hi ppl,
this is where we can come and talk shop, ask questions and share tips.
i strongly believe in synergy, and in learning everyday... so lets rein in those massive egos of ours, and learn from one another.

thanx.

the following is from a personal short im working on.
see storyboard attached.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTbvUSFIyvs&feature=youtu.be

there r tons of tweaking to be done (as usual)
however im open to comments n critique....hopefully constructive ones.

attached is a ruff take of scenes 1-15 to assess continuity. no sound tho
im having to do d sound masself (not my strong suit) but sometimes assessing a clip is easier without the distraction of sound, in my opinion.

im curious to know if d plot is evident without the aid of dialogue.

so...pls watch n comment.

most of the character animation was done in Motionbuilder n shipped to Maya.
the total work so far has taken about 3 weeks, working on and off.
my focus was on d animation not modeling or rendering...i used mental ray with very basic settings.
i want to run thru the whole story first, then polish d scenes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqjBfk-IZc&feature=youtu.be

Nice. I'll soon upload a demoreel. I thought the animation thread was dying.

filling in some missing scenes.
assessing the body mechanics of a shotgun recoil.
the muzzle flash will b post-produced in AE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sv5beys9MU

as it is a test, i didnt bother with the environment.
will post my progress as i populate the scene.

@Okx, What do U mean “assessing the body mechanics of a shotgun
recoil“.
Good Job overall though.

@reid
i mean assessing how d body moves in response to the kick or recoil from firing a shotgun.
trying to decide if i over- or under-exaggerated d motion.

although being a short scene, i may get away with it.

OKX: @reid
i mean assessing how d body moves in response to the kick or recoil from firing a shotgun.
trying to decide if i over- or under-exaggerated d motion.

although being a short scene, i may get away with it.

Ooohhhh. ok.

Looks cool, but why your characters light skinned?

Salmoneus: Looks cool, but why your characters light skinned?

I think His concentration was on Animation. And U gotta giv it to Him. Its a nice job. But U did mention That U did These in 3weeks on & off!!! Are U sure about that, I mean that‘s a complex scene even if i watched it in a hurry. Plus I thought U use Max. *&%$$$#^*% Maya?
Yeah & I like the heading... ANIMATORS CORNER.
Waddup Salmoneus n Morning All.

@salmoneus
lol....i could darken them if u think it will aid d animation.
well, like reid pointed out, my focus was on the animation not d xters.
later on in the story, i even introduce superman, spidey n d hulk...lol
was just utilizing xters i had, to improve my game.

besides all the xters arent original.

Autodesk have this Pinocchio Project where u can create a buncha diff xters from a buncha presets.
u can then chose to download the assets (including morph targets) if u like and tweak to taste.
that eliminated extensive modeling and knocked off quite a bit of time for me.
it normally takes me about 2 weeks to fully develop a single xter, from conceptualization to full rigging of d textured model.

@reid
break down the scenes n ull see not a lot is really happening.
just a basic run that i tweak for diff xters, walkcycles and minor acting.
polishing the animation is where d bulk of d work is.
the scenes dat show close up interaction between xters is still in blocking stage.

nah, max depresses me...lol, i think like a mayan.
i back n forth tween maya n motionbuilder.
every xter animator should try out motionbuilder at least once....its awesome, n with Autodesk acquiring everything, the integration with max n maya is seamless.

Complex scenes means the models and animations in it. & in 3weeks? u gat me kickin‘, but again U‘ve xplained d hows.
I initially wanted to pickup Motion builder but have this affinity for Max so Max it is, even against Maya. I probly b pickin Maya n Motion Builder nxt year when I‘m where I wanna b in Max. For Modelling of Complex Buildings, I use Revit and or AutoCad, For Organic stuffs I use 3dsmax. Modelling a single SIMPLE character, skinnin n texturing n rigging takes days. but less than a week and I do low poly stuffs. dont have time for high resolutions. Texture is not really my thing but i try but RIGGINGs are complex. with constraints on d spines, hands and shoulders, so i key less.
And Now, I‘m using CAT motion. Lolz. Then again, Reidz a workaholic barely having time to play.
Yeah, Since U mentioned d Pinnochio project, how do I access it and exactly what else is an advantage using it asides morph targets?
Cheerz.

the link is http://projectpinocchio.autodesk.com/
u sign in wit ur autodesk id, or follow the procedure for getting one.

the technology will b pulled by the end of September so its a limited time thing.
i dunno about you, but having access to flawlessly skinned, rigged xters with an extensive range of expressions and phonemes for speech is a pretty handy asset.

