jmf3d3d
-
Posts
68 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by jmf3d3d
-
-
Here's the next take. I had to rebuild it but the general layout is the same. I've included some morphing of the loons and "actionized" most of the character's movements. Perhaps someone with more technical skill than I could better fulfill Dhar's suggestion. I merely made a nod towards the idea.
And, I finally learned something I probably should have learned a long time ago... how to turn off elements in the chor (like loonville and the zillions of loons). Makes the chor much less sluggish when refining things.
--jerry
-
It might be a problem.....I don't know if Netrender requires a certain naming convention and if you've swayed from it, then it mightn't find it. But it's easy to save over the old chor right?
Indeed, my original plan was to save over the old cho but it was "conflicted" so I decided to just commit the 002 version and ask some questions
. -
I've "commit"ted take 2 of this shot. BUT... there was a conflict in the .cho file. In my switch from v13 to v14 (and temporarily back to v13) I had saved different version names of the cho so the one I committed was not the one that was conflicted.... so not quite the scenario outlined in the WIKI...
If anyone understands what I just said (I barely do
) please let me know A] if this will be a problem and B] what I should do about it. Thanks!--Jerry
-
here is take 2. Thanks, Ken, for the suggestion re the manner in which the pump is hauled off. I changed the pump moving action and added and refined the other characters' business. There was no animatic with this shot so I just went with the 5 second range in the cho. Thanks in advance for any suggestions and crits.
--jerry
-
here's take 1 of this shot. I've had a little bit of trouble switching to v14 in that the cho files aren't successfully saving about half the time. here's the message:
I also don't know how long this shot should be. in v13 the render frame set was 4:04 to 6:16 (if I recall correctly) but that information is lost in my current cho file.
Here is the the roughed in shot using the above frames. If it is different please let me know.
Thanks!
--jerry
ps. in these loonville shots I the cho realtime is very slow and it is frustrating to work in the choreography. is there a trick to this (besides page down)? or is it just time for me to get a new computer?
-
I switched to v14 but I keep getting the following error message:
It "may have been saved incorrectly" and it WAS. The file it saved cannot be opened so the changes I made are lost. I am working on another shot and have had the same error on that shot. Fortunately I'm now paranoid and am saving a new version after each minor change. So, I only lose a few minutes of work each time. This can't be the best way to animate so I'm hoping someone has some insights.
Anyway, here is the result of those lost changes. I was going to make a few more changes before submiting the WIP, but I thought I'd submit the last state of the shot before the file was corrupted.
-
That's definitely a lot of work! Wow!
I read the script and it doesn't ask for all the tumbling. What are your thoughts? What made you decide to make it so elaborate?
The animatic seems to imply the action. Maybe I'm misreading the animatic and I wouldn't cry too hard if I had to do less work
! -
ok, finally got my home office back (house guests) so here is a rough layout of the scene. There are MANY problems I'm aware of but any suggestions would be helpful before I add too much detail. I've added a few more loons so the rumble looks busy, but I'm having second thoughts about the extra work involved. Also, I need to know the final outcome of 17 before I do too much at the beginning. Thanks!
--Jerry
-
Alright, here is take 3... I've tried to address the concerns raised:
- I've adjusted the camera angles
- replaced tin's walk in shot 3 with a one arm axe swing to better coordinate with scene 2 23 02.
- woot and scarecrow are now in the background of the last shot and
- i've also tweaked several small motions in all the actions. Let me know your thoughts.
I don't know what the best practice is but I've done all the work in actions. The extra models of sticks, branches and trees are all imported into actions. I just found it easier to play with the bare actions than try to work within this set. A couple of potentially weird things I did...
1. I removed Tinman's axe from the cho and imported it into his actions.
2. I did was not use walk cycles. Since all the shots were between 3 and 4 seconds, I just animated 2 or 3 steps within the action. This probably isn't standard practice but seemed easier with these scenes - especially for Tinman who isn't simply walking. Actually the actions were kind of based on a walk cycle but I manually adjusted the Z translate positions for each step
When I commit I'll include the actions and the models in separate folders.
