WIP Cat and Cube

[manuel]

Okay, the main part of the animation is finished now. All that's left to do is animating the eyes and the tail.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed67.mov

[F3D]

Aaaah! I'm loving it!
It's sooo cute it makes me want to hurt myself!

:love:

[AsaMovshovitz]

that is realy nice, i think it all works very well from the design to animation, it is very sweet.
it reimnds a little of "Pocoyo".
Hope to see more of it in the future.

[FlaminGlow]

HeeHHeeeeeHahaa, very funny and nice animation mostly i like his run when he tried to hide the cube it is the best part to me. :thumbsup:

[manuel]

I was crying victory too early in my last post. After getting some good feedback I decided to change the ending quite dramatically. It's now over 30 seconds. The new end animation is not 100 percent what it needs to be, but we're getting there. Excuses for the small size, just trying to save some bandwidth here.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed72.mov

[manuel]

Right then. The end is getting nearer and nearer. Still only an OpenGL preview I'm afraid. I took a few of the comments and criticisms on board. Sharpened up the animation here and there. After this I'll start doing the eyes. It may not look very different from the last version, but a lot of little things have changed honestly.

Here is a low res version (around 5Mb)
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed80.mov

And a higher res version (around 16Mb)
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed80High.mov

[dude5487]

I like it a lot. What is the program that you used? I have never heard of it before.

From frames 762 to 794 I notice a couple of small cubes or spheres floating down then dissapear, what are those?

Its looking great!

[manuel]

I like it a lot. What is the program that you used? I have never heard of it before.
I guess the real answer would be: my brain. Anyway, it's called Electric Image Animation system, it's been around for ages. To say it's a dark horse would be an understatement.

Company's website:
http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/

CGTalk forum:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=186

From frames 762 to 794 I notice a couple of small cubes or spheres floating down then dissapear, what are those?
Cubes falling off the ground plane. You wont see them once it's rendered.

[dude5487]

Cool, thanks for the info on the program.

Let us know when there is another update to the project :)

[som3d59]

I like the new version way more. Falling cube is great. By the way, is this the ending? I think the cat should do something...

[manuel]

Thanks, but this is it for now. I've been working on this for months now, and it's time to put a line under it. No point in dragging it out any longer.

[mistasam02]

:thumbsup: that final version was halarious! awesome character animation!

[manuel]

Well, we've got eyes now. The poor thing can finally see what's happening to him. this is the time to start making the last tiny final adjustments. Something bothers me about the way Kitty, as he has been named by some people, gets up at the end. I'll look into that.
Other than that, any crits welcome. I'll have a first stab at rendering this little monster hopefully this weekend. So if anything stands out like a sore thumb, now is the time to let me know.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed82.mov

[dude5487]

It has definently come along nicely. I really like it now.

One thing I just noticed. After the first cube comes back to hit "kitty", "kitty" rubs his/her head. Though when dozens of cubes hit "kitty", he she does not rub his/her head. Thoughts on that?

The eyes make a lot of difference for sure :)

[manuel]

There's a very clever reason for that. But it involves quantum mechanics and four-dimensional geometry. Either that or I never thought of it.
Joking aside, I don't think he rubs his head because he is in a lot of pain. It's more the surprise he's dealing with. The box doesn't really hurt him that much, it just irritates him. By the end he has pretty much given up. That's how I see it.

[dude5487]

Sounds good to me. Like I said its looking good. I look forward to the next update :)

[manuel]

A version rendered at final quality. Come and get it while the bandwidth lasts!!

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cat01_full.mov

As those who have been following this thread will have guessed by now, as soon as I saw the finished result, I thought: "Mmm, there's some room for improvement here. And maybe here too. Oh, and here..."
So I'm not promising this is the final version, but for now, it'll do (looks longingly at the sofa).

[OneSharpMarble]

This is a great little cllip, I love the look of it.
- Your initial walk is very robotic and static, it needs something. He should be looking at other things. He should do a double take on the box, as in looks at it, looks away and then looks back.
- The tail should flow on the walk, it sticks out straight as a board.
- Your knees are popping on the walk
- You very last movement really stood out, that rotation on the head is only moving a single axis isn't it. It looks rather robotic aswell.

Very funny clip, will go great on your reel.

[manuel]

Thanks, you made a few good points there.

[manuel]

Just when you thought this thread was finished, I come along and post another update. That has been the system so far and I don't want to disappoint.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cat03_full.mov

So what has changed.

-I tweaked a lot of the eyes animation. In the last version the eyes didn't always focus where they should.
- Kitty now looks around a bit when walking in the beginning.
- The tail moves more during the same walk.
- ...and I reduced the amount of knee popping during that walk
-The fast run behind the tree is now more jumpy, before Kitty would should drag its body over the floor.
- The self-satisfied nodding after that has been tweaked to read better. Even though I'm still not 100% satisfied.
- The camera shakes during the downpour of boxes.
- The downpour has been rendered in three passes to reduce the motion-blur artefacts.
- The animation after the downpour has been tweaked, hopefully for the better.
- There's a few more little tweaks all over the place, too much to mention.

[dude5487]

The link is not working my friend

[manuel]

The link is not working my friend
Woops. Link is working now.

[dude5487]

Just looking at the new revision I can see all of the improvements you listed. The legs look a whole lot better, the tail moves nicely, though could still use a bit more work, but its a lot better.

There is one spot though where after the cube comes back and hits him after its been kicked that his knee pops, look closely.

Other then that it is shaping up nicely. Good work!

[manuel]

There is one spot though where after the cube comes back and hits him after its been kicked that his knee pops, look closely.
I know the one you're talking about, but i'm really struggling to get rid of that one. I'm not even too sure why it does that. The words "crap" and "rig" come to my mind.

[dude5487]

Haha. Well I wonder why it does it on that leg and not on the other? Have you tried just deleted the keys in those certain frames?

[manuel]

That's the point. There's no keys. Anyway, I'll look into it later on.

[dude5487]

Regardless the update is very good. Keep it up :)

[manuel]

Knee-pop has been solved. In the end I just painted it out in Combustion. Still the same URL.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cat03_full.mov

[dude5487]

Looks good my friend. Congrats :)

[Sky]

I enjoyed that. It was funny. It has a nice look and feel to it. It has a lot of nice little touches. Like the shiny nose and the camera wobble when the cubes fall. It looks great! Nicely done!

[manuel]

Well, here is a little sneak-preview of the sound. It's still a bit rough, it's not mixed and the effects aren't always there, synced or appropriate. But you'll get the idea. The black bit at the end is for titles.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/Cat04_Full.mov

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.