Exercise 7: Can You Say That

[Caroline]

Name: Caroline Begbie

Exercise: Exercise 7 - Can You Say That?

Date Completed: 21st Oct 2006

 

Things learned:

1. Sometimes it's better just to trash and start over again (and again...).

2. If you press the '1' key in the channels curve editor, you can move the key frame sideways - oh joy!

 

A:M is just fantastic.

 

[attachmentid=21609]

Exercise7.mov

[totlover]

Name Caleb Gunby

 

Exercise Completed: Ex 7

 

Date Completed: Jan. 4, 2006

 

Comments: they are getting harder. but i see modeling up next and it looks like fun

 

here is the link:

 

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h127/ret...current=Ex7.flv

[jmf3d3d]

Name: Jeremiah M. Faries

 

Exercise Completed: #7: Can You Say That

 

Date Completed: Jan 18, 2007

 

Remarks: nothing fancy. Just tried to get the lip sinc and secondary movements to look as "natural" as a kartoon kat kan be. Also had some trouble rendering to quicktime and converting to quicktime in A:M. Had to resort to other software and the sound ended up kind of tinny.

 

 

exercise_7.mov

[Rodney]

Hey Jeremiah! Very smooth transition from pose to pose and lots of interesting overlapping animation.

 

Smooth!

 

That was really nice.

[Chrury Sanson]

No one would complain if I used some different dialog, right?

 

Is there some mystic quality with the "secret.wave" that I'm not familiar with?

 

(Look out Exercise 7! Here I come!)

[Chrury Sanson]

Well no one complained so here tis.

 

Name: Chris J

 

Exercise: #7 Can you talk the talk?

 

Completed: 1/26/2007 (My dad's Birthday )

 

E7Chrury.mov

My apologies on the size.

 

Notes: Nothing too troublesome. Tried to go minimalistic in the secondary motion department. (Less CAN be more!) The action was alot easier for me to time than exercise #6 (the doors stuck) because of the sound.

 

The branch and rope are custom modeled and textured with images from the CD. I had a few backwards normals but they were easy to fix. The funny texturing at the base of the secondary branch is the result of a pair of 5 point patches.

 

And the rope swings because it's constrained to KeeKat's tail. He's supposed to hang by his tail to act the piñata. I guess he climbed the tree to get away from the stick.

 

My muse: Yugi Piñata

 

PS: How's my voice acting?

[aj2]

Name : Al Jolly

 

Exercise Completed: #7: Can You Say That

 

Date Completed: Jan 31, 2007

 

Here it is after 5 render files . It took 2hours per file to render on my 1.8 cpu, 512 ddr ram, Gpu 128 ram ....

will be getting new pc in a few weeks

Secret_3.mov

[Rodney]

Chris,

Very funny... or better analogy... fun.

Your voice talent is wonderful. I'd say quit your day job but...

 

Al,

Keekat isn't flashing some gang signs there is he???

His tail swing is crackin' me up. Congrats on moving into a new computer!

 

Hey guys... um... you do know there is no law against commenting on fellow TaoA:Mer's work?

Seriously... laugh and guffaw... throw spitballs at each other... comment and query... ask questions and get answers... make wacky suggestions that no one will ever listen to... ya know? Have fun!

 

This is a great opportunity to exercise your imaginations, click all those icons and find out what they do.

 

Al? Chris? Caleb? Jeremiah?

Are we having fun yet?

[Chrury Sanson]

Al? Chris? Caleb? Jeremiah?

Are we having fun yet? smile.gif

 

Of course I'm having fun!

If I can get a giggle out of someone, I've accomplished my purpose.

 

Al: It looks good until right after the first "secret" The he goes into ventriloquists mode. (almost no lip movement) Any thoughts on why?

Good job on the tail.

[jmf3d3d]

you do know there is no law against commenting on fellow TaoA:Mer's work?