worst case, they can form the basis for ur tweaks to personalize as u like.
u can edit the texture file in ur paint app of choice, to further make them distinct to u.

i think its an awesome freebie from autodesk.
i use it a lot for xters that r extras, so i focus on modeling just those that have specific facial features.

check it out n feedback.

seriously xplore motionbuilder as soon as u can, the real time engine makes animating flow more intuitively.
besides they developed d .fbx technology way back when they were called kaydara before alias acquired them.
they developed the human ik system and were the basis for ur physique n CAT in max when autodesk acquired alias.
so u can imagine wot their native software will b capable of.

cheers

Awesome! just what i need @ this time. Will check em out now.

an update on the scene


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD3-lTWg4Ho

[quote author=reidkrugger]

......Its a nice job. But U did mention That U did These in 3weeks on & off!!! Are U sure about that.....

@reidkrugger...
One interesting thing is that when the audience look at it...no boby ll even know u did it within a very short time without u explaining to them which, eventually u wont ve to explain it to everyone that sees it. its a nice work...good at it. Our clients sometime give a very short time for us to do magic...lol...my point is...let us take more time...do something better. So that when they look at the work, they get blown away...
@okx
Thumbs up...focus on animation and forget about the rest...let someone thats good at lighting or other stages do the rest....at the end ur all get the credit..TeamWork....hope i ve not written too much...lol

OKX: there r tons of tweaking to be done (as usual)
however im open to comments n critique....hopefully constructive ones.

attached is a ruff take of scenes 1-15 to assess continuity. no sound tho
im having to do d sound masself (not my strong suit) but sometimes assessing a clip is easier without the distraction of sound, in my opinion.

im curious to know if d plot is evident without the aid of dialogue.

so...pls watch n comment.

most of the character animation was done in Motionbuilder n shipped to Maya.
the total work so far has taken about 3 weeks, working on and off.
my focus was on d animation not modeling or rendering...i used mental ray with very basic settings.
i want to run thru the whole story first, then polish d scenes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqjBfk-IZc&feature=youtu.be

Sorry cud I ask ur system specification, especially the graphics card . Am a 3d animator, use maya, photoshop and after effects. Wud be uploading my wrks soon

@ero

I use a 2GB Radeon 7670 card, 16GB RAM.

I have a mini render farm with similar specs but lesser RAM (8GB)

if ur upgrading, there's a list of recommended cards on the autodesk site.


cheers.

will love to see ur work n trade tips

Hello,everyone,new to the forums and would just like to say great job.
@OKX
Obviously still needs more work, but having made a few failed attempts at a short myself I'm aware of the challenges
and hope you pull through.

like ur work. You r quite good.
But there's a catch though, becos the xters are a bit human like, there's a tendency for the viewer (moi inclusive) to fall into the 'Uncanny valley' .
What i mean x, the xters being realistic means that my brain x automatically searching for clues to prove to me that their movement x artificial. This constant brain assessment puts one off the general fun of watching the animation.
But if the xters are cartoony or somewhere in btw Shrek and the incredibles, i think it will make for better viewing and fun to watch without d brain constantly telling me to look out for faults.
Nice work really.
I use blender and i'm a generalist.

here's a xter i'd in blender.
Do you know anything about boids?
I want to animate a swarm of bees or birds for my scene. Though i use blender, but your general animating idea on boids x appreciated.

@kazuna

thanx for ur input.
yeah, I know d uncanny effect...it ruined Polar Express and most of the Final Fantasy movies.
if this was for production, I wld use a custom toon shaded look.
I want to work on my realistic animation skill, my tots r if u can pull off realism, exxagerated toons bcome easier.
thanx again, n pls keep an eye on this thread.

I dabbled a bit with blender but it didn't quite cut it for me.
in Maya, to animate the swarm id simply use particles.
id create an emitter to create particles, and animate the emitter and particles to get the motion I want.
maya allows u replace the individual particles with geometry using particle instancing.
id simply replace the particles with my bee or bird model.
since they r instances of d model they wld look the same, so to avoid uniformity I wld create different sets of particles and instance them to different variations of the model.

being particles, they r subject to dynamic fields so I cld apply interesting features like turbulence, air, drag etc.
this is d basic workflow wit lots of tweaks.
Let me know if it helps.

cheers

OKX: @kazuna

thanx for ur input.
yeah, I know d uncanny effect...it ruined Polar Express and most of the Final Fantasy movies.
if this was for production, I wld use a custom toon shaded look.
I want to work on my realistic animation skill, my tots r if u can pull off realism, exxagerated toons bcome easier.
thanx again, n pls keep an eye on this thread.

