animation: PAN - dancin' Greek God

[thOrNes]

WHOOOOHOOOOOO !!!
1st Class stuff man !!!
character animation and motion is really clean, I'm fan #1 !!!

more ? you know there´s a lot of other greek gods :wavey:

[thOrNes]

and ehrm... you better get THIS one on front page ...:scream:

[rquinn]

man that is really good
any motion capture?
if not wow exceptionnal stuff
like the cam movement and every thing
front page stuff

[wazza m]

Cheers for the comments guys! Awesome!

No motion capture, just used video reference to help out with poses and timing.

Wazza

:wavey:

[JPPLAY]

Excellent work the step are right on look like they are hitting the ground perfectly. Cheers :beer:

[MaTaDoR]

wow that was some nice fluid movement there!

the michael jackson part is my favorite tho.. very fun to watch.

:applause:

[Gremlin]

LOL, quality work....I really like the way when he pauses when he puts on the hat, hes breathing hard, also, of course, moon walk was supreme with the hooves :scream:
Cheers,
:beer:

[ed209]

Pretty funny animation. Only complaint I would have is some of the movements could have been smoothed out a bit more. There are a bunch of places where the motion seems to have a jarring stop in the limbs and pelvis. Grea work! :)

[Cyborgguineapig]

whoa now thats character animation:eek:

[wazza m]

Gremlin,

Glad you noticed the breathing - I'm a sucker for minor details like that.

MaTaDoR,

I used MJ beacuse his pelvis thrusts relate to Pan's mythological persona. In the myths he supposidly runs around after Nymps and is a bit of a sexual deviot! I thought Jacko's Billy Jean performance was pretty fitting. Thanks man.

[KolbyJukes]

Why isn't this on the front page!?!?! WHY!?

This is simply breathtaking...the modelling...the lighting...the rednering...and the animation! You are my new animation hero.

I expect this on the front page by tomorrow!

-Kol.

[Ex Tessera]

Totally awesome.

[hwachai]

:buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

amazing stuff!!!!

[DanielB]

HOLY****!!! That is possibly the best work of corporial animation I've ever seen man. I couldn't believe how he moved!! Was it mo cap? :beer: :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

*edit* just noticed you said no mo cap... I'm stunned

[Emberghost]

Wow that was surprisingly awesome! Very funny work:thumbsup:

[CuTnPaste]

I'm just begin to examine your wwwsite......

...the animation is lovely and well done.

GOOD GOD

:thumbsup:

[wazza m]

Wow...

Thankyou everyone for looking at my work. Your comments have made the hard work worthwhile.

PAN was completed for my honours project at Uni and is the main peice in my reel for seeking employment - which I'm currently doing.

Thanks again,

wazza:D

[CuTnPaste]

but but....I've examined your site (quickly...) and I see A LOT of work to make real bones (in polygons) over the maya bones, a lot of clusters and blendshape.....

really heavy setup, or not?

How much time have you spent to the setup phase?

[John Lee]

Hey man

Sweet, I like I got a project similar to this coming right up just have to find the time to do it!! sweet poses i like the way you incorperate the spine very well done! Bit of the animation cud have been smoothed out in places. How long did the animation take? any chance of posting your video ref? hehe.

John

[wazza m]

to cutnpaste,

Glad you checked out my site.

The poly bones over real bones don't actually exist in the final setup - cause it was a research project the polly bones were created to illustrate how the scapula and clavicles work in the human body (to illustrate the use of anatomy in the setup). gotta make it pretty for the professors and lecturers!

The blends were a test that never actually came to the light of day - that method never worked, it was only a test for research - the only blends that were used in the final setup were on the biceps linked to bone rotations via setdriven keys.

Clusters - I'll never use again for a chest setup as long as I live. Good for simple deformations but, yes, that was a nightmare. Unfortunatly I'm still waiting for a muscle system for MAYA - what I'd do to get my hands on some propriatry software!

The rest of the deformation comes from painting weights, correct bone placement (anatomically correct that is), edgeloop modelling (so the vertices flow in direction of muscles) and a little luck. It was a prettly light setup.

Glad someone's on the ball - cheers

[CuTnPaste]

wow.....fiuuuuuuuuuuuu

:)

it sounds ok for me :)

anyway good work man

[Subscream]

Hi

Lovely animtion and really good work you've done there. :applause:

Saw that you had some trouble with blendshapes and getting them to perform with your skeleton.