 

Cool! we've been chided by Rodney... . I guess i consider my level of expertize to be so low and I have a personal law against speaking from ignorance. . I'll accept that my law doesn't apply to TaoA:M. Also, most new TaoA:Mers don't often look back on a completed exercise (where we might have an ounce of expertize) because we're in a headlong rush to get through TaoA:M.

 

But, Rodney is absolutely right. TaoA:M is fun ...and more fun with chatter. So, I'll accept your suggestion and blather.

 

so... Chris, adding your own voice track was a clever and creative idea and added to your skillset. I.E., that's a "wish i thought of that" feature. I'm sure it was disturbing to Rodney (a self-confessed keekat fan) to conjure up the whole pinata scenario.

 

Al, I like the arm-fold move that kinda looks like keekat's a rapper... that might be a wild direction to take this exercise... Also, i sympathize with your struggles rendering anything complicated on an older machine. i was unpleasantly surprised by how long it took on my machine to render sound in this exercise. I can't even imagine the geological time scale needed to do anything really complicated... i better look into a new machine too. Maybe I'll go see what the A:M MAC guys are saying about the new Mac pro.

 

make wacky suggestions that no one will ever listen to... ya know?

 

ok, who told you what I do for a living?

--jerry

[aj2]

hi everyone ,,,,

 

Rodney,

 

"Keekat isn't flashing some gang signs there is he??? <kidding>

His tail swing is crackin' me up."

 

I was tring to made the hand point at you . then the hand to close ,as the arm is moving to rest on the chest.

 

As for the tail, i wanted it to movie with the words....

 

Chrury Sanson,

 

"It looks good until right after the first "secret" The he goes into ventriloquists mode. (almost no lip movement) Any thoughts on why?"

 

Yes, i was play with the timeline setting, for the dope sheet. after so many hours of waiting for the render. i didn't ever good overview before i post it sorry....

 

Yes im always having fun, setting here working in AM:

Right now iam tring to focus on the Exercise's in the TAOAM book.

 

Thanks for the input. Al

P.S i hope i put the QUOTE in right ??????

[Tunames]

NAMESteve George

EXERCISE: #7 can you say that

INSTRUCTOR: you

REMARKS: Again I coulda spent more time on it and cleaned it up better and I had no idea what to do with the tail. Is there a default tail action? What do you do with it?

 

secert1.mov

[Rodney]

I coulda spent more time on it and cleaned it up better and I had no idea what to do with the tail. Is there a default tail action? What do you do with it?

 

Steve,

 

I happen to think that was outstanding.

Everything seemed to work well together... gestures... subtle movement... blinking and of course the lipsync itself. Smooth.

 

I haven't seen a default tail action.

The tail wasn't distracting if that's what you refer to.

What to do with a tail is subject to some interpretation. Some might try to leave it fairly still while others would use it as an extension... almost a arm/hand.

 

The most satisfactory answer I think I can give you would be to use it for secondary motion wherever possible. The tail then reacts via followthrough of the bodies motions. Think a waving flag and that might come close.

 

As Keekat isn't moving a lot and there is no real line of action in this shot there's not much opportunity for tail swinging secondary action. In this case I think the more subtle and simple the movement the better. In other words, you've got it just about right.

[Andy S.]

Name: Andy Stewart

Exercise: #7 Can You Say That?

Completed: February 9, 2007

 

Comments: This one was easier than I thought it would be. Amazing though, after not really touching A:M for a year, what I remember from the interface... but, I've forgotten things too.. important things, like when you have a movement you didn't want (like an arm drift)... I can't remember how to fix it. Thus, the AVI is a close-up of his face... I had him putting his hand to his mouth, then dropping (was going to have him point, but I guess I forgot how to do that with him too), then cross his arms. But the arm drift was after he raised his arm to his mouth and I couldn't figure out how to fix it, didn't want to totally redo him, so I made it a close-up. Probably a simple fix too. And I forgot how long it takes to render, even on my honker of a laptop (nx9600, 3.6GHz, 2GB RAM, etc). Would like to see how it goes on my dual core laptop, but it has Linux on it. Any plans for a Linux A:M? There's an OSX version, which is Linux based (well, BSD), so I wouldn't think it would be a huge deal to convert... but, wrong forum for that. Guess I'll look into building a giant AMD multi-CU rendering machine.

