Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

[nicknite]

Name: Dion Kirfman

 

Exercise: 4 It's a pitch

 

Date: 1-7-2007

Exercise_4.mov

[jmf3d3d]

Name: Jeremiah M. Faries

 

Exercise Completed: #4: It's a Pitch

 

Date Completed: Jan 6, 2007

 

Instructor: thanks to Caroline for tips on converting and compressing AVI files within A:M. Can this software do everything?

 

Remarks: 2 views: front view and side view w/ surprise

 

 

exercise_4_front_fixed_knight.mov exercise_4_side_surprise_ball_converted.mov

exercise_4_side_fixed_knight.mov

[Caroline]

That was funny, Jerry - good job!

[Chrury Sanson]

Name: Chris J

 

Exercise: #4 It's a Pitch

 

Exercises completed: 1-5

 

Date completed: Jan 8, 2007

 

Ex4Chruryfront.mov

 

Notes: I'm back after recovering from the flu. What a way to start the new year.

This one decided to be harder than it looked. Those elbows would go backwards without warning.

 

Side view:

Ex4Chruryside.mov

[Rodney]

Nice! That right leg drop at the end is a really great touch.

 

Consider that story told.

 

I think this is a rare occation where I like the front one better than the side.

The continuing motion of the ball plays (literally!) a big part in that.

[RockLee]

Name: Steven Ellinger

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4 Its a Pitch

 

Date Completed: 1-27-07

 

Instructor: None

 

Remarks/Suggestions: I did this one rather quickly this morning. This is another one that I am redoing from my computer problems, so I didn't watch any videos, and I am doing it only with the book that came with my CD. I like having reference that is not on my computer screen.

ItsAPitch.zip

[Rodney]

Steven,

You may have done it quickly but you've done it well.

I like the 3/4 view too.

[Tunames]

NAME: Steve George

EXERCISE: #4 Its a pitch

INSTRUCTOR: you

This is a exercise from the original animation bootcamp a coupla a years ago is this sufficiant?linky link

[Nunsofamerica]

Ryan Krysiak

Exercise 4

Completed Feb. 7th

 

I hate animating, but I guess I have to learn. lol

 

http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o204/nu...t=pitchfort.flv

[Caroline]

Nice toon render, Ryan - fluid animation too.

 

One of the things I've picked up from the forum is the idea of silhouette. You look at your character, and imagine it in silhouette, and if the action makes sense then it works. With your camera angle, unless you're in the know, it is hard to tell what he's actually doing. With a side view, you can get an idea of the arm swing.

 

What do you hate about animating? Is it because it's hard? I find timing difficult. I know exactly what I want, but getting the timing right is so hard.

[Nunsofamerica]

Nice toon render, Ryan - fluid animation too.

 

Thanks.

 

What do you hate about animating? Is it because it's hard? I find timing difficult. I know exactly what I want, but getting the timing right is so hard.

 

I couldn't have put it in better words. I always end up with it being way to slow or way to fast. its just gonna take some practice. Hate wasn't the right word to use though. I like doing it, its kinda fun... but just sooooooooo chalenging

[effreek]

Name: Jonathan Webster

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

 

Date Completed: 2/14/07

 

Instructor: The Art of Animation Master Book

Ex4ItsAPitch.mov

[Clinton Rocksmith]

Hi there,

 

Here is mine.

 

Clinton

ThePitch.mov

[eburritt]

Name: Ed Burritt

Exercise Completed: #4

Date Completed: 2/16/07

Instructor: Manual

COmments: None

 

Pitch1.mov

[Caroline]

That was very good, Ed - no foot sliding at all - that's very hard to do! I love the way the knight renders, with his shiny armour.

[eburritt]

That was very good, Ed - no foot sliding at all - that's very hard to do! I love the way the knight renders, with his shiny armour.

 

Thanks Caroline! I tried my best to keep that back foot from sliding.

[Raffi]

Name: Ralf Kampp

Exercise: 4 (It's a pitch)

Completed: Feb. 23rd 2007

Remarks: I didn't like the knight pitching so I chose the boy.

 

EDIT: Following the advice of Dhar I sent Eddie to the chiropractor to have his shoulder fixed :-) And I gave him a ball.

pitch2.mov

[Dhar]

Oooouuuch! That left arm must be out of its socket.

 

The rest looks great though

[elliotclem1]

Name: Elliot Clements

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

Total Completed Exercises: 4

Date Completed: 24 February, 2007

Instructors: Manual and Video Tutorials

Remarks/Suggestions: I found this exercise useful as it is the first bit of animation i have done myself. I just got a bit mixed up with all the bones and i think it is a bit jumpy. But overall i think it is good for my first animation.

 

Exercise_4_It__s_a_pitch.mov

 

What do you think?

