Sneaky

[Simon Edmondson]

Just in case I don't get this finished for the end of New Years day.

This was going to be a simple test but, I'm getting carried away ( as usual ).

Also a test of my knowledge of using toon render, which I hope to use more extensively next year.

regards

simon

 

Sneak.mov

[TheSpleen]

I think he sneaks well

[robcat2075]

One overall suggestion...don't constrain the light to the character, just give it a few keyframes to generally follow him, as if a person were having to aim it manually. That will make the outline of the light on the background less antsy and his motion in relation to the set will be clearer.

[robcat2075]

And Happy New Year and happy animating in 2013!

[Simon Edmondson]

Not quite finished. Needs some work on the timing, edit and no sound but,

 

Hope the new year didn't sneak up on anyone unprepared.

Enjoy 2013.

simon

 

 

New_Year.mov

[Simon Edmondson]

Its been a long time since I tried to use motion blur as a render option.

I am trying to use it for the jumping figure in red to add some more movement. Is there a guide or Tutorial available on its use and settings ?

regards

simon

[Rodney]

Is there a guide or Tutorial available on its use and settings ?

 

I'm not aware of any specific tutorial regardng motion blur outside of Marcos's MUFOOF method to blur objects on the subframe level.

The primary considerations in motion blur are Keyframes and Multipass which equate to Timing and Spacing with respect to what will be burred due to motion.

In general, the more passes you render with Multipass the smoother the resulting blur will be.

 

The real trick I have found is make sure you leave enough inactive objects/frames with little or no movement as needed to complement the frames that will be blurred. Otherwise everything will appear blurred.

 

I would say that its generally a good idea to have a few anticipatory frames moving in the opposite direction as well so that the viewer will be able to more easily 'read' the blurred motion.

 

Control is really what we are after in Motion Blur so it helps to keep an eye on what is changing (and what we don't want to have blurred). If you know that there are some frames that you don't want to have any blur occuring you might want to render those separately without any blur. These nonblurred frames can give a nice contrast to the sudden/blurred movement.

 

To augment the motion blur consider squash and stretch also.

[Rodney]

Two things I can think of that I forgot to mention:

 

Ease (Slow In and Slow Out)

 

and

 

Rerendering frames that you've already rendered without any motion blur.

 

 

 

In the first case adjusting the Ease of any motion can substantially change the motion blur of any movement.

Try a three keyframe sequence with different Ease (Slow In, Slow Out and Linear) and you'll see the the difference that can make.

 

 

When rendering frames this give you the ability to retime (and blur) sequences that you've already rendered.

I've noted that we can get some really nice motion blur from images and I suspect it's because A:M is limited in what it can change. It can only blur what is there already.

[Simon Edmondson]

Rodney

Thank you once again for your help.

I was trying to render the red background figure in the sneak clip. I tried it on the original toon setting but it didn't seem to have any effect. So I tried to do it using normal settings but no joy either. Following your reply I will try another technique. I think the image is perhaps moving too slow ? That was the point of that bit so can't grumble !

regards

simon

[Rodney]

I don't think you'll see much motion blur in the sneak but you should in the final movement out of frame.

 

In relooking at your sequence I'd say you'll need a keyframe of the character all the way off screen to get the blur to fully effect that final movement (the leap off screen). There isn't enough to blur at present in the current frames IMO. You should see some from the one position to the last frame but that won't look like he's leaping off screen.

 

Note: It's not clear to me what he is doing in that action between the sneak and the jumping off frame.

I don't know your intention but I'd think a look toward the spotlight would work as a nice anticipation before leaping off screen.

[Simon Edmondson]

I don't think you'll see much motion blur in the sneak but you should in the final movement out of frame.

 

In relooking at your sequence I'd say you'll need a keyframe of the character all the way off screen to get the blur to fully effect that final movement (the leap off screen). There isn't enough to blur at present in the current frames IMO. You should see some from the one position to the last frame but that won't look like he's leaping off screen.

