Animation: yeah! - boss is dancing ... :)

[Ryan-B]

I watched one of your animations (creep bomb) and...

EXCELLENT WORK!

Great animation, texturing, modelling and lighting!


P.S. - I read the plot outline for "Yeah!" and was kind of disappointed. I hope you guys can think up some plot twists to keep the story interesting.

[Alderian]

simply amasing. I havent seen skills like that on this forum for some time now.

[dvornik]

Wow. I watched all of your test animations. Can't wait for more. Your company is just 2 guys? Great work. Nasty characters.

[JFrench]

Modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, riging, dynamics, its all AMAZING. Its great to see work like this posted, its really encouraging.
I am looking forward to the short as well.

[hypronost]

AMAZING !!!!!

Really lookin great !!!!!!!!

I did see some errors in the animation where he dances , at a sertain point the vest kinda makes stranges motions, but lookin great , reaaaaaally great

[DaJuice]

You guys ROCK!! :buttrock: :buttrock:

How long have you guys been doing 3d?

[visionmaster]

yep !
same as other people .

i have just seen the images of your site because of my 56k..

what software are you using for the render and for the hair?

sehr schöne.
:applause: :applause:

[Meka]

WOW :eek:
awsome stuff, specialy liked the creep boxing one :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Cadillacs57]

excelent work. whats the hardware that u are using for these great animations? :arteest:

[CroitiX]

http://members.home.nl/mlpsite/pics/omfg.jpg

holy shit that is good!!!!!!

:buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

VERY NICE 5stars!

[ToddD]

I enjoyed that thoroughly! I am amazed at the quality of everything, the model, the render, the movement, flawless! :bounce: :beer:

[Chrissy]

Wow thats amazing!! :love:

What software do you use, especially for that lovely fur?

[Henrik Hörlin]

I think that whatever word I decide to use it won't be enough... Good work anyways and KEEP IT UP!

[chlywly]

haha that was great :O I love it, very nice character...

what software were you using?

[spellcraft]

hello...


thanks for watching our test animations... I'm glad you like it... :)


I'll try to answer some of your questions...


software: 3dsmax 4.2
cloth: stitch
hair/fur: shag-hair

renderer: brazil 0.4.52 alpha


@hypronost
"... at a sertain point the vest kinda makes stranges motions, but lookin great...

yep... good point... cloth and hair still makes us a lot of headaches... :(
so... if there is anybody out there who really(!) knows the max-plugins stitch and shag:hair... and got some very(!) good results with these plugins... and likes to share his knowledge with us... it would be great if he could send me an email at pit@spellcraft.de ... thanks...



Vadim

[GladeR]

Holy god, yeahhhh, is awesome!!

[xtrm3d]

:buttrock: :bounce: :applause: :beer:
dazu brauche man ix mehr zu sagen !!!
5 star

christophe

[spellcraft]

hello Christophe...

I see you have updated your homepage... and... the hero of your secret short movie project is moving now... I still like the style!!!... it's just made for a cool story with funny animations!!!... :)

what about this yellow spiderman like guy?... any animations???


Best Regards,
Vadim

[xtrm3d]

hooo vadim..,
let us tel.. when i com back from holiday..
it´s make me sorry to speack with you over cgtalk when you live minute from my home away... berlin is a small city :-)
ich melde mich bei dir am montag oder dienstag.
bis dann
christophe:shrug:

[spellcraft]

damn internet... ;)

[dgpilot]

WOW
What really shocks me is the ULTRA realistic muscle movements, and skin movement on the character. I was convinced you were using MAYA.
I would rate you 6 stars, but the current rating system only allows 5
:xtreme: :xtreme: :xtreme:

[xtrm3d]

damn expensive telekome !!! :-)

[fellah]

hoho, funny outta hell! it's just great when those small guys enters! much talent floating in your blood, 5stars! :wip:

[Larry_g1s]

Unreal!:bounce:
I to have to agree with most everyone on here, it's very inspirering(sp?) to see such talent.

