40 Second Ninja Turtle Animation

[Shredder3]

Took me all week to get this far, and this was with exlcuding the backgrounds. Lookin for opinions on it.

This is the best my limited skills could do..

 

http://www.twelveoclock.net/junk/BigBlowOut.avi

[Odog2020]

Well, I have to say it is a good start, but I did notice some things, that I am sure you are aware of.

 

-There is no hole in the ground where the drill came out of

-You characters are floating on the ground, and in some places sliding around

-In the last scene, the hippo is walking inside of the ground, I think the ground was at his knees

-His weapon was also floating around in mid air.

 

I am sure that you already noticed these things, but it looks good right now, just needs a little work. Keep going, and remember don't settle for "Ah, this is good enough"

 

James

[Paul Forwood]

Yeah. Keep it going, Shredder.

That is alot to get together in one week so pat yourself on the back and then go back in and refine it.

 

A couple of fixes that you could do:

 

Watch out where your models are penetrating other geometry such as the figures in the vehicle and feet on the ground.

 

Switch OFF the constraints for the gun, when it is floating around in the air, and animate it by hand so that it doesn't match the movements of the character.

 

Well done.

[Shredder3]

thanks for the constraints tip. I'll modify that ASAP. And yep, definetly aware of all the errors. i just wanted to get the first act break finshed before I went back to add/fix things

 

BTW, how does one get the LAYER movie to start at a pre designated time so it meshes with the audio in the scene? you'll notice in the fourth swipe scene, the clip on the TV screen starts before the audio does...

[teh1ghool]

You could always rely on the good ol' post-render audio addons with, say, iMovie HD.

[Odog2020]

I am not to sure about the other screen, and the audio files, I have never messed with audio other than the exercise in the book.

 

However, I can give you some tips on how to keep you animated characters on the ground, and from sliding and slipping around. When you are creating choreography actions, say for example a walk;

 

-on frame 00:00:00, set the character in the first stage of the animation, click the choreography button on the top, and select the character. Then hit the "force keyframe" button

 

-on frame 00:00:05, or whatever you next action frame will be, animate the next step, the again click the choreography button at the top, select the character, and click the "force keyframe" button again. The reason for doing this is that it creates a keyframe for all the bone positions, instead of only the ones that you moved.

 

-keep doing this everytime you animate a frame before you move to animate another frame. This will keep you slipping, sliding and coming off the ground to a minimum. If you make a mistake, or forget to do this, and you notice your character is doing unwanted animation, open the timeline, select the model, and delete the keyframe that you are working on, for example;

If you are working on frame 00:25:05, and forgot to keyframe 00:24:25 and notice that the character is slipping or the movements are not what you want, open the timeline, select the character in the PW window, and delete all the red dots for frame 00:25:05.

 

-Of course after you get done with your animation, you are still going to have to go back and clean up between keyframes, but it makes it a lot easier this way, or that is at least in my opinion.

 

Also, I think that it is easier to animate one character at a time, then when you get done with all the animation of a single character, go back and add the other characters and their animations. I think this avoids confusion and makes it easier to make a great project because you are only concentrating on one animation at a time.

 

Anyways, I hope this helps, and it make work the same for the audio and the other screen that you are having problems with.

 

Well good luck with cleaning up your video, and I would love to see it in 3d when you get it completed.

 

Great job

 

James

[Shredder3]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try the force Keyframes after I get the first act break done. When that's done, I'll fix the rest of the errors and try to improve it. Two weeks, And I've animated 1 minute ten seconds. Check the link again to see the other 20 seconds added..