Santa's Little Helper

[thejobe]

Hey guys

 

we started animated some of our scenes. i ran into a little problem maybe someone can give me some advice.

 

im doing walk cycles for each character and getting little hiccups in between the cycle as it repeats.

does anyone know what is causing it or how it can be fixed?

walk_test_render.mov

[thejobe]

Dance sequence with elfs in santa workshop.

 

workshop_dance_sequence.mov

[robcat2075]

Hey guys

 

we started animated some of our scenes. i ran into a little problem maybe someone can give me some advice.

 

im doing walk cycles for each character and getting little hiccups in between the cycle as it repeats.

does anyone know what is causing it or how it can be fixed?

walk_test_render.mov

 

Basic problem, the beginning and end don't match.

 

Remember my video on using walk cycles, where it talked about adjusting "crop range"? Try that first. If that doesn't work i can look at it.

[robcat2075]

Dance sequence with elfs in santa workshop.

 

workshop_dance_sequence.mov

 

About the dance step... the foot lifting will look better if the toe comes off the floor a hair later than the heel, and there needs to be a longer instant where both feet stay on the ground before the next one lifts off. If one foot leaves the ground the same instant that the other one landed it starts to look like someone pedaling a bicycle.

[thejobe]

Thx rob I'll take a look at the video again.

I'm also having trouble with timing on path. I scrubbed you video on that but couldn't find anything that worked.

The action is not changing pace when I change the length of time in chor

I want the guy to run from point a to point b in 8 seconds. Action per step is suppose to last 1 sec.

In the chor when I apply the action to the model the action repeats every 3 frames.

Why is it doing this?

[robcat2075]

Thx rob I'll take a look at the video again.

I'm also having trouble with timing on path. I scrubbed you video on that but couldn't find anything that worked.

The action is not changing pace when I change the length of time in chor

I want the guy to run from point a to point b in 8 seconds. Action per step is suppose to last 1 sec.

In the chor when I apply the action to the model the action repeats every 3 frames.

Why is it doing this?

 

Did I not talk about setting the "ease" on the path constraint?

 

(I actually don't remember what all I said in that)

[thejobe]

ok i got it fixed

thank for the video again its saved me 4 times during this project!

and the dancing elf actions were my friends project so I'm going to let him work that one out.

[thejobe]

hey guys i got a little problem and wondering if this is actually doable.

i got a action i did in the choreography and i have another action i want to put at then end of the chor for that character. but when i put it at then end of the chor action it does nothing at all.

why does this happen?

[robcat2075]

First try dragging the new Action to be above or below the chor action (whatever it is not now). I forget whether above or below has precedence.

[thejobe]

for one of our scenes were going to have a clock showing the passing of time.

took the alarm clock model from the contribute cue (thanks pixelplucker!) and modified to look like a wall clock, as well as animate the hands to move continuously.

animation is 1 min long (took about an hour to render)

with be used in a time lapse scene.

its a bit big so let it load before playing.

clock_spin.mov

[TheSpleen]

very cool stuff Jobe

[thejobe]

just bumping this so it doesn't get pushed down too far.

still working on it. finished about 10 scenes so far. still a lot more to do

[Simon Edmondson]

This is the tunnel going to the cavern where the Icemen live.

this was done with baked surfaces. the renders still took a long time so the mats are not an issue. its just a slow machine.

 

 

Pardon me but, how do you bake the surfaces ? Its something I would like to try but couldn't find the option... ?

regards

simon

[Fuchur]

This is the tunnel going to the cavern where the Icemen live.

this was done with baked surfaces. the renders still took a long time so the mats are not an issue. its just a slow machine.

 

 

Pardon me but, how do you bake the surfaces ? Its something I would like to try but couldn't find the option... ?

regards

simon

 

that is a new feature in v16.

 

see u

fuchur

[Simon Edmondson]

that is a new feature in v16.

 

see u

fuchur

 

Gerald

 

Thank you. Another reason to upgrade.

regards

Simon

[thejobe]

these are a few of the things we are working on.