I love the fluid animation, and the rendering is simply amazing. I can't wait to see the final product. Two thumbs up...:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[anticz]

Holy good god this is awesome. The movies of the little guys that he's eating are fantastic as well. Great job. Just curious, How long did it take to construct that character including the rigging? Nice to see something of this caliber done in Max.

[LichiMan]

:surprised :eek: :surprised :eek:

I haven't words...

AWESOME!!!

I hope to see more soon ;)

[AroundTheFur]

wow, you must explain how u rigged that guy, and the bulge when he flexes, awesome, please tell us!! :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

[amnon]

awsome work!!!
how did you do the muscle deformations?
did you use morph targets that are in the skin modifier?
the shoulder area looks great. i love it.

[paconavarro]

GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MAX + Brazil RULEZ!!!!!!!!!!!

[matty2x4]

OK this is going to sound really picky....
but, I thought his belly could wobble a lot more.??
I am very impressed with the whole thing:thumbsup:
how do you get the movements so real... as a novice these things still freak the hell out of me, was it freehand, motion capture or some kind of super app?
matty2x4:wavey:

[prayas]

WOW. Totally impressed. You guys rock.

Nehme schon wieder dieses Wort in den Mund: GEIL.

How did you made these moves. Motioncaptured? or what.

[anticz]

matty2x4,
Hate to be the one to break this to ya but, there's no such thing as a super app. Thery're all pretty much the same these days (though many people will tell you differently). These guys are just SUPER talented and they've spent alot of time working on this stuff. I went back and checked out the tests of the little guys that he's eating. They kick ass too.

[aeko]

Is there a reason why his lower jaw barely moves? Is that just part of the design or something? Everything looks really well done but that one thing makes him look a bit puppet like. It adds to the fact that he doesn't have a lot of facial expressions. His eyes are small and his jaw barely moves. Just some constructive criticism.

Nice work!

[moovieboy]

Am I the only one wondering what the pink, inflatable fish is doing in the new posing clip? :D

Been keeping up with your test animations since the first pair. Awsome work guys! Can't wait for the Amazon!

-Tom

[The Magic Pen]

That animation of him dancing with his leather jacket flopping around has to be one of the best animated characters I have ever seen ...easily on par with those episode 1 and 2 star wars characters....I cant imagine how you got the coat to react like that it was very realistic..is that key framed or another method??

I looked over all your site and all I have to say is i would kill for your portoflio ...amazing work !! :bowdown: :buttrock:

[Childerich]

Yeah, great work!
I like creep_boxing and boss_dancing best.

[S. J. Tubbrit]

Ne chance we could see some background information, wireframes, texture maps, bump maps, etc?

[goodlag]

wow AWESOME!!!

:buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

[Namroth]

How long time did you work with this "yeah_boss_posing.avi", modeling + animation?

[spellcraft]

hello...

thanks for your response... :)


@anticz
How long did it take to construct that character including the rigging?

hi... I saw your nixies short movie a couple of weeks ago - very cool!!!... although I was missing a scream of the guy at the end... :) ... I like your character design a lot !!! ...

as for your question...
the modelling and texturing took about four days I think... the rigging of the body (bones setup and skinning) usually takes a day or two... but this is the first project we use bones for facial animations... what means a lot of testing (try and error)... so only the setup for the face took about 2 weeks :( ... and it turned out that it doesn't work...
we tried to rebuild some simple muscle with face bones... but first (as you can see) the skin in the face doesn't move like it would be moved by muscles :) ... and second all these face bones slowing down the performance so much that I have to wait about 30 seconds after setting a key :( ...

well... we working on the next character now... and have to find a better/faster way...


@AroundTheFur, amnon
you must explain how u rigged that guy, and the bulge when he flexes, awesome, please tell us!!

the bulges are only a simple feature in physique (the skinning tool in 3ds max we used for that characters)... it doesn't really simulate muscle flexing... it only scales the mesh depending on the bone degree... but it's okay for the moment...