I think your having problems with the deformation order of your skin. In order to use blendshape on your mesh you have to make
the blendshape prior to binding your skeleton to it.
Then there shouldn't be any problems with your joints because the blendshape is evaluated before your joints.

hope this helps

cheers

/Joel

[m-greenwood]

Heh, that's great man!
Very funny - love that pelvis.
I'd love to see him shaking to some Elvis songs...

[ceql]

lol Whoa, that's one of the best animations I've ever seen on CGTalk!! :applause: :applause:

From QUT? Dude, I need to meet you and shake ur hand! :D

[kerux]

whaa, that was cool!!! :) totally funny and good looking
*chants: "front page! front page! front page!"*

enough praise for now ;)
small detail i noticed is possibly wrong, the animation starts with what looks like the word 'PAN' to me it looks like it is supposed to be greek, in that case, that's not what it really says. Actually it says 'RLN' in greek cos P is the capital 'rho' and /\ is the capital 'labda' :)
how it should look in small or capital greek (http://www.student.kun.nl/m.vanderheijden/pan.jpg)

anyway, this is just a detail....real good job...

[Nighthawk]

Wow!!!:eek: :eek:
I love it so much...:applause:

[ZVAN]

wow.. izzit motion capture? way cool!!!:applause:

[Steel GER]

Wow...wer are all sooooo bad. (exspecially me)
You are the man !
:beer: :beer:

[jason-slab]

tehehehe thats just great:applause:

like others say the anim could be smoothed in places, but other than that, perfect :thumbsup:

|jason

[kr3ml]

THAT WAS AWESOME !!!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[stevecullum]

Great work! - you will have to let us know if you get a job with that reel.

[foreverendering]

Amazing!

[sixthe45]

simply stunning.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[TheGreenGiant]

Hi!

I downloaded your video watched it without sound and thought. WOW that is amazing. Then I got my mates, we sat around a system with a good stereo and we were all blown away. BLOWN AWAY. We were all speechless, your video does so many things right and its incredibly funny too. Like someone mentioned, moonwalking on hooves?

SUPERB! :applause: :applause: :applause:

Is the background an image mapped onto a curved surface?

[Jockomo]

Stunning.

[brianellebracht]

man that was great! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Brian

[GCL]

:drool:

That is WHY I am learning CG for the " imaginative " possibilities that exist out there. My first ever comment to a user's work.

Be looking at the web site for more details !

:applause:

[qba3d]

WHoaa.....
...

...

..
ehemm...
welll you know... niccccceeee...
i have a quastion....-your animation is sooo precise....how did you menage to controll te foots so well - that is awsome.... did you use locators to controll ik??or was it all done using fk...simple questions... great...
Q.

[Ed Lee]

I want to see more......that's was awesomest!.....

Ed--

[jab]

The work you put in is really wonderful, very percise, and well thought out. I must make a comment however since you have recieved so much well deserved praise, so here is a little something I noticed that you may want to still think about (or maybe not... what do I know, I'm just a student myself). Since it is obviously an anatomical study I noticed that the rib cage has just a bit too much slack. It is really only evident during the extreme poses (like that little hip thrust) but the cage is really not supposed to bend much at all except for expansion during breathing (which worked out very well). I know givin maya's standard tools that this is quite difficult to get around and you really did a fabulous job in every aspect so rock on :buttrock: and thanks for the inspiration.

BTW: all the extra resources and studies and your site are really wonderful, very modern day renaissance-ish.

[cougarpride]

Extremely nice modeling and animation! The choice of a Michael Jackson was excellent. I would have prefered the dance from the video Beat It, but you pulled off Billy Jean flawlessly.

[TetsuoShima]

hey, really cool man.
Im now trying to learn how to get modeling with the edge loops for getting animating the model next with real deformations. Perhaps you can help me to find tutorials, notes... even a video (if free even better hehe). I'd be veeery thankful :)

Again.. COOL stuff :buttrock: I liked the breathing at start of michael jackson's moonwalker :thumbsup:
I hope you get hired at a big studio ;)

[SkyNet]

Very nice work ...
btw I'm Greek :)
:applause:

[Siddhy]

i'm speechless. i love it! :eek: :eek: :eek:
no mocap? greater than great.

[wazza m]

To all,
I’m overwhelmed. Thankyou.

To Subscream/Joel,

If only it was that simple! I tried adding blends before skinning with all combinations and options. The problem arose due to blends being linked to bone rotations via set driven keys. Individually blends worked but when two blends acted on the same area, an unwanted double deformation occurred. Nasty indeed.

To kerux,
You made me laugh when I read your post. I should have known someone would know the Greek alphabet!

To TheGreenGiant,
Thanks for your super kind comments – the background is indeed a spherical map attached to the brilliant GIJoe (global illumination) setup.

To qba3d,
I used the most excellent reverse foot setup by Tim Naylor http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/realtimechar1/part2.3d
The most important part of PAN’s foot setup was the compression of his ankle (when foot is flat) which assists in animating weight.

To jab,
I would agree – I remember thinking when the animation was complete “the ribs are a little too slack”.

To TesuoShima,
Check out my site. There’s a small section on edgeloop modelling. I used Burne Hogarth’s book “Dynamic Figure Drawing” – it breaks down all the surface contours of the body in muscle groups and masses – fantastic resource. Modelling with good topology (UV’s flowing the in the direction of muscles) really assists in the realism of deformation.

[AndersEgleus]

Like everyone's already said: amazing work!

I took the time to really scrutinize the site and I think I've read all the material now. I can safely say I've been more enlightened and educated today than I've been in months!

And in so many areas as well. Your historical layout was very entertaining and the work process description was extremely informative and clear. Thanks for the link to the bbc site too, that had me sidetracked for a good half an hour while reading your thesis.

As for the final video, I'm as awe struck as everyone else all in all - there's a tremendous amount of complex motion in there, you definitely practice what you preach. It would be interesting to know a bit more about the actual animation process, not just the rigging (or did I miss a page?). E.g. if you used pose to pose or "straight" animation, some estimation of the average temporal distance between keyframes, how similar your reference videos were to your final shots etc.

The only thing I can crit is that, at certain points, I don't see enough newtonian physics (8:th principle of animation - follow through and overlap, I suppose). Let me give you an example: When Billy Jean starts PAN does this pelvic motion, which is very dynamic, but at the extreme position, all animation stops for a fraction of a second. IRL it would be impossible to freeze like that in a pose so far from a balanced position and at the end of a motion with so much inertia behind it. Same thing when he's just breathing - the rest of the body is perpetuated in an unnatural way.

In the very beginning, when PAN is doing that "riverdance" manouvre (slapping his left hoof with the right hand), and the kicking during Billy Jean, are other examples of lack of inertia and gravity. It's very hard to put one's finger on what's wrong, but perhaps it's this: although the body seems perfectly balanced on still frames, the dynamic center of mass may not be as well portrayed as the static counterpart. This is extremely hard to achieve, but there is a huge difference between the static COM which needs to be correct for an immobile posture and the dynamic COM when the body moves so that it both anticipates the balance needed for the immediate future, as well as compensates for / is affected by the movement in the immediate past. I'm sure you're fully aware of this since you've nailed it in most of the animation, but I just needed to get it straight in my own head in order to crit.

Excellent work, I hope you get a great job soon.

|edit| BTW, here's :wavey: another vote for plugging this. |/edit|

[bones]

Bloody marvelous! Realistic movements of the whole body worked well together and some great poses too. The breath expansion during in the hold is a nice touch and a more subtle COG move would have helped the hold I think. I wish I could see more of your great work.

[bones]

Bloody marvelous! Realistic movements of the whole body worked well together and some great poses too. The breath expansion during in the hold is a nice touch and a more subtle COG move would have helped the hold I think. I wish I could see more of your great work.

[BigSky]

Glad to see this fine reception, Mr wazzaPan.
Congrats!

[Flog]

Oh MODS that be, put the God of the woods on the front page for all to SEE

FRONT PAGE FRONT PAGE

Great smooth animation!!!!

Wonderful stuff. YAY:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[wazza m]

To Anders Egleus,

Thanks for the indepth comments.

The animation process was pose to pose using imported AVI files as reference. Some of the motion I used layering where I went through and animated the arms after I'd animated the hips, torso and legs (mainly for walking movements) - I left the hands till last, animating them (all all his fingers) after all the body motion was completed.

By using a rotoscoping method it's really easy to pick out your keys. In some areas I set simple keys and it all worked perfectly - other areas wern't so pretty having to place keys pretty close together to get the setup to behave right. It took a while as you all could imagine but I really believe that it was the character setup which helped with the realism - I'm no genious in animation, that's for sure. Having a bicep buldge, or ribs compress when a movement is performed really adds depth to the animation however sutble it is.

