Animation Challenge #5: Post progress; Start 1/19/07 End 2/19/07

#81

hey thanks guys for ur replies will do the changes !!!

Cheers
Mandeep

#82

SirRon- Thats a real nifty trick, i will have to try that! I actually think there is too much weight on the shoulder now (sorry if im being annoying). His shoulder looks a little unnatural in the first couple poses before the “sigh”. the sigh pose looks great btw. What i would do is add the shoulder wheight with the movement and not necessarily with your keys, if that makes any sense.:slight_smile:

#83

dudeacle - no, you’re not being annoying :slight_smile: I’ll keep working the shoulders a bit. But I understand what you’re getting at about the movement and not necessarily with the keys. I’ll probably find a better positioning once see more of the motion.

#84

Hey my new update i have updated my new clip

LINK
have a look, hope i get it right this time hehe

cheers
Mandeep

#85

mandeep - performance wise i think the acting is a bit over dramatic. You can get a lot out of a character keeping him relatively still with the character’s eyes, where all thinking and most of the emotions come from, driving teh performance with the help of simple and very readable gestures if needed. It also feel like you rushed the sigh after “no more lies” because you have both an inhale and exhale motion when the sound you hear can only be one of those two. Personally I would have exhaled on that sound cue, inhaling just before while the character says “no more lies”. It would make it that much more paced and natural

#86

Is there a file format requirement? Did I just miss the mention? It’s not in the first post with the other rules.

Thanks for running this!

LGM

#87

Quicktime should be the preffered choice seeing as how they are easily scrubbable, but I dont know if anything has been set in stone yet.

#88

Yes, that is true. I think quicktime might also be the most common player. There are just too many codecs for avi. It would be nice to know soon if there will be a file requirement so that people’s encoding capabilities and limitations can be taken into account.

LGM

#89

The animation any resolution… but keep the file size manageable. Nothing over 20MB definitely. As for codecs, preferably one that’s common like quicktime or windows media. My recommendation would be Quicktime and less than 5MB. The audio can also be in mono instead of stereo, that would help keep the size down too.

#90

Yes i agree. Quicktime 5mb or less. Any more than that and you have to wait for a while to view the animation. If someone wants to show a beautiful HI-Res version of their animation then they should also include a link to a low res version.

#91

Hey thanks guys for ur crit … here is my update let me know how is it comming along

LINK

Cheers
Mandeep

#92

Added some breakdowns…

click image to see video

Mandeep: There’s no audio in your latest link. But getting to the pose for the breath is better. One thing I would suggest is to put more force when he makes a fist for ‘truth’. Right now it’s slow.

#93

OOOpsie Daisie he he i just playblasted it :smiley: … hey thanks will do the changes, i was just too bogged up with the correction part that just slipped by me … hey can anyone tell me how to attach sound file with the rendered clip(with virtual dub), i was playing around but couldnt get it through …

nice work there siron cant wait to c wen it gets finished !!!

Cheers
Mandeep

#94

Hi all I am looking to get a late start. I have really enjoyed looking at all of your work so far, well done :).

I am having a bit of trouble though. I am trying to import that audio to my scene and its not working. I go to file -> import -> audio. Normally when I have done this in the past it shows right up in the timeline at the bottum. Now I get nothing. Any tips at all?

Thanks a lot.

J

#95

I’m guessing you’re using Maya.

Right click and hold on the timeline and you’ll see Sounds. Go there and you’ll see 3 options
off: no sound
Use Trax Sounds: plays audio when you play animation (preferences should be set for ‘real-time’)
‘file name’: In this case it’ll be VForVendetta_onlytruth. You’ll see sound waves on the timeline where you’ll hear the audio even if you scrub through it. (preferences should be set for ‘real-time’)

oh, and I’m glad to hear you joining in :slight_smile:

#96

dude5487- Glad to see you joining in on the fun :slight_smile: About getting the audio to work, you should also be able to drag the file onto your timeline. Also what version of Maya are you using? I remember some older versions of Maya having difficulty recognize audio files. Im using Maya Unlimited V6 and the file works fine for me.

SirRon- Nice work! The sigh looks great. Cant wait to see it finished.

By the way, i have gone about asking some rigging questions for my character for this animation. I got some really great feedback and thought some of you might like to hear it. I asked some questions in the character rigging forums here and in the Creature Rigging forum over at Strutyourreel.com. Heres the threads…

This helped me figure out how to constrain the gun and holster to the character while allowing the gun constrain to jump to the hand and back to the hip when i wanted.

http://www.strutyourreel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2704

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=54&t=457844

This helped me figure out how to make a dynamic necklace for my character.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=4181236#post4181236

#97

So here’s what I’ve ended up with. I’m pretty sure it’s final. I’m pretty happy with it. There are a few kinks (especially in the camera) that I may work out before the deadline, but it got to that point where multiple viewings and repeated frustrations dampened my enthusiasm. I’m sure you’re all familiar with that point. I think I just need to take a few days break from it. So if anyone sees something problematic that I’ve missed (either from inexperience or watching it too many times) I’d appreciate a yell.

Oh, and sorry about the extended opening frame. I find that mpg files are always really choppy in the first four seconds or so when I play them back in quicktime. Since the audio clip is only about eight seconds long, I decided that rather than ask people to watch it in WMP, I just made the first four seconds a title frame. (Does anyone else have this trouble with mpgs?)

V for Vendetta Clip
(It’s just over 3 megs)

Thanks for watching and thanks SirRon for organizing this contest! This audioclip was a lot of fun to animate to!

LGM
Nathan Dunlap

#98

Thanks LGM, my pleasure to get this challenge started. My thanks to dudeacle for getting the whole thing started :slight_smile:

You added an extra http// in your link. Here’s the correct link

http://www.nathandunlap.brickfilms.com/movies/VforVendettaclip_Nathan_Dunlap.mpg

It’s ok if you extended the beginning and end, as long as the audio is the same then that’s fine. The characters are great, liked that ending bit with the other character. Though you could make the main character’s right arm a bit more dramatic. It seems a bit stiff during ‘no more lies’. Hope your enthusiasm returns.

#99

Thanks, SirRon. I fixed the link. Too bad, I meant for it to me a more “quiet” animation; not-so-dramatic, if you know what I mean. I found a few things I forgot to do (like offsetting the arms and spines) so I’m working on that. Hopefully that’ll get rid of the stiffness . . . hopefully.

LGM

#100

Dudeacle- I am using 7.1 unlimted. I have 8 as well but am still sticking with 7. Anyway I will give that a shot of just dragging it into the timelime, didnt even think of that hehe :). Also thanks for posting the threads. Good stuff.

Happy animating :slight_smile: