robcat2075

You skipped the lathed vase?!?! I recall an atomic lobster in a John Waters movie but a rocket propelled crab may be a first. Cool shape! I think you could solve this by re thinking it as a "top shell" and "bottom shell." Two separate meshes would give you better opportunities for non creasing splinage and wouldn't change the design of your model since there is already a definite boundary between top and bottom.

Jason "Stop Staring" Osipa make a clever observation in his book, basically that even the best models will look bland in their default unposed pose; it's the animator that makes it possible for the character to really be someone.

and have some "camera" shake when it hits.

This is not really a "wip", it's more of a "w-asap". My entry in yesterday's Animation Showdown at digitalrendering.com. where_is_it_320.mov (270K QT Sorenson 3) Basically, you get four hours to animate, render and submit a character animation on the assigned theme. This time the deal was "Where Did I Put That?" My attempt is not fab, but some of the entries often are knockouts. It's also fun to see how others interpret the topic. Showdowns happen every wednesday. If you've got your character (or Thom) rigged, and can think/work fast you must give it a try.

So what is this magical alignment of system components? OS, motherboard, RAM, RAM type, CPU, videocard... all of that. Are there things you've learned not to install?

Wonderful designs! I wish I were a 4 inch robot. If it's a hovercraft, what's the drive belt from the motor gonna be for? I vote for wheels. It will add to the apparent reality of the device more than some unexplained levitation. The wheels can have cool fenders though. Wonderful designs! I wish I were a 4 inch robot.

I like the scene and I think the look is quite fun. I think that style of house is called "half-timbered"? If that's the plan you maybe might add some diagonal timbers; those seem to be a hallmark of that style and would add some detail. I can go for the stone tower (ya gotta keep your damsels somewhere, right? ) but I'm not sold on that stone structure in front of the house, though. It seems out of place for such a dwelling. Keep the tudor front door but move it back flush with the front of the house and maybe have just a stone arch framing it? But it looks like a very promising project.

Can we see a bit of how the animation turned out?

Looks impressive! Maybe someday the image contest topic should be something like "low spline density". The object would be to make the best model with the fewest splines.

a small issue... but why does the reflection in the floor of the legs of the chair and the bed look so much brighter than the "real" legs?

That reminds me of the render times I used to get with Sculpt 3D on my AMIGA.

I think it's a fabulous demonstration, appropriate decor or not. Based on your notes for the other images, the top one is the result of one light source for the whole room, while the others used more lights to simulate the diffuse lighting effect? Is "photon mapping" another term for "radiosity". A part of it? Something else entirely? I ask because... ...is the only mention i found in the docs.

[quote]I've now uploaded a sorenson 3 codec version[/quote] This looks much more promising now that all the frames play :D . Except for a little flicker in the shadow, the sorenson does quite well. I like the little adjustment steps he takes when he shifts his weight. Those are nice touches. But unlike most trailers that completely ruin it by giving the whole story away, you've left us in the dark as to what this thing is really about.

Very charming character. :lol: How about if instead of taking the glasses off, he squinted at a "script" and had to put some glasses on? That would be more in line with your "deconstructionist" take on the situation. :) But why VP3? Most people would never detect a difference between this clip and the same compressed to the same file size in QT Sorenson, but they would be more likely to see it play smoothly. If they can even get the codec to work and not everyone does. I think the differences in image quality are very minute. You [b]want[/b] people to see this... don't make it hard for them. ;) I've got a 2.6MHz PC and still, the VP3 that comes across here tends to be very choppy.