I would agree (as have some others) with the jerkyness of some parts. Michael Jackson's dancing is quite phenominal. Allot of the illusion is his ability to make his body stop solid on the beat and continue on afterwards. Check out "Smooth Criminal" film clip for brilliant examples of this. Problem is in 3D if you stop a motion - it stops dead whereas humans can never stand still. I do believe that secondary motion is always important and a little more movent over his whole body when he paused and was breathing would have created greater realism. I found that out when trying a closeup shot and realised his head was completely still.

thanks again,

Wazza

[srv]

Hey wazza,
This looks outstanding.
There's a certain level of quality and professionalism that makes it stand out.
The degree of realism in the deformations of your rig is superb.
I think the camera moves and final render really accentuate the incredible amount of hard work that you have put in to the other areas of your animation.

SOMEBODY GIVE THIS GUY A JOB

Nice one man:buttrock:
John

[wok]

Awsome work:applause: I really love the moonwalk:thumbsup:

[Mr.Sanders]

Really nice piece :thumbsup:
To bad the hat blends so much with the background (in the quicktime version atleast). Took me some re-runs before I saw where it came in.
But still.. superb animation!

[Edouard]

really nice work, now make some nimfs:love:

[Subscream]

double transformation on the blends .. ahh okej ..

If you have 2 blends affecting the same surface you could actually
make a third blendshape that is this state.

To put it in another way.

If you have blends A & B ..
if your surface is breaking up in AB condition .. then instead use
the blend C when this condition occurs.

Hope that make sense.

I believe that "Gollum" was made like this. Bay Raitt explained
this principle at the 3D Festival in Copenhagen on LOTR-day.

regards Joel

[emm]

dear god! I am not worthy!

checked out you`r webpage, and holy ...
that must be some of the most impressive
character-setup ever! jeez..

and the animation is really impressive,
esp.the michael jackson-part.. !!

:thumbsup:

how long time did you really use for this project?
-m

[BigSky]

Wazza, SubScream:

Check out this thread on spiraloid which discusses the method of "combination-sculpting".

http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/viewtopic.php?TopicID=634

:lightbulb

[Bluplet]

Seems everyone likes Pan! ;)

Wonder if QUT is gonna have a cow over the sudden spike in bandwith usage! haha.

A lil bit 'o exposure should do wonders for you!

[Subscream]

thanks BigSky

[Clanger]

One of the best things I've seen in a while, more please, lot's more, could watch it all day.

[Soljarag]

HAHA, thats awsome:applause:

[nizzi]

Awesome! I love it!

[AndersEgleus]

About time this got plugged.

Thanks for the additional info on the animation, wazza.

[Raul-Reznek]

maaan! best piece of work i've seen recently(in amination that is)

my regards dude haha! :D

and if the dude said 'ooooh!' when u had that MIchael beat on, it would have been perfect :D

[manlio]

Impressive! Really great animation dude.
:thumbsup:

[MiGa]

WOW!
Nice modelling, rendering and dancing :)
Like the moonwalk and the cam-moving!

Great!

[Joss]

so is there a tutorial on this "combination-sculpting" anywhere?

did Bay Raitt put up some docs somewhere about it?

oh, and Michael Jackson has nothing on Pan! :scream:

[Gentle Fury]

very nice work........the setup was very well done, and the animation was very good......but i still think there is a lot of tweeking needed to fix a lot of the stiffness in some of the movements......i noticed a lot of occasions where the character didnt seem to settle-in but stopped completely, and unfortunatly that throws the illusion of wonderful movement way off track.

wonderful work though........i would just work on smoothing some of it out.

[BlueCougar]

Great work, I laughed out loud when I saw it the first time. It reminded me of the large pan/satyr marble sculpture that's in one of the museums in London that I did a sketch study of while I was there.
The only thing that belied the reality was the hips were a bit dead in a few places and didn't really fall in well with the "breaking of the joints" cascade in the pose transitions, other than that...AWESOME JOB!

Kenn

[dingo]

I in particular like the research you did on your site.

Awesome work.

Hey you CGNetwork guys,

You should make a deal with wazza and package his thesis and research on his site into a book.

Seriously, this project should be your next book from Ballistic Publishing.

