Disc Golf Short

[jnord71]

I borrowed the pine tree from the forum (thank you, John Bigboote), but I believe I made everything else. My friend Adam (The Toadstool) helped me with the home made Motion Capture. Thank you, Adam.

 

To make this short I used Motion Capture, Dynamic Constraints, Forces, several Particle Systems (hair, leaves, grass/weeds), a little Newton Physics, and Cloth along with animation by hand. Animation Master, Audacity, and Photoshop were the software used.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_j5nGkfCIE

 

 

[robcat2075]

That is ominous! I was waiting for him to get zapped.

 

I like the slowly moving camera shots, they add depth to the scene.

 

Is the character all mocap or was there some manual keyframing on him?

[johnl3d]

Nicely done

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, Jeff!

[Rodney]

Well done.

 

The dynamics of moving plants and such in sync with the sound of the breeze really adds a lot to the scene.

 

I can think of only one suggestion and it might seem odd...

I'd either lower the brightness/contrast of the guys blue pants or adjust the pants in some way so they blend a bit more into the scene.

I believe its the difference between that and the realistic backgrounds that is catching my attention.

If the pants were darker (even black) I don't think that would be the case.

 

If this is intentional styling (red flag, yellow disc and target... blue pants) please disregard.

 

One trick to vary that up a bit and make those larger shapes of color blend into the background more is to add a little roughness (at small scale) say... 2 percent roughness at 5 percent scale) to break up those solids.

It's like using film grain to add noise to a cg rendered scene that is composited into a live film plate to mask the differences.

 

I can picture a whole series of these as he (and I presume others) play through.

Are you planning more in the series?

 

I also want to add that the sound sync appears spot on and that really helps the flow of the animation and sense that this character is really in the scene and performing the activity.

Nice pacing as well... the breathing... all contribute to that illusion of life that is so sought after.

I'd ask question about your motion capture, dyncamics and such but don't even know what questions to ask!

It looks like you are well on your way to mastering them.

[John Bigboote]

COOL! Are you capturing your own mocap files?

[robcat2075]

... ...along with animation by hand.

 

 

 

 

Ah, I see, you did mention that...

[jnord71]

I started by capturing my own motion. I used that as a starting point, but then I went back over it and made many changes keyframing by hand. I like the idea of motion capture, I think once I have more experience with it my process will be faster than keyframing everything manually. However, I also don't want to only use motion capture because I feel that would take the art out of my animation. I think using the two together is a happy medium. Luckily, my friend Adam, The Toadstool in the forum, has made making our own motion capture files his priority, so he had it figured out and made that process relatively painless for me.

 

I do have plans to extend this someday. I might add a player or two and will probably include the previous throw/drive from the concrete teepad seen at the top of the hill at the very begining. It will be the opening scene in a longer short ending with the golfer or golfers being chased by something through the wooded park, but I have worked on this for so long that I am going to set it aside for a bit and come back to it.

 

Rodney, I hadn't noticed how much the pants stick out. It wasn't intentional and I will make an adjustment for the future. I can't stop noticing it now that you pointed it out.

 

Thank you everyone for your comments and questions.