 

Anyway, here's the link to him:

 

http://www.taynik.com/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=62

 

On to Ex 8....

[Raffi]

Name: Ralf Kampp

Exercise: #7 - Can You Say That?

Date Completed: 25 Feb 2007

 

Remark: Good and believable face expressions are hard to accomplish! Still have to practice that

Keekats_Secret.mov

[howboring]

Hi!

 

I'm up to the bit where it says add body language. Do I do the body movements in the action window? (where I've just done the speech and everything) Or do I do it in the main cheography? (sorry about my spelling )

 

I tried it in the chegography (i must learn to spell this word) but it didn't work.. maybe I'm making this harder than it really is

 

Thanks

[howboring]

Ok never mind, I've figured it out!

 

You drag the action on to keekat

[howboring]

Name: Kenneth Wong

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 7: Can you say that?

 

Date Completed: 27th February 2007

 

Instructor: The manual, the video on the Hash site and looking at other peoples work in the forum

 

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

 

This exercise was interesting... Still getting my head round the curves, which I know I will have to master for character animation. Good fun

 

Also I have no idea why the sound on the right speaker on this video is quiet.

 

The model at the back is from the supermarket from the extra's CD!

 

Oh.. and for some reason, everytime I render to Quicktime using Sorenso 3 the sky is black? (Which is why I put the supermarket to block it out) Anyone know why? And how to fix it?

canyousmall.mov

[frosteternal]

Oh.. and for some reason, everytime I render to Quicktime using Sorenso 3 the sky is black? (Which is why I put the supermarket to block it out) Anyone know why? And how to fix it?

 

In the "Output" tab of the Render to File dialog, there is a section entitled "Buffers"; turn OFF the Alpha Channel before rendering. I believe Sorenson 3 is capable of storing alpha channels, so by default A:M will render with one. (Since A:M alpha channels are pre-multiplied with black, the sky will appear black.)

[AJS007]

Name: Alan Selby

Exercise: #7 (Can You Say That)

Completed: April 12th 2007

 

Remarks:

General: This wasn't as difficult second time round (I rushed the first example - Actually I think I've rushed a few ! and I'm going back over them again !!) .. So I decided to try a different voice for this entry ...

 

Difficult areas: This was one the the hardest in the tutorial sequence as you need to be in many places at once within the software.

 

Lessons learned: It's amazing how quickly small phrases can get on your nerves !! ;-) Concentrate on getting the voice sync and leave the body animation to later - Use the timeline view as much as possible to tidy up the animation rather that jumping straight into the bone manipulator - Ability to add keyframes in the timeline direct. A good tip picked up from Caroline, if you press the '1' key in the channels curve editor, you can move the key frame sideways.

 

Further assistance required: Problems with the voice going out of sync during render - see thread

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27545

 

In the end I edited the audio in Videostudio and added titles - not really a fix !!

 

 

Movie can be viewed here -

http://www.cwazywabbit.co.uk/animation/movies/saythat.mpg

[AJS007]

Movie can be viewed here -

http://www.cwazywabbit.co.uk/animation/movies/saythat.mpg

I know there's a crease in the right wrist, but the whole audio sync issue sucked up so much time I decided to skip fixing it for this sequence.

[Rodney]

Alan,

Thats a nice take on this exercise.

Way to soldier through with that audio too.

 

I think it was Nancy Gormezano that posted some information on audio syncing/distortion theory.

I can't recall the specific solutions that were settled on however.

She's on vacation at the moment, somewhere in outer Montrovolia or someplace. Probably having a lot of fun.

 

For more refinement in lipsync you'll want to crack open the Timeline.

