Kapsules

[JohnArtbox]

Thanks for the comments.

New image, I needed a way to get soft fluffy (blurred) clouds without DOF.

Here's the result, it took a bit of lateral thinking.

[modernhorse]

Man oh man these 'things' ooze personality. This scene is hilarious! I for one, would happily plunk down cash for the Kapsule Action figurines. Great job !

 

Doug

[Iham Wrong]

What if you made the cloud blobs jitter on the action/multipass settings like you do your lights? Would't that leave a soft fluffy looking artifact? Perhaps a mess, I don't know. Just tossing ideas.

[JohnArtbox]

Damn it Frank...I spent the last three days thinking before I came up with just that idea . I think it looks pretty good but you have to modify your materials to cope with the effect.

Setting1: castle in the clouds.

Still a work in progress. I need to fill in the spaces, build the surround and get my lighting and texturing right .Any criticisms & comments appreciated

[binder3d]

Wow! They are so cool! I love them! They are simple but have so much character. So much fun. Your work is very inspiring. But you did use Skycast that you wrote. Now I have to buy it to! Are there any tutorials explaning how to use it and do you update it when ever a new ver of AM comes out?

Thanks-

Great work!!

[binder3d]

John-I went to your website and I checked out Skycast. Wow what a great app! But I have a couple of questions. You said that you can use a image map as the base-whats a good size to work with? And after you create the action file how do you use it with AM inside the chor? Or a different action? Are you planning a update for v11 and v11.5 at the end of the year?

[Xtaz]

John !!!!!

 

Amazing Kreative Kastle in Klouds for Kapsules

 

do you plan to put lights inside the cells ?

 

Peace

 

Xtaz

[Iham Wrong]

Damn it Frank...I spent the last three days thinking before I came up with just that idea . I think it looks pretty good but you have to modify your materials to cope with the effect.

Setting1: castle in the clouds.

<Grins> Hey John, I was playing around with the cloud settings last night and I can tell there needs to be more than one action to compensate for distance from camera. I'm thinking here that an expression to control the jitter effect should be determined by measuring that distance and compensate the blur effect automatically. Sounds easy enough, just need to learn how to use the expression system.

 

The airbase/city is great. I bet it's going to be spectacular when it's colored in edge shaders.

 

Hmm.. need some angle caps and devil caps now.

[JohnArtbox]

Redo on the female giant...I like the varied hair colours.

Christina: SkyCast is something we use all the time professionally so we'll keep updating it. Although it 'should' stay compatible . There are a couple of tutorials on the website, and I'm reasonably active on the forum if you have any questions.

Skycast will scale any image you load as a base to 512 x 256 before running. The action is dropped onto a SkyCast light model in the choreography. These images are rendered in version 11.

Xtaz: Yes, because the clouds have very little colour variation, I'll be trying to add more colour/richness with lighting.

Frank: This is my 'simple' project. Expressions can wait for another day

[JohnArtbox]

Last character...

Now I can animate )

[OzTiff]

Sure looks like you're having fun! You're characters are terrific.

 

A question, can you use skycast to light indoor scenes at all? I had a bit of a play around and the walls 'kind of' got in the way! So I'm assuming not, but this would then mean that if an animation contains both indoor and outdoor scenes it would next to impossible to get the same surface appearance on a character. Any thoughts?

[JohnArtbox]

Hi Tiffany.

Skycast can be used on inside scenes as an ambient light by setting the render options on exterior walls to not cast shadows. This way the light shines through the walls but cast shadows from other objects within the room. I'll put an image up to show what I mean in a few minutes.

A better way to get a similar effect is too create an action which flies a bulb light around the room, and then run that action every frame(just like a SkyCast action).

I'll post some images in an hour or so to illustrate.

This is the Skycast with shadow casting turned off on the wall

[Mega]

Hi, John:

 

As always, these characters are fantastic! They have such zeal and whimsy about them. Simply modeled but well crafted. No easy feat. As you can tell, I really like your work. Also, I purchased SkyCast...a must buy! In the near future I hope to have some scenes to post. Just been so overwhelmed with work and family...

 

Keep posting John.

 

Tony

[OzTiff]

Thanks John, I'll give it whirl this weekend.

[JohnArtbox]

Finally got some animation done.

This is only the first pass, but it shows of my new facial animation rig. All of the expressions on the face are the result of moving two bones with translate relationships.

Now I need to flesh out the animation, add hand movements, change lots of bad points, refine the timing etc etc.

