WIP animation "Cubed" part 3

#47

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.

  • GI settings vary throughout now, depending on what’s happening in order to reduce rendertimes. Eg. during the downpour of the boxes, the settings are very low.
  • 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 almost dragged its body over the floor.
  • The self-satisfied nodding after run 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. It seems to work much better now.
  • 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.

My biggest headache at the moment is he GI flicker occurring at the end. If you look at the shadows of the boxes at the end, they literally switch on and off all the time. I have done a few tests, but rendertimes shoot through the roof. I’m thinking of using camera-mapping to “bake” he shadows.

#48

During the flickering bit, what are you GI Sample grid (GI Sample level) settings and colour tolorence settings?

The grid should definatly be at least 4x4
I’d try tolorence of 2.5 initially (adjusting upwards (towards 10) until cured)

Then turn on “Show samples” and make sure GI is picking up the boxes in the distance during the drop.

If you have the sample grid set to 8x8 (default) then this is your problem, 8x8 as a size is simply too wide for an animation. You will probably get away with less rays when using a tighter grid and higher Colour Tolorance setting.

Apologies if you’re already using these settings!
It looks great though, box blur is much improved! The eyes are ace :slight_smile:
Ian

#49

D’oh, I did a test with a 1x1 grid but actually set the colour tolerance to 0.7. The manual gave me the impression that lower numbers=more quality. I’ll try that one this evening. Thanks.

#50

You’re right, 1x1 is a very tight grid, that should provide REALLY stable results…

The colour tolorence should be 2-2.5 to start with though.
Ian

#51

Well, it didn’t. It still flickered, probably due to the low colour tolerance. All I achieved was depressingly long rendertimes.

#52

The last section, around 160 frames, has been re-rendered with higher settings. 800 rays, 2x2 grid, colour tolerance: 4
It took more than 24 hours just to render those 160 frames. Ouch.
Maybe I would have got away with less rays. But it was simply a case of either spending a whole evening doing tests or just switching to brute force. In the end I preferred the machine to do the work. Still, in the future I’d be interested to play around a bit more with the GI settings. Over 24 hours for 160 frames is not a very productive way of working.

The URL is still the same one from last time:
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cat03_full.mov

Animation wise, I got rid of an annoying little knee-pop. IK is great and all that, but when it plays up, it can be difficult to control, like with this particular knee-pop. I simply couldn’t get rid of it. In the end I just painted it out in Combustion which took me the best part of 10 minutes. Not a very “pure” solution, but it works.

Next: sound effects.

#53

Hi, Manuel
Nice animation, it´s going better and better at each iteration. I love the design the most, and the animation has lots of little details very enjoyable. I can´t wait for the sound.
How do you feel EiAS for character animation?
A little story idea… (yeah, it´s a bit late for that) i think if the first cube where something evidently important for the cat, the lost of it in the downpour of boxes could be more funny.

Nice work
FelixCat

#54

Well, there wasn’t much of a story to begin with. It started life as a little animation test where I wanted to test out a few things:

  • The rig
  • CA in EIAS
  • Character picking up something
  • Cartoon timing and physics in 3D
  • Feasibility of applying the eyes as a texture.
  • Rodeo
  • GI rendering
    I’ve done all that. I think it’s time for me to let this rest and move on.

Character animation in EIAS is feasible, but it could do with a serious kick up its backside. I remember seeing a demonstration of XSI where they showed how the whole process of modelling, rigging, articulation, animation is completely non-linear. After having done this animation, I can fully appreciate why you’d want to work like that. Unfortunately, XSI is not going to appear on the mac anytime soon, if ever.
I could always try Maya. But for some reason, as soon as I open that program, my brain jumps out of my skull and goes for a little walk. Maya and I are simply not made for each other it seems.
Of course, Maxon seem to have done a good job with their new CA-module in C4D 10. But I’m a bit wary of that company. I can’t help feeling that most of their software design decisions are of the “me-too” kind. They even redesigned the interface of version 10 to look a bit more like XSI.

#55

Hey Manuel,

You did one of the best CA animations in EIAS for sure… congratssss.
I like a lot the animation, Design, render, camera moves and Story.

Can I suggest a idea to the final?
why when the camera pulls out… showing all the cubes in the floor, you could see a smile face?

How to do that? when the cubes are almost finishing to felt down, add 2 or 3 cubes animated with Rodeo to fall really in front of the camera to obscure the lens… then change the cubes positions manually.

Will be come really funny showing the cubes making the final joke with the cat.

I really want to see more CA animations in EIAS from you.

