mootsger Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 Well its time again for my annual student film. This year "turtles & dominos (or dominoes)" with a title still in the works. So far the story about a turtle who is finishing a large domino setup when his nephew is dropped over for a visit. Based on an encounter with my own nephew. The rules: as 2nd year students we are abided to.... - not exceed 3 min - allowed to have selective color - dialouge - sync sound A relatively up-to-date "nephew" wire render. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phnxpyre Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 Thats Awesome!!!! I love the baseball cap, sounds like a good story line too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted November 26, 2005 Hash Fellow Share Posted November 26, 2005 ooohh... CalArts!... I am envious! If I could start over as an embryo... oh, well. allowed to have selective colorWhat is meant by that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted November 26, 2005 Author Share Posted November 26, 2005 As frosh, we weren't allowed to have color in our films. B&W exclusively. - no longer than 90 secs. - no dialouge - no sync sound (allthough i did), needle drop only - and be turned in by the deadline. 2nd years are able to have "selective color" if i recall correctly, which means that they can have small amounts of color throughout thier film. Its to keep students from either wasting thier time fully coloring or worrying about coloring thier film. It keeps them focoused on story, character, animation, perfomance, layout, and design. If the students were to break these guidelines, they would not be eligable for the Producers Show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Forwood Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 CalArts! Lucky guy! I love what you've got here so far. The character is appealing, the story sounds fun and the topic is one which anyone can relate to. I hope you post more on this as you progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentothemax Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 Hey , that sounds great! I think it would be cool, if only the things important to the turlte were in color, so by the end of the movie, the nephew becomes in full color to.... ( kinda cheesy, but guarentteeed to make a warm happy feeling inside) Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted November 26, 2005 Author Share Posted November 26, 2005 My film will actually be in full color. Selective color really only pertains to the tradional hand drawn films. But color is allowed if the students finish thier films on time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted November 27, 2005 Author Share Posted November 27, 2005 This is an old first test of the dominos. I made a model of one domino then imported it 10 times into another. I created a pose to spread the 10 dominos over 10 inches. I then wrote an action to topple the doms in about 18 frames, but on 1's. Every successive dom does exactly what the one on front of it does at the same rate, only a frame delayed. This causes the appearance of the textures to flow over the model. I have already corrected this by squashing the timing on the action to 8 frames, so now 2.5 doms fall every frame. By mixing in different action speeds the domino chain reaction will translate visually on the screen while actually travelling the path. domino1.mov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amarillospider Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Nice looking design's there. Fun sounding story. Have you looked into the physics plugin that's floating around? Seems like that might work perfectly for dominoes. Also you might get hair with decals to work for a really big long shot of lots of dominoes falling in a pattern. Good Luck! -Alonso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted November 28, 2005 Author Share Posted November 28, 2005 Originally, i was going to try to simulate them, but the tests made the dominos explode or fall through the floor. I also realized i would have to place each domino by "hand" in the choreography, add the constraint, and animate them. I'm in the process of setting up a railroad-like construction setup. Straight pieces, curves (left and right), larger diameter curves, stairs, loops, etc. Aswell as some tricks consisting of non-domino items. I'll also have single dominos mixed in for variation. I think this is the best way to do what I need to for the amount of time I have, what I have already worked on, and what I know. I believe this method will give the most control over composition & layout, camera tracking, and the pacing of the sequence. I also did a calculation. The fast rate of the doms: 10 doms in 8 frames = 30 doms a sec And about a 1 min sequence = 1800 dominos....... yikes. Thanks for the suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amarillospider Posted November 29, 2005 Share Posted November 29, 2005 Just ran across these free plug ins and they made me think of your project. (Mainly because they are using dominoes) http://www.sgross.com/plugins/plugin20/index_e.html http://www.sgross.com/plugins/plugin18/index_e.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted November 30, 2005 Author Share Posted November 30, 2005 Thanks for the link. I'll see if I can use it. It would be really helpfull for organic curves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted December 2, 2005 Author Share Posted December 2, 2005 Here's a photo of part of a setup I did on Mon... er, Tuesday(12:00 am). 680 doms in 2 hrs 40 mins. They didn't all fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted December 11, 2005 Author Share Posted December 11, 2005 Here is the correction to the toppling action I made. The first half of the path is the squashed rate. The second half is the normal rate. variant_small.mov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forevernameless Posted December 29, 2005 Share Posted December 29, 2005 Excellent splinage on that turtle, and the domino effect is great. Thats really all there is to say. Great stuff. Calarts? Lucky!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMZ_TimeLord Posted December 31, 2005 Share Posted December 31, 2005 I'd like to second the 'Excellent splinage' vote. Very good use of splines to keep the model lean, but detailed at the same time. Good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanCBradbury Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 Is all of this working trhough newton physics or are you moving every individual domino? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted January 8, 2006 Author Share Posted January 8, 2006 Heres an update... the young turtle is modeled (but still needs laces) and in the process of adding the skeleton. The adult turtle is in the modeling stage, but needs work. And I think I WILL be using the Newton plugin. Adios pips (domino dots). I have 3 pages of dialouge and will be adding another, maybe 2. Recording will happen as soon as the F/V recording studio is open. I also have a music student composing the score for it. But the more I work on story, the less I like the idea of music during the entire length. I'm limiting it to the intro and domino sequences only, and possibly some accents on expressional movements. I like the idea of awkward silence between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dborruso Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Very cute looking turtle. So Calarts uses a:m? or do you choose your own 3d software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agep Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Love the turtle. Very cute Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 Yes! Nice clean turtle! I'm glad to see A:M at CalArts! I can recommend the Newton plugin, it should serve you well. Good luck! Keep us posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted January 10, 2006 Author Share Posted January 10, 2006 So Calarts uses a:m? or do you choose your own 3d software? I use AM in my cube. The our dept uses the Exp.Anim's lab for now untill we get our own, which uses Maya. The freshmen this year are being taught on a program called Reflex. But they're only teaching animation in our dept classes. We would have to take classes outside our dept for modeling and rigging, etc. in Maya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mootsger Posted June 13, 2006 Author Share Posted June 13, 2006 Well, I "finished" my second year film. Its not what it started out to be AT ALL, but people still seem to like it. I ended up interviewing an 8 year old for an hour and animating his thoughts. I had some trouble with the setup machine and the character's design (nasty twists in the wrists), so I hid what I couldn't fix... and that was everything. But I'll let you be the judge. Sidenote: what was uploaded was taken from a version that hadn't had its audio levels corrected, so you may need to crank your volume up in the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Silas Posted June 13, 2006 Share Posted June 13, 2006 Cute character. Nicely animated. Very charming. Frank Silas http://www.franksilas.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhar Posted June 14, 2006 Share Posted June 14, 2006 Dude! That was great Job well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaryin Posted June 14, 2006 Share Posted June 14, 2006 I thought it was great, but I wish there was more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_black_mage Posted June 14, 2006 Share Posted June 14, 2006 ok i'm sorry i'm off subject but were can i get newton physics the link dosn't work, it says the site dosn't exsitst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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