I would buy it as a reference manual.

Again, great work wazza.

[neverman]

in your site under Cluster Driven Skin Deformation you mention that you programmed clusters in the chest to react to bone movement - by this do you mean that you used expressions or did you use sdk??? - also you mentioned the use of wrap def on the bicep - they were used much like an influence object, was there a reason you went with the wrap over an influence??
thx for taking the time - you have achieved alot with this test :]
xclnt work!!

:D

[wolfy2525]

Ok dude,
You might have heard this a couple of times already, but that is one seriously amazing peice of animation.
The fact that you have added little detials in like his breathing.
Very amusing as well.
Top work buddy.:buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

[the_real_cabal]

:buttrock: Yeahh this rocks :scream: :applause:

greetings Cabal

[unclebob]

That is the funniest fu***** thing I've seen in a long while. I laughed my azz off. Exceptional work... great animation, movements, moon walk and the character is very well done. This one is going into my archives. !!! When I need a laugh, I'll watch this.

Thanks for sharing this.

bob

[saraki]

This movie was sooo funny i still die in laughter when i see it. Incredible work!

[agreenster]

Very good work!!! The pelvis thrust was appropriately gross but good nonetheless. Big points for skeletal/muscular correctness in the deformation (I especially love his scapula moving when you see the shot of his back).

Only one critique-- The background image is very low-res and its obvious in some places. Maybe a bit of blur would help it along?

Okay, maybe two....I wish his face would have moved. I know he's a sculpture and all, but it would have been nice to see some facial expressions in the close ups....his face seemed a bit too stiff.

Regardless, fantastic work



:)

[Reality3D]

Thanks for all the info of your web!

[starqueen]

hilarious!!! lol :beer:

[cgjie]

Wow!
Wonderful,cool guy .
Amazing rig work .
Thanks a lot for your website.
Was any animations key by hand?


:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[spooky3d]

man great stuff. I really like the deep breathing in between songs awesome job. was that motion capture?

[LostSoul¹13]

Man GOOD JOB. I know everyone already toled you that but IT KIck you know what. Veryy nice. Guys can i say it
You r0x0r my b0x0r:applause:

[pengo]

FANTASTIC WORK!!!!!!:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Cman]

That is so awesome!!

ROFLMAO!!!

[ThomasMahler]

That´s the coolest animation I've seen for.... let´s say a year. Very well done!

[Lee3dee]

WOW!. jaw dropped. Your bible on human modeling on the website is needs to be created into a book. I agree with what others have said, I would buy it, its a great resource and truely shows the modeling steps you took.

Simply Awesome!

[The-3D-Data-Labs-Guy]

:banghead: :surprised

[KotsVlok]

WOOW!

[Cararan]

The animation on this was amazing. Really enjoyed it .

[MajinPunisher]

This is great. I pray that I'll be able to get at least one film of this quality during my school time.

Question 1: Are you in school for this and if so, where?

Question 2: Time frame. How long did it all take?

This is great, so I won't waste time by reiterating the "This is amazing" comment. Though I think I just did.

[geoffb]

Awesome great work on the research. Love the site and good job on everything and good luck. With work like that you should have no problem getting a job. Awesome! Just Awesome.

Geoff
:buttrock:

[Premutos]

Amazing work!

And if anyone else has said this, please forgive me; but when he enters 'Michael Jackson' mode and kicks, it looks a little weird. The leg goes down too slow..

Anyways, the video is amazing! Really, really cool. Have you planned to submit more stuff like this? =)

[mehdianim]

Great animatioooon! I always wondered why people don't animate any michael Jackson moves because he makes a great case study!!

[rayz]

very funny and entertaining :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I really had fun watching that animation.... keep it up.

[ToastMan]

LOL, what a beautiful work!! I was smiling throughout the whole thing.
You have FANTASTIC animation skills. Implementing such detailed dancing moves, and doing it so wonderfully, is really admirable!!

Keep up the great work my man!!

[gigatron]

I like the michael jackson part :) Awesome stuff!

[RockinAkin]

Awesome work!

Put this bad boy on a few VHS's as your demo-reel and send it out to the big boys.

You'll have studios fighting over you. :buttrock:

[Supervlieg]

Awesome stuff, YOU the man!!

You should be able to land a job pretty much anywhere you want with that stuff.

Love the background info on you site as well. Great work on the deformations of the muscles, looks really uhm well, realistic.