Tomasss

#56

Thanks Thomas, I can see what you mean at the end. But I think it’s time for me to move on to the next stage: sound. I’ve been at it for the last eight months, I don’t want to end up hating animation. As soon as I’ve got an acceptable soundtrack, I’ll post it in the finished animation thread and let EITG post it on their website too.

#57

Wonderful work Manuel…

Here’s what I need from you… summarized if you please. Give me your list of character enhancements you wish to see in EIAS. Combined with my list, I intend to continue shoving them in EITG’s face. :wink: I want more character capabilities in this program. Period. Its my belief that character enhancements will be the biggest draw for new users than any other function.

#58

If folks want to see this animation up on the home page… rate the thread with 5 stars. After so many votes, I believe, it can be pushed to the home page. (I’ll have to find out how many are needed)

#59

Well, here you are. I didn’t indulge in blue-sky thinking. I just cast my mind back to all the things that really irritated me. It may be difficult to appreciate how infuriating some of these shortcomings are. Just remind yourself of the things that really get on your nerves in software. It’s always the small problems that keep popping up two or three times a day, like a printer that keeps defaulting to the wrong papersize.

  • Support for subdivided surfaces straight in Animator. Preferably as an option in the group info window. No plug-in with all its limitations.

  • Improved controllers. At certain angles it’s almost impossible to grab the rotation controller. Pre-highlighting. Visualisation of the rotation-angle, offset, scale.

  • The motion-paths quickly start to clutter the screen. Some filtering is called upon. For example:
    1: Only show motion path of active element.

  1. Only show motion path x amount of frames before and x amount of frames after current frame.

  • Tools for moving , rotating, scaling and skewing multiple points on motion-paths. In other words, treat motion-paths as you would vectors in say illustrator.

  • The only times I end up moving the purple bars that hold the keyframes in the project-window is when I do it by accident. It makes selecting keyframes very awkward. An option to turn off the ability to move them would be great. And if you want to move them, some visual feedback would be nice. (Yes, those purple bars are my pet-hate :slight_smile: )

F-curves:

  • When selecting keyframes in the F-curve window, the selection isn’t reflected in the info window where you set motion-type and so on. It’s very tedious having to select your keyframes in that little list.

  • When right-clicking to add a keyframe, grid-snapping doesn’t work. You end up with frame-numbers like 36.01. Not good.

  • When the graph editor is selected, the shortcuts to move forwards and backwards in time often end up choosing a different element in he list. Not good.

  • A more visual system for scaling selections of keyframes. Both in the graph editor and the project window.

  • Can we please, please make it so that the grid follows the frame-rate of the project automatically by default. What are the chances of anybody ever needing a grid that works on a different timing from the actual project.

  • The shortcut for changing the tension in Hermite curves is “T” which also picks the translate tool. I always get caught out with this one, thinking I still have the rotation-tool going. Not good.

rigging:

  • I’ll get back to you on that one.
#60

Here you are. A little mock-up of what a nice rigging plug-in might look like
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/Riggit_01.swf

#61

Well, to show my appreciation for all the support and words of encouragement I received from you guys, even though I didn’t always reply to them, 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

ps. Five stars! Gosh, you guys aren’t biased by any chance are you? Thanks!

#62

Maybe a little. :wink: But seriously. Its projects like yours that are great resources for promoting the capabilities of the program and we need more things like this to help promote EIAS. Great work Manuel.

#63

nice touch to the music! did you compose the music by yourself? it add some life to the whole thing:thumbsup:

a little comment to the story, hope you don’t mind:), I feel “sudden” when the kitty hide the cube, my comment is the kitty kick the cube again, and the same inciddent happen, and its feel so angry or curious, than he (or she) hide the magical thing and not let others find out! hope the ‘motive’ do make any sense.

any way still an Excellent work! :slight_smile:

#64

Yes, I made the music myself.
Funny how everybody keeps coming up with little story ideas. I guess it means people can relate to the character, which is a good thing.

#65

I think the work is great! And the music is perfect as well!
I have a question to you… if you had to produce this exact piece for a job(animation only),
how long do you think it would take you to do in EI?

Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

#66

Mmm, how long is a piece of string…I was learning on he job, remember.
I wonder if the choice of software is the biggest factor when it comes to time. I’m sure a dedicated CA app will work faster, but the question is: how much. It’s not just the time it takes you to do it, which is important. It’s also the flexibility to make the inevitable changes. If it’s harder to make changes, than that will translate in more hours.
35 seconds of relatively stylised animation. In studios here in London I would expect to be given around 4 weeks for that. But remember, while you’re animating, someone else will be busy refining the rig and the model. Something you can’t really do in EIAS.