ernesttx

Hello again, everyone. Finally got moved back to Austin and setup everything for getting Episode 5 to be finished. It was nice taking some time off from working on the episode; but, now I'm eager to get it finished and out to everyone. I'll post more soon; but, wanted to let everyone know that I was still cranking it out. Thanks. Episode 5: http://www.animace.biz

Thanks Wiskey, i'm glad you enjoyed it. Production may be on hold for about a week longer than usual. I have recently moved back to Austin, TX and will need a bit of time before setting up to be able to work on the next episode. I have managed to pre-build the scenes and record most of the audio; so I don't anticipate it taking too much longer. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the great feedback. It's even more enjoyable to work on the series now than I was before; because of comments like yours. I've commited myself to getting Episode 5 out a lot sooner, as well. I don't want to sound boastful; but, I'm hoping to have a sneak peek of the next series out as well. Am I crazy?? Don't I sleep?? I don't know the answers; I just know that animating with A:M is so easy and I have too many ideas buzzing around. hehe Martin, is there a Hash logo that you have to upload onto my site for link to hash.com?? I was going to create one, but, if you got one laying around that would be great.

Hey, thanks Rodney and Martin for those great comments. Hmmm, Rodney, T-shirts? I'll have to give that some thought. It would be nice to generate some income from this. hehe Yes, Martin, I am doing everything myself. It's tough finding the time to do it all; but, I've got everything portable (laptop, USB harddrive, etc.) to allow me to create wherever I am and whenever I have a few minutes. Lately, I've been working alot; so, in between shifts, I just power on and get to work. Needless to say, episode 5 is already underway. hehe I checked out The Boys. Very nice style and writing. I would like to get a bit more darker as the series progresses; but, I'm debating on that or reaching a larger audience. Decisions, decisions.

It has taken a little longer than anticipated to bring this episode online. I had to change a few shots in anticipation of the greater storyline. One thing about creating a longer, episodial story is to keep in mind that events that happen later on in the story might need to be foreshadowed or shot in a way to 'prep' the audience for future events. That also brings into consideration multiple storylines or multiple plot lines and how they are going to interact in the story; as well as, the characters own storylines and how they will interact with other characters or other storylines. That's why it's such a good idea to have your story or script laid out before going into production. It will help when trying to problem solve shots. Also, I wanted to add a bit of an ode to Heath Ledger. It was shortly after seeing The Dark Knight that I decided to include the shot in the police station. My first inclination was to put a clown in handcuffs; just for some visual oddity to enhance the shot of trolling through the station. But, after seeing the movie, I decided to change it to something that had a little more to it. Episodes For anyone interested, I am offering my coffee pot model. It has a pose slider for the coffee in the pot that when slid will allow the liquid to 'seem' to pour from the spout. It's not much, but, I wanted to give something back for everyone's interest and favorable comments. coffee_pot.mdl

Just to let everyone know, production is still ongoing. I'll have a some new pictures to show soon. Life has a nasty habit of getting in the way sometimes. I should have the episode uploaded in about 5 days. Here's hoping.

Just a quick update, I've gotten all the scenes lined out for Episode 4. I'll be animating the individual shots tonight. I'm going to add a little something special in this episode. I came up with a little idea the other night and wanted to include it. Meanwhile, here is a picture preview of Boz relaxing in his little office.

kwhitaker, i reely like the characters. How are you lighting your shots? In looking at the pictures you've posted, there doesn't seem to be shadows that define the form of the characters. I'm not saying it's bad, if that is the style you are going for. For example, the green character seems to be flat shaded ( i think is the term). Again, great job, i'm just curious is all.

Thanks Rodney. Actually I do have some trailers. I'll see what I can do to get them on the site in the next day or two.

thank you jeetman for your truly appreciated words. i was feeling a bit down today, but, after reading your comment, i started working diligently. hehe it was enough to motivate me to completing the recording of all the dialog and all the lip sync actions. have you thought about being a motivational speaker hehe

