Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

[MacQuarrie]

Jim MacQ.

Exercise 4: It's a Pitch! (I might substitute a B in that last word...)

Completed 8/15/05

 

Notes: I'll probably do this one over again, now that I know about turning off constraints. For some reason the knees insisted on bending backward at every opportunity. I also had a weird experience when trying to move the camers, for some reason all the key frames changed on my and I had to reposition the feet in each one. They look funny to me in a number of places, but I expect turning off the constraints will fix that.

 

Thanks for the tip about the OSX forum; I found out my problem isn't unique. Now that I know about it, I can work around it.

 

Anyway, here's version 1 of the lesson.

Lesson4.mov

[oakchas]

Charlie Dyer

EX: 4 It's a Pitch! (And I will agree with Jim MacQ!)

Completed 8/17/05

Instructor: Book learnin'

 

While I've caught his right arm penetrating his shoulderpad... I couldn't figure out what to do about it yet. I had trouble keeping the arm from going through his leg on followthrough, and I too had to tweek his feet more than once... But I is learning! And I like the challenges so far... I think I'll take a walk!

pitch.mov

[barkest]

I had the same problem but I used Eddie instead, allows much more control. Its explained on my blog.

[c-wheeler]

Enjoyin this today

 

Chris Wheeler

EX: 4 It's a Pitch!

Completed 8/09/05

Instructor:peeps

 

Decided not to mess with facial poses on this one.

Pitch4.mov

[Elissa]

Name: Melissa "Elissa" Heldenbergh

 

Exercises Completed: 4

 

Date Completed: Sept 8th, 2005

 

Instructor: A few years of A:M use under my belt and web tutorials, plus also doing the mentor program with Paul Daley.

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: The Knight's rig seems a bit odd, I've grown use to The Setup Machine's rig and the use of rotate with A:M, which produces more precise bone movement that the yellow boxes. Read a few posts below mine and uploaded a replacement quicktime mov.

pitch000.mov

[wwoelbel]

I know that this is all about expanding our knowledge of AM and animation technique(s) so I thought that I would ask first - Is part of the challenge of this exercise in the model selected or can I modify the task by using the rabbit or Eddie without losing any of the "challenge"?

 

Bill

[Rodney]

I know that this is all about expanding our knowledge of AM and animation technique(s) so I thought that I would ask first - Is part of the challenge of this exercise in the model selected or can I modify the task by using the rabbit or Eddie without losing any of the "challenge"?

 

Bill,

You are welcome to use any model (and other artistic additions) you wish.

There will come a time in any animators life where they will need to tow the line and produce exactly what is written with the resources/models provided. This isn't that time.

 

Having fun while learning is a very important part of TAoA:M.

I'll give extra credit for artistic merit and hope others do too via commentary here.

 

Rodney

[wwoelbel]

Egggselent! Just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing out on something or "cheating". It may take me a bit longer than what the guidelines suggest but I think that I want to have a bit of fun with this.

 

Thanks Rodney

[zowat]

Name:Erik Kirschberg

 

Exercises Completed: Excersice 4: Its A Pitch

 

Date Completed: 9/10/05

 

Instructor: A:M Community

Pitch.mov

[Dhar]

Name: Dhar Jabouri

Exercise Completed: 4- It's a pitch.

Date Competed: 09-11-2005

Comments: Help! I think I'm falling in love with Miss Goodbody

pitch.mov

[nlbakos]

Name: Nicole Bakos

 

Exercises Completed: Exercise 4: It's A Pitch

 

Date Completed: 09/13/2005

 

Instructor: AM Manual AND http://www.s1.hashmirror.com/ftp/VM/EX4Pitch/pitch1.html

http://www.s1.hashmirror.com/ftp/VM/EX4Pitch/pitch2.html

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: I'm so proud of myself. This came out awesome. especially with the silhouettes.