One suggestions for your movie. Start with Pan on a pedastal, standing as still as a statue. The camera slowly orbiting him, then all of a sudden he jumps off, the music kicks in, he starts doing he dancing stuff. After the dance the music stops, he jumps back on.

If you can find the time that is :p

Great modelling as well by the way.

[spm]

HAHAHA!!! I LOVE IT!!!:scream: :love: :argh: :D

[OPREV]

AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

[Boone]

I think its a good animation.

[fretshredder]

that was f%#in awesome!!! hilarious, great work :thumbsup:

/gz

[Onno]

Excellent mix between humor and pure 3D goodness. Movement may be a little squary around certain parts, but it doesn't bother me at all, in fact I think that is what MJ would like to achieve, in stead of the fluidity of other dances.

Lovely work, this is one for the archives! 10/10

[DarkG]

Woww congratulations !!!! I hope see more animation about Michael Jackson :o) Is fantastic this part :D

[erilaz]

Beautiful animation and weighting. If it hasn't been posted already (there's way too any posts to scour to see if it has), I'd love to see your rig. The pelvic thrusts remind me of IK-Joe.:D

[Twrch]

That is some of the best animation I have ever seen. How long to animate?

[Larsen]

WOW, such a great work you done man !

That animation is fantastic, you made a great thesis too.

So, good luck for the next.

:thumbsup:

[BonoMan]

Pretty damn good!

The best parts were RIGHT after the first cut where he was walking behind the column..doing a slow strut, then the part where he first becomes Michael...then the part where he moon walks out. Otherwise some of the motion seemed a little stiff.

Still better than most of the stuff I've seen (especially since it ain't mocapped), so take that critique with a grain of salt. But some of the timing was a little hard edged.

[Jozvex]

Super good job! The fast arm/hand movements during the MJ dance are really well done.

That first 'arm-swing-move' (technical term guys) at the start of the MJ dance looks fantastic!

Go Aussie Go!

[igorstshirts]

Okay... Yeah, I QUIT!

[CreativeM1nd]

I feel bad for waiting so long to reply to this great work of ART. Good job all around. You've heard all the rest. Wow.....

[killer397]

Absolutly LOVE IT !!
Really REALLY WANNA see alot more of this.

Great work !! :buttrock: :applause:

[RichardB]

This is a great piece of animation, and unlike some of the comments, I *don't* think it needs smoothing.

Seems to me Michael Jackson's dance routine has always had that 'sudden stop' element to it (I'm still not sure he isn't helped out in post-prod), and I'd expect the god Pan to do it like Jackson, but better- so, excellent interpretation from the animator!

I think your edit and camera placement are spot on and deserve special mention, seems to me you could also use this as the start of a career directing promos.

Rb

[Vesuvando]

Heh !!!
Your little film is just TOO great !
:thumbsup:
:love:
Specially since I had the idea of doing something like this for a long time !
In fact I am a french (that's why my english can sound strange) beginner in 3d and dreamed of putting in the computer all the dances I like to practice , like DISCO.
Love it !!!
You set the quality level so high that what I can do wouldn't reach this before... Wouuu !
Too much time.
(no motion capture)
So thanks for this look into future (I hope ! ) !
In Saturday night fever , I LOVE when it's "Disco Inferno", having Travolta and the girl dancing together...
Can't wait !
:wip:
Building up my skills !!

Now I am not an expert , but can talk about the feeling I had when I watched your film.
Lots of the moves are really top reallistic , like reality , but a few others are not.
I can't really explain all ,it would be too long.
But if you're a dancer , you can easily see them.
(but ok , it should be really hard to tune up a so complex animation)
It don't take away that your animation is really awesome.
:D Ok maybe I am like people that always want more...
Sorry !

Hope that you will soon get a job that you like , and that your skills will go higher and higher !

Back into past...

Ps : signature like Erilaz

[Blackhorse]

Totally amazing and funny!
we are smiling during watching the reel!
that's absolutely five star.
the character is so cute for my tast.
the motion is perfect.

Thanks you for sharing the materials with us.

:applause:

[phyle]

damn cool
just thought I'd jump in with everyone else to say congratulations, it turned out awesome!!

[Corn Dog]

Was hoping it would end with the sound of door opening as a security gaurd comes walking in. Pan turns of the radio and jumps back up on platform returning to statue pose.

