Longing for Home

[smudge]

Hey all!

 

So here I am, with 'Stolen Child' well underway and demanding attention, way too much comic and web work that I need to find time to poke at, and what do I do? That's right, I create a new WIP for my 'mood shot' entry in hopes that I might actually finish it one day. I must be suicidal or something...

 

Anyway, 'Longing for Home' has a long way to go. While the all the rough blocking animation is there, and there is enough in place to tell the story, it'll be nice to polish this up into something I'd actually be proud of. Something nice to put up on the website, anyway. I'm also going to be using this as a style test bed for another project that I want to do after I finish 'Stolen Child'.

 

For those who haven't seen it yet, you can find the short:

 

Longing for Home

 

So, what needs to be done? For starters, replacing all the dummy models with finals would be good. There's a lot of texture painting to do, re-rigging of the main character, lots of re-working of animation, ect. There's also timing fiddling I need to do to make this read better.

 

As for the style test thing: I'm going to be painting all the backgrounds and toon-rendering the character. Let's see what comes of this, shall we?

 

Right now I'm starting with the models, so I have finalized rigging to work with.

 

Models

 

Recorder -- Need to remodel. Needs proper holes, need to add about 3 inches onto the length, need to create in lighter color (white/cream?) so that it reads better against the dark backgrounds of space.

 

Observation Room -- The model itself is pretty much good to go short of adding textures. I might add like a trash-receptacle or something like that. If anything, I want to dirt the place up a bit. Give it that "we've been out here too long" look.

 

Star Sphere -- Need to re-build and retexture. I'm thinking that it should have at least three layers of geometry with a transparent star texture map on each so that when the world shifts you can see the stars moving slightly differently from each other. It'll help add the illusion of depth. Need to also correct for the seams and pinching on the sphere.

 

Grassy Field -- Boy this one needs a lot of work. Need to paint backdrop. Need to fiddle with hair setting until they actually look like grass. Maybe use an image for the blades. Not sure yet which would be better.

 

Forest -- Again this needs a lot of work. Should rebuild trees to something less cartoony. Also need to keep in mind that the toon render does not render the line behind a transparency so any breaks in the leaves on beauty shots where the tree is in front of Rose I need to model instead of letting a transparency map to the work for me. Need to think about what time of day it should be and who to better light the scene. Right now it's just default lighting.

 

Cliff -- Lots of heavy work. Paint sky backdrop. Add small amounts of grass. Make it feel "alive".

 

Rose -- she's going to need the most work. Right now, I’m fighting the model because of her IK-popping knees. I have an idea that'll help rigging-wise. I just need to implement it. I also want to set her up properly for the toon render and get here more "spacey" by giving her a nice SF jumpsuit with cargo pockets to hold the recorder (see model design sketch below).

 

Animation

 

Redo it all! It all sucks!!!

 

I think that about covers everything. I'll post stuff as I get a chance to poke at it. Nothing scheduled though since 'Stolen Child' takes priority.

 

Wee! More Work! How fun!!

[Drakkheim]

Hey smudge, Looking forward to seeing your extra polish work on this short.

 

Any chance You can pop up a wireframe of the head? I've been working on an antrho fox and the muzzle and eyes are giving me headaches.

[Scottj3d]

I think even with all that you say needs to be done it's fantastic work! You should already be proud of it. The misic is very nice as well.

[smudge]

Ask and ye shall receive!

 

Hope this helps.

[smudge]

Poking at the main Observation Room textures and setting what the final look's going to be.

 

 

As you can see, I still need to do the bench, outer walls, the control panel brace, a hallway behind the door, ect.

 

And here's what I'm going for a final look (using current models). I have not touched the animation at all at this point. Just poking at textures while I'm getting other work done.

 

Weee.

LookTest_small_compress.mov

[luckbat]

Holy cow! How do you make those textures? Do you hand-paint them in Photoshop?

[thejobe]

i really like the textures in the room really smooth

nice work so far!

 

jay

[smudge]

Pretty much, luckbat. Good Ol’ painting over a wireframe.

 

Since I drop the wire image over the model before I begin painting (like how the bench is currently set up), I can constantly go back and forth between Photoshop and Hash to see how the texture is working on the model adding and subtracting detail as I think it needs. Here's the back wall as an example.

[smudge]

poke. poke.

 

Did a render of the second shot to shot and combined it with the first to see if closer shots are going to hold just as well as the far ones. So far so good.

LookTest_small_compress.mov

[smudge]

Also painted up the bench. Don't know if I like it yet or not.