ALSO, I've not yet committed this long scene. In the process of my several editions of this project, I somehow changed (not intentionally nor probably in a major way) several models that have been open when I saved the project. I don't want to mess these up by committing my project. I don't fully understand how SVN works so perhaps there is nothing to worry about. An alternative I was thinking about was to update first and then redo the cho (as I said, all the goodies are saved in actions, including additional models so this would just mean repositioning the camera and actors and respecing the actions. Thanks for any information you can share in this regard. If there is a better forum to raise this question please point me to it.
Thanks,
--jerry
-
In the first shot you have the actors walking up an incline but it looks more like a camera roll because the characters are leaning back.
1) Camera angles could be improved.
2) Tinman needs to be loosened up a bit. Remember that they are walking over uneven ground and he will need to shift his weight around to keep his balance.
Thanks Paul, I think you are right about the camera roll, I'll check it out. Setting the camera in this set was DIFFICULT... I had to position the camera outside the forest and use a long focal length and find a line of sight where trees and hills weren't obscuring the view too much. This meant placing the characters in various parts of the set so that they weren't walking through branches and the camera could see them. Other than the roll what specifically would you like to see re: camera angles?
I agree with you about Tinman's walk especially in that 3rd segment. Tinman's action in this scene will probably change substantially based on everyone's comments.
Woot's feet sink too deeply when he steps back to avoid the branch, but otherwise I agree.The feet penetrating the ground is not that much of a problem in my opinion. The undulating ground, covered with fallen braches, leaves and other foliage would obscure our view of them much of the time.
What sort of render times are you getting with all that bark in view? The bark texture is probably what is making it hard to get a good quality compression.
Real render? forget about it
. This is just a shaded render and with highest subdivision setting ... about 10 minutes for the full 12 second segment. I don't know if the bark texture figures into a shaded render but it most likely makes compression more difficult. Thanks again for your pointers.
--jerry
-
Man the tree huggers are going to freak out and send us lots of nasty E-mails over this scene
As a tree hugger of sorts myself
, I can assure them that no living tree was hurt in the shooting of this scene. That's the technical answer. Artistically, all the trees TW chops are fallen and already dead. But you're probably refering to the irrational variety of tree hugger and, in that case, yeah, e-mails.David, Xtaz's action is very nice and I might try to incorporate a variety of it into the 3rd shot to address both Ken's concern and yours with one swing of the axe (or two).
--jerry
-
Nice interactions! Crits....second shot has TW with his axe up on his shoulder and the others behind him, but the next instant, he's back cutting away and the others are gone. And watch for feet going through the ground.
Edit: I notice you put in more trees, but I don't think they're in some of the other animations being done on this set. Make sure you commited any changes. (Of course the others need to update too). So, you should communicate between each other.
Thanks for the pointers. I am working on a chopping action for TM in that 3rd segment ... I noticed the same disjointedness. These other trees you notice are not in the set but are action objects. I'm not entirely clear on how often I should commit changes.
And feet going through the ground is a toughie with this set of rolling hills the surface of which can't be determined at any less than the highest subdivision setting
. Any tips? Thanks again,
--jerry
-
Here's take 2 incorporating some of the above suggestions. Thanks in advance for your comments! I had a hard time uploading the file ... I've been trying for the past 3 hours. The .mov is highly compressed but is the larger format. I've uploaded larger files though, so things must have been busy tonight.... ok, I've compressed it even more and will try again...
--jerry
(finally...
) -
Its looking OK. Some things I can see:
1. TM's chopping is a little 'frantic' and it would help if he moved forward as he chopped. It looks like he is chopping on the spot.
2. SC and Woots walks are almost synchronous and they are both bent knee cycles - looks odd (something wrong with Woots right hand as well)
3. In that same scene TM's axe seems distracting as it is flashing in and out - might work better if the odd broken branch was tossed back into the shot rather than the axe.
4. The walk cycle in the next shot seems too slow but otherswise nice.
5. Woot and SC are twinning. SC being so far back isn't going to see anything. I think better having him pop out from behind the tree to the right of TM.
6. TM's pushign the branch to one side looks like he broke it off and is holding it up. Did you constrain the tree to his hand or the other way round? I would have constrained his hand to the tree then just done a rotate around the axis of the branch (just repositioning the rotate tool)
David, thanks for the very specific notes.
