Gerry

Interesting stuff, Rodney! I recently attended Robert McKee's Story seminar and been thinking about these same topics but from a more story-structure point of view. What you've got here seems a little more on the theoretical side, mainly in regard to the semiotics section and the "writing exercise" (breaking off into writing teams) slant of the timing section. Without getting into too much detail, McKee approaches a story's structure as an escalating series of reversals where the protagonist is constantly pitted against the "forces of antagonism" in an escalating series of scenes and acts. Scenes are made of "beats" of dialog, and acts are comprised of scenes. Every beat, scene and act is a reversal (good to bad, or bad to good) for the protagonist. By the ultimate climax, the protagonist has not changed so much as he has become his own true self. It's a simple structure but there are endless variations, and more are being created as we speak! But the basis, the way he teaches it, I believe is solid. It's helped me hugely with "Nightcallers".

Nice to see more progress on this. Good girl!

Let me add my compliments, David, and also say much better positioning for the ears! That was the only thing bugging me in the earlier iterations.

Hey, that's looking nice! don't forget I've got a set of Christmas goodies over on the Contributor's Cue forum: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=36002

I agree, mesh still looks pretty dense.

Agreed!

The advantages to thinning out the mesh will be smoother face contours, but mostly will make rigging/cp weighting much simpler later on. rigging the mesh you have would become unnecessarily complicated.

HI Steve- Not to take anything away from Robert's excellent video, it seems like you have way more splines than you need. I just took a quick look at it and marked some splines I think you can safely delete. there may be other options and my choices may not suit everyone, but I'd recommend at the least to do a "save as" with your model and start deleting, just to see how light you can get the mesh while keeping the forms. the thing to keep in mind is you just need a spline where the direction, or contour, of the surface changes.

Eventually TSM will age out, and I'll miss it! I've been watching Keith Lango's tutes and at one point in passing he praises Raf Anzovin's Setup Machine for Maya. Made me feel wistful.

this is a promising start, but seriously, you should be privy to the script. If your friend isn't sharing, it's *probably* because it's not finished/it has problems/your friend has no confidence in it. But I could be wrong about all three. A script shouldn't be kept secret from the animator(s) is what I'm sayin!

Hmm, well I vote each time from the same account, but I don't play it from start to finish each time. I did initially, so I hope my votes count!

Good luck Marcos. When you need more input, just let us know!

Hi Gene, voted again! But dude, if you win by three votes you owe me!!!

I like it Marcos, though Rodney makes some good points. It seems to go by pretty fast with not much info as to what you as the artist are communicating. I think though before I go making suggestions, can I ask what the purpose and intent of Trem do Pantanal is, and what your entry is designed to accomplish?

I've downloaded v17 but I'm not using it yet as I don't want to switch versions in the middle of a huge project. Sorry to hear Elm's experience, but that's the sort of thing I want to avoid.

I started reading the article and linked thread and I was doing fine, right up until the math started.

Hi Simon - Sorry for the delay but we were without internet, phone and sometimes TV for the last three days. to answer your question, and this is just my opinion, I think video reference is so specific to individual needs, I'm not sure there's a need for "generic" movement and body reference. That's not to say you shouldn't, but get the shots that you yourself need, then decide if your specific shots are of some use to others.

You know I could video myself doing that and post it in case it will help.

Simon, I think at the very least you should video someone doing these exact moves and see how the feet work to turn and walk away. I don't think it's a complicated move, but I think you should analyze these moves more closely.

That helps, Simon!

More, please!

It would be nice to see a little more weight when he gets back up. Two suggestions that I'm just pulling out of my ear: 1) Have him lean back on his hips a bit to shift his weight back, then stand; or 2) Stand up one foot at a time. I think either one will help with that move.

Well okay then!

I'll need to look more closely at these features, which sound great btw, but I would like to mention Will Sutton's tutorial(s) on decaling. I think he's got two versions; one on a web page with text and screen shots, and a video on his YouTube channel, though they may have been updated by now. In any case, that's where I first learned the real power of the UV editor and for anyone who's wondering about this functionality, I recommend them as a starting point.

First reaction is that it's all so flat and stick-like I can't tell what he's doing. Unfolding a chaise longue?