Shirow Project Book#3 Side-Mission

#501

Originally posted by softdistortion
[B]colkai- You think you need to get the basics under your belt?

Remember I said ‘by the 3rd or 4th vehicle you’d be turning out pro vehicles’? Your there! [/B]

Thanks for the vote of confidence but I know I am a way off what I want to achieve. Hopefully, when I’ve finished, I will be there, though I’m not denying I’m quite happy with the wagon, it does have it’s faults. Each model brings me that bit closer to my goals - which is what is so cool about being involved in this…

Actually, I do have a building you could use if you want.
It is a local church but could easily be made into something else by leaving out the top cross and bell tower…
EDIT:
Uploaded a sample render of it, also have it as a ‘basic’ which is UV mapped (only 67 polys).


#502

aurora- Thanks:)

sllink- The changes look good, I am wondering if we should have had a control stick though? I don’t remember one in the refs, so it wasn’t left out…just seems like the pilot is pushing alot of buttons. Not really a big issue, We can clip it with interspersed shots of the co-pilot.
Keep it coming :thumbsup:
DIVX 2 megs

colkai- Well, whatever…I still think all your wagon needs is seam edging/grooving and it’s PERFECT. Since you were probably trying to keep the polys low and had a reason for no seams…100%:applause:

TEAM- here’s an mutilated little clip for you
> chopper over water…had to do the audio on a workstation with no speakers to check it…so probably some horrid sound fx to boot :wink:
[DIVX 5 megs](http://softdistortion.com/shirowprojectpublic/sidemission1/chopper ani 2.avi)

#503

sounds ok to me SD, looks pretty fine too:thumbsup:

as a thought, did you always want a remote controlled helicopter as a child by any chance?:rolleyes:

I did :slight_smile:

can we see it turn 45degrees and fly away from the camera as the clip progresses, :buttrock:

#504

Originally posted by softdistortion
colkai- Well, whatever…I still think all your wagon needs is seam edging/grooving

I hear ya, that’s basically what I mean, turn it from a smooth-mesh into a properly defined item. As you say though, whups up the ole poly count. Still, that’s my aim for close-up, to perfect that panelling, at the moment, it looks a tad ‘clunky’. :wink:

If I may make an observation on the cockpit anim?
First, there seems to be a lot of spline interpolation going on during the “keypress” actions, too smooth, they need to be choppier.
Also, the part where the guy turns to sit in the chair really jars with me, he just slides round. He should be taking a series of discreet motions. If you can, get in front of a mirror, or video yourself doing this action, watch what happens. With the keypresses, you find the movements are ‘snappier’, the pull back after hitting the button would be much faster. Might be worth speeding up that turn as well, it may hide the slide more.
Is this being done in LW or Motion builder btw?

#505

I came so close to getting something done yesterday then my dad had to leave work early and wanted to go out to get something to eat. Who can refuse free food? I did get the dropship coming out of the sunglare scene added and animated as well as the dropship running along with the train. I’m going to get the images for those sometime this morning (really, honest, I swear!!) I have not really synced up the timing of the dropships with the train or the train to the train and won’t until we know exactly what we want. Or until I get LW8 with the new dopesheet and editor, me thinks we will be done with that before LW8 though. Will dl those two clips in just a bit I’m dl’ing a VERY BIG file right now.

#506

Originally posted by colkai

If I may make an observation on the cockpit anim?
First, there seems to be a lot of spline interpolation going on during the “keypress” actions, too smooth, they need to be choppier.
Also, the part where the guy turns to sit in the chair really jars with me, he just slides round. He should be taking a series of discreet motions. If you can, get in front of a mirror, or video yourself doing this action, watch what happens. With the keypresses, you find the movements are ‘snappier’, the pull back after hitting the button would be much faster. Might be worth speeding up that turn as well, it may hide the slide more.
Is this being done in LW or Motion builder btw?

colkai, thanks for the tips. Im still eyeballing this monster. That turn is driving me nuts too. I tried doing this two step myself I found that its a series of three steps and spin. The actual animation is slower than what is shown in other words its about 750 frames but I spead it up in DFX+. The timing turns out to be around 500 frames. Im either gonna start from scratch so I can stop thinking about the existing keyframes or try a whole new shot instead for example I may just have them both sitting at first then the one guy stands up and walks over to the panel. This is all Lightwave, Im considering Motion builder. Do you have any experience with Motion Builder. The demo looks pretty powerful.

Softdistortion - I think you are right about that steering device if you look closely you can see where I copied the two joysticks from the bottom panel and put two on the top of the dash those were not originally there. I may try and move them left and right and make them a little bigger to sit in the hands. I didnt want to destroy the cockpit mesh to much. :slight_smile:

#507

Softdistortion - The chopter looks good but try adding was vibration to the chopter as well as the camera. It’ll increase the feeling immensly. Are you doing the vibration with Twitch? Cool and easy tool isen’t it! BTW the sound sounds perfect on my system!

sllink - the animation has really improved. I still think that there should be alittle more finger actionand less wrist/forearm action but you have really cleaned that up. I think you have also done so great improvements on the chair animation. I don’t see anything wrong with it rotating on its own without him helping. I think you just need to smooth it out a bit.
Ahh DFX, I have been playing with it and it is so incredibly sweet. I normally use AE or Combustion but DFX is so fast, easy and powerful. It took months to become proficent with AE but a day maybe two with DFX. I don’t want to go back to anything else now. I just need to buy a full copy instead of the demo. Damn I wish I had known they were going to do the bundle with LW8 I would have waited.

