Short Scenes: Pygmalion Computer Graphics Project

[maronson]

Here is some good news! I just got an e-mail from MJO120881. He got a job and he is moving to Santa Monica next week to start. Yes, the job is in CG, not waiting on tables in a restaurant. Congratulations, Matt! Matt did the facial rig for Eliza.

How’s the project going? I saw a lip sync test from Liza and it looked pretty cool.

So there you go, Loulu79!

So if you are reading this thread and looking for a job, this is evidence that working for the Project helps you find work! We could use some fast riggers right now, maybe someone who uses an auto rig script?

amy_517: It is strange that my Quick time wont read your file but my video conversion program has no problem. Yes, we have Cell phone boy starting in front of the school now. Maybe Mike Van Handel can put your two sequences in the right place in the sound track version and we will know we have it right.

[Me109]

Hi All… got another WIP here for the rig for covent Eliza!

The Basic setup is almost finished… hopefully by the end of the day I’ll actually post up a completed basic version for the animators to test out…

I’ll probably need to the end of this week to get the scarf working and also with the skinning process… I’m still considering if I’ll run soft body dynamics on the dress so it looks sweeeeet…

Anyhow hope i’m not getting to far behind

Jamie

[maronson]

Thank you, Me109. Send me the Basic Rig as soon as you can. Loulu79 can use it without the scarf. We can go back and have Covent Garden Liza take off her scarf when she enters the cab and continuity will be correct.

A crowd is gathering at the finish line for the Project. February is the final sprint to victory. It is possible to do this if: We have our major models on Feb 1st. Kemer2 thinks George Bernard Shaw will be ready. Me109 is close to ready. Admiral Ra is close to ready with the rig for Taxicab. Nottoshabi is close to ready with Freddy’s rig. I have not heard anything recently from Anthony Mcgrath. He has the Formal Eliza Facial rig.

The intermediate Prolog scenes are 1) classroom is finished 2) Cellphone in animation now 3) British pub in animation now but we have a minor problem with the Englishman’s model. When the GBS model shows up we will send it to Wilson3d but the other animators have disappeared so I will have to recuit some more again.

The minor characters are not as well off. I haven’t heard anything recently from Burkester. He has the rig for Col. Pickering. We lost the rigger for Henry Higgins and I’m waiting for someone else to tell me if he can do Henry’s rig. He promised to respond in a few days. The other minors are just coming out of modeling. We are expecting to see the Fancy Lady this week and Opreska turned in the Limousine model. There are no riggers assigned to the Fancy Couple and the limousine yet.

If you are a rigger and are enjoying reading this thread don’t be afraid to step up and volunteer to do one of these rigs. You are not going to be dragged into a long term project that goes on forever. Just turn in one quick basic rig and you are out. The Project would really appreciate your participation.

[Loulu79]

Great! Swell!:bounce:

Maronson: I guess we need to rethink how we’re going to use CGL’s shrawl then…? After all you said that she’ll have to take it off later on.

Me109: I think we can use the scarf in reaction to her movements…but it’ll have to be separate from her. So that means I ought not to worry about it right now…You’ll have to work on the scarf separately while I’m animating.

I really love the idea of putting soft body dynamics on the dress … that way that’ll look teRRRRRRRRific!:applause:

That won’t take long I hope…because that’ll be part of the rig and I can see you are almost finish AND giving us your best. So complete the entire rig. I feel the soft body is part of the basics to me anyway. Otherwise we’ll have to go back and forth…back and forth…back and forth…
That’s not good. That’s wasting time. So you’re almost finished!:bounce:

Admiral Ra!

Yeah…you see the expression I’m hearing from the voice of Taxi Cab…is a bit more complexed. The eyes are fine…there’s nothing you can do for circular eyes.

But the mouth area has that effect I was thinking about…such as:

1. A smile (TaxiCab says: "Give it here…Toppings extra)…I see him smiling.

2. A pout/frown (When CGL says: "No! I don’t want nobody to see it). He’d pout while she
   says such.

3. An “Oh” expression (i.e. the mouth forming a strong “o”) (When CGL says: "Buchman Palace…) I see him giving an “oh” expression. This “oh” should be part of the lipsynicing.

4. A sad expression (When CGL says: “Don’t you know where it is…?”

5. An blunt expression (i.e. you can have one side of the mouth going up…and vice versa - that means you must have a control for right side of mouth…and left side of mouth)
   This expression is a smirk…when he’s thinking.

Don’t forget to give him a jaw. I guess because I did CGL and was quite satisfied with the facial rig on her…I feel it’ll be swell for TaxiCab. However, his is less complexed I realized. So:

I hope that helps Admiral Ra. And I hope you have the time to think about it.

And stand by: I’m going to animate the new Taxicab…later this week. I might begin later today to save up time…Hopefully by then I’ll have CGL too!

Maronson: Oh btw: I was wondering if it’s okay I can also animate Taxicab in this close-up scene? I thought that would be fair. And I like looking at BOTH reactions…it’s like acting for me. Is that okay?:shrug:

[maronson]

I guess we need to rethink how we’re going to use CGL’s shrawl then…? After all you said that she’ll have to take it off later on.

If you want to wait until Jamie is finished then we don’t have to take the shawl off.

Oh btw: I was wondering if it’s okay I can also animate Taxicab in this close-up scene? I thought that would be fair. And I like looking at BOTH reactions…it’s like acting for me. Is that okay?

Permission granted!

[AmyScott-Murray]

Hi

I’ve made 2 more quicktimes, for anyone who can’t open the first…

one with sorenson

and one with cinepak.

