Gerry

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I maybe didn't describe it clearly, Paul, "corkscrewing" isn't really what I meant. It needs to start as a shoot, then grow into the spiral, with maybe some glittery particle effect, then ornaments popping out of it along the length of the spiral. I still think I'm not describing it adequately. Both Nancy's and Robert's suggestions are good approaches. Mark, you're not far wrong I'm afraid! My mind is a blank and what I'm doing is the boss's suggestion. It's not bad and I'm happy to do it, but after eight years it gets harder and harder to come up with something. I'll post some tests when I have something to show. EDIT: Robert, that effect is just what I'm looking for!

There's a keyboard shortcut for hiding and showing normals, but can't find it at the moment. It's easy, like F or D or 8. I'll try to find it and let you know if someone doesn't beat me to it.

Beautifully done. I think I'd seen it before but didn't comment at the time. Great stylization and detail, things like the rain effect in the closing shot, and the lighting in the scene where the artist first performs for the crowd. Nice!

I've got an idea for the animation I'll be doing but right away I have a question. I want to have an extremely stylized Christmas tree shape (more of a triangular spiral) growing out of the ground. Here's a simple sketch. I don't want to just scale it, I want it to corkscrew out of the ground. What's the best way to "grow" a shape like this?

This just gets better and better!

I haven't even opened AM since January so I'm sure I'll have questions!

Just announcing that I'll be doing the company Christmas animation (my eighth, yikes, this is the longest I've ever been at one job!) and as yet I have zero ideas, but I'm just starting, surely something will come up!

Hi Gerry, nope I sketched these frames on paper then shot the as a stop-motion movie with my little Nikon. Pretty low tech! I just tried a more elaborate "sneaky" walk cycle but got ahead of myself and messed it up, but I'll try to post more like this.

I thought the body exaggeration would make it more comic, but when I saw the finished movie I realized the sketches were probably roto'd, since there was little to no exaggeration in the movement. And yeah, I realize a fat cat wouldn't run quite like that, it was just a quick test. I may try a second one and really push the limits, get the body bobbling more. The tail in what I was sketching didn't have much movement but secondary motion is one of the things I want to concentrate on. I'm working on a project with a fat cat but I'm not planning on *doing* any animation, just getting familiar with the masses and how they move. Robert, I'll add a supper dish in the last frame. EDIT: here's the reference I was using: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/55/...5543657fef3.jpg SECOND EDIT: Jeez Nan, do something for that cat! It's a cat, right?

I copied these frames from a sketched run cycle I found with a Google search, but I changed the proportions of the cat to be fat with stubby legs, then made this quickie movie to see the end result. CatRun_h264.mov

Also: ALWAYS work on a copy or do a "save as" before messing with the file in a text editor.

Try hitting "Ctrl minus" once or twice, things might fit better.

One other point is that in the event Marigold is on a Mac, and depending on what version of AM is being used, it may work better to apply the animated decal in an action window.

That was a tough contest to vote in! Congratulations to all three winners.

Okay, I'm in!

I will absolutely second recommending Barry Zundel's videos. Five bucks each. You can't go wrong!

I agree, tough to vote for just one! Great work from everyone.

...and you NEVER see him and Clark Kent at the same time! Hmmm...

Nice work so far Chris! My one comment is that if you're planning on animating him, the chest logo may do better as decals (displacement and color) so you don't have to worry about assigning a bunch of cp's unnecessarily, and so that if you need to tweak it it could be done more easily as decals. Although the inprogress model may not look as cool!

Wow, that's a great project! I'm fudging, but it still has 20 days to go, so I plan on kicking in *sometime* in the next 20 days.

I would say absolutely the toon style. Brighten your colors, good toon line, and it will "snap" better than a fully shaded render.

I STARTED here in August NOT January LOL So, Splining Years, not Calendar Years! Got it!

Dude, it's only August!

Sorry I missed on this one, but looking forward to seeing the entries!

Simon, the key to activating the Euler option is to create some slight rotation with a start AND end keyframe. Once you have those keys set, you'll see the Euler option. In case you haven't figured that out yet. EDIT: I *think* the best bet is to create the end keyframe pretty much around the point where you want the rotation to end. But since you can always move the key, may not be that iimportant. If any of this isn't clear, just ask!