[Raffi]

Oooouuuch! That left arm must be out of its socket.

Oh, I see your point ... I fixed it (see above)

[Tigerblue]

Name: Pip Rawlinson

Exercise: 4:It's a Pitch

Date Completed: Late January 2007

Instructor: Manual, videos and the forums

 

This was fun. And I don't think it's bad for an english girl who's never thrown a baseball - it's just not cricket, you know... Knight's left elbow twists oddly in the middle of the action so I would do that differently another time.

 

I keep getting a black background instead of a blue sky on all my animations. Could anyone advise how to correct this?

 

Many thanks for any help or comments.

Pip

Exercise4Tigerblue.mov

[Tigerblue]

Just found the answer to my own question when I went to post Ex 5 -

 

The most likely culprit is having the Alpha Channel option set to 'On' in the render panel.

Toggle that to off and it should turn to your background color which is most likely the default color; light blue.

 

I shall try this!

Pip

[tbenefi33]

Phew finaly got done with EXE 4 my have to clean it up a little though here the clip. Had trouble with the knight arms I had him doing the robot dace there few day ago...lol

 

exe_4_Its_A_Pitch.WMV

[brainmuffin]

Finished Exercise #4. Again, nothing special, just going by the book...

Pitch1.mov

[jbeery]

Name: Jim Beery

Exercise Completed:#4 Pitch

Date Completed:April 2 2007

Instructor: TaoA:M pdf

Remarks:While pokeing around the render options I found true love "lines only" render time less than a second per frame on my old laptop. Yes indeed life is good. Nothing too great about my movie but the exercise is great!

TaoAM_Pitch.mov

[catsqueezer]

I am presently working on this exercise and am close to finishing it. All the key poses are in place and I only need to add some breakdowns (without spending toooooo much time on it). My problem is this. How do I anchor the feet to the floor so I can avoid the feet intersecting the floor on the tweens? Is there a foot "lock" button? Hopefully I don't have to adjust the foot translation on every tween frame. Thanks for your advise. Cheers!

 

Okay, I discovered that I can either adjust the curves or add tweens. Is there any other way besides building it into the rig? Thanks

[Dhar]

No! Don't adjust every frame. In the spline editor, choose the CP's of the foot Translate > Right Click > Choose Interpolation Method > Choose Zero Slope. This will straighten your splines (no curves) and the foot will stay put.

[Caroline]

There's a couple of pictures of how to do this here:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=186010

[catsqueezer]

Name: Brent Lowrie

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4

 

Date Completed: March 31, 2007

 

Just moving through the exercises as fast as possible to get up to production speed. I would like to have added quite a bit more overlapping action and a much smoother finish but rushed with my current production schedule.

 

Link to my exercise 4 movie.

[spacecomics]

Name: Roger Christenson

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4

 

Date Completed: 10 April 2007

 

Instructor: Book, video, forum.

 

Here's my result for "It's A Pitch:"

 

ex4.mov

 

I also had some trouble with the feet sinking into the ground in between keyframes, so I learned the following from some solutions posted above: Select a foot, open the timeline from the view menu and select channel view, the leftmost button. Then select a point on the green line, for y-axis, before it goes below zero, right-click, pick CPS Settings (or Curve), and set Interpolation Method to Zero Slope; or select an earlier point and set it to Hold. I'm not sure I understand that yet, and may have stated it imperfectly, but it worked; I'll practice until I understand clearly. Thanks to all the experienced animators who posted this solution before.

I turned the head at the end (maybe a little too fast?) and changed the ground color just to make mine a little different.

Any feedback from anyone is appreciated. Thanks!

[swooster]

Name: Steve Wooster

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 4

 

I modified the animation somewhat, and attempted to give the knight a little more sense of weight and follow-through. (Just out of curiosity, why do animators call it that instead of inertia?) I think there's still a problem with the head where it pauses before continuing forward... Also, I've noticed I have a hard time deciding on a speed that "feels" right. Either the hand looks too slow to throw the ball, or the body looks like it's moving too fast.

 

ex4_custom.mov

Date Completed: 4/14/2007

[Riley92]

Name: Riley Egeland

 

Lesson 4: It's A Pitch

 

Date Completed: April 29th, 2007

 

This exercise was cool, I came into this program thinking I wanted to do modelling more, but now Im having a change of heart so to speak. It only took me about 45 minutes and the results are ok with me, though definately not the best. I mainly used the book, even though I usually use the video manuals.

 

 

 

Its_A_Pitch.mov

[Caroline]

Nice pitch.

 

I agree with you - every time I did a TaoA:M exercise I thought - that's what I want to do most - like modelling, rigging, animation, particles. I still feel like that too, with still so much to learn in every way . It's all cool.

