robcat2075

Hey looks neat! I saw two facets flicker out just briefly but otherwise it looks like the transition to Flash went well.

Hey cool! That looks like hip, now, happening stuff. Was there some sort of display situation that prompted the unusual aspect ratio?

BTW, all i get in your .mov's is one still frame. Is it supposed to be just one frame?

They look quite promising! how about a fold in his chin (a double chin) to give it some detail? It looks like there's a bulge between his upper lip and nose?... that looks a little odd. But they look like real animation characters!

Hmmm, I missed that part of the question the first time.... as far as the finger bones... you have to unhide them in the AM 2001 rig and associate CPs with them, much like you do for the arm and leg bones. exercise 3 has a section on making the hands work. I'm presuming the rig in that Rabbit is the same as the AM 2001 rig. I've been using the Anzovin rig so I admit I haven't really messed with the standard AM rig.

He's alive! I think its a good first outing. I'm not a walk expert, I'm still wrangling with 'em. but... During the brief point where we can see him head-on the effect is somewhat robotic because he's not shifting his weight from side to side as he's being supported by one foot at a time. We very rarely balance ourselves evenly on two feet. And it's impossible when you're only on one foot. The side view doesn't make it as obvious. in most casual walks the motion of the hands and arms will lag behind the shoulders by a few frames. i also think doing the arms in FK instead of IK will get more natural results in walk situations. The hard part of walk cycles is getting the end frame to match up with the first frame. yeah I know... copy keyframes and paste and all that... but you also have to get the slopes of the drivers at the beginning and end to resemble each other too. Actually I think walks are a rather complicated first exercise. A super hero like this would do well to start with a big broad jump and landing. "Up up and away... to pi r squared and beyond" and all that...

Hey, thanks! Yeah, there's lots of room for improvement. Original plan was to have him slip and fall backwards after lifting Thom, but... tick-tock and all that. I'd like to get to the point where I can put something like this together in two hours and use the last two to review it and tweak it. But right now I sit down and four hours later it's "huh?... wha?" I went to the DivX's mouth and yes, there does seem to be mention of an alpha encoder app for OSX. I generally hate weirdo codecs, but it does encode small. I wonder how it compares with the "pro" version of Sorenson? Seismic cultural events like the Super Bowl can shift the schedule by a day, but usually wednesday is it. You can start anytime on Wednesday though, morning, noon or night.

Too general? Exercise 13 "Show some backbone" is all about putting a skeleton in a biped character, just like yours is. nice character, it oughta work well with that rig.

I think the pi symbol should occupy more of the circle. And what would the special powers of pi man be? The large legs indicate he must do a lot of running and jumping to achieve his mathematical value. Pi is a long number I guess. I think he should have a dog sidekick made entirely out of one-radian arcs. I'm eager to see this guy animated.

Looks like fun stuff! Id be interested in seeing a sample of the A:M images used with Flash interactivity.

My entry in last night's animation showdown. The topic was catching something heavy. (QT Sorenson3 140kb) I spent a long time trying to get the double take to work and never really got it. Still lots of room for A:M people to try this showdown out. It's usually on wednesdays at digitalrendering.com. Ya can't say you don't have time... ya don't get much! The entry always needs to be in divx, does that lock out the Macs?

It's a strange and dangerous molecule.

i think the proportions aren't quite right. Are the arms and legs too short or is the torso too long? great concept, great details.

Nice car and nice step-by-step!

Nice Axe! I'm thinking someone should write an underground alternative to "The Art of Animation:Master" Call it "The Dark Art of Animation:Master". It would have tutorials for things like this axe, an iron maiden, a particle fire-breathing dragon, body parts (all severed) and Thom falling through a trap door into a dungeon. Reel the goth kids right in!

I really like the clouds. I think the compositional elements need to be juggled to make the caterpillar guy read better. Outside of "Where's Waldo?", most children's book illustrations seem to try to make things very obvious. I agree that the highlight on the mushroom is out of place here. Perhaps the terrain could be more detailed? But the general atmosphere and style of the elements is quite nice in this.

I'm curious to see it, but had no success in even getting to a link that would start a download. One thought... A $10/month account with a website hoster would get you space and bandwidth for something like this. Of course, getting someone to mirror it for free would be cheaper.

very nice piece! I guess we don't need scripting for crowd scenes after all. So, does the choice of the duck have some meaning known only to trusted insiders or is it capricious whimsy?

Looks like this could be something major! Nice. I just might do that! to do that joke right you gotta not let the audience see the 11 in advance. It's gotta be a surprise. Change the dials so that they aren't a pointer to something printed on the case. Have them reveal something in a window above the knob, or they could be changing an LCD readout right above the knob.

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.