 

Note: It's not clear to me what he is doing in that action between the sneak and the jumping off frame.

I don't know your intention but I'd think a look toward the spotlight would work as a nice anticipation before leaping off screen.

 

Rodney

The idea was that he was sneaking up on the blue figure and about to jump and say boo on the person in the lotus position, meditating.

They realise before he jumps ( the light goes on ) and moves fast enough to get out of the way.

Working on the other bits now.

regards

simon

[Simon Edmondson]

Simple question.

Is this a male or a female walk ?

regards

Simon

 

Walk.mov

[steve392]

I would say a male ,mainly becuase of the legs

[Simon Edmondson]

I would say a male ,mainly becuase of the legs

 

 

Thank you for the reply Steve. I'll refrain from comment to see if I get any other replies.

simon

 

The same walk from the side

 

Side_Walk.mov

 

and from the front

 

Front_Walk.mov

[Simon Edmondson]

My friend the Theatre Director thought it was " a Black, Male, 58-63, Jazz Musician"...

I was only trying for gender !

Here it is with light and an attempted double take at the end. Still need work.

Any feedback welcome?

regards

simon

 

Ray__Walk.mov

[kwhitaker]

i like yours, looks pretty sneaky to me Simon . i tried kind of the same thing for my leprechaun, i thought to have him tip toe sneaking by

[Simon Edmondson]

i like yours, looks pretty sneaky to me Simon . i tried kind of the same thing for my leprechaun, i thought to have him tip toe sneaking by

 

Thank you.I'm trying a series of basics, while preparing a bigger project. Have you a link to your leprechaun walk ?

regards

simon

[robcat2075]

A few things about walking....

 

- we almost always have the toes pointed out when we stand or walk. The straight-forward-feet looks very Frankenstein-ish. (I noticed Daniel Day Lewis was dong something like that for "Lincoln" )

 

- our feet tend to land much closer to a center line than we imagine. On men the heels will just barely be missing each other as they pass and sexy women will do a catwalk where the feet may even be crossing in front of each other.

 

There are some very wide, stiff people who have to lurch from side to side to crane their legs around but it's a very awkward look.

 

- the slower the walk, the longer both feet are touching the ground. The rear foot will still be pushing off with the toe on the ground after the front foot has landed on the heel.

[Simon Edmondson]

A few things about walking....

 

- we almost always have the toes pointed out when we stand or walk. The straight-forward-feet looks very Frankenstein-ish. (I noticed Daniel Day Lewis was dong something like that for "Lincoln" )

 

- our feet tend to land much closer to a center line than we imagine. On men the heels will just barely be missing each other as they pass and sexy women will do a catwalk where the feet may even be crossing in front of each other.

 

There are some very wide, stiff people who have to lurch from side to side to crane their legs around but it's a very awkward look.

 

- the slower the walk, the longer both feet are touching the ground. The rear foot will still be pushing off with the toe on the ground after the front foot has landed on the heel.

 

Robert

Thank you for your observations. I was trying for something like the Mr Macho walk in the Richard Williams book, " The animator's Survival Kit". I was going to try the sexy walk next. Theres a good video on Youtube of Williams explaining the walks he uses,

 

.

 

There is a good Salma Hayak based walk in the Aardman film "Pirates" and Jessica Rabbit of course, although I don't have that.

simon

[Simon Edmondson]

Penultimate scene.

Any Feedback welcome.

She is about to say "BOO" !!! to the sneaky figure...

simon

 

Boo_Scene_Five_000.mov

[Simon Edmondson]

I think this may be the last version (?)

A friend is going to do the sound and his partner ( an actress ) the single word, "Boo" at the end. Which I'll add the facial work and lip synch to.

I wondered if her turn at the end was a bit slow ? Any Feedback welcome.

regards

simon

 

Boo.mov

[Rodney]

My feel is that the sequence is too confusing to follow 'as is'.

It's possible that sound might remedy some of this but here what I would suggest.

