Belly Dancer Music Video/Hair Dynamics Show Reel

#1

Hi Everyone

     I'd like to post my progress on my animation music video which will double as my hair dynamics show reel. Here is the first progress video after completion of the primary character animation.
     
 Latest Video Update:
 [----- WIP Part 3 -----](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbDsbRCYKf0)
 
    Older Video Updates:
- [WIP Part 1](http://youtu.be/pNI3lWlZ02c)
-  [WIP Part 2](http://youtu.be/MhHlJ4NPdG4)

The animation was manually keyframed in Motion Builder 6 over a period  of 4 months with the use of video reference. This video contains the  primary character animation and some minor fixes to the upper body (and  yes, I am aware of the glitch at frame 3448 :-) ). 'Like' Angelique's  page on Facebook to be informed of progress ([http://www.facebook.com/3DAngelique](http://www.facebook.com/3DAngelique))
     
     [u]Software used[/u]:
     - Cinema 4D
     - BodyPaint 3D
     - Motion Builder 6 Standard Edition
     
     [u]Tasks remaining[/u]:
     - Corrective Morph: Creation of morphs and application
     - New Skin Texture
     - Clothing Modeling & Texturing
     - Cloth Simulations
     - Sequin Dynamics Simulations
     - Hair Simulations
     - Set Building
     - Lighting
     - Camera Setup
     - Rendering
     - Post Production
#2

Hi guys

I finished stage 2 of the secondary animation, ie. the head. Here’s the link: WIP002_Video

Please let me know what you think:

Tasks remaining:

  • Secondary Animation: Hands & Fingers
  • Corrective Morph: Creation of morphs and application
  • New Skin Texture
  • Clothing Modeling & Texturing
  • Cloth Simulations
  • Sequin Dynamics Simulations
  • Hair Simulations
  • Set Building
  • Lighting
  • Camera Setup
  • Rendering
  • Post Production
#3

i don’t know much about belly dancing so i couldn’t really make a very constructive feed back. i went on youtube to do some research and i found this links

link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BellyDanceVideos?feature=relchannel

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YamDoDK71Ds.

what i see is that the dance is mostly in the hips, get a few reference, mark down the moves or styles you want, then start animating them individually.

i think you’re getting there, add more popping to the hips and more aggressive body movement where needed
hope this helps

#4

Hi

Thanx for your feedback. I welcome all crits.

I keyed this animation with the help of video reference and I’m a little concerned that, if I were to exaggerate the poses, it will start looking kind of funny. For as far as my rig would allow, I came really close to movements of the live video and unfortunately I don’t know enough about animation to add exaggerations to video referenced animation that will enhance rather than deteriorate the end result. This is more of a semi-realistic animation than an animation that should have that hand-keyed feel and as a result a lot of the motions are really subtle. Once the final is done, I’ll post a version where the reference is along side the animation.

#5

hi there,

nice attempt, but (for me) the model is ruining the animation. the hip and bum are totally wrong.

just a quick comment, take it as it is…

#6

Hi

Thanx for your untarnished opinion. It keeps me from developing a big head. :smiley:

I’m aware that the hips look a little odd and tilted too far back. I’ve tried to fix this with corrective morphs but the results were pretty horrible so I went for the lesser of 2 evils in the end. Since I only have my spare time (which is very little) to work on this project, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to hide the flaw with the dress she’ll be wearing and some strategic camera angles.:wip:

#7

ok :)-
that was just in case… but if you’re aware of it then I bet your solution will work

hope you’ll post final result.

#8

This is really nice overall, but maybe a little too smooth and “perfect”. It seems to lack the vibrancy I associate with belly dancing. It’s all very measured and even. I realize you’re using/trying to match video reference but that can sometimes be a hindrance.
However it does look nice and I assume she’ll be costumed and have nice hair, lighting, some camera moves. These things can make up for a lot of imperfections, but I’m not sure that’s what you need. More hip shaking would be one thing I’d think about.

#9

Hi

Thanx for the compliment and especially the crit.

After 4months of nightly keyframing on a project I had initially planned to have had done in a month with video mocap, I got really tired of putting in every little nuance in this 5125frame animation. (Video Mocap and belly dancing = not the best of friends :surprised) There were especially a few hip shimmies I skipped and just put in the major poses. Thanx to your crit, I think I’ll now go back and add them. Luckily Motionbuilder has additive keyframing so it’s a simple matter of adding the shimmies.

I really wish my rig hadn’t let me down on the upperbody part 'cause I added some really awesome looking and dynamically moving abdominal muscles on her stumock. Those are hardly, if at all, visible now. While I’m doing the shimmies, I’ll see if I can’t possibly tilt her hips forward enough in the spots where it’s needed to reveal the belly muscles.

Thanx for the motivation

#10

Hi

Time has become a major issue for me and since there’s a lot to complete before the final render, I’ve realised that I’ll have to stop being overly perfectionistic if I’d like to complete all the projects I want to, before the end of the year. In this regard, I’ve decided to do only corrective animations (ie Fixing hand/body intersections) and a few extra movements here and there before moving on to the remaining tasks at hand.

That being said, I’ve completed the hand and finger animations and here’s the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbDsbRCYKf0

#11

Hi

Just a quick update. I did some refinement on the hair settings with an extreme motion. The hair will obviously look a lot different for the final render but this is a rough render of a dynamics simulation of the final settings.

http://youtu.be/DVPHOk_v7Fg

Please let me know what you think.

#12

This is very impressive. That routine looks like a difficult one to tackle and you did very well to take it this far.

#13

Thanx for the compliment. I appreciate it.

This is my very first full animation and I think I did jump in the deep end with it somewhat.

After 8 months of work, it feels like I’m never going to get it done but at least I’m currently busy with creating the clothing, so it looks like I’ll be starting with the final rendering in another 2 weeks or so.

#14

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