1. TM is chopping in place. I wanted to have him really *swing* that axe but I think it might be a good idea to have him move forward and chop less frequently.
2. Woot's hand freeze is a recent intrusion of some sort... I'll check it out. Good point about the bent knee cycles... it does look strange. I really just wanted SC to have the bent knee crouching and crowding woot. so I'll straighten out woot and shorten his stride a bit.
3. Great idea about the broken branches instead of axe head to signal TM's trailblazing.
4. I'll speed the walk in that 3rd shot a bit and I'm still not 100% happy with woot's walk. or what exactly to do with SC.
5&6. this last shot will change dramatically but the tip about the direction of the constraint should help me (I was constraining the tree to his hand).
Thanks again mate (NOT making fun of aussie talk, we call each other mates in Bermuda too
), --jerry
-
Hi Jerry ...
Nice start...
I awaited anxious for your post. Now I have an idea of how to proceed in my sequence...
seems that your sequence ends with Tin chopping, right ?
Hi Xtaz,
yes, I'll have TM chopping at the end.
--jerry
-
I'm not sure why 4:04 in particular, but the dynamics need time to settle in before the animation starts. Apparently this won't be necessary in v14.
Try picking the constraining bone through the camera....it's usually easier that way.
That's looking good. I was wondering how this one would turn out. I assume scarecrow isn't finished yet. At the end, it looks like Tinman sees something, but he should just keep cutting. In the next shot, he almost falls off the cliff due to him not seeing it.
ah, yes the dynamics. that makes sense. I tried picking the constraining bone through the camera but in the woods it only seems pick out trees.
Yes, scarecrow needs more work. The standard expression on the proxy is just too goofy so I'll have to work on the real model for a while and get some facial expressions that are more fitting... maybe that will help me with his actions. BTW, what's the best procedure for proxy/actual model use?? I've been using the proxy models to build the actions but I also use the proxy in the choreography. Is there an easy way to swap out the proxy for the real model after the cho is setup? It doesn't seem necessary at this stage but I'm curious.
I noticed XTAZ's clip just a while ago and with your comments realized my ending was inappropriate but I thought I'd submit what I have so far and get other comments as well. Thanks,
--jerry
-
whew... this is a long sequence (over 12 seconds). I've been grading midterm exams all week and needed SEVERAL sanity breaks to clear my mind (don't know why this activity occurred to me as a sanity break
) ... so I made WAY more progress than I thought I would. I tried to stick to the animatic ( tried...) which had 4 separate camera shots. I've added a few bits of "business" that may or may not be appropriate given the adjacent shots. Please have look and let me know what I should do. I also have a couple of questions (as usual).I'm guessing the time set up in the cho (4:04 to 16:16) is what I should use? it seemed to match the length of the animatic.. just curious tho, why 4:04?
Is there an easier way to pick constraints in a crowded choreography (sometimes even in an action)? the picker doesn't always isolate the right bone and going through the entire unalphabetized list on a squetch rig gives me a headache. Is there an easy way to do this?
This is most definitely a learning experience...
Sorry for the size of the file but I condensed it almost to the max.
-
I just assumed the face would be rigged later and would be animated later. what do i know
... I just made the jawbone visible and added minimal facial expression that way. (that was for 2 03 013 - mostly full body action, but certainly the reaction to scarecrow would be enhanced with facial rigging....--jerry
-
Maybe it's just me but I am gobsmacked at how good sub surface scattering is in v14 and what it is doing for my skin tones. They should make a cream
Cheers
obviously not just you! sss is an amazing addition to A:M. I caught yves thread when he first announced it and tried it out a bit back then. I'm looking forward to playing with it more. are you going to (or have you) published the settings that work so well here?
The model is looking great! The only part that doesn't work for me is the forehead. I think that it should curve back more above the outer edges of the eyebrow. That is one thing that puzzles me about working from rotoscopes... with precise front and side images you can perfect some of the dimensions, but the curve of the forehead and cheeks are harder to determine. I see the in photo that there is more of a shadow on the outer extremes of the forehead than in your model. on the semi profile view the forehead seems to bulge a little too much (very little probably) just over the outer sides of the eybrow. just a thought...