[luckbat]

Simply amazing. So the 3d bench bolts onto the painted-on holes in the wall? I never would have thought that would work, but it looks just great.

 

My one critique: I think your blacks are a little too high-contrast for this environment. I'd soften them up, make them a little milkier.

[bentothemax]

dude, thats 4W350M3!!!!!!!! (AWESOME)

 

 

 

i agree about the blacks though, TO sharp, i think only slightly less would be good, it really helps the artificial ness of the room show though . . .

 

 

Ben

[Drakkheim]

Ooh hadnt seen the updates Smudge! Nice work on those textures!

Feels a little monochromatic, but then again that's just a matter of taste, and unfortunately most of mine is stuck in my mouth

 

Thanks for the wireframe by the way.

[Rodney]

Just now seeing this myself. Although I did see your earlier version on your website (I think).

Awesome. That is a beautiful style.

 

If I may be a pain and suggest that adding a lift to her heels as her feet come off the floor I think it would really make her walk smooth and give a sense of weight. (yes... I know but even in outer space)

I'm not sure if your rig will allow for that.

 

Not that I have room to critique... keep on impressing us!

 

Rodney

[nyahkitty]

Eeeeexxcellent.

 

I am genuinely looking forward to the completion of this project.

Besides the obvious contrast issue, the color scheme is spot on. It sets the mood quite nicely, which has been your aim in this project. It has this painterly effect which is hard to miss, yet undistracting.

 

Let's hear "yay" for highly crafted, sci-fi furry music videos.

 

 

 

P.S. regarding the opening and closing of the door, what do you think of slowing those actions down ever so slightly and delaying when it closes by a further 1 or 2 seconds for dramatic effect?

[smudge]

Well... Drat!

 

I'm goning to have to repaint the bench. After checking the test render, I discovered that, for some reason, the holes in the texture map are vibrating when rendered. I think it has somehting to do with the tranparency map fighting with the flat-shaded model that is accepting shadows. Ah well, better to know now than half way through the production cycle. So, expect the bench to change, painting wise, anyway.

 

Also, just the other day I burned the current working versions of the films off onto DVD and took them over to a friends' place to view them on their big widescreen tv to see if the images hold. (Sometime's it's hard to tell when your working with little postage stamp renders on a monitor.) The images did just find. The sound however....

 

Oooggg! Premeire's doing something to the audio again! I think MP3's and the MPEG coverter aren't getting along. It's taking all the highs and spiking them. Painfully. Not Good. Very bad.

 

Well, I guess I know what I'm doing next week; tracking down the audio problem.

 

So the 3d bench bolts onto the painted-on holes in the wall?

Yes and no. There is are 2 small, simple tubes that are wider at itheir bases (against the wall) than at their tops (where the bench starts) resting at the painted location connecting the bench to the wall. Both they and the wall were stamped togeather for texture-mapping. The idea is to let the models be just complex enought to show form when moved in 3D, but letting the texturemaps take care of all the real details.

 

More to come as I poke.

[smudge]

I have been fighting with this rig on Rose all <CENSORED> afternoon to get absolutely <CENSORED> nowhere! This isn't brain surgery here, <CENSORED>! This is "suppose" to be a simple knee rig, right?! Then why the <CENSORED> can't I get it to stop popping when I straighten the <CENSORED> LEG?!?!

 

Here's the current leg rig.

 

Only the UpperLegBone & LowerLegBone are involved in an IK solution. If I try and move the Knee Joint forward (so that when her leg is straight but the IK chain is still bent, and thus not pop) the mesh will not move correctly (no, Dah!). If I leave the bone joints the way they are, I cannot straighten her legs with out the bad popping!

 

And here's the animation... (only lower body animated for testing)

 

And, no, not straightening her legs during animation is *NOT* the solution!

 

AARRRRRRRRRRRGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

If anyone has any brainy ideas, I'd love to here them.

[heyvern]

This is a wild guess... I don't know what kind of rig you are using.

 

Do you have the kind of "standard" rig with a foot null and the kinematic constraint on the legs?

 

here is what I have discovered in my very limited experience.

 

When fully extended... for instance, pushing the foot null all the way to the "bottom" or floor... which fully extends the leg... I would get a "pop" like that.

 

What I did was to "avoid" fully extending it... I kind of adjust things so that the bones (not the mesh) are never fully extended or pushed to the "constraints limits" so to speak... the leg bones are sort of "pre-bent" at the full extension.

 

I don't know if this is making any sense...

 

If you find a spot in the bones position where there is no pop... make that the fully extended leg position... extend the length of the leg bones so they never go beyond that extreme. The mesh still looks fine and the leg can extend completely... you just aren't pushing the "invisible bones" to those extremes.

