robcat2075

How about somewhat bigger eyes? "The better to peer at things, my dear" Since they have no pupils, will they slide around on that flat area to indicate direction? That would be novel, we don't see much of that in 3D.

HA! I think I voted for that one! I rather liked it. I appreciated it's brevity compared to others in the field. And while the motion wasn't perfect, it didn't have that stiff, robotic feel that we see too much of. Reasons it may not have gotten more votes...(and I'm just guessing)... -Even though it's an "animation" contest, i suspect many votes are cast based on visual complexity of the models and textures. -It wasn't clearly on topic ("mad"). True of other entries as well. -The camerawork (I'm really digging here) could have been clearer. For one thing, I think it needed a wider establishing shot at the beginning. We don't see the whole caveman until the sixth shot. -Something else? We really have no idea what people are basing their vote on. They just vote.

Hey, that moves wonderfully well! How much time was the "spare-time"?

Lotta great stuff there! Two notes: -I still think you gotta hide that "11" until he actually goes for it. The punchline is being given away too soon right now. Redesigning the way the dial shows the numbers would be the easiest fix. -the ground plane looks too much like a squished decal at the low angeles. Maybe a displacement map to roughen it up a little?

Getting those edges highlighted really helped. How about a roach clip, an ashtray and an empty 20/20 bottle?

Perhaps a more cinematic treatment... Long Shot: GreenGuy sees dinosaur Close Up: GreenGuy's reaction of disgust and beginning to walk Long Shot: GreenGuy walking up to dinosaur. Doing everything in long shot can leave the audience looking around the frame at something other than the detail you want them to notice.

And just how active would you be if you been hanging by the neck since Scene 8? Hey, wait a sec... how did Pinky get out of jail and into Peking Duck's Lair?!?! The idea of Pinky turning out to be a "he" has potential, however.

That looks quite promising. Developing toon rendered characters that actually look like cartoons and not like 3D models with a black line around them has been a back burner interest of mine. I'm finding it's quite challenging, because 2D animators would often "cheat" the shape and placement of features from one angle to another, for maximum visual effect. *Especially* the mouths on 50s-60s era characters like Tony the Tiger. Consider the almost Picasso-esque treatment of the mouth in this Fred Flintstone model sheet. Note also the traveling part in his hair. It is very difficult to make a 3D mesh of a 2D character that is "on model" at every possible angle. But I know you can do it!

Spiffy weapon! I was actually trying to model something of that vintage a few days ago; wish i'd seen yours first. Think how much lower the murder rate would be if people still had to load their own powder and adjust their own flints before every shot!

I've updated my site with my last three misfires from digitalrendering.com's Animation Showdown, the four-hour animation race: Who's at the Door? I never quite got the rhythm of this one right. Doing more leading with the hips might have made it less floaty. Hug. The moderator warned that doing this with two characters would be too hard. Turns out he was right! Crawl. Why he didn't just step over that thing? These versions are re-rendered for better lighting. See them on my Showdown page.

Hey, that's a spiffy spot! If you have the rights to the music secured you should enter that in some video festivals. They love pieces like that. Dallas Video Festival Some German Festival -I thought the assembly line segment near the beginning needed a bit more rhythmic action to fit with the music. Something on every downbeat.

Great action editing! One of the rare ZachBG films where no one gets squashed. Not on screen anyway.

That's quite spiffy looking! Now... how about a guy to play it?

An impressive beast! T-rexes sure have come along way since those cubist things in Fantasia two thoughts: -I recall an archaeologist saying that because of the way the bones are shaped, they really wouldn't have been able to do that curvy tail wag. I think you'll get away with it though. - only 70 million years old and he's got bags under his eyes!

Hey, that's a charming little guy. Kind of like the old Silly Symphony cartoons where they would anthropomorphize amost anything. I'll be eager to see how the final product in Flash looks!

The last three topics at the four-hour Animation Showdown were: Gymnast I Want Candy! Stuck! Due to inclement weather and a power outage "Candy" never got finished. And "Stuck" didn't get finished even with full power. But there they are, such as they is! You can see them on my Showdown Page.

A calumari leg tentacle.zip

I'm surprised it even works that well! One way to respline it:

Sounds iffy to me. How about an "under the counter" arrangement... you make a post with a warning of the nature of the parody and offer to send the link to anyone who e-mails you for it? That way the truly offended won't accidentally watch it, the eager-to-be-offended-and-dying-to-tell-you-about-it can't say they weren't completely warned, and the offended-that-someone's-offended won't have new fodder for a flame war. Congratulations none-the-less on the professional success of having the piece aired.

I think i got V4 in 1997 maybe, but just fiddled with it. I used V5 quite a bit, but then Flash happened so I somewhat sat out v6,7,8,and 9. Last year, looking at a long Christmas break with nothing to do, I decided to give it one more try and have been dabbling with it since then.

I'll put away my train wreck helmet and say I'm proud to have been a small part of it. It was very flattering to be asked to join in, particularly since I had not demonstrated the ability to do more than four or five seconds of animation in a week. Perhaps Zach was just desperate. None-the-less it fulfilled a long-time goal of mine that I might some day good enough to be asked to work on someone else's project. I can't help but think that if we had roped in even just one more animator we would have made the 48 hour mark. It was exciting trying. Fence-sitters: you missed out. I'm sure some people will sniff at this because it's not ultra detailed and textured 3D. Screw them. I'm very impressed by the script Zach et al. produced in no time at all. I know people who are actually employed as writers who couldn't crank out a genre parody with all the elements in two months, never mind two hours. And I am most envious that Zach has such a creative entourage of friends that can contribute to his projects. My friends think they're being creative if they replace their avocado refrigerator with a stainless steel one.

That looks like a lot of good detail work and will probably really come to life with some aged textures on it. I'm not sure what is holding the barrel up, though, is there some part still to be modeled or am i just not interpreting the picture right?

This weeks four-hour animation topic was "Swim." Any old swim. I was still frazzled from ZachBG's animation fire drill last weekend, so I made this as relaxing as possible. See it on my Showdown Page.

Thanks, all, for the positive feedback! Actually four hours is a good time frame for me, I have a hard time staying focused after that. But the thing that is killing me on these is getting the overlapping motions to look right. Shamed confession: it's really a dynamic constraint simulation. But it's free animation and I'll take it! It does help glide through the awkward pauses. Many thanks to the Hash programmer who devised that doodad! If there were any real work ... I'm think it's just going to be a hobby. But i would encourage anyone interested in character animation to do the animation showdown at digitalrendering.com. They're really the same sort of exercises you'd get in an animation class and much of the same feedback, usually blistering. I imagined it, then practiced it on a milk crate to test out where everything would have to be flung for it to work. (That one took an extra three hours to completely animate the boxes falling and bouncing on the ground.) One of the criticisms on the Showdown forum was that it looked too much like a circus performer.

Actually the Showdown topic was "Injured Walk" but my 3D thesaurus says that's lame. See it on my Showdown Page.