I've begun Episode 4. I've already got about 1 minute pulled together in the editor. Today, I spent some time modeling the police station where Boz and Raffie will be settling into. Here's a picture preview: I was wanting to create flourescent hanging lights, but I'll have to look into that later. I tried bulbs and kliegs to a tube model; but, nothing came out to my satisfaction. But, I'm liking the station as it currently is. Also, I spent the last couple of days going through files and trying to clean up some things that will make going forward easier. Asset management is becoming a big thing as the series progresses. It's good to know where particular files are located (whether they be picture, sound, music, models, projects, etc.). Another big thing is backing up all the data. I'm not a big fan of losing files, either. For example, the first episode contained about 10,000 files and weighed in at about 2.8 GB. It would not be a good thing to have those suddenly disappear. I figure one episode to one DVD should make it easier to find something or go back and redit, if necessary. In addition, naming files appropriately is a big help. You should stick to a naming convention religiously. For example, in shot 1 if you have multiple cameras set up, naming individual picture files should follow what the picture is; for example: shot1_cam1_0000.png. And if a particular background element goes with that picture, name it: shot1_BG_cam1_00000.png. Or, something along those lines. It's no good to name a picture file as frame_0000.png. Ok, back to modeling. As always, critiques or comments are always welcome.

I've re-edited Episode 1 to fix the flickering issue and put it up on my site. I'll carry a discussion about Episode 4 in a new thread. Also, I'll be discussing the issue of asset management for large projects such as this.

Thanks to all the above comments. Sorry to get back with you so late. I just arrived back home from a trip to Las Vegas. Case: It is a bit rough at the moment. All lot of that has to do with the amount of time I am able to dedicate to making it and the deadline I've committed myself to. Now that I have a few things out of the way, I will be able to soften up the rough spots. Bugle and jzawacki: I was able to listen to the series on a friend's computer with really nice speakers. I was embarrassed by the sound quality in alot of the dialogue. I've only been using the speakers on my laptop for production. Truth be told, it's only my voice, no audio alterations. I feel that alot of the bad quality has to do with the way I recorded some of the dialogue. I've learned more about recording by picking up pieces here and there. The clearer dialogue comes from using a better microphone and a software compressor. Before, I had a M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 with a 1/8" stereo mic to record all the dialogue from the first series (i.e., the interrogator parts). For the detective interludes, I am now using a 1/4" pro mic, piped into Ableton Lite and using a basic compressor to record my audio files. In addition, I tried using a compressor effect on some of the older audio files, and I'm not sure it helped. I also had to learn about Flash and how to create video files that I could import and compress in Flash and then export to .swf files and still have viewable files. The very first episode, I exported from my editing program in Sorenson 3. But, as you can see, the first episode has weird flashing dark and light frames. I've learned that exporting without any compression for VIDEO and audio helps dramatically. As an aside, a 1.6 GB uncompressed file imported into Flash and then exported as .swf, only weighs in at about 16 MB. I'm currently going back and should have a newer Episode 1 out that will correct that. MMZ Timelord: Thanks for your comment. I spent a good deal of time on the story before heading into production. It's got a deep plot to it. In conjunction with re-editing Episode 1, I've started etching out Episode 4.

Thank you KenH, Rodney and you, Martin, who made it all possible. Martin: I would love to have a "Special Topic", I'm not sure how to go about it. It'd be nice to have production notes, animation tips, and the like for people to talk about. Rodney: Yes, I believe walk cycles are my achilles heel right now. I want to spend more time developing them; so, that each character has his/her own style. KenH: Yes, it is all me. Story, animating, editing, compositing, music, dialogue, etc. Like Martin's dream, one man, one computer. Thank you, also, for noticing what I hoped would be individual character traits of each person. I tried to make sure that each one had at least some individuality. Hehe, actually, the ramen noodle scene was easier than some. Constraints can be your friends. I'll be working on the pacing a bit more. I know that some scenes are a bit long in the tooth. I'll pay attention to that as I progress. Also, all of the facial animation is done manually. One of my next steps is to get Luuk's program and put it in the pipeline. A:M does a nice, quick job of lip-sync, but I feel I want my characters to emote more, and I feel that Luuk's program will help accomplish that. I rigged all of the characters to take advantage of it when I do purchase it. Also, if no one has noticed, in the new 3D World magazine, Luuk's program gets a good review. And thank you everyone else who has viewed the episodes, as well. As I progress in the story, as well as my own skills, I hope to bring more excitement with each episode.

