Bus Stop WIP

[Gerry]

Just tried a single frame render with AO to see how it looks. It makes all the difference! I'll be posting more as I go.

[TheSpleen]

ruh roh! Schlitzy up to no good?

[Gerry]

Actually they both look like trouble to me!

[dblhelix]

skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony wood

 

they never did mention dress sense, attitude or self-destructive (?) tendencies.

[Gerry]

Here's what I have so far. The timing in the second half needs some work, I keep moving the keys closer together but it's still too s-l-o-w!

Gerryv6_h264.mov

[TheSpleen]

looking really good!

Looks like Shlitzy hit rock bottom.

[Gerry]

Not yet!

[Gerry]

Here's a small quick render of mine, from beginning to end. Still needs a lot of tweaking, mostly Lady Goodbody's walk cycle, but I'm working on it.

 

the 32 bit version of the v1 beta doesn't appear to be doing much for my final quality render times though. in v15 one frame took 5 minutes, and in v16 the same frame took 4-1/2 minutes. I guess that's because it's not the 64-bit? Anyway, no big deal, I will just allow enough time for the render. And of course rendering to a jpg series I can render in sessions if necessary.

Gerryv1_h264sm.mov

[robcat2075]

Here's a small quick render of mine, from beginning to end. Still needs a lot of tweaking, mostly Lady Goodbody's walk cycle, but I'm working on it.

 

the 32 bit version of the v1 beta doesn't appear to be doing much for my final quality render times though. in v15 one frame took 5 minutes, and in v16 the same frame took 4-1/2 minutes. I guess that's because it's not the 64-bit? Anyway, no big deal, I will just allow enough time for the render. And of course rendering to a jpg series I can render in sessions if necessary.

 

I like that.

 

The bottle throw can be made more effective by fixing the arc it travels. The bottle needs to fly off in the same direction it was going when it was released.

 

 

 

On the walk, don't women in high heels mostly stay on the front of their feet and skip the heel? I haven't worn heels in ages so I don't know.

[Gerry]

Thanks Robert. That bottle release is something I've been working on. It seems to be a matter of adjusting the enforcement of the translate to and orient like constraints of the bottle to the hand, and when they respectively should get switched off completely and the movement of the model bone to take over when the bottle takes flight. He also needs to release three frames sooner but I don't think I've tweaked every keyframe yet. Except for the timing of (and around) the throw, I'm pretty happy with Schlitzy's animation.

 

As for the walk, I've got my wife giving me pointers on it as well as looking at YouTubes of "model walks". So it will come along eventually I hope!

[dblhelix]

but why do you call snow white 'lady goodbody'?

[Gerry]

That's the model's name in the library. Do you think I'd make something like that up??!

 

I suppose I could call them "Snow White and the Heavin' Dwarf" but that would be worng!

[robcat2075]

Another suggestion on the walk. Give her a prop like a purse or umbrella or something to hold in one hand and then she will be that much less like a symmetrical robot.

 

A purse that she is holding to her (camera) side would work well.

[Gerry]

that's a good idea. I knew there was *something* missing but I couldn't put my finger on what!

[TheSpleen]

cannot wait to see this

[dblhelix]

Do you think I'd make something like that up??!

hey! if it's ok to read, ok to use, it's ok to have made it up, right?

 

didn't know about her librarian descent, suspected as much but only suspected. when first seeing her, i was struck by her colors and took for granted you had chosen them purposefully.

 

Give her a prop like a purse or umbrella or something to hold in one hand

or..... an apple!

approaching can she dunks the apple in.

[mouseman]

Looking good!

 

An optional suggestion ... at the very end, there's a little more time between the bottle striking his head and the time when he swaggers and falls, it might be better to tidy it up a wee bit.

 

Can't wait to see the next iteration!

[Gerry]

Thanks for the suggestion Mouseman. I'll look at that.

[mouseman]

It's very exciting seeing the entries everyone is creating! Now if only I can stop working overtime ...

[Gerry]

An optional suggestion ... at the very end, there's a little more time between the bottle striking his head and the time when he swaggers and falls, it might be better to tidy it up a wee bit.

I should have mentioned that in that brief pause I'll be having little hearts floating above his head, right up to where he keels over. So I think the timing I've got will work. We'll see!

