williamgaylord

Here is the fly-by animation (beware--about 2MBs): Fly-By (Ooo...It occurs to me now that a fly-through might look very interesting! A bug's perspective!) Next I'll likely revisit animating hair based leaves growing. The last time I tried it there was too much "popping", but I've been told this might easily be overcome by tweaking a parameter or two. Bill G

Here is an example of a hair based leaf cluster I developed. It basically uses three invisible overlapping dome shapes and hair for the leaves. The recipe is here: Leaf Cluster Recipe The project file can be found here: Project File Here is an sizeable collection of leaf images I supplied to the TWO movie project: Leaf Collection I am rendering a fly-by past the leaf cluster that I'll post later. Bill Gaylord

Quite elegant splineage! Inspiring! Looks like she would animate quite nicely Maybe she should sing "Santa Baby" like Eartha Kitt! Bill Gaylord

Think I might get hopping on this project again. Haven't tried the project in 12.0 yet so it will be an interesting experiment. I would like to explore ways to avoid having to render up to 9 of these trees and I might also try out using hair for foliage, now that most or perhaps all the technical problems I encountered earlier may have been solved. I have yet to experiment with AM's layering capability. It might be a big help in this project. I may have up to 9 trees in the scene, which would be a huge rendering load. If I could separately animate and render a single tree, rotating it each time so it looks like different tree, and composite the renderings into the full scene, that would be fantastic. Is this sort of thing possible? Is there a tutorial on this sort of thing out there somewhere? Thanks! Bill Gaylord

Yah! My kind of Christmas tree! Merry Christmas John (and to your family, too)! Happy Holidays to all! Bill Gaylord

That's a great idea, John! Thanks!

Thanks Dan. I'm new to compositing in AM, so any such advice that can help me learn to make the most of AM's capabilities, is much appreciated! If there is a good tutorial or overview of the process, that would be very helpful. In the mean time, here is test of my simple idea for moving shadows. I just painted a long strip of leaf patterns to create a cookie cut to run past the lights at a rate to match the motion in the video. Works pretty well. As this is a very preliminary test, all I did to animate Shaggy was to move him up and down, right and left like a little plastic figurine. Shaggy on a wire: 2.4 MB, so right click and download if you have a slow link. Bill Gaylord

I'm trying out John Henderson's SkyCast in AM version 12.0n for more realistic lighting, but I'm encountering some difficulties. For some reason the sky dome is being lit so intensly that it almost completely saturates even with only the SkyCast lights. Shaggy looks almost perfect, the leaves come out somewhat dark, and the box and sphere are a tad to bright for a medium gray. Also, the ground which should be brown is also too brightly illuminated so it looks more like a bright yellow-orange. You can download the project file, which should have everything imbedded: Project file If anybody can figure out what I might need to change, I would be much obliged. Thanks! Bill Gaylord

Since I am working overtime on my "real" job, I don't have time for serious animation projects these days. So I thought I'd try a simple project to teach myself a bit about compositing in AM. I have some video footage shot out the passenger window of my car and thought I might composite this with a flying Shaggy, as though he were flying along side the car like Superman. Simple animation project that could be done in the course of a day or so. The attached image shows how simple the green screen setup is. I've created a simple green screen behind Shaggy and will animate him bobbing and weaving in the air as though he were flying. Then I'll composite this with the video footage. Here are the challenging bits: 1) I'd like to give him a cape of dynamic cloth and use dynamics to animate it. This will likely be the most challenging aspect. 2) I'll simulate shadows falling on Shaggy with a cookie-cut template. I'll animate it to pass by and then recycle to simulate shadows of trees to match the surrounding lighting. Lighting in general is always a challenge when you are trying to make it match the video. If anybody has experience with using cloth dynamics on super hero capes I'd certainly appreciate any advice. Any advice or tutorials on compositing will be much appreciated, too. Thanks! Bill Gaylord

Wow! You have 7 of these in your building? Dale Chihuly's work as well I assume (pretty distinctive style). I've taken dozens of photos of his work while it was on display at the Botanical Gardens in Atlanta. I think your model works quite well for this sort of thing. Bill G

Looks like a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly (photo attached). Nice work! Bill Gaylord

Nice work! About the dialation, though, when the eyelid closes, the pupil would dialate. Then when the lid opens the pupil will be wide, then narrow with more light entering the eye. It's working the other way 'round in your animation. Overall, great work! Bill Gaylord

I just see two main things. First, a mature goat's snout is longer and (more important) is very level and lined up with its forhead. In other words the top from the nose to the horns is straight, and the horns even continue that line. The other thing I notice is that the body needs more of a slender look (though a mountain goat is usually much stockier than a domestic goat) and is perhaps a bit more cylindrical (not so tapered). Also, in a profile the top of the trunk and the legs should pretty much fit into a square if the legs are proportioned right. On the whole, it looks great! Bill Gaylord

Interesting new character, Colin! Sort of a "Clydesdale" satir. Will he have horns? Head and/or facial hair? Animal ears? Menacing teeth? Bill Gaylord

Wow! Love your furniture designs! Very distinctive style you have going there. And yes, I like the clawed feet, too. Somehow the furniture looks like it was made by an otherworldly being trying, but not quite succeeding at making it look like "normal" stylish furniture in the human world. Sort of like the Munsters or the Adam's Family trying to fit into modern suburbia... Nice work! Bill Gaylord

You are quite welcome! Bill "Van Gogh" Gaylord

In case you might be interested, I've posted more realistic ears for anybody who is interested. Ears are pretty difficult to model, so I've offered both human and pointy elven (or orkish) ears. Great work Patrick! Ears! Bill Gaylord

OK! Changed my vacation plans just so I could join the group on Saturday. How's that for dedication! We just decided to leave a couple of days earlier to go to Chattanooga. (We plan to visit the new wing of the Tennessee Aquarium, amoung other things.) Bill Gaylord

OK, I'd like to be there, but I'm likely to be in Chattanooga, TN, on vacation with my family! How ironic--I'll probably pass William Sutton on the way. Bill Gaylord

I take it you prefer fuzzy characters. I like your pipe cleaner family! Look forward to seeing their story. Bill Gaylord

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought you can only render a single camera view (shot) at a time, anyway, so the total render time should be the same. The setup time seems like the main issue if I am understanding this. I think maybe some planning ahead of time could save you some work and still give you multiple shots for interesting flexibility in post production editing. First a storyboard, followed by an animatic made of single frame renders. You can get a really good sense of the lighting and camera angles (and even story flow) without a lot of render time. Can you not copy a choreography and edit the camera and lighting for a new shot? Then store the choreography in a separate folder? Bill Gaylord

The frog bone warrior is really shaping up! You can read a good condensed version of the story of Jason and the Argonauts here: Jason and the Argonauts Your frog bone warrior reminded me of a certain scene of the 1963 movie of the same name. Ray Harryhausen did the animations in the movie. The scene is where the king of Colchis, Aeetes scatters the teeth of the Hydra, which spring up as bone warriors that attack Jason and his crew. Well worth renting the movie! Bill Gaylord

He would be great in a "Muppet" Jason and the Argonauts! Kermit as Jason, fighting the frog bone warriors! Great character design! Bill Gaylord

That looks great! Especially with the photo overlays of grass and rock. Sort of expect to see the corner of a table and the hand that's turning it... I like the look of it. Did you have specific plans for it or is it just an experiment? Bill Gaylord

Thanks! You are very generous! I like the "string of beads" style of the design. Bill Gaylord