wedgeeguy Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Hey Everybody ... I have been working on a short animation called "Little Ditty". It's about three mice that play in a jazz band. I'm still tweaking a few things and will hopefully have the completed animation ready within a week or two. But until then, I hope that you will enjoy a couple of stills from the movie. Thanks for taking a look ... Bruce (the wedgeeguy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenH Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Looks fun. Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bendytoons Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Looks good. You're a man after my own heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkaos Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Wow. Those are really memorable mice characters and the poses you show them in make the scene totally believable. Great work. Can't wait for the anim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largento Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Cool stuff, Bruce! Dig those Three Jive Mice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 That looks good like it's going to be good. Get the animation done then render them all with Hair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedgeeguy Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 Thanks everyone for taking a look and leaving your comments. I will announce when I get everything completed. Ken - I think our mouses might be cousins Martin - Sorry but no hair this time. I did experiment with using hair on the bodies but the render time per frame was just a little longer then what I wanted to wait. I did use the hair to create the image for the decals though and that worked really well. Maybe on the next animation? Thanks again everyone .... Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnl3d Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 great looking mice !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodguy20k Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Bruce, you MIGHT want to try v14 for hair. The render times are shorter, I've found. If you want, I could try and get you a nice hair material. Just let me at de mice. But it looks awesome as is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhar Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Now you caught my interest. I love jazz. And I love cartoons playing jazz even more. Can't wait to see your movie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aen916 Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 LOoks great! I can't wait to see the full animation. Musical mice are always fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedgeeguy Posted March 14, 2007 Author Share Posted March 14, 2007 Thanks again everyone for the kind words. I have started the rendering process but unfortunately without using hair. It looks like the bulk of the animation is going to take around 30 hours (1400 frames) rendering at 720 X 486 resolution. About 1:20 minutes per frame ... that's not bad. All the editing is pretty much completed so it's just a matter of rendering out the frames (as TGA files of course). Goodguy20K ... Thanks for your offer to help with the hair. You are correct in that more recent versions of A:M are faster in rendering hair. I tried adding hair back to just one of the mice and did some test renders. Under version 12 it took 5:24 minutes to render one frame. Under version 13 (same rendered frame) was cut back to 4:36 minutes. So there definitely was a speed increase. Sorry but I don't have version 14 to test to see if even that version is faster. All in all I will be satisfied with using the decals instead of hair ... But again thanks for the kind offer. Dhar - I guess the music is a jazz influence but I'm no musical maestro. More to follow ... Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Sorry but I don't have version 14 to test to see if even that version is faster. What do you mean you don't have version 14? It's only $99! Do what I do, cut your neighbors' lawns and you'll have enough money. (Too bad art and programming don't pay enough to make a living.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodguy20k Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Goodguy20K ... Thanks for your offer to help with the hair. You are correct in that more recent versions of A:M are faster in rendering hair. I tried adding hair back to just one of the mice and did some test renders. Under version 12 it took 5:24 minutes to render one frame. Under version 13 (same rendered frame) was cut back to 4:36 minutes. So there definitely was a speed increase. Sorry but I don't have version 14 to test to see if even that version is faster. All in all I will be satisfied with using the decals instead of hair ... But again thanks for the kind offer. It really depends on the hair you use. If you give me 1) the approximate size of the mice (so I can create a test object to scale), 2) the maximum allowable time you'd be happy to render it at, 3) the resolution rendered, 4) and what the base render time is (render time before hair added) per frame, I'll see if I can create a material for v13. (It's not too bad in v13 anyways. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedgeeguy Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 GoodGuy20K ... Again thanks for the offer. I just settled on going ahead and rendering with just the decals. Once everything is completed, if you like, I can post one of the mice to the boards and you can do whatever you like with them .. ummm? ... of course within the guidelines of the SPCA. Martin ... Thanks for the advice about mowing lawns to make a couple of extra bucks for an upgrade. That idea sure beats the heck out of my current method of raising extra cash ... giving sponge baths at the local old folks home for a quarter. Currently I am in rendering limbo while stuff is being created but everything is looking good so far. More to follow ... Bruce (the wedgeeguy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodguy20k Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 What the SPCA doesn't know... Can't hurt me. I'm waitin' to see the renders! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedgeeguy Posted March 22, 2007 Author Share Posted March 22, 2007 "Little Ditty" has now been completed! I have posted a mini version from my website that all of you are invited to come and eyeball if you like. Thanks again for all the kind words and encouragement and I hope that everyone gets a kick out of it. "Little Ditty" Size: 12Mb. (quick loading) Codec: Sorenson 3 (Quicktime 5? or greater) Video Size: 320 x 200 Direct link: "http://www.pencilwedgees.com/playmovie-LittleDitty.html" Time to create from scratch: About 3 months Please let me know if anyone has any problems viewing this movie. Thanks for taking a look ... Bruce (the wedgeeguy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logrus Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Wow that was freakin awesome. I loved it so much i hotlinked it for a friend to watch. They loved it especially the end... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhar Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Bruce! That was fantastic! I loved the characters, I loved the gig. I loved the music, and best of all I loved the surprises. Entertaining all the way thru. Awesome job man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Forwood Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Ha, ha! That was really good, Bruce!!! Excellent mice, great timing and fun to watch. Quite good fun to listen to also. More...more......more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajcedrv Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 I have yet to see the movie (trouble with %^$!#@!# quicktime) but individual frames look amazing! Cant wait to see it (later today)... lovely characters, great poses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodguy20k Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Great work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted March 22, 2007 Admin Share Posted March 22, 2007 Another great short Bruce! Loved it. The first time viewing the sound was just a little bit off (cache not caught up?) The second time though *BAM* right on the symbol every time. Were you going to attempt a re-render with hair? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 fabulous! great fun - a complete joy - congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PF_Mark Posted March 22, 2007 Share Posted March 22, 2007 Way to go Bruce that was great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedgeeguy Posted March 23, 2007 Author Share Posted March 23, 2007 Thanks everyone for taking the time to take a look. I appreciate all the comments and I am glad that everyone seems to have enjoyed it. Rodney - No, I don't think that I am going to re-render with hair although it would probably look pretty good. All in all I am happy with the way it turned out. As promised, I am attaching one of the mice to this post. It is created in version 12w so it should also be usable in versions higher then that. The mouse is fully rigged with basic pose sliders but I did remove the decals used for the "hair" though. The TGA image files used for the decals weigh in at about 19MB. I know it was probably overkill for what I did with them but I wanted to make sure that I retained the detail of the hair when the camera was doing a closeup. Please feel free to do whatever you wish with this model without any restrictions. If anyone does come up with something neat using the model then please let me know so that I can take a look. Mouse_Bare.mdl Hopefully attaching a model file will work through the board here .... Whelp, it looks like it does ... Yay! Again thanks for the comments ... Now I need to get with Ken Baer and see about adding it to A:M Films. Much appreciated everyone .... Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted March 23, 2007 Admin Share Posted March 23, 2007 Wow Bruce, thanks for the mouse! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimblepix Posted March 23, 2007 Share Posted March 23, 2007 Very Cool! Great Job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 23, 2007 Hash Fellow Share Posted March 23, 2007 Charming work! I feel bad for the mouse, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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