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Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

"Big Bang" animation - UPDATE 3/8


vnavone

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I'm wondering if it would be too much too have a reaction if the arm hits it.... like the arm gets cut off? No wait, what I ment was, like if the arm hits it,

miniscule little rocks and fragemens(particles) get knocked away and dissappear into nothingness......

Good suggestions all! That's why I love this forum!

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Well, quick, make like Rustboy and sell the Art of Big Bang book, t-shirts, mugs, and glassess! Hey, sell hats with rings on them! :lol:

 

Then one day get around to releasing an animation.

 

Sorry, couldn't help it- the marketing to Rustboy has bugged me since... oh... about week 4 of its inception.

 

Funny things, I might actually buy some Big Bang stuff... so I guess I'm a nincompoop.

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For the credits at the end(Hopefully you get that far :P ), An idea would be to have another one of those guys on another planet playing frisbee with the original one with his ring around his head. That would be fun :lol: ! Anyways, how much free time do you get at Pixar? Do they give you time to work on personal projects?

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I like the clip. I watched it over and over and like it over and over.

 

I like the fingers play as he rocks the planet. It's like he's got extatic enjoyment from it. I agree with the grin coming a little too early though. He should take time to realize what happened (unless he already done that several time)

 

For the rings, I thought they could be almost immaterial. Arms would go through them without difficulty, without breaking them ar moving them. They could generate some small clouds of particles where the arm meet the ring and then disapear or reintegrate their position when the arms get away from them.

 

Very enjoyable clip, as usual.

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In Rustboy's defense, I should mention that I didn't hold out much hope of ever seeing the Ninjai project completed, either. But lo and behold...

LOL- far as *I* can see, those are still promises unfulfilled... :lol:

 

Heh- I always thought Ninjai would be completed quickly since the first episodes came so rapidly after each other.

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  • 3 weeks later...
For the rings, I thought they could be almost immaterial. Arms would go through them without difficulty, without breaking them ar moving them. They could generate some small clouds of particles where the arm meet the ring and then disapear or reintegrate their position when the arms get away from them.

 

That sounds really cool!

But I wonder if it might pull the attention away from the face. I guess you could keep it pretty subtle except for real close shots of the rings. It would be very cool though and allow for alot more freedom of movement. Semi-transparent with banding and minute particles. Coool! :)

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Victor, do you have any models or scenes of the aliens finished?

Nothing yet. I've been revising the animation in this thread, which I will post when it's done. Then I'm going to start experimenting with rendering and compositing techniques to figure out the final look. I'm also revising the story reel right now, which is why it's taking me so long to finish the animation. Sorry for the delay!

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hey dimos,

 

why do you hate victor?    :0)

 

 

 

 

victor: i like the design of your character. very stylish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

greetings!  :ph34r:

:huh: No No No Mr. Meyer,

 

You misunderstood me. I use "hate" in place of "admire", "like", "love".

 

I said I hate Victor because in actuallity I appreciate his work very much.

 

Now, that said........I REALLY HATE YOU GUYS AT SOULCAGE! ;)

 

You're fan and loyal supporter,

 

Dimos

 

P.S. The statements made above are not intended to insult or hurt but to support and nurture the intended individuals.

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hey dimos,

 

why do you hate victor?    :0)

 

 

 

 

victor: i like the design of your character. very stylish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

greetings!  :ph34r:

:huh: No No No Mr. Meyer,

 

You misunderstood me. I use "hate" in place of "admire", "like", "love".

 

I said I hate Victor because in actuallity I appreciate his work very much.

 

Now, that said........I REALLY HATE YOU GUYS AT SOULCAGE! ;)

 

You're fan and loyal supporter,

 

Dimos

 

P.S. The statements made above are not intended to insult or hurt but to support and nurture the intended individuals.

ahh!

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Really great work - very expressive. I love the simple "black glass" style of eyes. Did you model lids with the head for those or do you just deform the eyes themselves to make the blinks and changes in expression? It's hard to tell at the current rez. Terrific stuff.

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Have you devised your own rig for animation, or do you use an available rigging technique.
It's my own rig created from scratch.

Did you model lids with the head for those or do you just deform the eyes themselves to make the blinks and changes in expression? It's hard to tell at the current rez.
There are no real lids. Each eye has five or six pose sliders to control blinks, bends, tapers, etc. They can also rotate, translate and scale via bones. You get a closer look at them in this old face test I posted:

 

Giant Face Test thread

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The bone setup in the face, parenting wise, is pretty clearly explained, but do you use any (math) expressions, restraints, limits or other automation on your rig?

 

I mean how free and flexible is your setup. Not only talking about the facial setup.

I'm using expressions for gross squash & strech in the head and body, but that's all. I'm not a fan of using limits because I often like to "break" joints to get a good pose. I can switch between IK and FK in the arms and legs. Nothing else fancy. No automation going on; everthing is hand-keyframed. I'm just picky that way.

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Hi Victor,

 

Nice work.

 

Some ideas for you that you may have already thought of, I guess it all depends on

how this scene fits into your movie :

 

- It's probably just my slow and ancient computer, but I didn't even see the "back flip" until I scrubbed through the anim. But that gave me the idea of maybe *purposely having the backflip in slow-motion for extra emphasis ??

 

- When the baby hits the planet, maybe some dust and boulders are thrown up ?

Also, maybe a "shakes head" and "stars" appear , ala looney tunes ?

