Animation Section In TAO:AM

[James]

Hey Rodney,

 

We have a couple of local students who are doing a crash course over the next couple of days to get signed up to TWO. I thought we would post their renderings here to get them comfortable with the Forums and excellent Animation Master Community.

 

There working on their tutorials as we speak!

 

 

James

 

critique away folks!

[Rodney]

Sounds great James. The more the merrier!

[Cross]

Hey,

 

My name is David Crowther

 

I just completed "It's a Pitch"

(27 Minutes)

 

The file should be attatched.

Pitch.mov

[Cross]

David again,

 

Here's "Take a Walk"

(45 Minutes)

 

File should be there.

Walk.mov

[Rodney]

David,

Welcome to the Forum... and TaoA:M!

 

I'm not sure if you are seeking feedback or not so... I'll add it anyway.

I'd guess James and the others at Hash Bash will be giving you 'live' feedback. Lucky you!

 

I like your 'Its a pitch'. Looks spot on to me!

Nice job.

 

For 'Take a Walk' its a bit short but looks pretty good thus far.

Have you added Rabbit to a path in the choreography?

 

P.S. You are really going to love working on TWO.

[Cross]

I haven't gotten a chance to make a path yet, because I'm a bit short on time and me and my ride have to go home soon.

 

Thanks for the feedback though! eh, kinda felt a little ushed when i was posting but I'll have more time in class to make a path for the Take a Walk project.

[Rodney]

I haven't gotten a chance to make a path yet, because I'm a bit short on time and me and my ride have to go home soon.

 

Thanks for the feedback though! eh, kinda felt a little ushed when i was posting but I'll have more time in class to make a path for the Take a Walk project.

 

It looks to me like you are doing just fine.

Deadlines have to be met and your ride leaving has supplied just that.

Most people don't get to experience deadlines until *after* TaoA:M.

I'd say you are well ahead of the game.

[knighthawk611]

Hello, this is Stephen

 

I just finished working on "It's a Pitch" the 4th exercise in the book. Its would be alot of help if you could tell me what i need to work on and what was good about it.

 

Thanks

pitch.mov

[James]

These guys came by and banged out a couple tutorials in a little over an hour. They are well on there way.

[Cross]

Hey! I'm in class right now and I'll be working on some more of the pre-set projects.

 

Just finished "The Door's Stuck"

 

The File's attatched here.

 

Let me know if there are any other projects that i should practise with before i get started on helping out with TWO, okay?

 

Thanks for everything guys!

Door__s_Stuck.mov

[knighthawk611]

Stephen again

 

I just finished the "take a walk" project out of the the manual. I know that he does slide a bit but its much better then my first try tell me what you think

 

Thanks

take_a_walk.mov

[phatso]

Cross - if you look closely at the door, you will see that it comes toward the viewer a little before it opens the other way. You have run into a basic characteristic of splines - that the computer will fit a smooth spline curve to the control points, which leads to a bit of reverse anticipation, like a golfer's backswing.

 

You can cure this by going to the time line and finding the control point that corresponds to the frame where the door starts to open. Click on it and right-click, and you will see a menu. The default spline curvature is "smooth" (hotkey O). Click on "peak" (hotkey P). Now the door will stay put until it's time to open.

 

This is still not the ideal solution. The door should not open at a constant rate - it should start from zero velocity and speed up. You can make this happen by manipulating the control handle on the spline, and you should practice doing it that way so you'll know how. But there's a more sophisticated control to handle this situation. In the menu, you will see "interpolation method." Click on this and it will open a new menu which gives you more options than "peak" and "smooth." Click on "zero slope." This forces the spline to have a slope of zero where it passes through the control point - which is to say, since the spline we're dealing with represents door motion, that the door doesn't move until it's past that control point.