From there you can adjust bias on individual keyframes, move them slightly forward or back for proper emphasis and to get the sync just right.

 

I don't generally prefer to work with lipsync in real time.

Realtime play of the audio and action can be just enough off to make the difference.

More RAM... fewer objects and textures to draw... things like that should be considered.

 

The distortion of audio itself is just plain weird.

I've seen it more often with sound that has been edited to make it more work better in A:M.

This leads me to believe that something in the process of saving it out changes the pitch or duration.

I think it was Logrus that talked a bit about that in your other thread.

 

Beware that the difference in frame rate can create this effect.

If for instance you save an animation out at 24 frames per second and then use the audio from that animation on another project running at 20 frames per second.

 

All in all I think you've done a great job getting the finished project out and in front of the audience.

Refinements that you'd like to do notwithstanding it looks like you are ready to move on to the next challenge.

 

Great job!

[AJS007]

Thanks for the encouragement Rodney ... every little bit helps

 

Alan

[swooster]

Name: Steve Wooster

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 7

 

I tried to make KeeKat look a little shady with his posturing at the beginning, but instead of having him get angry, I chose to have him become disappointed.

 

ex7_custom.mov

Date Completed: 4/23/2007

[spacecomics]

Name: Roger Christenson

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 7

 

Date Completed: 24 April 2007

 

Instructor: Book

 

 

 

ex7.mov

[elliotclem1]

Name: Elliot Clements

Exercise Completed: Exercise 7: Can you say that

Total Completed Exercises: 7

Date Completed: 27 April, 2007

Instructor(s): Manual

Remarks/Suggestions: This was a great exercise. I love it how easy the lip sync is. I hope you like it. Do you think the mouth movements ok?

 

exercise_7.mov Rendered

exercise_7b.mov Shaded Mode

 

I have one problem when I render my movie the sound is faster than the mouth movement. Why is this?

 

It is fine when i play it back in A:M and render it as shaded mode this does not happen. It also is fine when i render it as an AVI.

[spacecomics]

Looks good, Elliott.

[Ullis]

Hi,

I´m having trouble with quicktime and Vista. I ended up with an interesting "metal" sound in his voice - how to avoid this?

 

Here is my ex7, take a look...

 

ex7secret.mov

 

//Ulrika

[spacecomics]

Very good. I'm finding that the sound varies a lot with different rendering settings, but don't know which ones affect it which way.

[elliotclem1]

Try a different rendering setting like Spacecomics says.

 

Maybe try putting the render size (I think that's what is called) to Low i.e VGA, Mini.

 

Looking very good especially the start

[frosteternal]

...

I tried to make KeeKat look a little shady with his posturing at the beginning, but instead of having him get angry, I chose to have him become disappointed.

...

The disappointed pose is especially nice - great job!

[jbeery]

Name: Jim Beery

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 7: Can you say that? -PLUS- Exercise 9: Flower Power

 

Date Completed: 17.5.07

 

Instructor: TaoA:M pdf file

 

Remarks : Great exercise to find out about the magic of the timeline. So much to learn!

 

Link to clip

Warning: the clip is about 3 MBs

Jim

[tbenefi33]

Exercise 7: Can You Say That

 

Completed

 

I learned a lot about mouth movement and the words that are not in the dope sheet you have to pose your self. I was watching the christmas story the other night. Where I came up with the I deal. Had to put it up on you tube. I'll Up grade to DSL one day...LOL

 

http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=tbenefi33

[tbenefi33]

How is this link http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=tbenefi33

[Rodney]

Jim,

Nice combo of Ex 7 and 9.

If you added some additional Keekat movement, such as Keekat watching/reacting to the flower that'd really go over well.

 

Tim,

The dialogue goes pretty quick there but I think you've got it for the most part.

There's something at the end that doesn't quite look right. Adding one additional mouth movement there might get it. As it is there seems to be only one closure for 'dare ya' where there seems to be a need for two.

