WIP animation "Cubed" part 3

#1

Well, I’m trying to post my WIP’s a bit more frequently.

I’ve added some extra frames at the start to allow for a fade-in. Also, this way we “discover” the cube together with the main character (cartoon characters can never see anything that’s off-screen). Without any textures on the floor, the character looks a bit floaty, but that’s just in the OGL preview.

I’m in the process of changing the ending, so whatever is there from the 13th second onwards is very likely to change. At the moment, the main character seems to take forever to come to terms with that cube being there.

The cube follows a different path when being kicked out and re-entering. I think it creates better continuity this way.

Some of the animation in the middle bit has been made to be a bit “sharper”, eg. the impact of the cube is a bit harder… I’m probably the only one who notices the difference. You know what it’s like.

I did spend/waste a lot of time last weekend trying to get my head around retiming animations that reside in the spreadsheet, coming from rODEo, as opposed to keyframed stuff. It’s a seriously archaic workflow in there and I still don’t fully understand the relation between keyframes and spreadsheet, but I’ve got it working.

This is just an OpenGL preview without any textures of the animation in its current state:
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed52.mov

The test I posted two weeks earlier:
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed46.mov

My first test, rendered at final quality:
http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed27.mov

Modelling: Silo
Textures: Photoshop and Combustion
Plug-ins: Xpressionist, rODEo and Encage

#2

Hi Manuel,

These WIP posts will be moved to the WIPs lab forum later today. Its mainly to keep project related works in progress in a separate area for easier location and finding by other users.

#3

Well, I think that’s excellent.

I love the concept, animation and the style. Very nice work!

Is the cube animated entirely with rODEo?

:beer:
Ian

#4

Okay, I’ll just keep updating this thread in the WIP part of the forum from now on. The first two threads I started don’t contain anything that isn’t in this one.

Yes, apart from when the cat kicks the cube. When it flies out of frame the first time, it’s keyframed. Both the hitting on the head and the entering on the opposite side are done with rODEo.
BTW, the cube never really hits the head, it hits an invisible flat plane. The curved shape of the head would have given a far too random result. As it is, I already did between 10 and 20 tryouts before I had a satisfying result. rODEo would give different results even with the same parameters were being used.

#5

Well, it’s already at version 55, and the end is still not near. It’s getting big though, the latest version comes in at 20 seconds and over 7Mb.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed55.mov

You’ll notice there is a lot more stuff happening with the camera. I have to remind my 2D animator brain we’re now firmly in a 3D world.
Even so, it’s interesting to notice that certain angles simply don’t work on this character, just like with its 2D counterparts. Three quarter angles are still most comfortable for cartoon characters, they simply look wrong in a perfect front or side view, even in 3D. So I had to find a camera-move that was sympathetic towards the character.

There are now a few more trees, courtesy of Modo 202. The original tree only worked in front view because of to the bark-texture, which used flat projection. It was one of he reasons I kept the camera quite pedestrian until now. The bark texture is now a perfect 360 degree texture, painted in Modo. Of course, you can’t see it in the OpenGL preview I posted, but it’s there, honestly.
I’m glad to report that Modo 202 has fixed the FBX export. All the models come with their UV’s and even the simple material settings (diffuse colour…) straight into Animator. No need for any translation app. I shouldn’t cry victory just yet since I haven’t been doing any exhausting testing, but so far it looks good.

A large chunk of the ending has been redone. The character picks the box up at a different time, the acting is completely new. I like to think it’s better, but I wont know how well the acting works until I see it with the eyes.
When he runs behind the tree (to get rid of the box, in case you hadn’t figured it out yet) the feet have obviously not been done, and neither have the bouncing or the leaning of the body been done. It’s really just in the roughing out stage. I thought it might be interesting to show something unfinished, to give you an idea. I want it to end up looking like a very fast, cartoony run, so it’ll probably end up being twice as fast.

PS Brian, are you still planning to move this thread into the WIP sub-forum? I’d very much appreciate that.

#6

The little camera shuffle when he sees the box in-front of him is genius!