Probably about 3 hours work so far.

JackTest.mpg

[ZachBG]

John, that's fabulous!

 

What do the bones control? Wide-Narrow, Open-Close a la Stop Staring?

[JohnArtbox]

thanks Zach, I haven't read the book but it sounds similar.

Mouth wide/narrow Open/Close Happy/Sad

Eyes Open/shut Blinks&Asymmetry Angry/Happy

+ there's a teeth control I haven't used yet.

[DarkLimit]

John thats cute and funny awsome work so far....

[robcat2075]

Hey that's working very well! I've been waiting to see those guys move, I was wondering how they'd walk with such big feet and short legs.

[PlJack]

I was wondering how they'd walk with such big feet and short legs

I had the same thought.

Does not seem to be an issue. A little tweaking and your gold.

Its just a test so I'll save my crits for now.

 

Great work John. I have been waiting for those little guys to move.

They drip even more with character now that they move.

[mootsger]

Nice work, John. It has that Aardman feel to it..... minus the uni-brow.

And you need to keep your voice in. Maybe not as Jack, but maybe the giant.

[CRToonMike]

Nice work there, John! I really like the acting the character's doing. And the voice ain't too shabby.

 

But can he walk and talk at the same time?

[williamgaylord]

Really look forward to seeing this story develop. These capsules are "easy to swallow". Amazing amount of personality in such a simple design. Love it!

 

I can imagine these little guys and gals in all kinds of situations...

 

..."Can you hear me, Major Tom?"...(space capsule)...

 

...How many capsules can you fit in a phone booth?...

 

...Dr. Who?...(time capsule)...

 

...the rock band Kiss...encapsulated...

 

and the list goes on, ad nauseum... ...my apologies...

 

At any rate, I love these little guys!

 

Bill Gaylord

[JohnArtbox]

Moving along a bit further.

I've added hand animation to the first section and extended the animation . The end section, after he stops talking, is a floaty first pass but it's taking shape. I scrapped two previous versions because they didn't read well enough.

I extended the translate controls onto the hands so that a single bone controls spreading fingers, closing to a fist, pointing and inbetween hand shapes.

testCsm.mpg

[JohnArtbox]

Rig

Each of the squiggles on the side are attached to a bone which controls the relevant feature eyes, mouth, teeth, left and right hands. These are in turn parented to a bone which orients them to the camera so they are always easy to manipulate.

I use the TSM for the skeletal control.

[JohnArtbox]

I'm talking to myself again.

This is the majority of the animation. It's turned from a test into a trailer

I've got to do another pass on the animation but real life is intruding so I thought I'd get this up. I also need to do a proper lighting and render setup.

 

Criticism is good...

http://www.artboxanimation.com/AmStuff/jacktest.mov

[JohnArtbox]

waiting for the render.

Here's what he looks like

[KenH]

Looks great John! I know it's only a test, but if I might be so bold....IMO some of his movements should be more exaggereated ie when the words are falling. He doesn't seem scared enough. And more hand movement in front when the foot(?) is about to crush him.

[JohnArtbox]

Hi Ken

Be bold, I asked for criticism

I've already added some extra movement on the end and shortened the time.

He's only supposed to be surprised by the falling text,and when he sees the content is actually pleased by it(I think i need to add my screams/exclamations, and an "ooo" and a "cool" to note approval for the new voice and better script.

The current versions are off a sound fx cd I have. You're not the only viewer to miss the "pleased" aspect so I obviously need to communicate it more strongly.

On another note netrender has been running for three days with only one failure(and that's because the network cable fell out).

[JohnArtbox]

another few stolen hours dedicated

Added a jittering action to the keylight to improve shadows tightened up some of the actions. Moved the giant's shadow into frame to give Jack something visible to react to.http://www.artboxanimation.com/AmStuff/jack.mpg

[KenH]

Hey John. Can I ask how you went about making his hair. I'd like to use that look in a model.

[starwarsguy]

I love this! Greatest character ever! You could do so much with this!

[JohnArtbox]

Next, and probably final, incarnation. The main changes are a modified Jack model with better cuffs on his shoes, and a newly modelled giant foot(which no longer looks like a giant avacado.

Ken: the hair is just extruded tubes tapered and then pulled into shape. It hearkens back to rolled plasticine hair . Somewhere I have a sketch pad with a whole lot of different variations.

Time to put the real show on the road now, and move onto the film. Otherwise I'll have a fantastic trailer but no short

Jack mpeg 9mb download

[robcat2075]

Hey, that looks really snazzy!