[quote][url="http://www.zandoria.com/castaway/sinking.mov"]http://www.zandoria.com/castaway/sinking.mov[/url] [url="http://www.zandoria.com/castaway/177.mov"]http://www.zandoria.com/castaway/177.mov[/url][/quote] fabulous texturing of the swinosaur. Is that Elvis going down with the ship?

well once you say you're being impractical... anything goes, right? ;) is this a rear engine car? that would explain the lack of air intake on the front. a rear bumper and exhaust pipes would add some detail to the back. Or a rocket engine! And a rocket engine covered over with a continental kit would be the height of impractical :D Maybe add some side rear-view mirrors too. Cadillac once did a show-car with a genuine leopard-skin interior. that would be spiffy. if this car belongs to a real poser, it needs to have one of those XM antenna shark fins on top. :lol:

someone will probably come along and say that the mesh around the eyes isn't according to current wisdom, but for just two hours... that's a decent head!

[quote]Here are the maps[/quote] Very impressive results. The map reminds me of the face on the Shroud of Turin. Gee, you don't suppose...

Clever process. I'm surprised it yields effective bump maps, but obviously it does.

Very impressive. How much of the drapery is mapping and how much is geometry? Either way looks challenging.

Fine looking models. Which one plays the violin?

ok, here's something that bothers me... ;) his hand strikes the table, and although it dips with the table for one frame, after that it hangs frozen above the surface, while the table continues to vibrate. A temporary "translate to" constraint with an offset would make an easy fix.

What a lot of wonderful looking assets you have created for your project! They look fabulous! They really do. And i love the idea that it's about Ravel! To me, the bits of animations you have up look too... "over smooth"? Perhaps the poses aren't extreme enough? perhaps they aren't held long enough? perhaps they have too many inbetweens? perhaps there isn't enough "anticipation" to the moves? I'm not sure. But when he closes the briefcase, it's a very slight move and the case closes without any feeling that it stopped because the two halves have met each other. Ok, this is Ravel, he's a dreamy "impressionist" , but i think a lot of CG floats in the "dreamy" mode a bit too long. On the other hand, I've only seen a few seconds. You may very well intend to balance out this with different animation in other parts of the film. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

even with subtitles it's hard to judge, but perhaps he's moving a bit too mercurially for a weak, old man? Or is that "irony"? it's an interesting look, it's got that east european stop-motion look going on. The modeling of only four fingers per hand on such a human character bothers me but that's outside the lipsynch issue.

I found the presentation informative to watch. Thanks! :D Where i work we do a lot of training camtasias (nothing this interesting) that we put into products we sell. If I had to hold you to the standards we need here, I'd make the following comments... 1- resize your screen and redo the capture at 800x600. the current capture (1024x768?) requires me to resize my screen to 1280x1024 in order to access the quicktime control buttons. Many monitors, including mine, can only do that resolution at 60Hz, which is flickery and tiresome to watch. Careful placement of your toolbars and windows should make 800x600 a feasible area to do the presentation. I think Anzovin does their videos at that size. 2 - practice your presentation so you can do it without any verbal mis-steps. you might be able to cut a minute out of the running time that way, which would be good for your end user who's downloading it. Don't read it from a script, however. 2b - I do like it when you explicitly identify a keyboard shortcut you are using ("press h to hide..."). Always do that. 3 - the audio is echoey. My home office is a bare plaster wall room which sounds awful to record in. On the occassions when I've had to lend my voice to something, I throw a comforter over my my desk, my PC, the microphone and myself... instant recording studio! Not perfect, but a substantial audio improvement. 4 - since this tut is about the general concept of flattening and not about flattening this specific model, if you have some editing capability (FinalCut, Premiere, AfterEffects...) you might consider time-condensing (fast-forwarding) the sections where you are repositioning CPs around the lips and chin. You've already explained the reason and method while doing the nose, and since the other two areas don't present any complications that weren't present in the nose, they could be sped up without the viewer missing anything. If your editing software won't let you speed things up, a dissolve from initial state to completed state for the two areas might work also. I've seen Anzovin do this on their videos. This would also cut down your ultimate file size. [b]Thanks again for doing this![/b] :) I think these video tuts are a big advance over still screen captures in HTML. Maybe a hassle for some people to download because of their size, but i have DSL.