I dabbled a bit with blender but it didn't quite cut it for me.
in Maya, to animate the swarm id simply use particles.
id create an emitter to create particles, and animate the emitter and particles to get the motion I want.
maya allows u replace the individual particles with geometry using particle instancing.
id simply replace the particles with my bee or bird model.
since they r instances of d model they wld look the same, so to avoid uniformity I wld create different sets of particles and instance them to different variations of the model.

being particles, they r subject to dynamic fields so I cld apply interesting features like turbulence, air, drag etc.
this is d basic workflow wit lots of tweaks.
Let me know if it helps.

cheers

Mehn, why didn't i think of particle instancing b4.
You are a genius!
DON't MY CHIDING YA ABOUT D UNCANNY EFFECT.

Itx like d kettle callin d pot black. I'm often guilty of it myself...lol.
See ma boids.

@kazuna

lol...d geniuses r in Pixar, we r just playing catch-up.
glad to have helped.

a video of ur scene wld b nice.
d stills r looking good.

cheers.

Nice work bro. Are u sure abt doing this in 3 weeks? M new to maya n poser but ur work is cool.

HEY I'D LIKE SOME FEEDBACK ON MY NEW CG SHOT


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj0IP2XG_xA

@silverng
thanx. yeah, 3 weeks give or take a day or two.
its nt dat much of a biggy, I've watched 2 hour real-time video tutes with more animation than mine.
break down my scenes n ull see not a lot is really happening. if I were to finalise n polish for production, that would prolly take another 2 months.

goodluck on ur career path, id advice u grasp maya before poser...its like learning manual transmission before automatic....lol
post some clips or shots let's trade tips.

@shadyshaz
good to see ur still in d game, ur an old timer.
great shot, d clip is a tad short to assess properly but it definitely has promise.

I don't know wot ur focus was on for d project, d cg interaction is pretty cool in my opinion, if I had any suggestion it would be introducing some follow through motion to the characters arms as he enters d stage...its a bit stiff.
holding his reaction for a second longer may also help, but great job n like I said, I dunno wot ur objective was.


cheers

OKX: @ero

I use a 2GB Radeon 7670 card, 16GB RAM.

I have a mini render farm with similar specs but lesser RAM (8GB)

if ur upgrading, there's a list of recommended cards on the autodesk site.


cheers.

will love to see ur work n trade tips

Sorri been really busy, are u on bbm, my pin is 2649E870

@Okx, I dont understand y u changed from Max to Maya. Any particular reasons? My freinds been telling me to do dsame but I kinda like Max. Well, Maybe in the future.

lol
@reid
d same reason y u drive a benz n I drive a beamer.
doesn't matter, as long as we both make d meeting on time.

@ero
sorry, no bb...nokia for life!

OKX: lol
@reid
d same reason y u drive a benz n I drive a beamer.
doesn't matter, as long as we both make d meeting on time.

@ero
sorry, no bb...nokia for life!

Lolz. Yeah, but thats not a reason.

@OKX

well i just finished the vfx professional course at escape studios and they only teach VFX and compositing by the industries best.
my tutor worked on films like 2012 , casino royale and skyfall to name a few. it was an 18week course and we were meant to submit a final project limited to 200 frames and only had 2weeks to work on it . Also everything had to be done from scratch, no downloads of any sort.

so this is what i did as the Technical director of the project.

CONCEPT
FOOTAGE
MODELLING (modelled all the internal bits of the iphone i have to say cuz i didnt get to show much of the inside unfortunatley)
UV LAYOUT & TEXTURING
CHARACTER SETUP & RIGGING
DYNAMICS & CLOTH (which i removed on the last day due to insufficient time)
CHARACTER ANIMATION
LIGHTING RENDERING & COMPOSITING

FOR THE CRITIQUE FROM OKX
time extension (explained 200frame limit)
follow thru on the arm (YEAH I SHOULD)

This shot was presented to 3 industry Directors to critique
2 were speechless and 1 said ooh i want to see more.
and God is my witness. its my best work to date i have to say.
And im not asking anyone i know i deserve the response i got at my presentation.
the studio recruit students from the course into the industry but i have decided to help my country instead.

FOR NOW,

I have big projects coming up and i need a team of 'nigerian' 3dartists i can train. so i would like to start a contest to discover nigerias best in a period of 3months and a few wud be picked to be trained free of charge.

OKX how can we chat properly i need more of your assistance.