sprockets 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! Learn to create your own tool bars! Behind The Scenes: A:M and Animatronics
sprockets
Recent Posts | Unread Content
Jump to content
Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

Buying a coffee shop


Shelton

Recommended Posts

  • Hash Fellow
Chris and I are starting our next project. It will focus around the coffee shop. We are building the background stories of Cupid's sick day and learning to be better animators.

 

animator suggestion.... have him lean slightly in the direction of the hand he is resting on and make that arm's shoulder a bit higher to show the weight of his body leaning on that arm.

 

Lower the other shoulder to continue the slope to the other side. It might raise a bit as he lifts his cup to his mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • *A:M User*

I have not posted anything in while

 

Chris and I are working on the coffee shop short. I am working on the rigs and getting the face rig in place. But there were some issues with the characters that will be in the short. Mainly size. So this shot is a proof of concept. I have set Stone's heighth back to 5'10 so Laurie can suprise him with the coffee shop. As we go we will be updating the thread. Chris is working on the animatics since he is the animation director of the short. We hope to present it soon but for now we are in the beginning stages.

 

Steve

tiptoes0.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • *A:M User*

Hi Steve

 

I installed the stand alone face rig from David and then David corrected all my mistakes. I am currently weighting process of the face. I found some mistakes in the hip and shoulder area as well. So I am taking about two weeks to correct my mistakes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

It was recently suggested that Steve and I blog a bit about what is going on with our project. We've slowed down a bit in the last few weeks due to real life, but here's what I've been doing when I've found the time.

 

First, the coffee shop was originally created by Steve as 4 big models. I have been thinking it would be nice to split them apart into individual models so they could be managed a little easier, then composing them using Actions that contain Action Objects. I was a little worried about how that was going to work, and I learned that some things worked better than I expected and other things not as well as I expected.

 

For the uninitiated, the idea is that you can have a "base" object, for example, an empty room or even just the floor. Then you can create an Action for that object. Then drag in various objects, such as walls, doors, chairs, couches, end tables, lamps, coffee table, newspaper, etc. As you drag the objects in, they become "Action Objects". Basically, you compose the contents of the scene within the Action. Then, you drag the "base" object into the Choreography and drag the Action onto that object, and your set is ready to use.

 

One thing I was worried about was that I would not be able to interact with and manipulate the Action Objects in the Choreography. Well, it turns out that you can! When you are in the Choreography, select the object with the Action, go to Skeletal Mode (F8) and there are the bones of the Action Objects! Select one of the bones and the Action Object is now in the tree, and you can do stuff with it there, even play with its pose sliders. However, you do not have the ability to change its render mode, which is something I would like greatly, and you cannot drag other actions onto it, which I would also like greatly if we could do that. For example, it might be nice to have a coffee brewing machine, build up an action with coffee pots, and then bring the coffee brewing machine into the set as an action object and add the coffee pot action object to the coffee machine.

 

Another thing I did was add lights into the coffee shop model. I added a tiny bit of volumetric lighting which is a really nice effect, but I am afraid the render times will be too much when we have everything together. We'll see.

 

Another issue we had was that whenever we'd open up a project, we'd get a bunch of dialogs asking for one of the models ("Cindy_Final2.mdl") or for some resource of no name. After some fiddling, I found that there were many assets with something like this in it:

 

 <Plugin Properties>
<NewtonProject>
NewtonProjectMatFile=../Cindy/Cindy_Final2.mdl
</NewtonProject>
</Plugin Properties>

 

I went through all of the .mdl and .act and .prj files that had something like that and just got rid of that NewtonProject section altogether. And now the project loads without asking for any files (named or otherwise)! I'll have to watch to see if they start reappearing again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • *A:M User*

As Chris stated life gets in the way of some things <_ but for the last couple days things are returning to a somewhat normal pace. as chris works on coffee shop i am rigging. have been working same model it seems forever. cant get passed some of should issues and cloth run into. jump from face rig back shoulder chest area laurie model. most people would let go done many ago>

 

What have I gleamed from this process? I think you can burn yourself out if the only thing you are doing is one thing! I have 5 models in a project that I am rigging at the same time. So for a treat this weekend I am planning on modeling a character or a background building or the street scene or something!! Of course after that it will be back to rigging!!

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin
For the uninitiated, the idea is that you can have a "base" object, for example, an empty room or even just the floor. Then you can create an Action for that object. Then drag in various objects, such as walls, doors, chairs, couches, end tables, lamps, coffee table, newspaper, etc. As you drag the objects in, they become "Action Objects". Basically, you compose the contents of the scene within the Action. Then, you drag the "base" object into the Choreography and drag the Action onto that object, and your set is ready to use.

 

One thing I was worried about was that I would not be able to interact with and manipulate the Action Objects in the Choreography. Well, it turns out that you can! When you are in the Choreography, select the object with the Action, go to Skeletal Mode (F8) and there are the bones of the Action Objects! Select one of the bones and the Action Object is now in the tree, and you can do stuff with it there, even play with its pose sliders. However, you do not have the ability to change its render mode, which is something I would like greatly, and you cannot drag other actions onto it, which I would also like greatly if we could do that. For example, it might be nice to have a coffee brewing machine, build up an action with coffee pots, and then bring the coffee brewing machine into the set as an action object and add the coffee pot action object to the coffee machine.

