Ain't they the cutest Shaggies y'ever saw?

[ZachBG]

If you'll pardon me for a moment of indulgence; I made this image and it made me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd share it.

 

 

It might be funnier to me since they're wearing my kids' clothes.

 

Oh, and if you know anything about camera matching (to a still photo), please watch this space. I'm gonna need help putting these guys into my house.

[ZachBG]

OK, down to business. Here's a screen grab of the camera view, showing the grid lines:

 

Does it look like I did it right?

 

If needed, here's a brief movie of them sliding along the floor (Sor 3, 180K or so). Obviously, the lighting & shadows are not matched yet. But what about the perspective? Do I need to fix it, and if so, how do I do so?

DandEtest_sor3.mov

[UNGLAUBLICHUSA]

Wow, as far as matching perspective - my opinion is that you have got it right on the money. This gives me some ideas...he he!

[Rodney]

Zach,

You've hit on a winner here.

 

I meant to comment on your soccerball animation but needed sleep first.

When watching that animation I kept watching it again... and again... because something was catching my attention.

 

I'm now convinced it was the Shaggy in background. Fine secondary animation I might add.

 

What you are hitting on is something similar to the feel and look of Carl Barks Ducks... or Disney's world of similar and compatible characters.

 

Now you've pushed it to the next level.

 

Great characters. I wanna see the series!

[Dearmad]

There IS something intrinsic to shaggy that is funny... looks like a fun little project!

[ZachBG]

I like Shaggy a lot (duh). 90% of it is just that he's so low-patch I can actually watch him in real-time while animating, despite the slowness of my vid-card. But besides that, he's just plain appealing.

[ZachBG]

Here's some lighting progress. I think I also fixed the perspective by taking the radical step of looking up my digital camera's focal length and plugging the appropriate number into A:M.

 

C&C always welcome.

 

 

I wonder who the tall guy in the corner is supposed to be...

[Dearmad]

Looking really nice. Foreground shaggy looks a little hot to me. Um... lighting-wise that is. The lighting on him is a little too detailed (shade/highlights read as if there's too much variance to me). Overall, though the balance seems about right.

 

Almost looks like the entire cg component could use a light in the slightly lower left forground that doesn't cast shadows to help buff out their self-shadows.

 

And thanks for illustrating the slightly creepy element to shaggy... "the shaggy in the shadows..."

[nimblepix]

Hey Zach, this is going to be fun!

You may want to tilt your virtual camera a bit clockwise,

since your real camera was tilted a bit counter clockwise.

[ZachBG]

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

 

Dearmad, the "shaggy in the shadows" is me! Who you calling creepy?

 

Dan, thanks--as it turned out, changing the focal length properly made the grid lines line up exactly without needing to roll the camera.

 

Here's what I accomplished in, I would guess, about four to six hours of animating, and what I sneaked on to my wife's PDA as a Mother's Day gift. Hope y'all enjoy it. (Sorenson 3, about 700K)

MDAY_sor3.mov

[John Bigboote]

Thats great Zach! I bet she LOVES it! Uhm...cute kids!!

[Dearmad]

That's really great... I like the framing (as in out of frame) and poses a lot.

[williamgaylord]

What a wonderfull Mother's Day gift! A lot cuter than the one I sent to my mom last year (I used it as my portrait on my member profile on this forum). Great work! Wish I had thought of that!

 

Bill Gaylord

[robcat2075]

That's wonderful. Another charmer!

[steve392]

Looking realy nice ,I love the walk the little girl doese

[ZachBG]

Thanks, y'all!

Uhm...cute kids!!

Yes, well, I don't know why I posted this on the A:M forum, when all I did was grab the video camera and film Drew and Emma, obviously!

[Vash]

I wanna know how you got da shaggy BEHIND the cabinet thingy. Did you use layers? Oh and by the way very nice lighting and action emitted from the shaggies.

[pleavens]

Glad to see the video, I sent in a friend of mine to check and make sure they were ok.

 

[nimblepix]

Wonderfully cute, delightful family fun!

Thanks for this!

[Mr. Jaqe]

Awsome! That's one pair of cool-lookin' kids ya got there.

 

Could you pretty pretty pretty please post an image of your cor setup?

[ZachBG]

I wanna know how you got da shaggy BEHIND the cabinet thingy. Did you use layers?

See below.