@matty2x4
OK this is going to sound really picky....
but, I thought his belly could wobble a lot more.??

oh... the belly isn't wobbling at all at the moment ... it should I know... but softbody is a problem in max... it mostly looks like rubber...
over that... the belt is "wobbling" much more than it is good for a stiff leather belt

and the animations are freehand keyframe animations... you can easily see the pose to pose style


@aeko
Is there a reason why his lower jaw barely moves? Is that just part of the design or something? Everything looks really well done but that one thing makes him look a bit puppet like. It adds to the fact that he doesn't have a lot of facial expressions. His eyes are small and his jaw barely moves. Just some constructive criticism.

you re right... well watched...
the problem is... his mouth is reaching from one ear to the other... what means his mouth is bigger than his head... so he has to make the most expressions with only his lips...
but we will keep this in mind... good point...


@moovieboy
Am I the only one wondering what the pink, inflatable fish is doing in the new posing clip?

yeah... we wondering about this as well... :)


@the magic pen
That animation of him dancing with his leather jacket flopping around has to be one of the best animated characters I have ever seen ...easily on par with those episode 1 and 2 star wars characters....I cant imagine how you got the coat to react like that it was very realistic..is that key framed or another method??

the cloth is simulated not animated...
... but... well... the problem is... we wanted to have a stiff leather vest... :)


best regards,
Vadim

[pabbloz]

AMAZING!

five stars! of course!

[MadS]

You did that in MAx, huh? The headaches you must have endured! I mean, the app does not an artist make, but still, a buggy app can be cause for a lot of frustration and headaches to get the results you want.

Regardless, I was overly impressed with the boss anims. I thought the dancing one was some of the best animation i have seen. Right up there with Pixar, without a doubt! I really dig the style of the monsters too, with thier oversized chins.

As for cloth simulators, you could try Simcloth. I hear it's decent, and it's free. And I think Shave & a Haircut will be out for max very soon, so that may be worth a look.

:beer:

[Rhid1en]

with stitch can't you set the cloth weight attributes and sturdiness of the material? Maybe I'm think of simcloth, but I think you can?

[anticz]

MadS,
Nice back handed stab. I thought it was cool how you managed to be both condesending and complimentary at the same time. My applause (in case you don't get it, this is called sarcasism)

[MadS]

Originally posted by anticz
MadS,
Nice back handed stab. I thought it was cool how you managed to be both condesending and complimentary at the same time. My applause (in case you don't get it, this is called sarcasism)

That wasn't my intention. I was just going along with the whole "this app is better than that app" crap.

Aside from the app used(which i did slap in the face, cause I really get frustrated with that p.o.s. 3dMax) the animation, lighting, and models are some of the best i've ever seen on these boards. My hat's off to the guys at Spellcraft! :buttrock:

And Anticz, try not to read so much into what I say. Not like what I say really matters anyway. :thumbsup:

[liquidhalf]

very nice indeed.

[fastfinger]

I really like your work, you guys model very well
AND texture very well AND animate very well.
All the elements are first class.:applause:

[Matt-Clark]

Really enjoyed those... great stuff.

[Ronski]

excellent stuff guys, hurry up with the next installment please, I can't wait :D

Kieron

[Schrenk]

Very nice animations! good work! I also like this kind of humor! Very good stuff!


hope to see more soon! :)

:thumbsup: :applause: :buttrock:

[DanielWichterich]

Unnecessary to say it's a great animation!
Thanks for your short explanation about how you made it! I did not believe this is possible with 3d Studio. Seems like I have to blame myself for the unability to animate...

[spellcraft]

oh... hello Matt... that's funny...

I found your website about two weeks ago... and was especially impressed by your Gekko2-character (m~21~e.jpg... where the fat guy is sitting on his throne of stone... really cool !!! )... because... the funny thing is... when I saw your character I new immediately this was the kind of style I had in mind for our boss character when I thought the first time about "yeah!" back in 1997... but could never carry it out the way had it in mind...

what a pity I didn't find your website before... :)

anyway... during the last years... the story of "yeah!" got more and more... let's say... less serious :) ... and so the bad guy finaly turned out in this short legged version...

