sprockets The Snowman is coming! Realistic head model by Dan Skelton 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!
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Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

Pass the Ball


TheSpleen

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REALLY?

 

Mr. Will Sutton organized it last time... if he does not mind ---I would be glad to step forward and organize it this time... IF we get enough people interested, that is!

 

SO- counting me, thekamps,Luuk and Spleen that's 4...and I'd like to see 20 or more. If YOU are interested, please respond to this forum.

 

WHAT IS IT?

The 'Pass the Ball' was not a competition, it was a short movie made by the Hash forum in 2006. The criteria was simple... have a ball, or similar object- enter from frame LEFT, have your character(s) interact with it for a few seconds, and have it exit frame RIGHT. Will Sutton then cut the entries together with some music and came-up with this:

 

PASS THE BALL

http://www.hash.com/amfilms/search/entry.php?entry=1080

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Here's a thought... what if we made it something other than a ball? Maybe like a paper airplane?

I prefer a ball, mostly because I already have a nice idea in mind :) But, if it's going to be something other than a ball it could be fun as well.

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The last one was fun.

 

The amount of work is totally down to the individual so it doesn't have to take over your life is you don't want it to.

Try to find a suitable piece of music, or at least a beat, that the individual animators can work to. Also try to devise a climax... or make the whole thing cyclical.

 

Waiting to see what the brief is before I commit.

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Wow! Turnout!

 

That looks like 7 more... up to 11 now.

 

Matt Stanford/Gizmo... rubbish is 'in' for this. Come-up with an original idea... don't be too ambitious, get it done by deadline and make a good showing! (Deadline yet to be determined)

 

Largento/Luuk/Robcat--- I think we should leave it a ball...but I like the idea of using the SAME ball in all animations-for 'continuity' sake. Maybe a RED BALL with a white zig-zag stripe thru it.

 

The parameters would be--- NTSC D1 WIDESCREEN SQUARE PIXEL or 864X486 @ 29.97(or 30) frames per second. Sound effects optional. Any objections?

 

SPREAD THE WORD! Nobody misses out this time!

 

 

Multiple-entries welcomed!

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Wow! Turnout!

 

That looks like 7 more... up to 11 now.

 

Matt Stanford/Gizmo... rubbish is 'in' for this. Come-up with an original idea... don't be too ambitious, get it done by deadline and make a good showing! (Deadline yet to be determined)

 

Largento/Luuk/Robcat--- I think we should leave it a ball...but I like the idea of using the SAME ball in all animations-for 'continuity' sake. Maybe a RED BALL with a white zig-zag stripe thru it.

 

The parameters would be--- NTSC D1 WIDESCREEN SQUARE PIXEL or 864X486 @ 29.97(or 30) frames per second. Sound effects optional. Any objections?

 

SPREAD THE WORD! Nobody misses out this time!

 

 

Multiple-entries welcomed!

 

Sounds good to me. If the deadline is not too soon I can throw something together.

About the ball, maybe it's a good idea if one person made the ball so we can all use the same model/decals. We could be allowed to choose the render style our self like toon, realistic or normal, or should we all use the same style?

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Any chance we could get Hash to consider this "official" and have them put the finished piece up on the Hash YouTube channel?

 

There are lots of folks out there with music that we can use through creative commons. It would be cool to get some really kick-ass tune to drive it.

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Any chance we could get Hash to consider this "official" and have them put the finished piece up on the Hash YouTube channel?

 

There are lots of folks out there with music that we can use through creative commons. It would be cool to get some really kick-ass tune to drive it.

I bet MJL could help out on that! :lol:

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My basic background is Blues/Bluesrock. Could you refine the term kick-ass? In the style of Lynard Skynard or ZZ Top perhaps. Or were you thinking something along the lines Manilow? :P

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My basic background is Blues/Bluesrock. Could you refine the term kick-ass? In the style of Lynard Skynard or ZZ Top perhaps. Or were you thinking something along the lines Manilow? :P

 

 

Blues/Blues Rock/Texas Blues/Southern Rock

That gets my vote.

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I don't think limiting the ball to one choice is necessary (or desireable) - Why would one would want to limit it?