 

Does this make any sense? Have you already tried this and I am an idiot? Have I completely missed the point?

 

These and other questions will be answered in the next post....

 

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[smudge]

Vern, thanks for the responce, but how does your solution differ from the failed solution I described above?

try and move the Knee Joint forward (so that when her leg is straight but the IK chain is still bent, and thus not pop) the mesh will not move correctly

The knee and the anckle (as it stands) *have* to rotate from their current pivot locations. Moving the pivots will result in the mesh not deforming corretly.

 

Any other suggestions?

[luckbat]

Christina, I get this problem all the time when I do walk cycles, and unfortunately, the only way to fix it is with subtle adjustments to the curves in the curve editor. Very often the difference between a smoothly bending joint and a popping one is a few centimeters.

 

Try increasing or decreasing the length of her stride to see how the knees are affected. Try adjusting the bias on the foot bones' Y-position. It may be coming down too quickly or too early.

 

I know you said not-straightening her legs was not an option, but consider moving the pelvis bone just one or two centimeters up or down. This can sometimes make a huge difference in how the knees behave. You could also introduce some "rocking" of the hips, which will also help absorb the "impact" of the legs reaching their full extension.

 

By the way, have you ever seen a really skinny woman walk? Their knees really do quiver like that in real life! It's maybe not as pronounced, but I've seen it lots of times.

[smudge]

Unfortunately, luckbat, moving her hips/pelvis down == not straightening her legs. She needs to be able to straighten (either from tension generated from the hips or the ankles) without popping. In a perfect world, she should be able to hyper-extend her legs as well.

 

If this was being done in <unnamed program> simply reassigning the neutral potion of the IK chain would fix the problem entirely. However, you can't do that in Hash, so I am left to seriously contemplating ripping out the IK and simply animating her FK and just dealing with the feet slippage.

 

GRR!!!!!

[Rodney]

Christina,

Sorry for the troubles you are experiencing. (I have no advice to offer but you should query someone at Hash Inc as I'm sure they can point you in the right direction).

 

For what it is worth you've really added some subtlety to her walk by raising her heels. Really nice.

 

Hang in there!

 

Rodney

[smudge]

Okay! By God, I think I've got it!

 

NonPoppingKnees.mov

If you can play this and the popping knees version side by side, you can really see the diffrance.

 

I've had to move the original knee joint forward (to in front of the mesh's knee), add a new bone (starting and the knee rotation point and ending at the ankle rotation point) parented to the UpperLegBone and IK'ed to the same Ankle Target the original Leg structure is targeted (a one bone IK chain, as it where). I then parent my original foot structure to the new leg bone. I also changed how the foot control interacts with the toes. I should write up a tut to explain how this all works.

 

Essentially the original IK chain is driving the Upper leg mesh only, and does not affect the rotation of the New LowerLeg Bone. Because it is longer than the leg itself, it will not pop when the leg is straightened but everything stays relative to each other because it's all referencing the same end point without being a circular constraint.

 

Now to finish adjusting the mesh to fit the final model design....

[smudge]

Ug, things have continued to be been crazy here. Sorry for not being here much. But cross your fingers. If all goes well, I'll be moving to new and better digs this month. It's all a matter of if I pass the credit check or not for the new place.

 

But to prove that I haven't been sitting on my duff all this time....

 

Been poking at the model (still) for Rose, texturing her jumpsuit. Have a couple more patches to go on her shoulders and three different pockets (two large cargos on her hips, and another small one on her left arm). Still need to address her face, hands feet, slippers, and hair. But she's coming along.

 

**Note to self: Still need to write up tutorial for non-popping leg constraints.

LookTest_small_compress3.mov

[arkaos]

Awesome animation, as usual, Smudge.

[smudge]

Thanks for the complement, arkaos!

 

Sorry that it's taking me so long to get off my bum, we're actually moving to a new abode starting next week, so I've spent more time playing "pack-mistress" than actually working on anything A:M wise.

 

But I have finished Rose's model. At least I *think* I have. And I like the rigging much better now. I've also finished up texture mapping the Observation Room, finally. I've also poked (but not very much) at the walk as Rose crosses the room. It's still not perfect, but it feels better. I'll poke at it more after I get more of the shots together.

 

Any case here the compile of what I've completed so far.

LongingForHome_Snip320x240_.mov

[amarillospider]

It's looking really great. You're painting the texture onto really simple geometry was a huge eye opener for me.