 

Glad to see the video, I sent in a friend of mine to check and make sure they were ok.

Um... was there supposed be an image below that? I got a question mark (Safari equivalent of a red X).

 

Could you pretty pretty pretty please post an image of your cor setup?

Here's some screen caps (I moved the adult Shaggy back in, for didactic purposes).

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's a final render for reference:

 

Basically, all the planes--floor, back wall, and entertainment center--were set as Front Projection Targets. I added lights to simulate the table lamp (a bulb), the sun (a klieg, high up), and the ceiling fan light behind the camera (another klieg with a very wide angle--I could have used a bulb, but didn't want the raytraced shadow rendertime). I used the Fill sun light from the default chor as a bounce from the red rug, and turned the other default lights off.

 

The most important step in matching the perspective was determining the focal length. My instamatic digital has a focal length of 35mm. After extensive, painstaking research, I developed a proprietary formula to convert this to the A:M focal length setting of 35. Then, I lined up the chor grid lines with the edges of the rug & walls. Just a lot of turning and tweaking, basically.

 

For the entertainment center, I created a simple four-point square patch and placed one corner directly over the model bone. Then I dropped it in the appropriate place in the chor and rotated it 90 degrees, hoping that my entertainment center really was parallel to the edge of the rug, like I thought. It was, so I switched to modeling mode in the chor and dragged the top two points straight up until they lined up with the photo. That was it.

[pleavens]

Um... was there supposed be an image below that? I got a question mark (Safari equivalent of a red X).

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=104620

 

Zach, is it showing up now?

 

Phil

[seven]

I really like this - not only noticing the lipsync - making the animation coming alive - making it believable...

 

And I think this is a really useful example - so simple and yet so useful. Most people have some photo of a room and then inserting some figures in it and hopefully making a little lipsync - and the story telling has begun - not having to model the room and all in it.

 

Why not make a WINK tutorial on this? I do not believe everyone knows where to find the Front Projection Target and how to use it with a Rotoscope in the Choreography...

 

Hope you will do this tutorial - I have already done so many...

 

And I like it - not only for its usefulness... also the kids and animation and lipsync - really nice... hope on more! Why not tell a little longer story... kids always gives you some stories to tell... and if you do not have kids... you have always been a kid yourself.. having a lot of stories to tell...

[Mr. Jaqe]

Cool! Nice setup!

[ZachBG]

Um... was there supposed be an image below that? I got a question mark (Safari equivalent of a red X).

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=104620

 

Zach, is it showing up now?

 

Phil

No... but I looked at the BB Code (by quoting your post) and it looks like you have three slashes after http: instead of two.

[ZachBG]

Why not make a WINK tutorial on this? I do not believe everyone knows where to find the Front Projection Target and how to use it with a Rotoscope in the Choreography...

That's a good idea. I'll try. (Of course, I've already promised a bunch of video tutes and never delivered...)

 

And thanks for the kind responses.

[seven]

That's a good idea.  I'll try.  (Of course, I've already promised a bunch of video tutes and never delivered...)

That is a big lot of difference between a WINK tutorial and a video tutorial. The WINK one is so much faster and easier to do - and also to download and navigate.

 

Download free - http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ - install and start WINK - choose make a new tutorial - click on A:M to decide what area to capture - start making the room with the Front Projection and Rotoscope in A:M - press the Pause-key to get the Screen Captures. When ready - write some text to describe what to do in A:M - Render as Flash. ZIP it and upload it that is all.

 

You can use about 20 scrren captures with million of colors and it will be under 1 MB.

Using a Palette for 256 colors you can make 70 screen captures and will be under 1 MB.

Hope on you doing it!

[ZachBG]

But alas! it is PC only, and I'm a Mac-hed.

[seven]

But alas! it is PC only, and I'm a Mac-hed.

So I have to do it! or someone else? Volunteers!!!! step forward!!!

[pleavens]

No... but I looked at the BB Code (by quoting your post) and it looks like you have three slashes after http: instead of two.

 

Zach! that was it. I didn't catch it as Firefox and Explorer on both my Linux and Windose box's displayed it fine. I'll be more careful in the future.

 

Fixed now.

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=104620

 

Phil

[seven]

The tutorial on using a photo to make/fake a room is made:

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14419

 

Perhaps as the really expert you can add the formula for the Focal Length and a little more.