Hopefully one of these should work.

Amy

[Dark3D]

Hello everyone!

I just joined the project and would like to introduce myself. I am a 2D/3D artist, I visit CGtalk quite often, noticed this project and wanted to try to contribute something. Mike asked me if I would like to work on the background of Covent Garden for shot 26. I will try my best and post my WIP here when time permits.

[maronson]

The George Bernard Shaw model is ready for animation. It is posted in 1_Preface/characters/GeorgeBShaw
as the file GBS_WHair_THEKEMERFIXFILE.mb.zip. So that opens up three new animation positions.

Dark3D: Welcome to the Project! Are you going to tell us if your last name is an incredible coincidence or not? We all look forward to working with you.

amy_517: Both of those are fine. What was the codex you used for the previous file?

[mikevanh]

A synchronization test with sound track and partial animation from Jay and Amy will be available on the FTP site shortly. It is in the preface animations cell phone test subdirectory, and is named “CellKidsSynchTest.mov.” It is an intermediate quality Quicktime movie using the cinepak codec.

[geoffreydean]

Nathellion, AMAZING job on the fancy man! Just beautiful, I kept showing it to anyone who’d sit still long enough to look. You’ve turned my funny drawing into a really beautiful 3D rendering. Thank you for doing the fancy man proud.-Geoffrey

[Dark3D]

Ha ha. Well, my last name happens to be Shaw too. My father told me that I am Bernard Shaw’s great great grandson. I wouldn’t have believed him if my nose and eyes where so similar. I don’t know if its a blessing or a curse!

Anyway… I am very bad at spelling, so I had to learn to draw to get my creative side out.

My WIP:
Line Artwork:

Starting Color Block-In:

[maronson]

Dark3D: Nice start! May I suggest two minor changes? If you remove the object in the foreground we can drive the taxicab forward and straight out of the scene. 2) We have to make this scene a night time scene.

Everyone: Just one day after announcing the availabliity of the George Bernard Shaw model, we have an animator for the first shot. I hope he make a post soon for you to welcome him to the project.

Here is a snapshot of Don Wenzel, the lead carpenter, showing me his set model for Pygmalion. The panel on the left is a wall of Higgins laboratory. It opens up to reveal the ballroom steps. The removable laboratory fireplace can be replaced by a pair of French doors in Mrs. Higgins apartment.

[ipdesigner]

*wow! nice sketch Dark3D:thumbsup: keep it up!

[geoffreydean]

Beautiful sketch man!

[Theht]

finaly get some time and started Mrs. Fancy i thin i will finshed here up to the comeing weekend…

cheers, Sven

PS: I was on the project side and looked at the mebmer list and there are two mistakes… first my CGtalk nick is Theht and secound one iam no rigger iam an Silo/xsi Modler… no big deal but would be nice if this could be changed…

[maronson]

Theht: Beautiful start! geoffreydean will be beside himself when he sees this. Thank you for telling me about your membership line. I have already changed it.

Everyone: I do have an animator ready to start on George Bernard Shaw but he has Maya 6.5 and the final model on the FTP site is in Maya 7. Is there a volunteer who can read the model in then save it out in 6.5 format or as a .ma file?
The file is
/1_Preface/Characters/GeoregeBShaw/GBS_WHair_THEKEMERFIXFILE.mb.zip

Maybe Kemer2 is reading the thread and can do it?

Admiral Ra has a new post of the taxi cab.

Added a mouth, with blendshapes.
Added controls for all four wheels. (With a squash control on each wheel control.)
Also, when you squash the wheel, and rotate the wheel controls in the X axis, you change the direction of the squash.

[Loulu79]

So far so good the mouthings are basic and swell. But doesn’t the origianal sketch have him w/ teeth? Or was I seeing things? I’ll study TaxiCab again tomorrow…and then maybe see what’s bugging me…because as of late…I don’t think I’m judging well here. Overall I just immediately looked it over as soon as I got Maronson’s e-mail…so far so good the words are swell.

But how are you going to get the pronunciation of the “Eeeee” and the “Mmmm”…and “B”? They’re complicating.:shrug:

But the mouthing should be okay.

Edit: Actually, upon studying the storyboard…he also has a tongue. Is it plausible?

[maronson]

Admiral Ra: I think this could work fine if we place a faint pink background with a hint of tongue red color in the center behind the metal strips. If the taxi had its “lips” slightly open when it wasn’t talking, the MMM phoneme would look different.

EDIT: Maybe the relaxed mouth should have a slight curve to it rather than starting straight.

Loulu79: So you think this idea won’t work well?

[Nathellion]

Theht - Looks fantastic so far man. She looks a snooty aristocrat.

geoffreydean - I’m glad that you like him, it was good fun.

[Loulu79]

Maronson:

Come to think of it … Nope!

The way Admiral Ra did it, is simple and smart. However how are us animators will get a resounding “mmmmmmmm” and “eeeeee” from that? The phenomns: P, B, M, E, T, S, C…these mouthings are difficult to pronounce properly. And we animators want it precise…heck I’m like that! Maybe at the beginning other animators won’t see that as a problem, but later on…it will be a finicky problem.

What about this Pixar version…but a simpler one? All Admiral Ra has to do … is work on that same grill area. Have them evenly separated. With the phenomns for: L…That means TaxiCab will have a tongue to roll that letter on. The M, B, P…the grills closest to the mouth opening will have to be bent/ nearly inside the closed mouth.

Of course he’ll have to unskin again. I hope that’s not a hassle.