 

You will also find this useful when animating a walk where the feet are lifted very high. When the feet go down, they will go through the floor, even though you have them located perfectly at the control points. Same cause. Take the control points where the feet touch or leave the floor, and either change them to zero slope (if you want the steps to be smooth, as when the character is sneaking) or peaked (if you want the transitions to be abrupt, as when the character is stomping). Which brings up an important point: A:M gives you quite a number of choices about how to make a control point behave, which is useful not only in a mechanical sense but also as a component of storytelling.

 

You may want to call the other students' attention to this, as it's something every beginner runs into.

[phatso]

A nitpick - it would be easier to evaluate these animations if they would be set against a background other than black.

[knighthawk611]

i just finished "Can you say that" out of the book let me know what i could work on

 

thanks

can_you_say_that.mov

[James]

Its most likely alpha channels are on, thanks for pointing that out.

[Rodney]

Stephen,

I was going to comment on your 'It's a Pitch' last night but thought I'd post after getting some sleep.

I'm going from memory here so... take it as it makes sense to you.

 

Perhaps most important I think is to set your framing right.

Unless there is good reason to have the Knight move out of frame to the left I think either moving the camera to the right or zooming out a little would help to frame the action. If there is good reason to cut something off... sure... cut it off! A place where this might work well would be where there is something on the right that you want to draw the audiences attention to. Like... our real hero on first base... picking his nose or some other manly activity. Then as the pitch continues the foreground could blur and our hero be exposed. If there isn't a reason to offset the action try to keep it all in frame.

 

The action itself looks good and I see hints of follow through.

Where arms trail the body, forearms trail the arms, hands follow thereafter and finish the movement by continuing through all hint at real objects in motion. You've got this there but don't be afraid to push it further. Explore that action for all its worth!

 

Related to follow through...

For the extra touch (in this or another animation) push the movements to their extreme postions and then pull back just a little bit. This will form a Moving Hold, allowing the secondary action to continue their motion until they find their proper resting places.

 

All this for what its worth.

Keep up the great work.

[Rodney]

For both David and Stephen:

 

In "Take a Walk" I'm curious about whether or not you've created a walk cycle with stride length.

I assume you have.

 

If that is the case then check to see that Rabbit doesn't advance forward but rather stays put in one location. Imagine Rabbit walking on a treadmill and that is the target to shoot for.

Moving him forward (or backward) will create unneccessary slippage when he's dropped onto a path.

[knighthawk611]

i just finished door stuck and its not as good as my other ones but its as good as i could get it.

door_stuck.mov

[Teh_Demon]

Hi, I am Robert, I was the boy that came with David and Steven on Wednesday to Hash Bash, I am starting some of the coreography *sp?* exercises, will post them when I finish.

 

~BTW, TWO is looking amazing!~

[Teh_Demon]

Just finished "It's a Pitch"

Took about 45 min.

Feel free to tear me appart with improvements and comments, I'm looking for ways to improve.

 

Thanks

Robert

 

 

*file uploaded here*

Pitch.mov

[CCshonen]

Hey I'm Cody!

This is my first and unfortunately my last day here at Hash Bash but I'm looking forward to it!

I'll start working on the choreography's and post em soon.

[Ryan Sand]

Hey, I'm Ryan Sand and I'm one of beuchamps Columbia River Students, soon the be going to DigiPen. I'm going to be working on the coreographies.

[Nikkie]

Hi I'm am Nikkie.

I have completed exercise 4. It was fun

[Ryan Sand]

Ok, heres It's a Pitch, i think my only real problem was getting the model to actually step forward. Other than that no problems. Took me about 50 minutes to an hour.

ItsaPitch.mov

[CCshonen]

Here's "It's a Pitch". Took me bout an hour and my only real problem was with the feet, which I now know how to fix.

On to the next one.

 

Edit: for some reason it doesnt want to upload.

[Rodney]

for some reason it doesnt want to upload.

 

If its a .MOV file it should upload but the size limitation is probably 2MB.

You may need to use a program like Winzip to compress it and make it smaller.