Execellent stuff.

Great disco tutorial too. :)

Im keepin this one for a bit.

Thesis and stuff is cool too gives an idea of how an animation should be approached.

[pascal_blanche]

eeheh really nice stuff :beer:
Your animation could be even better if you work a little more on your pacing , curves and if you add a little more life in it, like making him breathe for example ;) Nothing to say about the rigging, perfect work!
keep it up!

[Raideen]

The work was TOP NOTCH. I laughed and laughed and laughed.
Seen it 8 times and still seeing it very funny.

:buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

[Phoenix00]

Pan was fantastic! You are a true genius. One of my friends is a great fan of "Saturday Night Fever" so when i showed him he loved it.

You are from Brisbane too! woo! I'm just starting 3D really but its people like you that inspire me! Has anyone from Brisbane been to Qantm? or is currently enroled?

[dongdong~2002]

:eek: :eek: :eek:
MICHAEL JACKSON!I like!;)

[mexus]

Very cool animation.

It seems a bit fast at times, but very smooth and great timing and overall performance!

Thumbs up!! :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

[gagn]

Congratulations on great modelling and animation.

I think you could refine the animation some more, though.

Get him in sync with the music in the beginning (when he does the Travolta-move). Right now it feels like he's animated, and not dancing!
When the MJ music starts:
He's breathing movement is limited to the torso, while the rest of the body is totally still.. Breaks the organic illusion.

His pelvis rotation is very stiff... You should ease out that motion so that it doesn't stop like a mechanical device. Also mind the feet - they leave the ground momentarily when he does the pelvic thrust. It looks odd.

Otherwise it's very nice, especially the complex arm and hand moves.

Keep it up,
Gabriel

[Jimzip]

Absolutely awesome!!
I love this animation, it's something to aspire to!
Excellent effort and well done!


Jimzip :D

[kamsvag]

How did you rigg those leggs? Always interesting to hear about riggs...:thumbsup:

[Jocke]

Totally amazing work, I love it :applause:

[qwerty_12345]

i would have liked to see the tiles on the floor light up , like in the billy jean video. really really great work:applause:

[actarus6]

Impressive work

I love human modeling and animation

This will be a must for me

great great great

congratulation man u are a reference WAZZA M

bye

[unicron]

that was great! I loved it

keep up the good work:D

[pascal3d]

IN-friggin-CREDIBLE!!!

[srt]

simply amazing animation!!

i just spent the last couple of hours looking over your site. awsome stuff there. the research you have done is great and i have learned quite a bit from reading it.

all i can say is THANKS

steve

[JHN]

Good stuff!!!

Keep it up!
JHN

[davidSingha]

Outstanding!!!!!

cheers!:beer: :beer: :beer:

[unwrap]

He he. Very entertaining animation, excellent.

[fabmedia]

My hat is off. I only wished that I would have thought of that sooner. I'd like to see more....

Arlen

[fabmedia]

Actually another 2 cents here... I think if there is anything that is really missing is some sound effects. Now if you add those, then you have a piece that truely won't be missed. The facial animation is okay to leave well alone, because if you were to add a MJ scream with Billy Jean you wouldn't have to or notice that the mouth doesn't move when the hat is on.

But yes. Sound FX. It's greatly overlooked by people who are puttin together demo reals.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers!
Arlen

[quazee]

awesome animation

[rusted_nut]

Hi wazza m,
I have been studing the Character Setup section on your website. I found your solution to the shoulder setup very interesting. I like the upper arm joint having a different pivot rotation point other than the end of the collar bone.

I would like to know if the collar rotation was driven by any expressions or set driven keys based on the rotation value of the upper arm? Or was the collar bone straight FK?

I would like to know if you animated Pan's arms with IK or FK.

Thanks in advance for your response.

[wazza m]

Heya man,

Glad you liked the shoulder setup.

I created attributes (set driven keys) for the movement of the clavicle and scapula and animated with sliders.

I also did a test that fed the rotation of the upper arm into the scalpula and clavicle using set driven key (ie when upperarm rot = 0 degrees, clavicle rotation = 0, when upperarm = 90 degrees, clavicle rotation = 30 degrees) (not actual values)

This meant that the shoulder's movement was relative to the rotation of the arm - really cool. The problem was that the IK on the arm made it pop and jerk really bad. I was told to use two IK's one feeding into the other but I never got round to it. I ended up animating the arm and shoulder position seperatly - which is worked well because it meant I could animate secondary movements, hunches and the shoulder working independantly from the arm.

