Animation Acting Challenge #6: Post Progress, Start Febuary 28 - End March 28

#81

Im glad you like the audio clip. We should have another challenge up as soon as this one is finished. You may have to wait a week after the voting starts for the next challenge to start up.

#82

Hey LGM, that’s great! Is this part done yet?

Okay, I finally pulled myself together and drew some extremes. I messed around with the timing in MonkeyJam, and now I have added the frame numbers on the drawings.

http://www.freewebtown.com/rageartworks/Extremes.avi

The drawings very rough. I definetely like working this way. If you look at some of Glen Keane’s lectures on YouTube you can see how roughly he draws, and still make it look good.

I’ll add the breakdowns and passing positions tonight.

I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the ink and paint stage…

#83

Late as can be, but I’m trying to see if I can do things on the fly anyway, and reduce my think, plan, do and complete workflow (current workflow: think, plan, plan some more, get around to it sometime, partially do, etc).

Just started on it today, will put up a progress thing-a-ma-jig tonight.

Using the supplied audio, LowMax, and some random models I found around the net.

Thanks for the opportuntiy!

DesktopEpics

#84

The eye roll came out too linear? Hmmm, I thought I had read or heard somewhere that eye movement is really linear. I actually changed the curve interpolation type to linear for the eyes. Maybe it’s not so much that they move in a linear way (in real life), but that they move quickly without any bounce or anticipation, so it almost seems linear but isn’t quite. They never sweep a room smoothly, for instance, but would jump from object to object settling, perhaps for a frame or two on each item of focus. Maybe that’s it. Heh, just thinking out loud so to speak. Thanks for pointing that out, I’ll see what I can do.

SirRon, I like what you’ve done. But just to put a bee in your bonnet. Maybe, like thedaemon said, you don’t need to show an actual breakdown into tears. There are lots of ways in which you could show him trying to hold himself together (looking around – almost trying to distract himself-- and blinking a real lot for instance) then wiping his eyes and kinda pulling himself together, and then reaching for the picture. I don’t know if that’s the approach you want, but just thought I’d point it out in case you hadn’t thought of it.

RageArtworks. Glad you like it so far. No, it hasn’t progressed any (yet) since that clip . . . unfortunately.

LGM

#85

Thank you for the reply to my post. I will look forward to the next challenge then. I will lock this wav file away for later use. I can’t wait to get started.

#86

Grrr, you guys are right! The more I think about it the more I feel like I didn’t think enough. I’m about to have an emotion breakdown right now :cry: … no not really :slight_smile:

It does look like he just starts and stops crying too suddenly.

#87

I’ve sketched out and positioned something brief that i would do for the challenge and I’ll work on more tonight. Basically, I set up the story for the audio clip … things in the stormy night surrounding our LowMax character, he backs up fearful, paranoid … lightning allows us to see glimpses of what he sees … LowMax does his audio clip … and something (not sure what yet), grabs him from behind.

There isn’t anything done yet in this clip but a lot of setting up. Lighting, camera positioning, lip sync, gesturing all to come. The models were those usuals you find on the internet for free EVERYWHERE … I mean, I remember seeing some of those back when 3DS Max was at version 2 or 3.

http://www.desktopepics.com/movies/anime/wip/cgwip_1.mov
[left]
Thanks!

DesktopEpics[/left]

#88

Hi folks…

Just another update to our challenge. Lip synced the audio and more movement…still not sure what is going to pop out at our hero … but not sure what or how.

Thanks!

http://www.desktopepics.com/movies/anime/wip/cgwip_2.mov

[left]Forgive the grainy-ness … it’s all about the compression.
[/left]

#89

Hi all!

i love so much every works here!:thumbsup:

this is my participation to this challenge, it’s not really finished. I have just turn my animation in spline mode. Here remains still work

hope you’ll enjoy. critics are welcome!!!:slight_smile: (sorry if my english is not very good)

anime.mov

#90

Luminou,

I quite like what you did, but there is two things bothering me.

Maybe you applied to much squash and strech on the character, it looks like made by jelly. I don’t know what is it right now (if it is squash and stretch problem, actually can be a lot of extremes in sequence), I cannot spend to much time analyzing here at my work.

The other thing, shouldn’t it be running in a opposite direction? Are you trying to catch up with something? Like a train or a bus? If is it, forget what I said.

About the rest, I just love your arcs and the acting as well.

It is quite extreme!

My english is awful as well, don’t worry.

Cheers,
Diego

#91

Luminou: I agree with diegooriani, he does move like jelly. I think it’s the way the eyebrows are moving. Another crit I have is the lighting. It does look nice, but the right hand looks like it disappears into the background. It’s like the background is as dark as the shadow of the body.

Good job though, it’s good enough to submit. There’s still time so if there’s more work you would like to do keep doing it.

desktopepics: Ha, I didn’t expect seeing that beginning, that was good. The main thing I see is that the arms look very stiff. But the movement when he starts his line “Lurch they’re…” is very good, but then it becomes stiff again.

Here’s my update:
Breakdown Pass 3

You know this has been somewhat therapeutic for me. Losing a relationship sucks :sad:

Well time to hit linear and see what needs to be cleaned. 5 days til deadline. I need to wrap this up too because I might have a freelance job next Tuesday.