 

That knee joint solution seems pretty complicated. It looks like in pic further up this thread that the thigh bone and the the calf bone aren't making a straight line (looks like a tiny angle change), which would explain a pop if when animating the bones are pulled to straight w/ an IK null, it would pull them straighter than the model is modeled. Also the knee bone isn't visible in the pic, I'm wondering if it's position and orient like constraints were affecting the pop. If I get pops it's usually because the leg is straight, then somehow isn't straight on the next frame due to the pelvis coming down or something, then straightens again. But your animation doesn't look like this is happening.

 

Looks like the leg bones do this ! instead of this ! and it looks like

\ !

< <

the geometry is leading them to do this, maybe rotate the legs forward and then bone. But your solution worked so it doesn't matter.

 

 

Anyway, it's looking good. Congratulations on the new place.

 

-Alonso

[smudge]

hey, amarillospider!

 

Believe it or not, the actual solution was stranger than that (which is why I really need to right that tut up, in my copious spare time). One version I did try had perfectly straight legs and I was still getting popping. It was annoying. >.< But I've worked it out and am rather happy with the solution short of the fact that I still wish that Hash had a min/max scale constraint. That would make the new leg system perfect.

 

More to come.

[smudge]

More poking while trying not to trip over boxes. Mostly at shot 5.

 

Got the lighting I want, short of possiably a rim around the control panel and re-doing the star-dome model/texture so it looks much better. She's also got a strange vibration on her hand that's agains the panel, but I'm going to have to wait until after I get settled in my new place before I tackle it or more modeling.

 

More to come.

OpenWindow_320x240_.mov

[smudge]

AAARRRRGGGGHH! The boxes! The BOXES!!!

 

Longing for Home Snippit

Large (640x480), 7.7mgs, Quicktime 7

Small (320x240), 2.7 mgs, Quicktime 7

[luckbat]

Love it. But why does she pause for so long at the wall?

 

Not sure about the camera angle on that control panel. It looks... startlingly gigantic.

 

Also, because of the lack of ambient light when she opens the shutter, it creates the illusion that the mechanism is opening behind her, rather than in front. (Besides, the room wasn't pitch-black a second ago...)

[martin]

It sure feels like a movie, Christina.

[phnxpyre]

Great work!!!! i love the sound effects and the electronic touch pad thing.-->COOL effect. Though there are alot of wierd camera cuts when she is looking at the wall/walking towards it.-->maybe if you just use a couple shots and stick with those two and switch while shes walking.---->(its hard to explain.)

 

I agree with luckbat that she does stare at the wall for a while.

 

GOOD GOOD GOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i really like how it is comeing along.

[smudge]

Heh! I extended the close shot of her at the panel because people were complaining that it was too short and they couldn't read her emotion. There's no pleasing some folks. LOL

 

The last Med. Shot of her turning towards the panel was added to avoid breaking the 90-degree rule. Folks were getting lost when it just cut between the close headshot and the close panel. If I pulled it back any father, you'd get a hanging panel model in space since, in order to get the short, I had to remove that wall the panel was attached too. That was the best compromise I could come up with.

 

I do, however need to work on the panel. It should flip once she touches it and the room goes black to saying, lights: OFF, window: OPEN. That's the next thing on my agenda to do.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

[luckbat]

If I pulled it back any father, you'd get a hanging panel model in space since, in order to get the short, I had to remove that wall the panel was attached too. That was the best compromise I could come up with.

Have you considered switching to a longer lens? That way you could keep the same framing, but reduce the size disparity between Rose and the console.

 

Also: The "90-degree rule?"

[smudge]

Sorry, 180-degree rule.

 

... Brain still unpacking boxes....

[smudge]

This any better?

LongingForHome_Snip320x240_.mov

[Dhar]

Whoa

 

That was cool

[luckbat]

It's excellent, though the arm movement feels a bit exaggerated for a touch-sensitive panel. She really stabbed at that door button, too.

 

I'd expect to see a much larger weight shift than the one you've got now. Unless Rose took very small steps to reach the control pad, then turned 90 degrees, stopped, and hit the button, I would expect her to be in mid-stride beside the pad, rather than behind it, when the lights go down. (Unless she needs to read all the buttons, but I assume she doesn't.)

[smudge]

*poke* *poke* still working...

 

Messed with the first shot(combined the first and second shot into one), and with the Rose/panel shot. The other shots are there for context.

 

LongingForHomeSnip(320x240)3.mov

 

LongingForHomeSnip(640x480)3.mov

[Zaryin]

Wow, I am loving this. I love the colors, the style, everything. The pose where she stays in one place by the door does seem a little long, but that's the only thing I could crit.

[martin]

Christina, you're awesome.