 

two thoughts... the light yellow title against the white clouds is hard to read... and the falling text seems to be falling too slowly.

 

But those are probably the two items from the trailer that won't carry over to the finished show, so... never mind.

[ypoissant]

I checked the first Jack clip and the last one. The last one definitely reads much better. Especially the hold on the giant foort shadow. Very nice. And good timing too.

[Rodney]

What happen??

Outside of the Osprey tutorials John (Artbox) Henderson hasn't posted a WIP in ages. It's like he's gone missing or something!

 

Are you working on another supersecret project?

 

I'm in pain here John. It's the withdrawals...

Got... ...to... ...see... ...MORE!

[KenH]

I think he's a mentor, so he's probably beavering away on something.

[Rodney]

I think he's a mentor,

 

Yeah... but that's not a good excuse!!!

[Rodney]

John was spotted tonight at Wednesday Night Chat!

 

I saw him... I did!

 

Living and Dreaming Kapsules he is!

 

 

Yay!

[KenH]

Cooool.

[williamgaylord]

How did you do the facial rigging and animation for the mouth movements? The Kapsules are very similar to my Marshmallows (especially since I recently simplified the mouth to match the approach on your Kapsules ).

 

Bill Gaylord

[starwarsguy]

If you are truly a beginner at lipsync, then look at another characters lip poses (on the cd) and copy them best you can. That's how I started!

[JohnArtbox]

Sorry for the absence...worked went truly berserk for a while and for the last few weeks i have..as Rodney said...been eating, sleeping and dreaming Kapsules. The script, design and storyboards have been consuming all my time, but they're almost done.

William

How did you do the facial rigging and animation for the mouth movements

I use a very simple facial rig designed for fast animation.

The eyes, eyebrows, mouth and hands have a bone each with a translate relationship that weights different shapes

An example is the mouth shapes here

mouth shapes

Move the bone left and right to make the mouth narrow or wide, backwards and forwards for happy to sad, and up down for open closed. Then combine in any combination.

It has the advantage of allowing you to smooth any problems within0 the relationship, rather than at animation time.

I'll post a bit more detail in the coming weeks. for now here's some bg design

[starwarsguy]

Those are great designs. If I could amke designs liek that, I'm sure my models could be better. Great work!

[williamgaylord]

Move the bone left and right to make the mouth narrow or wide, backwards and forwards for happy to sad, and up down for open closed. Then combine in any combination.

 

That is pretty cool! Look forward to learning more about it. Most of the scripts I have lined up for the Marshmallows do not involve much dialog, if any, with one exception of a talkative french marshmallow. Most depend more on sight gags, so a simple means of lip sync like this would be great.

 

I like the background designs. Using discarded barrels, tea pots, etc., for buildings is a nice touch. Kind of shifts the sense of scale in a humorous kind of way. Sort of like the giant Lego blocks in the evil castle of "Time Bandits".

 

Bill Gaylord

[JohnArtbox]

One of the main characters for Investigating Jack is this knight. There's more work to do to finish modelling and then I have to rig the new geometry, but it's been so longsince I posted any 3d I thought I'd show the progress.

[Thierry]

always BRILLIANT John!!!

[Rodney]

Thanks for the update John!

 

I was experiencing serious depression for lack of getting regular updates regarding "Investigating Jack"! It's a good think I ran into in #hash3d the other day or who knows what state I'd be in.

 

If everyone else is as addicted to your story and characters as I am I'd say you've really got a real hit on your hands.

 

I keep wanting to see more of the world of Jack and the Kapsules.

It doesn't have to be much... but please please please... keep those images flowing. Crop out all the secret stuff if necessary but keep the world of "Investigating Jack" in the headlines and hearts of the viewers.

 

Please?

 

Perhaps you could share with others some of the sketches you showed in chat.

 

Thanks!

[williamgaylord]

Me too!! These guys have a lot of appeal. Any maidens or damsels? (Oh, yah...now I remember...you do have a damsel in the mix...)

 

Interesting asymmetry in his armored footwear. Is this second-hand armor? Nice style.

 

I plan to experiment a bit with your face rig approach this week. Pretty darn clever, that!

 

Bill Gaylord

[JohnArtbox]

and now he's rigged

Bill: The asymmetry of the armour was due to laziness, I built the knight by modifying Jack, that way I get to keep a lot of the rigging and the facial expressions built into the Jack model. I just hadn't finished copying the leg across.