mr. Thatcher... (QT 500Kb)

Hi Jof! no, but group selecting all the curves will allow you to set the default to linear in one move as you noted: I presume you are bringing up all the curves at once by clicking on the "Bones" folder, rather than selecting one bone at at time. Then right-click>Curve>Interpolation Method>Linear If you just do right-click>Interpolation Method>Linear you will only change the currently selected keyframes.

The character looks great. I like the run. It's a bit hard to judge the jumps because of the viewing angle. If this were a "jump" assignment I'd say show it to us from the side. However she seems to hang unnaturally in the air at about 03:00. That may be because of the camera tracking, but since there's hardly any background it looks like she's floating. yeah, the handstand bounce looks too light. On the last landing she hits the compression pose and freezes. Keep that moving. A "moving hold"

If you load it in to Quicktime you can single frame it. It's hard to crit it on a per clip basis because each one has things that are going well and then moments where they are not. Quickly single framing it, it appears many of the jumping/tossing motions may not be well arc'ed. FOr example the two legged sphere on teh big jump travels straight (well, now that I've tracked it with a dry erase, it actually is arcing upwards a bit) from 08:05-08:10 then right angles down to the wall from 08:11-08:15. I'd defintitely round that out and make sure his horizontal velocity is constant between foot contacts. Also the contacting foot at 08:12 stay rigid, I would expect the heel to give some to indicate the weight of that action. I guess all of the issues in the silent clips would be grouped under weight/inertia On the last clip, the frozen spines really stick out to me. (that's my big snit these days... frozen spines ) I'd start the boy out in a less symmetrical pose away from Harriet so he can move even closer to her to deliver his line. Those huge heads really need anticipations for their moves, and compensating motion on the bodies. I like the fact you've packed alot of stuff into only 33 seconds. I think that's a good strategy.

wow, nice easy chair. I hope you're going to add the palm fronds on the back.

The spine would only stretch if you had "stretchy spine" turned on. With it off the spine would always maintain it's original length, no matter how you curved it. Actually, now that I re-read this I'm not sure if Zach was refering to TSM or Squetchy Thom. Which was it? I was referring to TSM.

I believe King Bal needs to be tied down to his throne. I know they could tie ropes to the existing structure, but some dedicated cleats would be a humorous touch, (easier to animate than threading ropes thru the structure).

Yes, although it's not isolation of individual segments, it's independence of the hips and torso. The rest of the spine is interpolated between them. The spine would only stretch if you had "stretchy spine" turned on. With it off the spine would always maintain it's original length, no matter how you curved it.

OK, now I remember who Dascurf is. Well, I'm not sure I followed it. It seemed to take a long time to get to where it was going. I think you can do just about anything for five minute and the audience will go along with it, but for a feature I think you'd need to draw them in sooner. I don't think it's "Sick and Twisted" though, it's more "east european". The compositing does look better in black and white.

Those look real cute. (I can't figure out what "clap" is about.)

A couple notes: -as far as I can tell, the the z-axis on the finger controllers serves no purpose. It doesn't get me to any pose that the x and y axi didn't. Why not incorporate the finger curling functionality into that axis and eliminate the separate finger curling bone. this would reduce PWS clutter. - I second Zach's comment aout the naming convention. right_hand_pinky would be a useful order I think. That would be a genuine usability plus for this rig. - Is there a scheme to the difference between a bone labeled "control" and one labeled "controller" and one without either. If there isn't, eliminating that one word would help PWS readibilty also. -Heel raising still doesn't leave the toe in place. I really think it's too far forward also. -I would prefer to see much smaller control bones. they really shouldn't stick out of the character in most instances. From a character pose judging standpoint it's distracting... it's altering the apparent silhouette of the character. I realize they dont' render like that... but we dont' animate in rendered mode. -I have seen shoulder controls that operate like these in that they arc up for a ways and then sort of extend upwards, but i'm not sure I see the anatomical premise for it. Is there a reason for this convention?My shoulders don't do that; I can hunch them all the way up to my neck. - It's not an issue on a character like Thom who has only one spine bone, but I"m concerned about how this torso control will translate to characters with more. I don't see the scarecrow doing well with one spine bone. In particular I'd like to see an IK spine; they make good posing way easier. I think FK spines are responsible for a lot of very stiff CG characters . - Is there a document that explains the proper use of the squetch controls? I haven't had much luck with them yet Ok, that was more than a couple. Thanks for your hard work David (and everyone else), on this rig!

A complex rig, I'm not familiar with it yet, but here are four things i notice in my initial look... -when lifting the heel (IK foot), the toe doesn't appear to stay put. Part of it may be because the origin of that controller is rather unanatomically too far forward. -moving the shoulder bones seems to stretch the skin between the elbow and shoulder but doesn't seem to take the arm with it in a natural fashion -rotating the hips on Y causes the IK feet to roll. The IK feet really should stay put. -When I rotate the hand on Z the mesh twisting is all happening above the elbow, rather than inthe forearm where it normally occurs.

That was cute. I wanted to frame thru it to diagnose some things but I dont have a player that can single frame a divx avi. The best practice for this sort of test is to do it in quicktime and with a regular quicktime codec. That would be Sorenson 3. the slight additional compression of a 3rd party codec is lost if someone can't actually watch it. I do have divx installed, but divx quicktimes still don't play. For your next test.

it won't be enough for the waves to reduce their height inthe distance, they would need to scale in all dimensions. One trick I saw in an old 3D book was to make the plane hi density in the foreground and low density farther out. Use hooks to reduce the density of your mesh. the last few patches could be stretched WAY out to the horizon.

First thing I notice... the horizon isn't flat. Unless we're looking at the top of a huge wave and not the horizon, the horizon will be flat because it's so far away that the height of any waves on it will be negligible. But the water looks great!

What's the difference in the way the two are casting light that prevented you from just using one "reddish" light? Looks great! I hope you'll be able to do some lighting on "Tin Woodsman of Oz"!

You were Renfield? (imagining you eating a bug) I wish I coulda seen that!

Were they greenscreened? Looks like a very fuzzy edge.

Long time, no see, Grubber! - I wouldn't constrain the camera to the character as it appears it is here. It negates much of his motion. --when he lifts one leg he doesnn't really accomodate it by shifting his weight. - when he lands on his hands after the flip, his arms hardly give at all even though they're bent and probably couldn't take that weight. - when he does the flying kick his leg stops in mid-air then starts moving again - think the lunge into the sideways hand stand has the best weight to it in this clip, but I think he culd do even more crouch into that jump. - on the kicks he doesn't seem to be counter balancing himself adequately.

People often say they want solid Comment & Criticism... I was referring to the unruly behavior of the characters

tough group!

Wunderbar! Sehr schöne Animation!

Those look real good!

Aw, you can tell it's cg because it has that same plastic look all over. No, really, that looks great! I guess the next step is to get them to make those in flexible plastic with an armature inside so you could animate it. What's a "box modeler"? Care to reveal the cost of a one-off model?

I've been playing around with squetchy Thom some more... The squetch controls on the head are very interesting. Thom only has two spine segments so I'm wondering what the provision is for characters that have more. Also, the heel raiser is just raising the rear stub of the foot. Really, the heel would include everything that is not the "toe". So when the heel is raised that would affect the leg bones above it.