 

Here's a breakdown of what I see thus far with suggestions:

 

Establishing shot

Right now your establishing shot is of the character who is walking, rounds a corner and sees the girl sitting on the floor.

At this point that character knows something the audience doesn't and in this case... it's not yet a bad thing.

 

Note: An alternative establishing shot (which I am NOT recommending but would allow complete clarity) is that you first show both characters on screen).

I think you can successfully sell this without resorting to this.

 

 

Cut to (what the first character sees (which is the girl sitting on the floor)

What seems to be lacking to me is a short glimpse of the guy, perhaps poking his head around the corner behind her in the background.

This would connect the second shot with the first and we would understand that this girl is what he is seeing.

Now we would have an idea of what is going to happen in the next shot... the sneaking...

As it is, even with a general idea of what was suppose to be happening from seeing your previous WIPs, I wasn't sure what I was seeing.

 

The Sneaking

I think Robert or someone else mentioned that the light should probably not follow the guy... I'm not sure but the light seems a bit odd to me. it's following him here but then lights up the girl's face in the next shot. Not sure what the purpose of the light is here except to vignette and force a focus toward the character we are suppose to be seeing. As there are no other elements in the shot that draw our eyes someplace else there is less of a need for the light as it is in the sequence. If you are going to add a lot of detail to the background (texturing etc.) then the light might work okay for you.

 

The Jumping and Ducking.

Some of the animated action needs to be refined or trimmed here.

As it is it seems to me that the jumping guy is levitating (too long a delay in the air) while the girl is taking a bit long to duck out of the way.

My suggestion: Animate two balls moving instead of the characters to establish the timing. Then replace the balls with the people.

Timing-wise, as an aid to smooth animation, you might want to animate the two balls instead of the people throughout the whole sequence.

 

Recovery and Finale

Nothing really to add here especially as you suggest you are already going to work on this part of the sequence (i.e for lipsync).

 

 

If your were to quickly animate this with two balls here is what we might expect to see:

Boy ball moves around corner...

Boy ball reacts to seeing something... (we begin to anticipate what he might be seeing)

Boy ball (in background) is seen peering around the corner at the girl ball (in foreground) who is sitting motionless...

Boy ball begins sneaking up toward girl (who is now once again unseen)

Girl ball is seen as Boy ball leaps toward her

Girl ball moves out of the way

Boy ball flies past

Boy ball lands on the ground

Girl ball seen smiling (Says 'Boo' as a means to deliver the punchline/final beat)

 

Something like that anyway.

 

I was tempted to dive in and edit a few frames out of the ducking/jumping shot because I thought speeding that up might salvage that part of the sequence but hopefully by what I've written you can tell what I'm after here.

 

Tighten it up.

Make it clearer.

Get that movement fluid.

You've got a great sequence in the making if you can really nail it.

 

 

At any rate... thaz my suggestion.

[Simon Edmondson]

Rodney

 

Thank you for your comprehensive notes.

The scenario was ( if thats not too posh a word for it ),

 

The female is meditating in the lotus position.

Male spots her, decides to sneak up and make her jump,

The awareness of the meditator allows her to detect the 'danger' and get out of the way.

Male's prank backfires.

 

I spent a fair bit of time trying to get the male to blur, as if moving fast, while the female moves normally, yet gets out of the way. Having got out of the way he reverts to normal speed.

 

I did get a decent blur on one take but messed up the compositing on it afterwards.

H'mm. Back to the mouse pad.

regards

simon

[Rodney]

The scenario was:

The female is meditating in the lotus position.

Male spots her, decides to sneak up and make her jump,

The awareness of the meditator allows her to detect the 'danger' and get out of the way.

Male's prank backfires.

 

It's that first part of the scenario that escaped me because right as I was 'seeing' that it was a girl sitting in the lotus position... the guy was doing something (jumping) that distracted me. So I didn't really know it was a girl sitting in a lotus position. (Hope my thoughts make as much sense to you as they do to me)

 

If you plan to open with a shot of her sitting in the lotus position then you may achieve a higher degree of clarity.