Good afternoon, Hashers. I'd like to introduce you to a new webisode animation series that I am working on. It's made completely with Hash A:M. This series started out as a full movie that I was wanting to create. However, as I watched the market place, I felt that it would be a long time before I was able to bring the complete movie to market as a DVD. In rethinking the time I would have to work on it and the production value, I felt that short, web released episodes would be a better way to generate interest and foster a fan base. I also wanted to create a website, much like a televison station, where people could 'tune' into on a regular basis to watch the next show. I have completed 3 episodes so far of this series; and will be introducing a couple of other series in the coming months. I am also working on providing a forum for fans to socialize about the series. My website is: http://www.animace.biz So, please enjoy and I hope you will be entertained.

i'll echo what others have said. in diving, it's a very fluid motion. lots of arcs to the arm movements and the important thing is center of gravity and the pivot point. i used to do some diving in high school and weight gets transferred to the upper body and shoulders when you leave the end of the diving board. that's why the arms are swung out forcefully down and up. then, when you are just at the point where the momentum has left the upward thrust, that's where the turns, pikes, tucks or pivots come into play. i thought this was a fun exercise, so i tried to execute the move myself. hope it helps. dive.mov

Very nice. I'll give your settings a go this weekend and post a pic for viewing. I'm not a big lighting guy, i do alot of toon rendering and wanted to venture into more realistic but still toonish type work. thanks for sharing.

This question is for Sebastian Pfeiffer, winner of image contest: What lighting setup did you use for your image of the cartoon characters? Or possibly, are the characters shading in a particular way? or was just diffuse, ambient and specular colors used? I ask, because, I'm liking the way the characters come across in your image. I'm trying to achieve a look very similiar to what yours displays, but perhaps with a bit more specular or highlighted areas on my characters. Thanks in advance for any information. To admins: I wasn't sure where to post this sort of question, so if it needs to be moved, I'll understand. Thx

Nice work. I'll second what others have mentioned about the animation - foot slipping, gun shooting, etc. What I would comment on has to do with adding more camera angles and composition of shots. It would be nice to have a close up (CU) of maybe the frantic escapee behind the coffe mug, eyes shifting from side to side; that way, we get to see his angst and can feel what he is feeling. Another would be the ship coming in the window, maybe a medium shot (MS) of the window and the ship slowly coming up over the window sill and acting like it's scouting out the environment, maype a point of view (POV) from the ship inside the kitchen. As it is, it's a static shot and all the action happens within the one shot. It's as if we are to observe what is happening only. Allow the audience to be a little bit more intimate with the characters, situation and actions happening. Otherwise, great modeling, characters and compositing.

Luuk, yes I'm going for the full version. I like that it will work with Poser as well. I'll keep checking for version 1.3. Thanks for the update.

Ack...I did something a bit too quickly. When opening a project, I was prompted to click on where a model was located. I accidentally clicked on another model by mistake. I quickly exited out of loading the file. However, when I go to open the file now, it doesn't prompt me for the model again. I have now opened the project. Now, it would be simple if my project did not have any animation keyframes for the model that is supposed to be there in the first place. The model I accidentally imported in its place, is associated with the animated keyframes (both models are human bipeds and rigged exactly the same). Is there an easy way to replace the orroneous model with the original model? I'm assuming that if I delete the orroneous model, all keyframes will be deleted with it? I know I could probably export out keyframes as an Action from the Chor window, and then import as Action and replace model; but, I'm wondering if there is a simple replace method? Thanks in advance.

Luuk, So, a 2D tracker that can export BVH motion is in the newest release of the Tracker?

Oh sure Rodney, make me work harder Well, Poser is not the easiest to do when it comes to animating. I imported the file into Carrara 6 to render faster and add some arm movements to the falling guy. Oh and I added a shooter just for you. Bigboote, not sure about setting mass on Rigid Body in AM. I'll check into that tomorrow. Maybe by then someone will enlighten us about the physics system and there may be something i'm not aware of. Meanwhile, this is for Rodney.

Rodney, that's it pretty much in a nutshell. The only other thing to do is constrain the AM character to the bvh file, drag n drop Action on model in Choregraphy. I had to translate model a bit. For some reason when I exported the .bvh file from Poser, it translated the Poser character back to zero origin, but I think I didn't translate Body in Poser very well. This was all just a quick test to see what results would be given. Not bad, with a bit of tweaking here and there it could be better.

I thought about it a little further, and since Poser can export a .bvh file, I did that and imported into AM and constrained human character to the .bvh file. Seems to be not bad at all. Sure needs tweakin', but what don't. A glimpse.