[tbenefi33]

I redone the video I seen what you was talking about it kind of reminded me one of thoese old japanese karata movies....lol

 

Here the second part http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=tbenefi33&p=r

its title can you say that part 2

 

how can I slow down the video change the frame rate think I got mine at 29.97.

 

Oh yah also finished exe 18 waving the flag two exe in one.

[Rodney]

Tim,

I see where you were heading with it now.

You are quite the storyteller indeed!

 

If you could end 'Can you say that #2' with a Zoom in on Rabbit at the flagpole that'd really tell that tale.

(Of course the suggestions never end so its always up to you to say 'done'. Get what you need from the exercise and then move on.)

 

Focus on the principle of clarity and I percieve you're sure to be a truly effective animator.

You've already got the storytelling ability. That's already apparent!

Now become one with the camera so we can see whats happening in the animation and fully comprehend.

 

You're doing great work Tim.

Keep it up.

[Rodney]

how can I slow down the video change the frame rate think I got mine at 29.97.

 

I'm not able to open A:M at the moment but you should be able to change the Feet Per Second via the Project's Property panel in the Project Workspace. (PPPitPWS for short I guess hehe)

 

I assume you want to change it to 24 FPS.

29.97 is the same as 30 FPS? Not sure.

[tbenefi33]

Thanks Rodney.

 

This is Tim.

[Rodney]

Thanks Rodney.

 

This is Tim.

 

Second time I've gone senile today.

Must have been the japanese fonts on my end.

 

Thanks for the correction Tim.

Names are very important.

Good names even more so.

Tim fits you rather well.

Please don't change your name to Jim again.

Jim (Beery) don't even think of ever changing your name to Tim,

I get too confused as it is.

 

My apologies. I should correct the errors in previous posts by the time you read this.

[phatso]

Now aren't you sorry you gave me a hard time about my name? You're not likely to get that one confused with any other.

[Rodney]

Now aren't you sorry you gave me a hard time about my name? You're not likely to get that one confused with any other.

 

When you are right... you are right... and you are right.

Phatso I can remember.

[adrian_ruvalcaba]

Whats the secret! well heres the next exercise, lots of fun. Post some comments

swcret.mov

[phatso]

I think this is okay, other than the fact that audio is only in the left channel. I dunno where to find the control for that.

ex7_ive_got_a_secret.mov

[elliotclem1]

love the expresion at the end as lots of people inculding me try to make the last line angry.

 

But you try to give him a more of a friendly look as if to say 'it dosn't matter' / 'typical'.

 

The lip sync was great to. It may need a bit of tweaking but apart from that it is fine.

 

Elliot

[phatso]

Danke. Actually, the lip sync works nicely on my computer but compresses/uploads funny. For the original characters I'm going to animate, I'm coming up with a whole new set of lip poses. Just fits with the character.

[Zaryin]

Name: Jeff Bolle

 

Exercises Completed: 7

 

Date Completed: Monday, August 6th, 2007

 

Instructor: Rodney, Video, and Manual

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Well, I'm just going to say that I have better luck with the FACE Rig .

secret.mov

[Technodandy]

Name: Daniel Lisa (Technodandy)

 

Exercise Completed: 7. Can You Say That

 

Date Completed: Sept. 14, 2007

 

Instructor: Everybody in the Forums and Manual

 

Remarks: I added a little extra to the timeline, I hope you like it. I had problems with Action and Chor Action transitions but people in the forum were very helpful in those matters. The criteria of the Exercise itself worked out ok. Oh by the way, all the Actions in this clip was done using A:M.

 

Production_7.wmv

 

I would be glad to hear anyone's Opinion.

 

Thanks everyone,

 

Technodandy

[playerktw]

very interesting exercise.

 

Kevin Woods

Exercise 7

9/19/07

Exercise_7.mov

[Technodandy]

Hi All,

 

Boy, time flys! I got to get back on track. Could I edit what I submited for Exercise 7 at any time and erase the file in edit to put a updated one?

 

Technodandy