Zambombia's first short

[josema]

Ok, here's the thing, a couple of buddies and I are working on a short animation. Right now I'm developing the characters for the short. The main character is a bird, a caribbean grackle to be exact. At the same time, we're also working on the look of the film. I'm pretty sure I've got it nailed down, but of course, I wanna let ya'll in on it, so you can post your comments (if any).

 

What do you think of the colors? What would be the best way of doing these characters in AM. Specially the bird, I'm debating over wether I should use the hair systems in AM 11. I don't want my computer to become too sluguish in the process of animating the sucker.

[entity]

You are in for a lot of work... you should find info on toon shading, for hair- visit the hash.com site::

http://www.hash.com/am2004/Modeling/Hair/index.htm

 

and for toon render, check out this thread (links there)::

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8522

 

I would use very basic shapes for these characters... keep it simple and stylized and you should keep the look you are looking for. And a piece of advice about modeling; make yourself a front and side view drawing oof the charcters to see in the modeling window ( right click on model-->new-->rotoscope...in the properties you can change things) in A:M to guide you through modeling. okay?

 

The colors look fine to me. Don't worry about the hair system... it shouldn't slow you down too much. Try what you want first... then modify for the render if it eats too much time.

[josema]

Thanx for the advise. Very helpful links, by the way.

[modernhorse]

So will your characters be toon rendered as your concept implies? I'm curious to see examples of the hair system with toon rendering.

 

I like the concepts josema. Best with the project.

 

Doug

[Neeblesquibb]

Are you planning on rendering them in 3D, or as they are now in 2D?

 

-Jim

[dingo]

I don't want my computer to become too sluguish in the process of animating the sucker.

You don't have to worry too much about the sluggishness, because you can turn off the "fur" rendering while animating, and only turn it on for final rendering. Just remember that the fur will make your character "poofier" when animating your naked model.(guess that depends on how "flat" you make the hair).

 

I think it would be cool to see the bird animated with some of the new fur features.

 

Peace,

dingo

[josema]

So will your characters be toon rendered as your concept implies? I'm curious to see examples of the hair system with toon rendering.

Well I'm not sure exactly how I want to do this. I think I'd like to have a hybrid between a 3D and a 2D look. I'll be modeling the characters soon and hope to post some samples of render tests as I do them.

[josema]

Just remember that the fur will make your character "poofier" when animating your naked model.

Thanks for the tip. That makes perfect sense.

[lazz]

One thing you could do if your going for the 3d/2d look, is instead of using fur, you could apply a decal on the bird to imply feathers and texture. For example, like drawing a brick wall, you only have to draw some bricks to imply that the whole thing is made up of them. Here, this would be the same concept, only with feathers and a bird. And then render it, but with the lines on to get the cartoony look. Hope that helps!

[josema]

This is a good solution. I'll do a couple a tests to see how it turns out. Thanks