 

Nice write up on real world use of Action Objects.

Lots of folks don't know they have those at their disposal.

 

I have been working on the same model it seems forever. I cant get passed some of the should issues and cloth issues I have run into. I jump from face rig back to shoulder and chest area on the Laurie model. Most people would have let it go and been done many days ago!

 

What have I gleamed from this process? I think you can burn yourself out if the only thing you are doing is one thing! I have 5 models in a project that I am rigging at the same time. So for a treat this weekend I am planning on modeling a character or a background building or the street scene or something!! Of course after that it will be back to rigging!!

 

That sounds like an ideal way to reenergize to me. Break away and reattack the problem another day.

 

Thanks for the info Steve and Chris!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • *A:M User*

I ran into something weird last night. I have been working on the Laurie model weighting the face area. I would switch between model and action file as I weighted the face. I also would adjust the cps if needed and had the mirror mode turned on. I decided to run the mirror weights wizard. After a couple of days of weighting I jump into the action screen and began to notice the bones I had mirror the weights with were showing in the action. Then I noticed that I had cps moving on the right even though I was moving the pose slider or null on the left. I assumed that I had weighted incorrectly the cps on the right and changed them to the correct bones. I tried to the pose slider and nulls and same thing. I then removed all weights from the cps and tried the slider and nulls and found the cps still moved. I dug down into the relationship of the pose to see if I had created a smart skin or corrupted the file. Everything seemed ok. I closed AM restarted and had same results. Restarted the machine and still this model seemed to have issues.

 

Unfortunately the back up copy had already been overwritten with this file. I had not included this in SVN yet as it was a test. If I had included it in SVN I could have reverted to the last file committed.

 

So I really dont know what I did to corrupt the file. Nor do I know how to correct the model. I don't know if had to the do with mirror weights or the mirror mode and all the changes I was making on the fly. Anyway at this point I have gone back to the SVN model and lost two weeks of work on the face weighting.

 

So I feel I have gotten behind <_ and will document my steps as i try to get laurie back where she was before.>

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Hash Fellow

I had never thought of trying to weight with mirror mode on. I'm surprised that got any result at all.

 

btw, you can edit weights in an action and the weights will be changed in the model; maybe that's what you were doing but it sounded like you were switching between the model and the action to check the results.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • *A:M User*

Sorry Robert that was not clear. You are correct that was what I was doing switching between the modes to see the affect. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks Mark. From now on I will only use it once. I was being lazy and thought I could shorten the time in weighting.

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • *A:M User*

Just to keep things active I thought I would post a note tonight.

 

I have been weighting and riggin on Laurie's face until I am blue in the face. So I decided to model a little bit.

 

One thing that has always killed me was feet. So here is a run at modeling a foot and leg. Who knows where it will go?

 

Steve

:rolleyes:

leg0.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • *A:M User*

Thanks! I am a little spline heavy on the feet but i will come back to that later. I have always started with the head but decided something new. I have had issues with proportions in the past and that has manifested with my rigging of the characters. Any way working on the torso now should have update later. Thanks for looking.

 

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • *A:M User*

I am heading home tomorrow after being in and around the tornado damage for the last three weeks. It will be good to get back to AM and create something after being around so much destruction

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • *A:M User*

Hi Robert

 

No, working in the middle of it all. As a claims adjuster for property damage I got a chance to get up and personal with all the damage. While I was there, I was able to be in the middle of the next go round of the tornados on 5/31. Unbelievable. I have seen the Alabama and Missouri tornados and believe this outbreak ranks with all the others. When you are standing on a street where there is nothing left of the homes you have to wonder how only 24 people died. I know here in OK and especially in Moore, a great number of people have storm shelters. But to see the wake of the storm can humble anyone. I have a week off and then I will return for a few more weeks, but this time I am taking a computer so that I can work on AM at night in the hotel.

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • *A:M User*

Wanted to throw a keep alive message to you guys. I have been really busy this summer. But within the next few days Chris and I will start anew on our project. I will be making our yearly trip to Disney world in a few days and then it is back to Buying a coffee shop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • *A:M User*

I have never been happy with the hands I have modeled in the past.

 

I started on a new character several months back. I have completed the legs and torso, arms and now to the hands. Here is a shot. I am spline heavy right now but will reduce when I can

 

Steve

hand0.jpg

hand0.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • *A:M User*

Well I have completed the body for now. Going on back to the head and face. I know it is spline heavy but wanted to create all the bends in the right places. :)

 

Once I put clothes on her I will loose a lot of the patches and splines.

 

 

Steve

angie0.jpg

angieback0.jpg

angie3_0.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Getting closer. Working on the shirt and collar. Once that is completed it will ready to rig. Then makeup and hair.

 

Steve

 

She's looking great, Steve!

 

I could be wrong, but the arms seem like they might be a little short...could just be my eyes though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They are bent, so I believe it is an illusion.

 

Makes sense.

 

 

Thanks David. how are you doing with the flood situation.

 

Now I'm in sort of an insurance and contractor limbo. I'm waiting for some things to get resolved before I can get anything done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...