IMO it's the establishing shot that needs a bit more clarity. You can get away with delaying that establishing shot but it still needs to be there.

 

Again... just my thoughts on this... confusion is not always a bad thing. Mysteries are made of these.

I like to understand (and analyze) what I'm seeing.

[Simon Edmondson]

The scenario was:

The female is meditating in the lotus position.

Male spots her, decides to sneak up and make her jump,

The awareness of the meditator allows her to detect the 'danger' and get out of the way.

Male's prank backfires.

 

It's that first part of the scenario that escaped me because right as I was 'seeing' that it was a girl sitting in the lotus position... the guy was doing something (jumping) that distracted me. So I didn't really know it was a girl sitting in a lotus position. (Hope my thoughts make as much sense to you as they do to me)

 

If you plan to open with a shot of her sitting in the lotus position then you may achieve a higher degree of clarity.

IMO it's the establishing shot that needs a bit more clarity. You can get away with delaying that establishing shot but it still needs to be there.

 

Again... just my thoughts on this... confusion is not always a bad thing. Mysteries are made of these.

I like to understand (and analyze) what I'm seeing.

 

Rodney

 

I think you are right about the establishing shot and I will address that tomorrow, got a revision of the jump going through now . My brother in law ( for reasons I won't elaborate on ) thought there might be something sexual going on. That was certainly not the intention.

The shot were it cuts to the woman it does have her breathing but, it doesn't read because of the lighting ( its too dark ) . Trying to fix that now. Changing the follow spot too.

 

The difficulty for me, and I think its fairly common, is that it reads for me because I know what its supposed to be. I'm learning to check that more now. I wrote some live action scripts a a few years back and was in a meeting of about 25-30 professionals and was dismayed that only about two of them got the references I thought were obvious. My bad. I've already started to revise the cloudy idea in the light of this for when I finally get it done.

regards

simon

[robcat2075]

I find the Boo scene very confusing.

 

-the first 4 seconds are blank?

-It really needs a master shot (probably at the start ) so the viewer can mentally place the various elements in space.

-She is so dark when she is first shown that I wasn't sure what she was. Some fill light would help.

-It's unclear whether his slo motion is supposed to be slo motion because she seems to be getting up at normal speed while he is floating by.

-was he trying to jump over her?

[Simon Edmondson]

I find the Boo scene very confusing.

 

-the first 4 seconds are blank?

-It really needs a master shot (probably at the start ) so the viewer can mentally place the various elements in space.

-She is so dark when she is first shown that I wasn't sure what she was. Some fill light would help.

-It's unclear whether his slo motion is supposed to be slo motion because she seems to be getting up at normal speed while he is floating by.

-was he trying to jump over her?

 

Robert

Thank you for your observations.

I've changed it in the light of yours and Rodney's suggestions. The first four seconds were blank, that was me leaving a space for the titles as I was trying to fit it in a time limit. The files are being re rendered as I type so the following light in this version will be gone by the end of the weekend.

 

The slo mo section was her getting out of the way by moving faster than him,difficult to show but worth having a bash at (?) . I was thinking of the section in Shrek were Fiona beats up the outlaws and has time to adjust her hair before supplying the kicks, that and several live action films which play with apparent speeds. In this version the male has motion blur added, while she has none, and they were composited in FCP. Not happy with the result but not sure what to do with it yet. I wonder if I should try for shadow buffers and leave out the 'set' altogether, then composite that over the jumping figure ?

Any feedback welcome

regards

simon

 

Boo.mov

[Simon Edmondson]

Its rendered at HD1080 but this is converted to VGA so there is a slight distortion in the figures.

Sound still to be done.

Any feedback very welcome.

simon

Boo.mov

[Simon Edmondson]

Been waiting for the sound while working on Why.

This is the version without music, which was the original idea.

Any critical feedback welcome.

regards

simon

 

Boo2.mov