[mouseman]

An optional suggestion ... at the very end, there's a little more time between the bottle striking his head and the time when he swaggers and falls, it might be better to tidy it up a wee bit.

I should have mentioned that in that brief pause I'll be having little hearts floating above his head, right up to where he keels over. So I think the timing I've got will work. We'll see!

That will be a smart addition! That's the kind of extra that I never think of adding. You go, Gerry!

[TheSpleen]

Gonna be a great clip!

[Gerry]

I'm having a timing problem I don't understand. I've been trying to fix a general problem where my whole animation just seemed to be running slow and sluggish and no matter what I did to make it snappier, it still seemed sluggish.

 

Well I was working on the lady's walk cycle and got it where I was happy with it, did a test render of just the walk cycle, then rendered a wireframe of the whole scene. But while the walk cycle itself is fine, it's much slower in the scene than it is by itself. I'm stumped by this.

 

Here's a test of the walk cycle (comments welcome on that btw) and a wireframe of the whole scene. You'll see the difference easily.

 

I've checked the frame rate and both clips are 24fps, the walk cycle is 30 frames and I haven't changed that in the chor. I don't know what else to check.

LadyGoodbodyWalktest4_h264.mov

BusStop_wireframe_v1_h264.mov

[Fuchur]

I'm having a timing problem I don't understand. I've been trying to fix a general problem where my whole animation just seemed to be running slow and sluggish and no matter what I did to make it snappier, it still seemed sluggish.

 

Well I was working on the lady's walk cycle and got it where I was happy with it, did a test render of just the walk cycle, then rendered a wireframe of the whole scene. But while the walk cycle itself is fine, it's much slower in the scene than it is by itself. I'm stumped by this.

 

Here's a test of the walk cycle (comments welcome on that btw) and a wireframe of the whole scene. You'll see the difference easily.

 

I've checked the frame rate and both clips are 24fps, the walk cycle is 30 frames and I haven't changed that in the chor. I don't know what else to check.

 

Funny and nice

You should try shaded/wire for such animatics, but what I could see was well done

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

I've checked the frame rate and both clips are 24fps, the walk cycle is 30 frames and I haven't changed that in the chor. I don't know what else to check.

 

is the walk cycle an action used with a path constraint?

 

Edit the ease property to move her along the path faster.

 

I think if she crossed the screen in about 6 seconds that would maybe be about right.

[Gerry]

But the probem isn't that she's crossing too slow, it's that her steps are a different speed than the walk cycle. Wouldn't adjusting the ease cause her to slide? I'll try it though.

[robcat2075]

But the probem isn't that she's crossing too slow, it's that her steps are a different speed than the walk cycle. Wouldn't adjusting the ease cause her to slide? I'll try it though.

 

She's crossing too slow because she's taking too long for each step because she's moving on her path too slowly.

 

When i scrub your file to move her across in about 6 seconds she actually starts to look kind of slinky, but taking twice as long makes her look stiff and rigid.

[Gerry]

I made that adjustment and it seemed to help. I think the path constraint was still set from when the walk cycle was 40 or 45 frames and I never adjusted it.

[Gerry]

When I set the renderer to use the camera settings, I notice AO is on. Is that correct?

[robcat2075]

Putting a walk cycle on a path constraint causes the original time length to be disregarded. A:M will cycle thru as many walk cycles as it needs to cover the distance of the path no matter how long it take to traverse the path. It can be X cycles in 3 seconds or X cycles in 3 minutes , the number of cycles stays the same. The time they take changes.

 

When I set the renderer to use the camera settings, I notice AO is on. Is that correct?

 

yes

[Gerry]

Thanks Robert!

[Gerry]

More rendering weirdness on my Mac... I've been letting the render run at home all day while I'm at work and it's rendering about 3+ minutes a frame. I got home tonight and checked the render and only about 20 frames had been done all day! I looked at the render times in Bridge and frame 651 rendered at 9: 49 this morning, and frame 652 rendered at 6:49 this evening. Apparently the machine went to sleep and hung up the rendering. I thought it would just run.

 

I don't do anything special, just set up the render and let 'er rip, but now I wonder if I need to nudge the mouse every half hour or so? when I render on my office pc it does run all night...at least I think it does.