Nice to be taken along on this WIP :slight_smile:
Ian

#7

Yeah, I’m suddenly starting to think I should be posting this in the animation WIP thread on the CGTalk frontpage. It’s not really a EIAS specific thread anymore, more an animation thread.
I did tell myself I was only doing an animation test, to test out both the rig and rODEo. But the way it’s going now, don’t be surprised if I’m posting a feature-lenght animatic next time.

#8

Consider it moved. :slight_smile:

#9

Thanks Brian

On to version 61 now. All the changes are pretty visible. I’ve been reworking the ending over and over again. I’m still not happy with it, whether it still needs more radical surgery or just some fine-tuning, I’ll decide tomorrow after a good night rest.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed61.mov

Oh yeah, and the run back towards the camera at the end isn’t finished yet, so don’t mind the legs.

#10

Okay, the main part of the animation is finished now. All that’s left to do is animating the eyes and the tail. The story isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but there you go. The last few seconds really put quite a bit of pressure on rODEo. It kept crashing over and over. The mesh reduction tool in rODEo turned out to be the saving grace.

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed67.mov

#11

Aha! Thats not far from the ending I was thinking off myself :slight_smile:

Excellent work, I’m glad rODEo pulled through, just :wink:
Ian

#12

Well it is a cartoon. No real surprises allowed here.
I realised afterwards that my mistake was to use cubes with slightly rounded corners. rODEo didn’t recognise them as cubes and treated them as much more complex elements than was necessary. I should have used perfect cubes for rODEo with the rounded cubes attached to them and set the perfect cubes to non-rendering. Ah well, you live and you learn.

#13

Wow! This is excellent Manuel. Really love the zigzag run and the camera moves.
I just wonder where all the cubes comes from… The tree sneezed them out?

#14

I reaaally love this!.. I would like to know about your rig. I want to see more!

Joel

#15

Some of it has already been explained in this thread.More to follow.

#16

Deus ex machina…

#17

Great piece, I saw a couple of the early versions. You have improved it greatly, love the camera moves. If you want to experiment with some cuts try a side or 3/4 rear on the establishing (boom) shot and then cut to a front as he walks off. Also you might be able to push (or cut) a CU in to capture the surprise/puzzlement on finding the box. (or leave it as it is, I actually love it as one long shot)

Also if you are considering submitting this to a vehicle like the wubbcast you might want to soften the effect of the falling boxes. The trend is to allow stuff dropping on someone but that has to be trivial and non injurious. The boxes raining down are fine but you could have him remain upright and just look mad/disparaged (ears flat, squinty frown) it would be more current. The days of squashing toons flat with anvils is gone, Slapstick now has to be engineered to be obviously non-injurious. (if you are targeting a young audience)

http://www.wubbcast.com/ (submission link on the page)
http://www.kidscreen.com/articles/magazine/20060401/wubbcast.html

#18

Mmm, good comments. I will leave it as one shot. But I’m tempted now to make the ending less “dropping anvils”. The way it is at the moment is a bit of a cop out, I admit. Until now the rationale for that was that it is only an animation test. But after working on this for a few months, I might as well give it one more push.
Thanks for the link to Wubbcast.com. Very interesting.

#19

Well, here we are. Pushed good ol’ Rodeo to the limit with this one. I really, really want this to be finished now. It’s now more than 30 seconds. On top of my head, I calculated this will take around two days rendering on my machine at full quality. Specially the end with the many cubes seems to take forever to render. Ouch

http://www.funnylittlemen.co.uk/Quicktimes/cubed72.mov

#20

Bravo! I think the ending is far better, even without considering the PC factor. The side glances are a nice touch and your comedic timing on the cube drop is near perfect. I also loved the way kitty’s head bobbles in reaction to the falling boxes. Kitty has developed quite a persona (in 30 seconds) Are you going to render it? Now all you need to do is add the foley and find someone to score it.

My only critique is that I would only have had him nod only once (a la “humf… clean!”) after looking around. Truly a minor point and I wouldn’t bother changing it unless several people (unsolicited) also noticed the same thing.