Atomike Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Here's a few seconds of my first character and first attempt at lipsync. The mouth is 4 pose-sliders adjusted manually. The voice track is me. Divx Clip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Looks good! I assume your charachter is a fuel pellet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomike Posted November 10, 2004 Author Share Posted November 10, 2004 Exactly right! He's a uranium pellet used in nuclear fusion. He'll be explaining how a nuclear plant works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypnomike Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 Nice work Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomike Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 No criticisms? Isn't anyone going to tell me I'm no good? You could at least make fun of my voice work or something. There has to be something I could do better here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Ok, but remember, you asked for it! Your lip synching looks good. If your character will be moving around then I'm going to suggest arms and legs. If not arms and legs, then I would consider hands and feet (There are lots of characters out there with hands and feet not connected to the body). This way he can point at stuff and move around in a believable way. I think that the feet can be fairly generic and his hands can be the cartoon three or four finger type. I think the ARM has a fairly simple to follow tutorial for making a cartoon hand. I tried it and found it fairly easy to use. You could even grab a hand from one of the predone models and use that. If you want to go over the top you coiuld have him wear a hard hat and safety glasses, but I think that will cause him to lose his charm. Besides, he's the hazard! Final thought. I like him gray, but I'm wondering if he should glow. Maybe that would be too distracting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 It just hit me, you said he was used in nuclear fusion. Isn't it fission? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomike Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 Thank you for the comments, Fishman! I considered hands and feet earlier, but moved away from that for speed of animation purposes. No, it's fusion, not fission. Nuclear plants create power when a neutron is "fused" to a uranium atom which causes it to split and make heat. Hopefully my dude will make it all pretty clear to the students and kids watching. The purpse of the video is to allow a virtual tour of the plant so people can see stuff they can't see in real-life since 9-11. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckbat Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Oops. Didn't see this thread the first time around. I know how you feel, though. My first lipsync test was greeted by a lot of chirping crickets. Eventually, you'll want to get JBarrett to jump in here, as he's the dude whose name's on the CD. In the meantime, aside from noting that it's a little odd that Mr. U-238 has a 2D mouth but 3D eyebrows, I have to give an overall thumbs up on this one. It's nice to see such a simple, appealing design. Since you asked for criticism, here's what I have to say: His mouth is moving a bit too quickly. If you look in the mirror and say "welcome" and "station," you'll notice that your mouth doesn't open and close with each syllable. For "welcome," it should open on "wel-", hold, then open a bit wider on "-come." For "station" it should just open and close once for the whole word. Really. Check the mirror. Number two comment would be about symmetry. While I doubt your pellet is going to be sneering or chewing tobacco, he could stand to use some asymmetry in his mouth movement. You'll have to experiment, but I'd try skewing the mouth a bit on "Hi" and "Cooper." No need to make fun of the voice work. After four years of Dubyah, just hearing someone pronounce "nuclear" correctly is good enough for me. My only other comment would be regarding the model itself. At the moment, you've got a cylinder with edges so sharp you could cut yourself, combined with shiny spherical eyes, pointy flat black eyebrows and a soft rounded mouth. Without changing the basic design, I'd urge you to tweak a bit for the sake of unity. You might consider reshaping the eyebrows into curves, to echo the crescent shapes of his eyelids. And/or sharpening the corners of his mouth, or rounding the edges of his body. Some specular highlights on his gray skin could help him look more metallic and less rubbery. Oh, and don't forget to add a pair of gargantuan breasts. You can't go wrong there. All right, seriously, just work on the mouth flappiness and add a couple more pose sliders to shift the mouth left & right and tilt it clockwise/counterclockwise and you'll be amazed at what a difference it makes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckbat Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Also, I agree he can do just fine without hands and feet, but I'd urge you to allow him to lift himself off the ground just enough to cast a shadow from time to time. His bottom edge is his "feet." One of the classic animation challenges they'd give to new animators was to make them animate a sack of flour as though it was alive. No eyes, no eyebrows, no mouth, no arms, no feet. Just four corners and the ability to tilt, hop and bend. If you're good, that's all you need. Seriously, you'd be amazed. Mr. Pellet already bends sideways. You're off to a good start... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 No, it's fusion, not fission. Nuclear plants create power when a neutron is "fused" to a uranium atom which causes it to split and make heat. Hopefully my dude will make it all pretty clear to the students and kids watching. Not to be picky, but as I learned it in school, nuclear fission is the whole process as described below (I grabbed this out of an on-line encyclopedia). Nuclear fusion is a different process that (to my knowledge) hasn't been commercialized yet. If you are going to be teaching kids, please teach them the proper terminology. "In physics, fission is a nuclear process, meaning it occurs in the nucleus of an atom. Fission is when the nucleus splits into two or more smaller nuclei plus some by-products. These by-products include free neutrons and photons (usually gamma rays). Fission releases substantial amounts of energy (the strong nuclear force binding energy). Fission can be induced by several methods, including bombarding the nucleus of a fissionable atom with another particle of the correct energy. Usually the other particle is a free neutron moving at the right speed. This free neutron is absorbed by the nucleus, making the nucleus unstable (much like a grocer's pyramid of oranges becomes unstable if someone throws another orange at it at the right speed). The unstable nucleus will then split into two or more pieces. These pieces are known as fission products ..." Please don't take this as a flame, I'm just hoping that the information that you present is accurate so that if any kids go back and start quizzing their teachers they get consistent answers. Now back to the topic! The other comments here were quite instructive to me as a newbie animator as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomike Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 Two points for Fishman. I went back, and looked at my script, and sure enough - fission. So the script (and kids' education) are safe, but I'm a doofus - or at least have a poor memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Glad to hear that the kids are safe. I think that your character will make it interesting for them. Keep up the good work. Will you be adding any comedic elements into your animation? Pratfalls, accidentally touching hot pipes, or the like? What a great use for AM. Be sure to post the finsihed product or at least some clips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwarsguy Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Looks great so far! I think you did a pretty good job with the lipsync, also I'm far from an expert on that subject... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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