 

Nicole

exercise4_Its_a_Pitcha.mov

[MarkC]

Name: Mark Cromwell

Exercise Completed: 4- It's a pitch.

Date Competed: 09-14-2005

 

Comments: I used my own character instead of the knight and tried for a realistic pitch. Her dress uses v12 cloth. The dress penetrates her leg briefly in one spot but otherwise works well.

 

 

(Edit)

I recompressed the movie to 700Kb

ThePitch3a.mov

[arkaos]

Excersise 4: It's a Pitch

Completed: 1:33am (CST) 09-17-05

 

I learned a LOT doing this excersise.

Ex04___Arkaos___Pitch.mov

[nlbakos]

Hi, Mark I really like you're model. and the ball throwing was excellent. I would like to know what program you used to recompress the mov file?

 

Thanks

 

Nicole

[Rodney]

I learned a LOT doing this excersise.

 

Now thats what I like to hear.

 

Care to provide any specifics for those that haven't yet taken the plunge?

[Rodney]

I just want to add that you guys are really doing great stuff here. Nice personal touches too.

 

Definitely compare notes along the way. We learn as much (probably more) from our mistakes as we do from our successes. Having what we learned validated by others is important as is showing/teaching others what works.

 

Assuming you want to get in animating The Tinman of Oz getting the communication flowing here will work to your advantage. Then when the time comes you just change scenery.

 

As people work through the exercises they are learning to speak A:M.

 

Rodney

[arkaos]

Rodney (and all others),

 

When I said

I learned a LOT!

:

 

My very first attempt at creating an animation was with the first model I created.

I whipped up a 13 sec. animation to test the movability of my character and get familiar with the software. BAD IDEA.

 

The animation was smooth in some areas and totally choppy in most. Had I actually taken the time to DO the tutorials, instead of just read them, I would have been saved a world of grief.

 

Need I say more?

[MarkC]

Hi, Mark I really like you're model. and the ball throwing was excellent. I would like to know what program you used to recompress the mov file? 

 

Thanks 

 

Nicole 

Thanks! It took awhile to do "The Pitch". I would animate some and then have to fix the model. Animate some more and then have to fix the rig. I also played a lot with v12 cloth which, after a lot of tweaking, worked great.

 

Originally I rendered straight to Quicktime with Sorensen III compression and medium quality. It came out to be around 4Meg! I loaded it into Quicktime Pro and saved it out again with Sorensen III compression, medium quality and added stream hinting. This time it was ~700Kb. A really big difference that makes no sense. I want to experiment some more.

 

Mark

[kuep]

Name: John Kuepper

 

Exercises Completed: 4

Date Completed: Sept 27 2005

 

Instructor: all kinds

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: just blazing throught these so I can get at the bootcamp. Pick away.

lesson4.mov

[coolidge]

Linda Bridges

It's a Pitch

July 12, 2005

Instructor: Den Dotson[attachmentid=9766]

pitchsm.mov

[JDscruggs]

Name: JD Scruggs

 

Exercises Completed: Exercise 4: It's A Pitch

 

Date Completed: 10/06/2005

 

Instructor: AM Manual AND Forum

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:getting the hang of it, much better file size with the sorensen 3

 

Name: JD Scruggs

 

Exercises Completed: Exercise 4: It's A Pitch

 

Date Completed: 10/06/2005

 

Instructor: AM Manual AND Forum

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:getting the hang of it, much better file size with the sorensen 3

Its_a_pitch.mov

[micheldani]

Hello everyone,

 

This is my version of Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

 

Date completed: 07-10-2005

Instructor: TAoAM + AM help

Comments: Again, i tried to focus on the acting and playing around with new settings for light and rendering.

