Calico Cat

[AniMattor]

Here's a little character I resurrected from a old idea of mine. He's meant to be pretty simple, but I'm not sure he's going to have much emotion without eyebrows, and with button eyes.

 

I was hoping to use mesh deformers on him for some good squash and stretch, but I haven't had much luck or time to experiment with them yet.

 

comments?

 

matt

[amarillospider]

I like the look a lot. You're right it's going to be difficult to get emotion out of him, I would say cheat some and deform the eye's to get shapes out of them (your already going to be squash stretching all of him anyway) I think the slight disruption in believability will be more than paid for with the added emotion. Are you going to use the x's as pupils? Also don't forget that you can get a ton of emotion out of the ears, whiskers, and tail. As for deformation's you might consider expressions. I don't understand them at all but there are tutorial's out there that can walk you through it without you having to know what your doing. (I think in the first animation boot camp thread I linked to 1 of those tutorials.) Can't wait to see him move.

 

-Alonso

[Dearmad]

I like him.

 

I disagree about emoting for him. It wouldn't be hard- just don't rely on his face, rely on poses. His body and how he carries his head will carry the emotion. In fact, I'd bet he'll be even more interesting to watch if you animate him that way rather than moving "eyebrows" and "widening his "eyes," etc...

 

Also, his button eyes, rather than cheating with them, could be conencted by lose threads so they sorta have an excuse to move- or drop, or tighten against his face a little. But again, I wouldn't rely on them- in fact i'd jsut let them be dynamically connected to his head and rely on head pose, weight, silhouette, etc...

 

It'll look GREAT and only reinforce the cool idea you have going for his character already.

[AniMattor]

Thanks for the comments. I'm leaning toward not having expressive eyes, and using ears and whiskers as Alonso suggested. I've done some sketches, and I can get some good emotion in poses. I haven't posed him in 3d too much yet, but I think he'll work.

 

I'll try to post updates as soon as I can.

 

I'll look into expressions. They're something i've been avoiding like the plague thus far!

 

matt

[Vash]

and using ears and whiskers

I think you could droop the ears when he's sad and also do the same with the whiskers. Also you could bend the whiskers up when he is happy. Besides that I am not quite sure how. I would like to see a drawing of the idea you had about emotions if you wouldn't mind. These are the only things I could think of. You probably had more.

[heyvern]

I bet you could get some emotion out of this little guy...

 

Have you ever seen those commercials with the dancing cans of soda in the store fridge? They are cans... of soda... so much emotion and feeling in them...

 

This guy actually has potential already... with those mismatched eyes... the whiskers... a lot more to work with than you think. I really like him... he would be a blast to work with.

 

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[Rodney]

I'm not sure he's going to have much emotion without eyebrows, and with button eyes.

 

I agree with the others... you already have him showing emotion in this shot already. He'll be perfect for learning/demonstrating expressive animation.

 

I like him!

[pixelmech]

I'd only add that when you can express a character without using the usual facial expression, it gives it a certain interesting quality. If pulled off well, it can be really neat. Look forward to it.

[JohnArtbox]

Cute... and I agree with the others. Good pose animation should be able to convey emotion.

I like toy characters, the childlike simplicity go's so well with animation for me. It's a natural fit.

[Mr. Jaqe]

Awww... He's cute! I love cats! Make him throw the ball at a dog : P

[AniMattor]

Actually, I was planning on having him run over by a bowling ball!

 

(and surviving, of course)

[agep]

NICE!

How do you decal a model like this?

[Zaryin]

I'm also wondering how the decaling was done? Was it decals or patch images?

[Newbert_Zero]

i love how your charater isnt really alive yet it is alive..... if you know what i mean.

[AniMattor]

The texturing was actually very easy. I just put an old flannel shirt on the scanner and tweaked it a little in photoshop. Then I just flattened him out a little in a pose before applying the texture as a deca so it wouldn't warp around the edges. It's the same texture every where, just oriented a little differently so it doesn't look too deliberate. I'd like to give him a patch or two of different material (as if he were patched by hand, not just a HASH patch of different material!).

 

I'm very pleased with the way he's turning out, and I wish I had time to get some more done to share. I'll try to get a little bit over the weekend. Maybe some poses or something.

 

Thanks again for comments.

[ZachBG]

OMG, he's gorgeous.

 

It's amazing how evocative he is already. Damn. Please make him move!

[AniMattor]

Here's a walk cycle I did this morning. Probably won't use it in my animation, but I wanted to test him a bit.

WalkTest.mov

[AniMattor]

And another walk with more emotion.

SadWalk.mov

[Mr. Jaqe]

I like the first walk, but in the second one he looks more tired than sad. Try lowering his head even more?

[Dearmad]

Yep, he holds up well in walk cycle. Still cute, looks sad in the sad one. Don't need no blinky eyes.

 

I like his arm motions in the second walk- the restrained, sort of slouchy look carries well.

[Rodney]

You've given him attitude and emotion in both design and motion.

Right on! You've got yourself a winner.

[nyahkitty]

I do believe The Setup Machine 2 by Anzovin Studios has some settings in the control rigs it sets up that can control stretching of bones and the cp's assigned to them.

 

For animated surface deformations, either try modeling them using muscle mode in a percentage pose or try the nifty new bone weights (the option in the properties of a bone marke "Bones Have Falloff") if you have version 10.5 or higher.... I think. Really powerful stuff those new bone weights. :-)

[AniMattor]

nah, I don't like the new bone weights. I hate weights when trying to work in maya at work, and I don't like them in AM either. I prefer smartskin and fan bones.

 

I don't have TSM, but I',m thinking about it down the road. It sounds pretty good.

[williamgaylord]

Wonderful little character! As your animations so far have confirmed, you can express plenty of emotion even with fixed facial features, or even no face at all!! (Consider our little friend Thom...). Has plenty of "cute" without being syrupy sweet, too. Love this little character!

 

Look forward to seeing more of Calico Cat in action.

 

Bill Gaylord

[Dearmad]

MUST SEE ANIMATIONS:

 

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=232773&page=2&pp=15

 

these bears are SO expressive, and their facial animation is pretty minimal- but critical to their inner lives.

 

Obviously they may not be the same style as the calico cat, but they're jsut further proof of expressivity coming from places other than eye moves- they sorta blink and the brows move and that's it; most of the rest comes from head position and pauses.