 

this scene one of the elfs is coming back from the outhouse.

not sure why hes taking so many steps to get to the door. probably need to play with the stride a bit

elf_walking_from_bathroom.mov

 

this scene santa is dropping off the package in front of the cave to lure out the icemen.

this one is basically done. except fora few tweaks.

does anyone know how to make indents in the snow as the skis on the sled go by?

santa_package_dropoff.mov

 

this scene the robot ninja sneaks into the cave.

lots of tweaks need to be done to the animation.

ninja_sneaks_in_cave.mov

 

this scene the ninja is sneaking around the tunnel.

few tweaks need to be done here.

ninja_in_tunnel.mov

 

were moving along pretty good but a lot still needs to be done.

 

going to start working on music and sound effects after the bulk of the animation is complete.

[mouseman]

This is looking really good!

 

this scene one of the elfs is coming back from the outhouse.

not sure why hes taking so many steps to get to the door. probably need to play with the stride a bit

The stride length looks reasonable. Maybe you could just move the outhouse closer to the building so he has fewer steps to take? Or move the door closer to the end of the building where the outhouse is?

 

this scene santa is dropping off the package in front of the cave to lure out the icemen.

this one is basically done. except fora few tweaks.

does anyone know how to make indents in the snow as the skis on the sled go by?

Not sure about the tracks. It looks like the package just falls off the sled for no reason. It would be good if Santa actually pushed it or something similar.

 

This project is quite exciting! It has a bit of scope! But you're making lots of progress. Do you have a production schedule?

[thejobe]

This project is quite exciting! It has a bit of scope! But you're making lots of progress. Do you have a production schedule?

yes shooting toward the end of December.

were on track shoot have animations done in the next month.

 

then we have to do sound, music and voice.

[thejobe]

ok time to dust off this project (cough! cough! man its dusty)

 

ok we had to take a month long break since my friend is in military and dealing with the hurricane rebuilding effort.

 

but since most of that is out of the way we are going to start getting back on track (well mostly me, he has 3 weeks of school to catch up on)

 

i been doing some lighting tests for some extra scenes i wanted to throw in.

 

this render took about an hour on my 7 year old machine.

 

 

got to go thru the files and see whats done and isnt done.

[thejobe]

HEY GUYS!

 

well we finally found time to get back to work on this project.

almost all animation is done! YAAAAA!

 

now we are finally rendering out scenes.

this was the first scene rendered out.

 

let me know what you guys think.

elf_outside_workshop.mov

 

these are also frames from other scenes that we are still rendering out.

[thejobe]

hey guys,

got a bit of problem im trying to solve maybe you can lend some insight

i got to have the robot walk up from behind the robot and kick the one guy in the groin and walk around to the other guy and do the same.

trying to figure out the best way of doing this without animating the the entire scene by hand.

orginal idea was to have him on a path and do the action and go on path again. but not sure how thats going to work.

 

this is the scene.

didnt do any of the robot actions yet just had him move into position.

and yes my director wants the scene this long but maybe i can talk him into splitting it up.

cave_scene_camera_2___00000.mov

[robcat2075]

Are they saying anything?

[robcat2075]

If you are absolutely determined to use a walk cycle, you could set up all the walking on a path first, then bake that, then shift some of the keyframes later to make a space for doing your non-walk-cycle animation (which will need to lead into where the walk picks up again)

[thejobe]

Is there another way to do it besides walk cycle? I'm open to options.

[robcat2075]

The typical way to animate a scene where people walk around and do stuff is to animate each step just like it was anything else that needs to be done.

 

If the shot could be broken up with some reaction shots so we don't have to see teh guy walking around continuously the animation could probably be simplified quite a bit.

[thejobe]

just a quick update. all scenes have finally been rendered!!!!! yeahhHH!!!!!

now on to post production.

[Rodney]

Congratulations!

 

Can we expect to see any more sneak previews?

[thejobe]

ill get some shot together this weekend and a poster as well.

[thejobe]

alright here is a scene that is about complete.

still needs tweaking and sound.

Sequence_21.mov

[thejobe]

As im still editing the footage, i needed a break from doing that and decided to make a poster.

a full size 8 x 10.5 poster for anyone who wants to print it out.