[adrian_ruvalcaba]

My turn to pitch.... lots of fun with this one!

pitch.mov

[spacecomics]

Looks good!

[Rodney]

Nice work guys!

 

This exercise was cool, I came into this program thinking I wanted to do modelling more, but now Im having a change of heart so to speak. It only took me about 45 minutes and the results are ok with me, though definately not the best. I mainly used the book, even though I usually use the video manuals.

 

Riley,

What Caroline said goes for me too and I'm sure a lot of other A:M Users too.

My memory is fading as to what the primary reason for me to get into A:M was in the beginning.

I guess it was a combination of them all. My focus was on being able to tell stories more than model, texture or animate. These areas are where the work gets done of course.

 

 

Adrian,

I'd like to see a side view of that one Adrian but looks good from the front.

Not required but the character's sihouette is always of interest.

 

 

I have a confession to make to fellow TaoA:Mers.

These exercises have made me quite the consumer.

In the past I've bought several things based on tentative connection to one of the exercises.

For instance, the book "Film Directing shot by shot" by Steven Katz has an extended storyboard sequence breaking down the story of a backlot game of baseball. In its own way it fits so perfectly into this exercise. It extends it. I'd love to get Mr. Katz's permission to use his storyboards here in the forum.

The book is highly recommended and I believe there is a review of it here in the forum.

 

Today I bought a copy of 'Everyone's Hero', the animated movie about a boy, baseball and Babe Ruth's bat. I haven't opened the case and watched it yet but my daughter says, "It's great".

Of course, I'm very interested in seeing how they deal with the animating of pitching balls and swinging bats.

[MikePett]

Today I bought a copy of 'Everyone's Hero', the animated movie about a boy, baseball and Babe Ruth's bat. I haven't opened the case and watched it yet but my daughter says, "It's great".

Of course, I'm very interested in seeing how they deal with the animating of pitching balls and swinging bats.

 

 

Hey they did that at my studio! Well Starz did it anyway and I think that they at least did some of the story stuff there in Burbank.

 

Mike

[Rodney]

Hey they did that at my studio! Well Starz did it anyway and I think that they at least did some of the story stuff there in Burbank.

 

I didn't watch the movie with a critical eye... I watched it for the entertainment aspect... and as such found it a very enjoyable movie. 'Everyone's Hero' is a movie to be proud of. It was fun.

Any young boys into baseball will probably find this movie irresistable.

 

While watching I completely forgot to look for 'animated pitching technique' so will have to watch it again.

[MikePett]

Here is my "It's A Pitch" movie.

 

MikePettItsAPitch2.mov

 

Seemed like it should be so much longer after all that work.

 

 

Mike

[Rodney]

Seemed like it should be so much longer after all that work.

 

LOL - And the audience will pay little more attention to it than after they proceed out the theater doors.

They are already thinking about what movie they're gonna see next.

Ah, the life of the animator.

 

My only quibble in an otherwise perfectly executed exercise... Knight seems to be pitching in quicksand.

Add some rain effects and splashy mud and call 'er done!

 

Nice pitch Mike!

 

 

 

Added:

I wanted to add this for anyone looking in that will be doing 'Its a Pitch' later. (No need to do this Mike!)

Think about the Knight's silhouette no matter what angle you render him from.

While not required to be a successful exercise you'll be pleased with the results if you can see him clearly move through the entire action.

 

For instance, in Mike's pitch as a director I might ask him to have the Knight throw his pitch just a little more from the side... baseball experts what is that... a curve ball? What this does is free the pitching arm from the silhouette of the Knight's body.

A solid silhouette helps lead to clarity.

[MikePett]

Seemed like it should be so much longer after all that work.

 

LOL - And the audience will pay little more attention to it than after they proceed out the theater doors.

They are already thinking about what movie they're gonna see next.

Ah, the life of the animator.

 

My only quibble in an otherwise perfectly executed exercise... Knight seems to be pitching in quicksand.

Add some rain effects and splashy mud and call 'er done!

 

Nice pitch Mike!

 

 

 

Added:

I wanted to add this for anyone looking in that will be doing 'Its a Pitch' later. (No need to do this Mike!)

Think about the Knight's silhouette no matter what angle you render him from.

While not required to be a successful exercise you'll be pleased with the results if you can see him clearly move through the entire action.

 

For instance, in Mike's pitch as a director I might ask him to have the Knight throw his pitch just a little more from the side... baseball experts what is that... a curve ball? What this does is free the pitching arm from the silhouette of the Knight's body.

A solid silhouette helps lead to clarity.

 

if you look closely at that movie it is the last one uploaded to the forum not the one I made. I am trying to rectify this. I think that alll i have done so far is break the link.

 

Not to be snarky but in my movie the rear foot stays above ground.

 

Mike

[MikePett]

So take a look at that!

