sprockets Vintage character and mo-cap animation by Joe Williamsen Character animation exercise by Steve Shelton an Animated Puppet Parody by Mark R. Largent Sprite Explosion Effect with PRJ included from johnL3D New Radiosity render of 2004 animation with PRJ. Will Sutton's TAR knocks some heads! Learn to create your own tool bars! Behind The Scenes: A:M and Animatronics
sprockets
Recent Posts | Unread Content
Jump to content
Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

Texturing video tutorial test


JTalbotski

Recommended Posts

Hi all, Inspired by Steve's excellent video tutes, and being extremely lazy myself, I am trying to produce a series of video tutes about texturing a head model. Creating an html tute was driving me nuts and was too much work. I have a first round test up on my .mac site, which I will keep there only for a short time. I'm posting this now to find out if both Mac and PC users can view the video. It is a Quicktime movie, compressed with the Apple animation codec, and the sound is compressed as an MPeg-4 sound. You will need Quicktime 6.x to view it, I believe. If a few of you (both Mac and PC folks) could download it and let me know if you can see and hear it okay, I would appreciate it. [url="http://homepage.mac.com/talbotj/"]http://homepage.mac.com/talbotj/[/url] Click on the download arrow next to the file name. Thanks, Jim P.S. By mistake I cropped off the last couple words, they are "....in Photoshop."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 24
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hi Takahiro, Thanks for letting me know. Yes, that's the actual length of the movie. Unfortunately when I was editing it I accidentally cut off the last couple words. I'm glad you were able to see and hear it. Has anyone been unable to see or hear it? Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow

I found the presentation informative to watch. Thanks! :D Where i work we do a lot of training camtasias (nothing this interesting) that we put into products we sell. If I had to hold you to the standards we need here, I'd make the following comments... 1- resize your screen and redo the capture at 800x600. the current capture (1024x768?) requires me to resize my screen to 1280x1024 in order to access the quicktime control buttons. Many monitors, including mine, can only do that resolution at 60Hz, which is flickery and tiresome to watch. Careful placement of your toolbars and windows should make 800x600 a feasible area to do the presentation. I think Anzovin does their videos at that size. 2 - practice your presentation so you can do it without any verbal mis-steps. you might be able to cut a minute out of the running time that way, which would be good for your end user who's downloading it. Don't read it from a script, however. 2b - I do like it when you explicitly identify a keyboard shortcut you are using ("press h to hide..."). Always do that. 3 - the audio is echoey. My home office is a bare plaster wall room which sounds awful to record in. On the occassions when I've had to lend my voice to something, I throw a comforter over my my desk, my PC, the microphone and myself... instant recording studio! Not perfect, but a substantial audio improvement. 4 - since this tut is about the general concept of flattening and not about flattening this specific model, if you have some editing capability (FinalCut, Premiere, AfterEffects...) you might consider time-condensing (fast-forwarding) the sections where you are repositioning CPs around the lips and chin. You've already explained the reason and method while doing the nose, and since the other two areas don't present any complications that weren't present in the nose, they could be sped up without the viewer missing anything. If your editing software won't let you speed things up, a dissolve from initial state to completed state for the two areas might work also. I've seen Anzovin do this on their videos. This would also cut down your ultimate file size. [b]Thanks again for doing this![/b] :) I think these video tuts are a big advance over still screen captures in HTML. Maybe a hassle for some people to download because of their size, but i have DSL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks all for the feedback! robcat2075, Great suggestions, thanks! Especially about the screen size. I already know about my verbal bumblings :lol: Since my studio isn't very well heated, your advice about the comforters can serve 2 purposes. It's funny, that was my first run through. And now I'm trying to redo it and I'm making dozens more verbal mis-steps. Aaarg! Thanks again, Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just for those fellow Mac users who might want to do video tutes, since Camtasia is PC only, I'm using SnapzPro X for the screen capture. [url="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/snapzprox.html"]http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/syst.../snapzprox.html[/url] or [url="http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/"]http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/[/url] I actually got the full version of SnapzProX on a "value added" cd when I got my G4. You might have it lying around, too. I'm recording the sound onto my analog mini8 camcorder as I work and importing it into iMovie through my Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge after I'm done recording. Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Mike Lium' date='Dec 12 2003, 04:07 PM']Jim WOW! Very nicely done :) My only critique would be to fire the guy that does the voice work. :D[/quote] Hey Bud, He's not much good for anything really. He can't even keep this place clean. It's tough finding good workers now a'days. ;) Thanks all for the comments, suggestions and encouragement, Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you very much for posting this tute! I was going to ask for help on decaling my stryracasaurus but this partial tute has answered my questions about Flattening the model. I never thought to continue working on the pose after selecting the 'flatten' option (after all it is a pose, duh!) and so I was totally stymied as to how to get the model to a point where I could do the texturing. You never know what little bit of "common sense" (very uncommon at best) that your students might need to bring them up to speed. Thanks again! Jonathan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, William. It was only a test and I'm sure it didn't cover anything you didn't know already. I will be doing a better (I hope) version and continue through the entire process of decalling a head model. I can't say how long that will take, but they will be freely available to all A:M users. Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...