Oh, by the way, it took me a lot more than 1 hour to finish this piece of animation

 

[attachmentid=9885]

exercise_4.mov

[kattkieru]

Name: Charles Wardlaw

Exercises Completed: 1, 3, 4

Date Completed: 12 October 2005

 

Nothing too creative. He's bigger than me so I couldn't wrassle him into other positions.

excercise_4.mov

[Odog2020]

Name: James Owens

 

Exercises Completed: 1,2,3,4

 

Date Completed: 10/14/2005

 

Instructor:

 

[attachmentid=10126]

itsapitch.zip

[splinesmith]

Name: Splinesmith(Kurt Lange)

 

Exercises Completed:6

 

Instructor:the manual and maybe the online tutorials

 

 

Remarks/Suggestions for improvement:

I actually did some of these earlier this month and I just now got around to posting which is why I say six, the other exercise renders I will post in their respective forum sections.Also at that Time I had to use the Rabbit Model From the CD.

 

I am posting this as a zip to see if I can get in under the file size limit

Its_a_Pitch.zip

[Rodney]

am posting this as a zip to see if I can get in under the file size limit

 

Looks like it worked!

 

I've grabbed everyone's exercises and am carting them off to my laptop for viewing later.

Thanks for hanging in there with minimal input/commentary from me guys!

 

Rodney

[Bruce Del Porte]

Hey Kurt,

 

Good effort. Maybe try a side shot too. A pitch is a complex motion and difficult to animate. Balance and weight transfer (from back foot to front foot) are key. He may be a little off balance in a few places. The World Series is here, a lot of good referece to watch.

I think this is the hardest one.

 

Bruce

[sanjib]

Name : Sanjib Chakraborty

 

Exercise Completed : 4: It's a Pitch

Date Completed : 22st Oct. 2005

 

Sanjib

pitch.mov

[aparna]

Name : Aparna Chakraborty

 

Exercise Completed : 4:It's a pitch

 

Date Completed : 22 Oct. 2005

 

Aparna

pitch.mov

[Eric2575]

Name: Mark Cromwell

Exercise Completed: 4- It's a pitch.

Date Competed: 09-14-2005

 

Comments: I used my own character instead of the knight and tried for a realistic pitch. Her dress uses v12 cloth. The dress penetrates her leg briefly in one spot but otherwise works well.

 

 

(Edit)

I recompressed the movie to 700Kb

Mark, love your character and the way the clip came out. Could you give a little more detail or even a small tut on how you compressed the final movie? I know you gave an answer already, but I'm still lost, pure noob. Sorry

[noewjook]

Name: Marc Vancouillie

 

Exercise completed:Exercise 4:It's a pitch

 

Date completed:10/28/2005

 

Instructor:Movie from the hash site and t.a.o.AM[attachmentid=10524]

pitch.mov

[Eric2575]

Name: Eric T Goesch

 

Exercise completed:Exercise 4:It's a pitch

 

Date completed: 10/30/05

 

Comments: Dhar gave me some insight into timeline editing that helped me keep the knight's feet in position. Thanks again Dhar

 

http://home.comcast.net/~pyglesias03/knight.avi

 

Rodney, was it my imagination or is there a difference between the "preview" speed of the movie in the chor and the speed of the final render? Seems to me the speed in the final render is a bit slower than the preview in the chor. Also, how can I reduce the file size of the movie without degrading it too much? Over 5MB seems a bit over the top for this short clip.

[Mo.Zeal]

Hello from Thailand,

 

Name: Panutat Tejasen (A.K.A. Jimmy)

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

 

Date Completed: November 6, 2005

 

Instructor: Rodney (Forum)

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Hard to fix a foot without editing the keyframe

04___Pitch___Final.mpg

[Motility]

Hey Rodney,

Gosh this exercise was really misleadingly difficult. Especially once I tried to start fixing things on the fly..and then it became an adventure .....each different view presented new issues. Anyhow I had made like seven anim s..each time trying to fix these errors I didint see before which was a learning experience in itself......anyhow check this one out and let me know if it passes...no A's B's or c's for this newbie ....lol.......