 

Mike

[Rodney]

Not to be snarky but in my movie the rear foot stays above ground.

 

Sorry, must have been some strange cache thing on my end.

Feel free to be snarky anytime I claim your Knight's feet sink in the mud.

 

Took a look at the genuine Mike Pett pitch and what is there to say except 'Well Done!'.

Pretty accurate foot placement there. Did you use video reference? Are you a Pitcher? Do you know one?

Reveal all those hidden animation secrets!!!

 

Seriously Mike... well done!

I like the 3/4 view of the camera.

 

Sorry for the mix up. (For what its worth I liked the mud sinking one by Adrian too!)

[phatso]

I've never uploaded to this forum before, let's see if this works.

ex4_pitch.wmv

[MikePett]

Not to be snarky but in my movie the rear foot stays above ground.

 

Sorry, must have been some strange cache thing on my end.

Feel free to be snarky anytime I claim your Knight's feet sink in the mud.

 

Took a look at the genuine Mike Pett pitch and what is there to say except 'Well Done!'.

Pretty accurate foot placement there. Did you use video reference? Are you a Pitcher? Do you know one?

Reveal all those hidden animation secrets!!!

 

Seriously Mike... well done!

I like the 3/4 view of the camera.

 

Sorry for the mix up. (For what its worth I liked the mud sinking one by Adrian too!)

 

 

Ooops! My bad Rodney.

 

I had actually uploaded my very first timing test render. I called it the same thing as my final it was just in a different folder. Those feet sank. But I had not gone through and edited splines much at that point.

 

Secrets: Act it out. I have never been anygood at base ball but I got up off my chair, which incidentally relieves 'animator spread', and wadded up a piece of paper and pitched a no-hitter right in my own living room. From that I could feel where the feet should go and the rest. I stilll kinda think I should have taken a few frames to hold in the initial pose but it is ok.

 

I try to do the assignment exactly as directed. I work in animation and if they tell you 'pitch the ball and settle into a standing position in 1:06' then you had better animate exactly that over one second and six frames. It is just a habit I have from work. I think that the embellishments that folks are doing are awesome, and heck this is the time to do them because once you are in production you no longer have such luxury. My point is just that if I was going to add time I would have made the wind up a bit more lengthy and worked the kick of that forward leg where the pitch gets it's momentum to be a bit more extreme but I think that it is serviceable the way that it is.

 

One thing I tried to stay concious of was the overall shape of the pose and the throughlines of the arms and legs during the actioin. I took a 3d animation class where the instructor (Cam Hood, a Dreamworks animator on Spirit and Shark Tale among others) looks at animation as though there are only five shapes that a character can take that have any rythm to them. This is true for all characters from a flour sack to a knight in armor.

The five shapes as he teaches are:

S

C

Straight

Backwards C

Backwards S

 

 

He taught us to work the main/key poses into these shapes as much as possible. I tried to do that in this animation. It seems to make the animation that much more fluid.

 

Another thing he taught and I think I didn't do it very well on this exercise was to animate the veritcal 'Y' axis on the pelvis first and to make the contacts with the ground hard. I E when the arc of the spline hits the bottom like on a bouncing ball, you make that cp point and bend the spline sharply at that point of contact. Like when a heel hits the ground during a walk or even if the the character just shifts their weight during dialogue.

 

so there are all my 'secrets', now I have none!

 

Yours in 3D,

 

Mikepett

[phatso]

I've posted this before, but I added a camera move and fixed his knees... a few minor adjustments to the motion...

ex4.itaspitchMQ.mov

[MikeLapointe]

Name: Mike Lapointe

Date: June 22, 2007

Exercise: 4 It's a Pitch

Comments: I love A:M, I just seem to be a lot better at modeling than animating so far, but I'm learning every time I try to do something. Appreciate any comments to help me get better.

Exercise4a.mov

[Zaryin]

Name: Jeff Bolle

 

Exercises Completed: 4

 

Date Completed: Sunday, August 5th, 2007

 

Instructor: Rodney, Vid Tuts, and Manual

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Not the best, but I'm getting better. Enough to know how to fix most of my screw ups, haha.

pitch.mov

[playerktw]

and it's a high fly ball to left field!

 

Exercise 4, It's a Pitch

Kevin Woods

9/1/07

Exercise_4.mov

[Chris Creaventure]

Name: Christian Markert

 

Exercises Completed: 4

 

Date Completed: 09/28/2007

 

Instructor: Rodney

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Ok if I would be American , I would know how to do a pitch correctly .... lol how about soccer the next time

 

I messed up while rendering just rendered until 1:02 thats why the right foot remained in the air at the end

 

I know it could be better but I am really proud of myself that I got it done , as I had no clue before this ..... pitch768K_Stream001.mov