--jerry
-
ok, so I guess I didn't totally misunderstand so here's a second attempt including their reaction towards the camera. I wasn't exactly sure where they were looking so I just took a guess that it would be up slightly? I also have a few novitiate questions. I'm finding most of what I need by searching the forum but there are a couple of things that elude me and I'm hoping I can get a quick answer here.
1. where are the sound files? I'd like to see how the actions stack up to the script although it's not so critical in this clip since the sound is off cam.
2. I'm just doing shaded renders. Is that ok? or do I miss something (frame rate etc)?
3. I've made several actions and need to know where to store them when I commit the files. are actions they way to go here or is there a better practice?
Finally, 4. I added a few generic loons to the set. They had the face controls visible. I just "hid" them in the mdl file so they don't show up in the cho. I'm guessing there is a better way to do this... yes?
Thanks!
--jerry
-
Hello fellow 2_03 group! Let me introduce myself, I'm... such an idiot...
. I kinda misunderstood my instructions and was trying to figure out how to get the loons busy and then react to scarecrow in 36 frames or whatever I have. I thought I was supposed to have them doing stufff and then reacting. So I jumped right in (well, after wrestling with SVN for the first time) and started making actions for things threw in a few more loons and had them do stuff... I was planning on trying to fit in their reaction to scarecrow in the last few frames. I put a VERY rough draft together and was rendering it and decided to see what was new on the forum when I spy this posting... 
and see that the layout is much more sensible than I was imagining. Other people do the loon activities and I primarily focus on the reaction... Oh, well, I can use the practice using the squetch rig... I don't see it as a waste of time since I'm just getting used to SVN (I obviously still don't fully get it...) and several other aspects of this enterprise So, I learned some stuff and had fun even though the animation will never be used.
My big question is: Do I have to wait for Miguel, Stephen, Thorsten and Toby to do their thing so I know where the loons will be and what they'll be doing by the time they get to my frames? (please forgive my ignorance... I've never collaborated on anything on such a grand scale...)
--jerry
PS. If you'd like to look at my foolishness I've included the file just for fun. Martin said to have fun
-
thanks. I did have a probel with copy flip attach. your right. I cant put a finger on it though
Ryan, that's a great Alien face! You're too hard on yourself (but aren't we all)
. For copy flip attach to work well you need to have the center spline perfectly lined up. Colin's tute explains how in clearer language than I could muster. I can't quite tell from the jpg but it looks as though the copy flip worked but not the attach. If so, check colin's tutorial for simple instructions how to even up the center spline. After they are attached it is a simple matter to go through and even out any crease.-jerry
-
This is what I submited for approval
Hey Steve, good to see you so active here on TWO and doing some nice work. Sorry I'm so late to this discussion but I'm just poking around these recent threads to see what's been happening to try to understand the "rules" and the flow of activity.
One thing I noticed in this clip is that the left hand closing the cupboard door kind of "clubs" it shut with the palm. It seems to me that more finger action should be involved. The Squetch rig has such wonderful hand and finger controls it seems a shame not to refine this motion. The right hand could use a little more finesse too, I think.
I may be missing the point of what you were tasked to do (in fact I have no idea what you were asked to do... I do not have access to anything other than the forum for now) and maybe this isn't an issue. It also looks like this has been "put to bed" and so my "posthumous" comments may be inappropriate... if so, please forgive me
I'm just learning how this all works... --jerry
-
We can be a tough crowd at times but don't take anything personally - the goal is for everyone to improve. Feel more than welcome to critique everyones work. All opinions are heard.
Cheers
Hey David, thanks for the welcome and the "warning". I am an academic (I'll confess this early on here) so I appreciate the value of critique a little too much for many around me. I am learning to pepper criticism with some praise. From what I've seen so far, though, the hash people are sweethearts and are actually very encouraging ... maybe it's just a contrast effect based on my past experiences. At any rate, I'll try not to have too thin a skin and, again, thanks for the warning.
--jerry
2_03 18
in TWO Animating
Posted
Here's take 3. I've cleaned up some movements, fussed with the bounce and roll and added the rope so that after the loons deflate it will lead into the next scene. If that is wrong (the rope... or anything else for that matter) let me know.
--jerry
2_03_018_take_003.mov