Best Regards,
Vadim

[i play atari]

:buttrock: :buttrock: that rocks :buttrock: :buttrock:

[beej]

:surprised


more!

[pearson]

These animations are truly amazing! All hand keyed? No mocap? Very naturalistic movement!

I remember some of your alien images from a couple of years ago...Glad to see them again!

[azazel]

I can't stop watching this movies... more:) :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[JFrench]

How come you used facial bone structures when a rig like that is mainly used for mocap?

[tazmanian]

WOW !!!!!!! wonderfull animation spellcraft ,
i like ur animation very very very much .....
i cant imagin that is CG or real .....:bounce:

[-JT-]

Arghhhh why a short movie only ? We want two hours of this stuff !!!!! Bravo !!!!! :bounce:

[spellcraft]

hello... and thanks... :)


@JFrench
How come you used facial bone structures when a rig like that is mainly used for mocap?
well... the main reason was... we tried to fake muscle movement in the face... also it's easier to setup the bones once than to modell lots of morph targets...

however... I think at the end we will use a combination of both techniques...


@-JT-
Arghhhh why a short movie only ? We want two hours of this stuff
:)
yeah... just give us enough money... and you get a complete cg movie... some time in 10 years :) ...


best regards,
Vadim

[swag]

Puhhh sowas hab ich schon lange nicht mehr gesehen und wenn dann im Kino - das ist ja der Hammer - da kann aber einer animieren junge junge junge :thumbsup:

[Volker]

Did you use biped's footstep tool for the body movement?

~Zach

[spellcraft]

:)

footsteps?
... it's not a baby... but it is dancing... so it must be a footstep driven animation... ;)

no, sorry... no footsteps


best regards,
Vadim



PS
after all the work with modelling a character... mapping and texturing it... and doing all the damn rigging (and we really hate this rigging part)... - we would not like to miss the best part of the show... the reward of all this work -> animating the character... :)

[Neox]

Ihr seit die besten!
Schöne Grüsse vom SEK
:p

[edaddy]

fantastic, the only crit i can give is his little jacket thing flows too much...like it's made of some thin-ass material or something.... but the animation was exceptional

[Funkyjuice]

Great stuff spellcraft... even my wife (who usually cant be bothered with these things).. LOVED it....

so much shes even talking about learning how to texture...

Great work again!

[alexcyh]

i saw this shot movie b4,it's very funny.I like it.

[spellcraft]

hello...


@ edaddy
the only crit i can give is his little jacket thing flows too much...like it's made of some thin-ass material or something
yes... you are right... we working on that... :hmm:
maybe have fixed it with the next test animation...


@ Neox

:surprised ... Grüße zurück... :)


best regards

[darkteddybear]

awesome :]

i dig it :] :D :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Frinsklen]

:eek:

Just awesome. We're all looking forward to seeing more of this stuff.

I'd better stop writting and go watch it once again. And again...

[lildragon]

Great stuff guys, you've been an inspiration for awhile now, I really love when artists dig right in and get to the root of how a character should look and perform... there's flaws I notice like his weight isn't as "solid" as a monster that gerth should be, it's almost like he's a ballerina, BUT nothing is perfect, what matters is that it comes across the way you intended it to be, FUN!!! that's what it's all about right, entertainment value :)

I'll continue to watch you two, talent is an understatement...

One question I have tho, is how did you tackle those envelopes? They're always such a nitemare... and the rigging seems to work very nicely...

salud!

[MentallyNormal]

This is just simply mindboggling indeed. Hope you the best in your future.:thumbsup: :buttrock:

[santiago]

Beautifully executed Spellcraft! Very inspirational for me.
I'm also interested in the issue of envelopes.
I just started reading the posts here at CG Talk for a month now, but so far this is the best I've seen.
Most models look just great as stills, but once they move, they fall apart. I'm still in the stage of learning how to model characters, although I have tried to animate a bit.