 

If you've rendered out to another format you can easily change it to another format in A:M.

Once the image/sequence/movie is in A:M RIGHT CLICK on the Image in the Project Workspace and select "Save Animation As".

Then change the format to the appropriate format.

 

.MOV (Sorensen 3 compression) seems to keep the quality high and allow for nice file sizes.

 

 

Note: Its also quite possible that you cannot upload any files on your first post to the forum.

Apparently you can on your second post.

[Ryan Sand]

Ok, so heres take a walk, no problems. It took me about 40 minutes. At the moment the file isnt uploading, so I'll post it later.

[Teh_Demon]

Well I attempted the "Take a walk" and for some reason, the timeline wouldnt go past 20... so after 5 hours of working on it, and like 12 profesionals helping me. I got mad. Luckly though, I was the bigger man.... and created this...

Rabbit_DEATH__XD.mov

[Rodney]

Robert,

Rabbit has to take a walk before being viciously stabbed to death.

Have you no sense of pathos!?!

 

Silly animators (all 13 of ya!)

[Rodney]

I've definitely fallen behind here... the TaoA:Mers are swarming in around here!

 

Nikkie,

I've lost you... please post your progress.

I'm not as mean as James says.

 

Ryan,

Is this (attached) frame from yours? I'll check again but I think it is.

All in all pretty good with one 'BUT' added in.

 

Good but... find some refrerences that focus on Balance.

This pose would be hard for even a cartoon to get into. (Well okay... maybe not a cartoon)

The passing of the foot into the ground isn't a showstopper but in order to be believable action the character must maintain a sense of Balance.

 

There are lots of references on the internet. If you type in something like 'example of balance in animation' into Google you'll find more than you care to study.

 

This is a pretty good one I've never referenced before.

I like it because it also emphasizes the characters pose via silhouette which I like to champion in this exercise.

 

Animation World Magazine Article: Inspired 3D Character Animation: Posing and Staging

 

Other than that balacing act not bad... not bad at all!

[Ryan Sand]

Ok, heres the doors stuck, only a few problems, but pretty good overall. It took me about 2 and a half hours.

thedoorsstuck.mov

[Rodney]

...and a belated 'welcome' to Cody!

 

(Who did I miss?)

[Rodney]

Ok, heres the doors stuck, only a few problems, but pretty good overall. It took me about 2 and a half hours.

 

Ryan,

I'm going to say that was 2 and a half hours of time well spend.

I've watch your take on Exercise 6 several times and I like what I'm seeing.

 

The speed with which Shaggy pulls at the door at the beginning... I don't if that was intentional but it sure says 'desperation' to me.

When contrasted to the slower pace at the end as the gag plays out... very nice!

 

Refine as you see fit but I'm gonna call that success!

[CCshonen]

Here is "The door's stuck!"

 

(assuming it lets me upload)

 

TDS.mov

 

Edit: I did finish the animation, but it lost a couple frames. I'll fix it later.

[Teh_Demon]

Well guys, I am re-doing "Take a walk" and should be done within the half hour 'hopefuly'.

Will post it up when I finish.

 

*HOPEFULLY I found out the problem of the timeline not going past 20. Also, must say that yesterday at hashbash was AWSOME!*

[Teh_Demon]

Just finished 'the door is stuck' *kinda did my own version of it though*

So I was woundering what other tutorials i have to do to get an assignment for TWO so i can work with the other guys at this school, or if this is basicly all i need and can get an assignmet now.

Thanks in advanced

Robert

Untitled.mov

[ssappington]

Just finished 'the door is stuck' *kinda did my own version of it though*

So I was woundering what other tutorials i have to do to get an assignment for TWO so i can work with the other guys at this school, or if this is basicly all i need and can get an assignmet now.

Thanks in advanced

Robert

 

 

e-mail Martin (martin@hash.com) and let him know that you have completed "Stuck Door" and that you are ready for an assignment.