 

I thought it worked very well in the previous effort when the only restrictions were a time limit (5 secs?), frame rate (24 fps) and frame size (720x486 then) and that ball entered from anywhere left and exited right. In between, the sky's the limit. And submit as many clips as you wanted. Use whatever ball you wanted - could transform it within the clip.

 

Stringing together, ordering of the clips, and soundtrack was added later by Will. People could use sound effects if desired (some were left in, others not). No clip was rejected. Even Seven's. One clip got lost accidently.

 

That allowed very interesting combos and interpretations - seemed to work well.

Edited by NancyGormezano
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I thought it worked very well in the previous effort when the only restrictions were a time limit (5 secs?), frame rate (24 fps) and frame size (640 x 480 then)
This sounds like better specs to me. NTSC and 30fps is an US standard and 25 is an European standard, while 24 is worldwide cinematic standard? using 640x480 will give you some more room in the top of the frame to play with the bounce of the ball. My two cents
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I would vote that the bare minimum we should do is YouTube's *widescreen* settings.

 

'Cause YouTube is widescreen nowadays.

good point
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According to YouTube, the best formats:

 

Video Format: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4

Resolution: 640x360 (16:9) or 480x360 (4:3)

Audio Format: MP3 or AAC

Frames per second: 30

Max Length: 10 minutes

Max file size: 1GB

 

640x360 is the same aspect ratio as 864x486 and I think it would be good to have the higher resolution so folks can make full quality DVDs.

 

When I did the Christmas greeting, I did it at the actual size for a DVD 720x480 with a 1.21 ratio. But I could see where that would become confusing for folks. Last week I was watching a video about fields and that added a whole 'nother layer of complication.

 

I think the widescreen format will add some fun to this, too. More horizontal space to play with the ball.

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That's what I was thinking... Youtube widescreen. If we master at 864X486 it will look good (and should be the same aspect ratio) on Youtube widescreen.

 

LET THE DISCUSSION CONTINUE!

That's with square pixels?

EDIT: Ah, I see the answer on page 1. Square pixels it is :)

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we need a ball

 

 

 

SHOULD we all use the same ball model...or different variations like last time. Mind you...if we use the same ball, and someone wants to do a SOCCER theme animation...that ball will not necessarily have a 'soccer' feel to it.

 

ALSO- Should we ask for a minimum/maximum time length...say minimum of 4 seconds and a maximum of 9 seconds....?

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we need a ball

 

 

 

SHOULD we all use the same ball model...or different variations like last time. Mind you...if we use the same ball, and someone wants to do a SOCCER theme animation...that ball will not necessarily have a 'soccer' feel to it.

 

ALSO- Should we ask for a minimum/maximum time length...say minimum of 4 seconds and a maximum of 9 seconds....?

 

Maybe we should all keep it about the same size when it enters and exits the frame. That makes it more logical, even if the balls are not all the same.

But we could still use a basic design that can be adjusted by each participant to his/hers style.

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The exercise says Pass the ball, not pass a ball. I think passing one ball would add to the continuity and coherence of the exercise and focuses the animators on building character. I think the ball should at least have one capability of animation principles; squash & stretch.

 

My 2 cents; either way I would like to participate :)

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Well, the last time we got some great interpretations without it being the same ball.

One that I thought was pretty cool was the fish taking the round float! Or How about Nancy's "Jelly Ball"?--which was a jelly fish animation!

 

It all worked because of the Left to right motion. Ball enters frame from the left. Ball exits frame to the right. Simple.

 

Everyone could have at least one entry completed already!!!

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I think we should all use the same ball.

 

beach ball

tennis ball

bowling ball

croquet ball

circus ball

super ball

kick ball

whatever ball

 

The characters can be different sizes,

so could interact differently to it,

such as a mouse, a man, a mammoth.

 

If the balls are different,

perhaps when one character gets a ball,

s/he could decide to keep it and pass on the another a different one that s/he has.

Of course this would take a bit more planning for continuity.

A story board would be in order.

 

The easiest would be to all use the same ball,

get it from the viewers left and pass it to the right.

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