I totally applaud Spellcraft in saying that after going thru all the work of modelling, texturing, rigging... why miss the best part? animating.

Well said, and well done :thumbsup: :buttrock:

[l_farley13_l]

I second that - insight into the rigging would be a giant plus! It's the least intuitive and most tedius part!

So was the skin wobbling keyframed?

Farley13

[spellcraft]

hello,

here is a screenshot of the boss wire... as you can see it is pretty simple... all the details are only texture...

there is not much to say about the Envelopes... because they are only good for the first initializing of the skin...

most vertices are weighted by hand (all vertices that have a quad instead of a cross are weighted by hand)...

the yellow lines represent the bones...

there are also some bulges and tendons not shown in this screenshot... but we talked here at spellcraft about writing any "making of" and put it on our website along with screenshots... when yeah! is finished and we have more time...
maybe it will be usefull for someone...

Best Regards,
Vadim

http://www.spellcraft.de/test/images/yeah_boss_physique01.gif

[lildragon]

very cool :) make sure to check your email ;)

salud!

[Neox]

Originally posted by spellcraft
@ Neox

:surprised ... Grüße zurück... :)


why :surprised ?
hope you remember us guys only a few minutes from your position ;)

[spellcraft]

@ Neox

:) because I was just surprised about your words...

is "Neox" one or all of you???????? :)

see you later alligator...


@lildragon

jep... have read it... and writing the answer right now :) ...

[Neox]

I'm just one of us :p

btw: why should a programmer be on this board? ;)

[Grey]

The Microsoft Internet Explorer Demand is very annoying and turned me completely off to your site.

[Mandrake]

Some of the movments in the boss_dancing are on the best
Pixar level. Take is as the best compliment an animator can get.
The "floaty" look someone has mentioned comes mostly from
the cloth simulation, the animation itself is not that floaty, maybe
some more on the second part, but you can get over this easely,
I' sure about that.
Another thing I was about to ask. The "creep_boxing" anim is
not at that level you reached in boss_dancing. It vary a lot in
quality. Is this because lack of time or what? Great work guys,
you put the anim postings on a higher level here. cheers

..o yeah .. I was laughing for an hour watching boss_dancing
it's so funny :bounce: five "pixars" for you ( the mesurment scale
for animators:) :)

[Dominique]

Yeah rocks

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[FranckSitbon]

Wow amazing!!!
Your physique works really fine
Waintin for your makin of
Good work
Did you find a special first frame posture to make physique work better?

[flamedevil]

Great animations !! IT ROCKS :buttrock: :buttrock:
I really like the style of the boss.

Do you work with 3dsmax since 1992 ?

[spellcraft]

hello,

thanks a lot for your reply...


@Grey
The Microsoft Internet Explorer Demand is very annoying and turned me completely off to your site.

yes, I'm sorry... we are working on that...


@Franck Sitbon
Did you find a special first frame posture to make physique work better?

what exactly do you mean?...


@flamedevil
Do you work with 3dsmax since 1992 ?

no, no...
I've started 1992 as 2d artist... that was the time where you had to set every single pixel seperately with the mouse (no wacom tables/pens) to create cg images (at least for computer games)...

I started 3d in 1994 or 95... (don't remember exactly)... with 3ds DOS... 3ds Max was released in 1996, I think...


@Mandrake
Another thing I was about to ask. The "creep_boxing" anim is
not at that level you reached in boss_dancing. It vary a lot in
quality. Is this because lack of time or what?
:D
I know I should say something like... there are sooooo many things we had improved with more time... hehe...

no... the creep boxing ani was animated in March... and we had all the time in the world... because there is no deadline...

it just represents our animation level at the time it was created...
it may sound strange... but it was the first time we did a one-piece-30-second-full-body-character-animation... that means... no cuts when it gets difficult... no clever camera positions to hide any animation problems... etc.

the cuts in cinematics are rarely longer than 10 seconds each... and usually it's more important to hold the deadline... so when it gets difficult - CUT... :)


well... and the boss anis are just the next level... maybe the next tests will be better... maybe not... we will see... however... finally we hope to get on the level we need to create an entertaining short movie... :)

best regards,
vadim

[santiago]

Is it just the two of you, Vadim and Matthias, working together?
Did you go to any school for to learn animation?
Are you thinkin of joining other artists to make a larger production?