#92

Its really coming along and looking nice Sir Ron, especially the crying. It looks better than before, but I think it still ends too abruptly. Maybe you could let the crying die down a little slower. His crying action comes in nicely, it needs to end the same. Just like f-curves, slow-in and slow-out. I hope that helps and I explained myself well. Again though, its really coming along well.

#93

SirRon, it does look much better easing into the crying, but like diegosocart12 said, it still ends too abruptly. Maybe if he had one or two (or even three) long, deep breaths at the end. Maybe the first two shorter and quick but very deep, and the third one long and slower. That would be one way to ease out of the cry.

This is what I’ve got done so far:

http://www.nathandunlap.brickfilms.com/WIP/CGtalksession2/LGM_Lurch_playblast02.avi
(2.47 megabytes encoded in Xvid - unfortunately I can’t encode .mov with audio yet)

The faces are in, I finally got to the line itself, the eyes do look better with bezier-type handles on the curve, and it’s still not done. A lot of clean-up is necessary, and I wanted to make the main ninja run off the screen at the end. One of the gags that doesn’t come through because it’s not rendered (and so you can’t see shadows) is at the very end during the audio. Think of something really big coming up behind the main ninja.

Anyway, I’m sure I won’t finish it to my satisfaction before the deadline, but I’m going to try my darndest. It’s a lot farther now, and that’s kinda gotten me excited. But instead of being good animation practice, it became more of a marathon, “Gotta get to the end, and it doesn’t matter how” kinda thing. But it was fun so far.

Luminou, I actually understood the direction he ran. At least I think I did. I figured that Lurch was telling him to run, as in run at the things that were ganging up. Run at them in a sort of attack. Maybe I’m just completely off, but that’s how your animation came through to me. He does look kinda wobbly. I think it’s the anticipation and follow-through of the stiffer joints (like fingers) that are too extreme and make him look like rubber or jelly, but I could be wrong.

LGM

#94

Hi all:

here’s the latest update on what I’m entering. The differences are subtile between update #2 and #3, but the end of it is getting clearer. For the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a surprise-attack-like ending, and since I am NOT a fan of modeling and rigging, I put a simple rig in place of what I’m looking for and hoping I can either come up with something before the deadline … or just leave it.

Either way you look at it, our hero is going to jump. Next updates will go over lighting to get the creepy effect I’m looking for.
http://www.desktopepics.com/movies/anime/wip/cgwip_3.mov

#95

thank’s guy for crit!:thumbsup:

about fact that he leaves in the same direction that he show, in my mind it’s interesting because when lurch say : “run” that can be understood several different manners :

-it is a threat
-it is a friendly council
-He ask him to go to fight

                               and much of others still...                                 
                               
                                I Would like make a another animation with my character who came back after fight, but I'm afraid I'll not have enough time because I have so much work...

But all of your crit are very good and I’ll apply this for my next work (next cgchallenge?)

#96

I am still tweaking a bit my animation, but I don’t think it will have huge changes on the next WIP.

Well, this is one of the options for acting which I didn’t choose to go foward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QDISozE32c

This one is a test for the render. I will try to take some lights and make one of the key lights be the “Lurch”.

Low Res - You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sjY5Md4p-A

High Res - MegaUpload
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C8XKVI7W

Let’s see.

Cheers,
Diego

#97

Hello all,

  looks like there is a little less participation this time around, or maybe you are all as busy as I have been over the last week.
    
    I had a lot to do, but I will finish the animation in time for the contest.
  
  Here is the link;

http://joncoppock.com/Contest/Adams_LipSync_02.mov

    SirRon, I can relate to the idea of your piece. But I think I would like a closer view of Sam.
  That may very well just be personal prefference. The pace of the piece seems to drag for me, from frame 7 to 22 it just sort of hangs there. From 7 to 14 maybe some eye darting and a little head movement, maybe the jaw goes a little more slack, or his shoulders slump to give a little more emphasis and reaction to a specific point that he heard. Right now its like he is recieving an automated message, no nodding, no words, no looking at the phone as if to say " I never even got a word in edgewise,". I just feel that I need a little more feedback from Sam to carry the moment.
    
  Desktopepics, Luminou, and Diegooriani, I am enjoying watching your progress. There is some really great stuff going on in these pieces. Nice work. 
    
  LGM, I'm sorry but I am unable to open your clip, but I am a fan of your work. Looking forward to seeing the final piece. (must be a codec issue on my end).
    
    Thanks for the inspiration people, looking forward to seeing more.
    
    jpencilworks.
#98

jpencilworks,

Your link is broken!

#99

Copy and paste the link. That worked for me.

jpencilworks, try offsetting the audio clip by two frames sooner. You should find it helps with how the lip sync looks.

#100

Wow I can’t believe how fast this month went. I hope I can finish this. Everything still looks kind of floaty and I’m only half way of polishing it in linear. I’ll definitely turn it in, the ending may look unrefined though. I might have a freelance job in a day or two so I don’t know if I can take the time to render this out. The very least I’ll turn in a playblast.

jpencilworks: Good suggestions, I do plan on animating his mouth saying some words. Also took the time to look for places where his eyes would dart around a little.

Back to work…