Allosaurus Drinking-Full Render

[Uncle-Ox]

Hi Bobzilla

Your texturing, modeling, lighting and movement are close to being immaculate. Very well done. :thumbsup:

I have just one crit. The environment seems a little static. When enlarging the movie in quictime, one can see a slight movement on the water surface but just barely and that makes the movement of the ripples appear unnatural when the Aloesaur drinks from it. I think the trees look very good also but they could use some slight movement too (or at least their foalage).

A way to remedy the static look, is with camera movement. Let, for example, the camera follow the aloesoar as it walks towards the water.

[bobzilla]

Thanks very much. The environment looks static because it is. I was going to use "real" trees, but adding that would have made the render a lot longer and it was already about 10 min per frame and I can only render at night because I need to work on the computer during the day.

The trees are just mapped planes. I thought about camera movement, but I opted for the static shot for now.

I've reuploaded the image. It seems some people were having problems with it. It's about 11.7mb now. I can't seem to get it any smaller.

Please let me know if there are still any problems and I will try to fix them in the morning.

[Theropoda]

looks very good, congratulations!
i agree with uncle ox, there is too less camera motion and motion in the water. maybe try just an animated noise in the bump- or displacement channel.
another thing is the ground the allosaur is walking on. i really like it! looks dry, very good! but i think there should be changes at the waterside. maybe more stones, or sand, or something different.

good animation! did you use CD IK-tools for it? i can't remember it, although i followed all your allosaur-posts...

well, i'm working on an alamosaurus at the moment. i'm gonna combine it with my t. rex then; i'll show you when i've got more. i've just begun.

so, let the dinosaurs resurge...:)

greetings
günter

[flyingP]

pretty cool, agree though the water looks odd, and I feel the hips are perhaps snapping down a bit too hard while he's walking, just looks a bit unatural and hard somehow, otherwise cool :thumbsup:

[bobzilla]

I agree with all...the water ripples are a bit large and I didn't turn HN on so once the ripples get moving they get a little funky in the middle. They need more subdivisions.

The waterline: Yeah it needs some more "stuff" there. I can't put grass, because there was no grass in the mesezoic, but maybe some other plants or rocks or something.

The rig for the allosaur is kind of a Frankenstein. Some PoseMixer, CDIK Tools, CDRP Solver for the legs. It's really a bit of a mess. I experimented a lot while making it.

Thanks for the crits!

[Sbowling]

This is a very nice start, but I have to agree with the hip movement being too extreme. Also, it looks unnatural that the head stays almost motionless whilt the hips are moving up and down. Als, it looks as if the feet are kicking into the ground instead of stepping on it. also, just noticed that tehre doesn't seem to be any real movement in the ankle bone area, so the oly real movement is in the knee area.Try walking around on your toes and watch the way your legs move (in a mirror if you have a big enough one). The motion should go through the entire leg. And finally, on the last step before the lake there is some pretty severe foot slippage. I really like the little steadying side step he takes before shaking his head. I think it's a very nice touch.

Overall, very nice.

[bobzilla]

Sam: Yes. It was difficult to get the walk right. He actually walks quite far before this scene and it was a pain to get a consistent walk. I had some automatic expressions on the feet that probably hinered the process rather than make it easier. I think next time (against most peopple's suggestions) I may try to cycle first, get everything correct, then move him through space.

The hips I tried lots of different movements. I was getting a little lost in the timeline fooling around with timing and things. I had to settle on this way for now.

günter: Been following your work also. Dinosaurs are the reason I even attempt 3D! The last one you made was an ankylosaur or nodosaur, wasn't it? Really looking forward to the T-rex Alamosaur together.

I also have a camaraur ready to go, but I'll need a lot more time to get the quad walk down.

Thanks all for the comments...

[Theropoda]

Dinosaurs are the reason I even attempt 3D!

haha! mine too! i've been fascinated by dinosaurs since i was five.
my last one was a panoplosaur, you're right.

i'm really looking forward to seeing your camarasaur animated! i've watched the still on your website... good model! i've never tried to animate anything walking on 4 feet. i think it's much more difficult than bipeds.

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

Looking good Bob. :thumbsup:

Still need to smooth some of the motion out. There's one point there after he looks to the right and left where he looks straight ahead again and then doesn't move his head until after he stops at the water. I think he should start looking down towards the water before he approaches and stops at the water, to show that the water is what he's thinking about.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[bobzilla]

Yeah, the the whole thing looks a little more mechanical than I remember it. I've looked at it so many times, I don't SEE it anymore.Timing is tough!

I worked on it so long, I just wanted to get the thing out there in all it's glory. Gave me a chance to try modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, particles, water effects, scenery and lighting.

I'm either going to work animating the camarasaur next (4 legs...yikes!) or have the allosaur do something a little more interesting.

Or get very ambitious and start a stegosaurus...

[diegoto]

The grass looks very good to me, can I ask you what did you use?

Thanks...

:)

[bobzilla]

diegoto: Well, there really is no grass. If you mean the shrubs and trees, they are all alpha mapped polygons. Just pics slapped on polies!

[Theropoda]

I'm either going to work animating the camarasaur next (4 legs...yikes!) or have the allosaur do something a little more interesting.


A pack of allosaurs hunting a herd of camarasaur would be nice... did you see "big al" (it's about an allosaur, part of the bbc series)? there are some allosaurus that are hunting some diplodocus.

[bobzilla]

A pack of allosaurs hunting a herd of camarasaur would be nice... did you see "big al" (it's about an allosaur, part of the bbc series)? there are some allosaurus that are hunting some diplodocus.

Yes I have that on video. Watched it a million times! That scene is so well done. Better than anything I've scene in a movie.

I would love to do that, but as you see I have a long way to go in the animation skills department...and only one CPU for rendering...

Maybe a still...

[flingster]

v cool...walking with dinosaurs...
not read rest of comments..but water ripples seems large..other than that cool..nice work.
excuse if repeated already.

[joel3d]

Hi there Bob

I think it is looking a lot better, Congratulations. The nice thing from my experience is that the next one will be even better than the one before. I have been in tons of situations where I had to just scrap the entire rig and animation and start over. The main criticism I have with this animation is that It seems like your fighting the program...Is it really hard to make a decent rig in C4D? (Now a bunch of people are out to get me!) I notice popping or flipping in the right leg, and the overall movement looks sorta animatronic.
I am sorry if I have stepped on some toes, or spoke out of ignorance. I still remember several years ago when I finally -out of total frustration decided to switch to Maya because it was near impossible to do creature animation with Lightwave. Bob? didn't you say that you had played around with a Maya PLE? Can you make a comparison to C4D?

Maya has plenty of shortcomings. I am not trying to say that one program is better than the other, just that maybe some are better suited for different jobs?

[bobzilla]

Hey, Joel...

I never noticed that popping before. Odd, because both legs are set up the same way and it doesn't look lik the left one is popping. I'll have to check that out.

One thing I tried (and have since gotten rid of it) was an auto footroll and toes together/apart expression. I think THAT'S what I was fighting.

C4D has improved it's rigging abilites over the years quite a bit. Internally and with plugins from some very talented folks.

Don't let my animation be a testament to C4D's rigging abilites!

Bad animation is bad animation. I just need to improve.

Thanks for the input...

[joel3d]

Not sure if it flips but it seems to stretch as far as it can and then pop. The feet look a lot better than before.
I think, if you can fix the right leg and the ripples n' stuff, it will be looking good.

Its not BAD!

I always find out stuff after it is rendered, and a render that takes that long...Well, can really take the wind right out of your sail.

Keep going!

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