[spellcraft_mat]

hallo,

this is matthias from spellcraft studio :)

@santiago

yes, we are only two guys. no,we didn´t go to any animation school. I started with 3dsmax in 1997 - it´s all learning by doing :)


Are you thinkin of joining other artists to make a larger production?
it´s an intresting idea. we also have talked about this in the past.
and maybe we will do somthing like this in the future but haven´t
any concrete plans.

when yeah! is finished then we will see what comes next.

viele Grüße :)
matthias

[tazmanian]

i like u two guys work ....... how do ur improve ur modelling skills and animation skill ??

[Raptor235]

how long did it take to animate the dancing sequence? Also how do you split your work between the two of you? I allways wonder how in big studios they split one character between like 20-30 people...

[spellcraft]

hello,

@nimal
how do ur improve ur modelling skills and animation skill ??
well... the hard way... practise... :)

good samples help a lot (books, videos, etc.)

and sometimes we have the luck to meet some highly talented artists who give us some tips here and there...


@Raptor235
how long did it take to animate the dancing sequence? Also how do you split your work between the two of you? I allways wonder how in big studios they split one character between like 20-30 people...

for all the characters (boss and food) about 15 days I think (for animation only)...

do you mean how we split the animation-work?...
mostly one animator works on one complete scene... that's better for animating the interaction between the characters... but thats not a rule... sometimes one animator makes the first raw animation of a scene the other animator makes it final... and the first one may do the facials at the end...


best regards,
Vadim

[amnon]

i love you'r work. the skin looks so great.
what is the size of you'r texture maps?
do you use any proceadurals?
how did you map the characters?
do you use bodypaint or deep paint?
any texturing tips?
thanks amnon.

[harmonic01]

Amazing work. I luve the boss animations (mental note to show this at school).

Just one question that hasn't been answered yet. Why did you deside to use Phisique opposing to Skin mod? I havn't used Phisique that much but would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Again, very inspirational stuff.

[antongranik]

Hey! Spellcrafters! I hate you! You hear me??? I HATE YOU!!! I can't work for two days already. Sorry... wait 40 seconds... I've got a lotta work to do but all I do is... just after every 30 minutes play this god-damn-beautiful-amazing-astonishing-boss-dancing-animation-test!!! I just even don't close the media player, I return to it everytime and press "play". The thing is beautiful!!! Sooo beautiful!!!! I can't just... sorry... wait 40 seconds... i have to see it once more... Yeah, it's just the very good inspirational thing. If you fail in your short and it'll be worse than this dancing test... sorry... wait 40 seconds... I'm gonna hate you soooo muuuuuuuch!!!

p.s. Guys, just change the word "hate" to "love".

[Fungusmonkey]

You GUYS RULE!!!

I'm a mega-newbie, so here's a bunch of mega-newbie questions:

1)Do you use temporary low poly models to test your rigs and animations, or do you make the whole model and rig at the same time?

2)How in the F##K did you do the textures??? They're awesome! Please tell me you used Deep Paint 3D or some kind of texturing util, because if you guys did that with UV maps and Photoshop, I'm going to have to denounce my god and claim you as my new deity!!!

3)Ultra mega super newbie: How'd you light those animations? Did you use a 3-light setup(main, kicker, backlight, etc.) or did you use a combination of spotlights and global illumination? Colors, positions, and intensities would be greatly appreciated.

Love your work, love the look, love the style....
One more time: You GUYS RULE!!!! :buttrock:

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