 

- A camera view from the baby's point of view as he/she spins around and flies up away from the planet, then back down toward it

 

- A shot of some sort of inter-galactic judging panel indicating a score for the flip ? <g>.

 

 

Mike

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It's crap, complete crap. Having said that, I've watched it about 30 times - 10 of wich were frame-by-frame analysises. And nope, couldn't find anything wrong (go figure) But Just for the sake of trying to point something out, the feet during the flip (around frame 120) are perhaps a little two similar. Maybe having the right foot fly out a little further would add strength to the flayaling pose.

I'm glad to see that you're still working on this. What, is Pixar not keeping you busy enough? :)

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Here's an updated version of the animation (I left the original version up on page 1 for comparison).

 

1.5 mb Quicktime Movie

 

Caveats: Lighting, textures and background are still temp. There are still problems with deformations in the neck and shoulders.

 

Notes: Timing has been adjusted in various places, and more time added to the end. The spacing on the flip has been reworked and I moved the center of gravity for the midair animation from the chest to the base of the skull (seemed a more reasonable place given the size of his head). I tried having him flip in the reverse direction and didn't like it as much. After reanimating the hands 3 times for the rocking sequence I finally just decided to keep them simple and stuck to the planet.

 

Next: I want to start playing around with v12's multi-channel rendering and improved raytrace shadows!

 

Comments welcome, as always. Enjoy!

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I like the smile at the end more now. The eye wobble works really well and gives me the same feeling looking at it that I would have if I had just spun around a planet ( I guess). The a-symetry of the smile comes across more now that it is slower which looks suitably goofy.

 

I am missing the hand movement at the beginning though. I agree that it looked a little odd having his hands loosing grip like that though. What I would like to see is his hands - or perhaps just one of them, grasping further around the planet to get a better grip on it. Maybe one hand shuld go, and then the other should follow.

 

Also, I am starting to think that I would like to see a lot more cartoon streatch on the neck just as he starts to decend. The look on his face as he starts to realize what is happening is priceless and it would be good if we got a better look at it. If you keep his head hanging there as the rest of the body moves down and then spring it back down then that could work quite well.

 

I feel odd giving you crits but I guess that is what this is all for.

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The title says Update on page 3....but it's page 6 for me! :P

 

OK, these aren't crits just suggestions. Like John, I miss the hand/finger movement in the planet push. I think he's using his body weight more than his hands to push the planet, so he doesn't need to grip it.

In the end, this is so small, I wonder what he would look like if his lower eyebrow also raised. I think it would give an even more childlike excitement. Maybe not.

 

Is it me, or do his eyes move closer together a tiny bit at times?

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Victor

 

My personal preference is for the first version. I think that where his fingers lift and his wrists maintain contact with the planet it seems to squeeze more effort out of him. In the new version his hands seem to be glued to the surface of the planet.

 

Just my humble opinion. :)

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I am missing the hand movement at the beginning though.

Damn you, Keates. Damn you and your valid notes. Now that I look at the hands again I don't like them. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

The title says Update on page 3....but it's page 6 for me!

That may be a preferences issue. I've ammended the title.

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I love the kind of snowboarder's "whoa, dude, that was awesome" take when the kid realizes he's okay at the end.

 

To go with John's other hand note, I would ask about one small detail - would it help add a little tension to have the fingers claw into the planet (like guardrail before a fall)? Or maybe arch the arms like he's either spazing or trying to pull back up?

 

It's such a nitpick with the rest of the piece though. I'm sure that the kid has the exact same expression I have when I rock too far back in my chair and panic.

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That's looking really great. I still agree with John that I'd like to see just a *bit* more of the "uh oh" expression as he realizes he is in trouble. It is so fleeting I realized I missed it until John even mentioned it. Whether its via neck stretch or some other vehicle, that would perfect it for me.

 

I love the eye wobble, very Warnerish, which I love.

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I still agree with John that I'd like to see just a *bit* more of the "uh oh" expression as he realizes he is in trouble. It is so fleeting I realized I missed it until John even mentioned it. Whether its via neck stretch or some other vehicle, that would perfect it for me.

I know what you mean. I'm actually stretching the neck pretty far it you check out frame 98 or so. I suppose I could start the reaction a couple of frames earlier...

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I know that when I "uh oh" in my chair (my best explainer for when I'm falling back), I kind of flap my arms either looking for something to hold onto or trying and shift my balance forward again.

 

I don't know if the arm thing would be the way to go, but I just seem to think of some kind of jerky movement at the moment of realization and then consignment (as he just tries to hold on).

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I know that when I "uh oh" in my chair (my best explainer for when I'm falling back), I kind of flap my arms either looking for something to hold onto or trying and shift my balance forward again.

IMO the "catch" of that moment in the clip is that he's waiting for the planet to roll back the other way. There's a small clutch at the planet, but I think too "big" a reaction would spoil that. It seems funnier to watch him just sink down knowing he can't do anything about it. Plus there's not alot of time to put in that reaction.

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Wow. I like it a lot. Great work (as usual). The expression at the end looks dead on. And the rotation in the air looks perfect and natural. But, the only thing that looks odd to me is in the beginning when he's rocking back and forth on the planet. It looks as if he's pulling the planet back with the bottom of his wrists. It just doesn't look natural to me. Other than that though it's coming along quite well. Great work!

 

-Robert

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