An ideal setup would be to have both working at the same time - a shoulder that moves with the rotation of the upperarm but is editable like a IK FK setup that can slide inbetween.

[NowhereMan]

woooooooooooo that was nasty, perfect timing and flow!!!

:surprised :drool: :applause:

[cutepixie]

lol that was just simply awesome good work wazza and hope to see more from where that came from ;) :thumbsup:

[xynaria]

Sadly... not getting anywhere with any of your links..... any chance any of the sites will arise again??? :)

[redbear]

i agree...your site is down (well, the animations and graphics are gone but your html is still there...)

any chance of seeing this...??

[jellyfish]

Try it again, I was able to download and view his site no problem.

Very nice work. :)

jellyfish

[Radeon]

Wow, relly awsome, made me laugh :thumbsup:

[xynaria]

Still can't get anything or anywhere :( :)

[wazza m]

heya guys,

My website's on the University server where I studied and recently it's been playing up. I just tried it then and it's not working. There's a public holiday today in Brissy so I suspect it'll be working tamorrow.

Stay tuned - also I just had an interview about PAN at http://www.3dm-mc.com/features.php?id=21

Check it out!

Wazza

[ToiletDuck]

man.... that's the best I've seen yet!!!!!!!!!

[digital_rhino]

Thats f'n hilarious:scream:

[xynaria]

Don't like the 'segue' but otherwise great trailer for the short it deserves to be. :beer::beer:

[wazza m]

Sever is up and runnin' again!

[cac2889]

Too funny! :D Awesome job man. :thumbsup:

[cac2889]

Too funny! :D Awesome job man. :thumbsup:

[lildragon]

Wee bit behind on everything these days, but I'm catching back up :) I watched it, I laughed, I cried, well not cried but laughed a bunch. Though the animation was good, it was a bit stiff in parts and even though you put alot of effort into the muscle deformations (great study btw) you've still got some was to go to make it really "real" , things like the abs flexing and stretching correctly for instance, but you're well on your way.

You have received the CGtalk choice award .Please feel free to display this image anywhere you like! Nice work!

upon receiving this award, it guarantees you a spot in the cgtalk gallery hall of fame (http://gallery.cgtalk.com) - which you are now placed

http://www.cgtalk.com/plug_award/cgtalk_award_aug03.jpg

P.S. Please email me @ tito@cgnetworks.com so I can send you the award .psd file

salud

[kassinopious]

amazing :applause:

[IlCattivo]

Ahhh, now I'm happy again.

Great work!

[wazza m]

Thankyou, Thankyou , Thankyou...

The award and comments have made all the hard work worthwhile.

Peace,

Warwick Mellow;)

[Menty]

mainly i'm an observer, but this work i have to comment :

!! This really kick ass !!

I wachted it over and over again.

Brilliant! trust me :)

plz, keep on working for a longer version :)

[Ryoma]

this is the best animation i've seen for ages !! too bad it's a shortfilm :cry:
i could watch him shaking for hours :scream:

great work wazza !!! :applause:

[Dreamwave]

this is crazy...I LOVE IT :beer:

[Oscarini]

Good one - great char - great animation...I felt joy all the time whatchin' this! :applause:

[facial]

LOL LOL
:beer: Coooool . :thumbsup:

[HenningK]

Sweet, man. Thats the highest level of character animation I've seen on this site. I could tell it wasnt mo-cap. Mo-cap doesn't work quite right. This was right on, every move. And thank you so much for the detailed tuts and explorations, we can appreciate the work on a whole other level that way.

[onslaught12]

I that love that man. keep it up!!!!!:buttrock:



:beer: :drool:

[Chiny]

LoL... think this is my first post... this is really cool.... O.O
love it so much.. LoL

[quyeno]

the links no longer work, does anyone know of another link?

[3D-ima Green]

Haha.. nice moves!

thats some very good work! :love:

[BgDM]

Fantastic animation. Had me laughing like crazy.

Great work.

BgDM

[Agilers]

Now that is freaking awesome...wow i wished i could rig and skin like that.:beer: :beer:

[Valentina]

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[BazyBen]

Hahahahaha!
that was great! just great!! haha
wow.. i dont know what to say.
totally awesome
keep up the great work! :D :beer:

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