 

 

 

[attachmentid=10823]

pitch7.mov

[rwilkens]

-------------------------------------

The Art of Animation:Master

Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

-------------------------------------

 

 

Name: Robert D. Wilkens

Date: 11/7/2005 (Completed today)

Attachment - MOV (Quicktime) file

 

[attachmentid=10856]

 

p.s. Rodney - Thanks for link to thanksgiving dinner scene -- I'm going to try and go through the lighting tutorial sometime this week.

exercise4_output.MOV

[groo90266]

Name: Mike Fernandez

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4: It’s a Pitch

 

Date Completed: Nov 14, 2005

 

Instructor: None

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: I think I piled on too much stuff at the end; how do I slow it down? I fixed it a little in the timeline, dragging key points of the head rotation out to the right by several frames. Is that a typical way to fix things such as too-quick motion?

051114Pitch04H264.mov

[Eric2575]

Mike:

 

I actually liked the fast movement at the end - you're not gonna have him follow a line drive in slow-mo.

[groo90266]

Eric2575: Thanks!

[arnett74]

Name: James Arnett

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

 

Date Completed: nov 8 2005

 

Instructor: Den Dotson

p4.mov

[STONECUTTER]

Name: JESSE ROBINSON

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

Date Completed:NOV 8 2005

 

Instructor: Den Dotson

P4.mov

[honeyb7047]

name: marvin e. bradley

execise completed: Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

date completed: nov.8, 2005

instrutor: Den Dotson

p4.mov

[dkarpp]

Name: Douglas Karpp

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4, It's a Pitch

Date Completed: December 8, 2005

 

[attachmentid=12108]

Ex4.mov

[TeresaNord]

Name: Teresa Nord

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4

Instructor: A:M Manual

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

I probably will come back and revisit this exercise sometime. I didn't add anything of my own to it (just did it word for word with the book). After seeing all of the other ones on here though I really really want to go back and redo mine.

Pitch.mov

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Name: Jody Krivohlavek

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4

 

Date Completed: December 24, 2005

 

Instructor: AM Handbook, Video Tutorial and everyone that's ever posted to these forums.

(Been around since the Playmation days)

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

 

I think I got out of hand on this one, but boy was it FUN!

 

Still not quite satisfied with the timing of the throwing arm, but overall it came out good.

ThePitch.mov

[rossk]

Name: Ross Klettke

Exercise Completed: Exer 4

Date completed: 12-26-05

 

Remarks: Had some trouble using the rig for this character since I've become quite used to Jeff Lew's rather minimalistic rig... will have to work on getting used to different rigs and learn why some are better than others, etc.

pitch.mov

[Rodney]

Ross,

Because of the black background its kind of hard to see everything... looks like you got it all in there with the extra touches as well.

 

Jody,

Your experience with A:M is definitely showing through.

That one is going to be added to my 'Keekat Kollection'.

 

A screenshot of Josh K's animation is attached. Everyone check these animations out. Great stuff!

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Josh? Who's Josh?

 

Thanks Rodney, I'm working on the walk exercise right now, but the model I'm using is not quite as complete as KeeKat as far as user property sliders. So I've had to add them.

 

Keep a look out for Exercise #5 from me soon.

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

[Vance]

Name: Vance Gloster

Exercise Completed: Exer 4

Date completed: 12-31-05

 

Here it is!

 

-Vance

 

 

Exercise 4 Quicktime

[Rodney]

Josh? Who's Josh?

 

Whoops! Sorry about that!

How's that saying go: My mind is such a terrible thing... a waste. No... that isn't it.

 

Having some bandwidth problems guys (Vance!) but rest assured I'll get around to downloading and viewing your exercises both here and in the other exercises areas. Please keep helping and encouraging each other out in the meantime.

 

Great effort being put forth there in the NUF. Inspired even.

 

Rodney

[cuboos]

this one is hot

 

[attachmentid=12888]

fire_pitch.zip