#508

Originally posted by aurora
[B]Softdistortion - The chopter looks good but try adding was vibration to the chopter as well as the camera. It’ll increase the feeling immensly. Are you doing the vibration with Twitch? Cool and easy tool isen’t it! BTW the sound sounds perfect on my system!

sllink - the animation has really improved. I still think that there should be alittle more finger actionand less wrist/forearm action but you have really cleaned that up. I think you have also done so great improvements on the chair animation. I don’t see anything wrong with it rotating on its own without him helping. I think you just need to smooth it out a bit.
Ahh DFX, I have been playing with it and it is so incredibly sweet. I normally use AE or Combustion but DFX is so fast, easy and powerful. It took months to become proficent with AE but a day maybe two with DFX. I don’t want to go back to anything else now. I just need to buy a full copy instead of the demo. Damn I wish I had known they were going to do the bundle with LW8 I would have waited. [/B]

I will keep working on it. I like DFX+ too give Newtek a call maybe they will hook you up since you’ve been waiting so long for LW8. Also you may want to check out Jahshaka it seems to have a similar workflow as DFX+ best part is its open source. Jahshaka.com I havent tried it yet but it looks very interesting.

#509

The sound on the Helicopter was fine here as well. Looks good!:thumbsup:

#510

Thanks guys! Tried adding twitch to the camera, but too erratic for me, went back to doing it in AE like always ;). I downlaoded to a speakered system…it does sound cool! :slight_smile:
I’ll add to it later today.

#511

I was going to talk to NT about that but I got a special through SafeHarbour which included a ton of training material. So I figured I would be asking alittle too much especially since I went through SH instead of directly from NT.
I almost have all those images for you SD. I should be able to upload them within a hour.

#512

Originally posted by sllink
colkai, thanks for the tips. Im still eyeballing this monster. That turn is driving me nuts too.
…
Im either gonna start from scratch so I can stop thinking about the existing keyframes or try a whole new shot

I like the idea of him walking to the chair, it’s just the spin. Know what you mean about ‘playing’ around existing keyframes though, you can sometimes trap yourself with it. Same holds true when modelling, I sometimes find it easier to scrap some sections and rebuild, otherwise you’re continually ‘faffing’ trying to work in other polys.

Another thing I noticed, as he sets off, his leg hangs in the air as he rotates, I think it should just be off the ground for a small time, then pivot on his foot as he turns.

It’s difficult ‘acting’ this out because all of a sudden, it is hard to do it naturally :wink: Better to get some space and just video it. Trying to figure out how you turn as you are doing it and you start moving like an idiot, or at least … I do :smiley:

As for Motion Builder, I bit the bullet and ‘upgraded’ from the giveaway version.
It is awesome, I had never done a walk-cycle in my life, but even I could get something that wasn’t too horrendous (heh!).
If I get time later, I will put a quick example up of a walkcycle I did in - get this - 5 minutes!

Alas, it’s not cheap to get now as the ‘upgrade’ is all but run out.

#513

Originally posted by aurora
Ahh DFX, I have been playing with it and it is so incredibly sweet.
… Damn I wish I had known they were going to do the bundle with LW8 I would have waited.

Colour me with a self-satisfied smirk :wink:

It was this bundle that got me to upgrade to LW8, haven’t really had time to get to grips with it as I’ve never done compositing before, but it’s installed anyways.

Some day, I may get time to learn all this cool stuff, just need someone to pay the bills for me :stuck_out_tongue:

#514

Trying to figure out how you turn as you are doing it and you start moving like an idiot, or at least … I do

Here I thought that was something unique to me.:blush: LOL

SD - I have uploaded 19 images and sent you an Email.
Sorry everybody else, not stuff really worth posting at least right now. They are more guidence to help storyboard where we really want to go. I’ll post decent images/clips when we have what we want.

#515

Are you guys planning to make a movie or a series out of these?

#516

Sllink, ok, I admit… it took me a bit longer than 5 minutes as I have not used MB in …mumble…mumble… :wink:
Once I actually remembered how to use it, the setting up of the poses, creating keyframes and editing the FCurves to produce the walk cycle did take under 5 minutes.

Not really aimed at a good walk cycle, but it really wouldn’t take that much effort to produce a ‘proper’ one. The movements were exagerated a little - no C.A. am I :eek:

http://www.colkai.dsl.pipex.com/miscwork/walk1.mpg (454Kb)

#517

aurora- Thanks I will look at them after posting this. I’ll email the rest of the message :wink:

yeyeman9- We are planning a short animation that is slowly growing into a long animation :wink:

colkai- Can you give me some tutoring in the team forum, cause I just don’t get MB. I mean I am lazy, so I haven’t really hit the manual, but even when I do crack it to look for something that would seem to logically be under a heading…it isn’t there.

I want to be able to load a character and just drop the motions I want on him, then slide them around on the timeline. :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, how do you exprt BHV files??? arrrrgh! :slight_smile:

#518

got it :smiley: Sounds neat…I am looking forward to see it.
Btw, Soft do you have any instant messenger?

#519

yeyeman9- Yeah, but everytime I log on I get sidetracked and can’t hardly log out again without being rude to somebody :wink:

#520

Lol, ok. Just wanted to discuss some stuff out with you…