[robcat2075]

There must be a sleep setting on your mac that's adjustable, right?

[Gerry]

Yeah, I should look at that.

 

EDIT: Yep, it was set to sleep after a half hour. Just changed it to "never".

[Gerry]

the render's coming along just fine, about halfway done. Turning off "sleep" mode was a big help! I also changed Lady "Snow White" Goodbody's dress, gloves and shoes to red red red!! Ooh baby!

[Gerry]

I'm completely unfamiliar with simcloth. I'm working with the Lady Goodbody/Snow White model and before I started rendering her walkthrough, I went through and tweaked cp's in muscle mode where I was seeing the leg geometry penetrating her dress. THEN I noticed that simcloth was turned on. It's rendering now and I won't see the final result til morning, but have I "broken" something by messing with the dress's mesh? If I had left it alone would the simcloth have fixed those areas of penetration in the final quality render?

[TheSpleen]

my clips are done. When is Robcat going to start taking them?

[robcat2075]

my clips are done. When is Robcat going to start taking them?

 

The deadline isn't until the 20th. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to do my own...

[TheSpleen]

my clips are done. When is Robcat going to start taking them?

 

The deadline isn't until the 20th. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to do my own...

ok thanks

[robcat2075]

Duplicate post.

[robcat2075]

Hey, Gerry, I'm missing frames 721 and 722.

[Gerry]

I deleted them to get that bottle throw to look better. If it's creating an error message in AE or whatever you're using can you do it in two separate comps?

[robcat2075]

I deleted them to get that bottle throw to look better. If it's creating an error message in AE or whatever you're using can you do it in two separate comps?

 

I can do that.

 

Chaplin used to do that.

[Gerry]

here's a link to download my audio file. It's an .aif and about 10mb.

 

Gerry audio

[Gerry]

Is the .aif okay? I can convert to a .wav if you want.

[robcat2075]

Is the .aif okay? I can convert to a .wav if you want.

 

It works great, thanks!

[John Bigboote]

Robcat-

 

Here are links to my 2 Bus Stop animations in Quicktime format with sound effects embedded.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5257446/BUSSTOP_Ma...ell_1_small.mov

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5257446/BUSSTOP_Ma...ell_2_small.mov

 

The one I had posted previously was WAY uncompressed, and very large- sorry about that... these two are 8 and 12 mbs. Thanks!

 

(Note: Posted to Dropbox at 11:00 Thursday EDT, may take an hour or so for Dropbox to process...until then you get a 'woops...404' screen)

[John Bigboote]

The links are live now...as of 2:00P THU 11/11 EDT. I had filled up my DropBox account because I have switched from rendering to PNG from JPG because of the new 'FastAO'... which, by the by- I used on my 2nd Bus Stop movie and it worked wonderfully... 5 passes at 1280X720 res... 1 minute per frame and looking great!

[robcat2075]

Robcat-

 

Here are links to my 2 Bus Stop animations in Quicktime format with sound effects embedded.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5257446/BUSSTOP_Ma...ell_1_small.mov

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5257446/BUSSTOP_Ma...ell_2_small.mov

 

The one I had posted previously was WAY uncompressed, and very large- sorry about that... these two are 8 and 12 mbs. Thanks!

 

(Note: Posted to Dropbox at 11:00 Thursday EDT, may take an hour or so for Dropbox to process...until then you get a 'woops...404' screen)

 

 

Matt, can i get those in either a n image sequence or a MOV that doesn't use H264?

 

My After Effect will only run with Quicktime 6 and Quicktime 6 can't read H264 movies.

 

If they have sound you can make them a "Photo-JPEG" codec quicktime which will compress nice and still allow you to have sound and cn be read by QT6.

 

 

Edit: I just need the second one. I have the uncompressed version of the first movie downloaded already.

 

Edit 2: Actually, I can re export a JPEG sequence from your movie in QT7 and that works ok. However, i notice the sound is compressed with A-law. Can you give me an uncompressed wave?

[John Bigboote]

Quicktime Pro to the rescue... My audios may be a little loud... feel free to mix their volumes down if needed.

BUSSTOP_Matt_Campbell_2_small.wav