Anim8or Community

Artwork => Finished Works and Works in Progress => Topic started by: johnar on July 02, 2009, 12:00:45 am

Title: EART
Post by: johnar on July 02, 2009, 12:00:45 am

 Hi all.
 Eart is done. :).

 Managed to get it in at 9 minutes and 56 seconds.
  Now that its finished i don't really know what to think of it. lol.
 It was just an idea to begin with, and once i got started, it turned out to be quite a lengthy project. (as they can do). ;)

 Got a few ideas nagging at me for my next project. One thing i do plan on doing very soon is to get a decent webpage up and running. Then all my stuff can be made available for download.

 I'm really pushed for time at this minute, and need to be getting back home.
 Hope you enjoy the movie.
 Will come back in a day or 2 with some pics.
 bye for now
johnar

Title: Re: EART
Post by: RudySchneider on July 02, 2009, 12:27:36 am

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!  VERY CLEVER, Johnar!  Well done!  AQnd with your typical off-the-wall sense of humor!  Gotta let others know about this!

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Ratticis on July 02, 2009, 02:29:57 am

Awesome. So that's how it happened! Loved the ending.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Monex on July 02, 2009, 09:01:53 am

Finally a creation story I can believe  :D

Title: Re: EART
Post by: mcheccyb on July 02, 2009, 01:36:18 pm

It's great to see an animation made in anim8or with a proper story instead of the usual short tests or demo's people usually make.

The story was very creative, and It is generally very awesome!

success!

Title: Re: EART
Post by: neirao on July 02, 2009, 02:05:46 pm

very cool and very funny.. :D

Title: Re: EART
Post by: lizeal93 on July 02, 2009, 02:35:57 pm

great work.

nine minutes is a heck of a mouthful of a project but you did it!

amazing! hanging on for more, and dear life.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: spicy on July 02, 2009, 05:42:27 pm

I loved every second of it. Very good work, the end was funny :D

My favourite bit was what the anti-virus contained ;)
Nice work.
*cough* It would be nice to see a seqeal *cough*

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Suppastar on July 02, 2009, 09:56:18 pm

Very nicely done! A very long animation for anim8or, must of taken ages to complete. Kudos to you! :D

*Spoiler*

I Agree, the human race is like a virus.

(Highlight black box)
*Spoiler*

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Arik_the_Red on July 03, 2009, 02:01:19 am

lots of fun... you're stuff's definitely lots of fun! 

Title: Re: EART
Post by: $imon on July 03, 2009, 04:21:12 am

yea very fun work, the quality is not of a very high standerd, but to make a movie that long on your own is enough work already.

Nice story, even though i dont know why his computer was in english, wouldve been fun to see some strange signs and use subtitles.

Great effort, and very entertaining anim8or movie!

Title: Re: EART
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on July 03, 2009, 05:50:14 am

This video is made out of pure awesome!  "Finished" Anim8or animations that actually tell a story are a very rare thing indeed, and when they do appear it is a momentous occasion.  I love the concept Johnar, lots of nice little gags in there and the story is great.  Certainly there is room for improvement in the modelling and story pace, but I could say the same thing for a lot of "professional" animations.  This is a totally original idea and was a lot of fun to watch, my hat is off to you mate!

Title: Re: EART
Post by: captaindrewi on July 03, 2009, 08:10:18 am

thanks for sharing johnar. great fun.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: johnar on July 05, 2009, 12:28:05 am

Hi again, :),

 Wow, momentarilary overwhelmed by all the positive feedback.
 Thanks heaps to each and every one of you who have commented. I really appreciate it.
 As far as the quality thing goes, i'll give you my theory on all of that.

 I originally got in to Anim8or as a medium for telling stories.
 I've been doing this for about 6 - 7 years now, the first 3 and a half of those years were solid. 12, 16, 20 hours a day, seven days a week.
  The basics i needed to learn were to model, rig, texture, animate, (morph targets, keyframing etc), adding sound, lipsyncing, chromakeying and post production editing.  Theres also periphials to these things. In fact, theres no shortage of things to learn and In short, a variety of skills are required to make a CG movie from scratch. So, if you're doing all these things yourself, and if you're serious about using your skills to make a movie, you have to draw lines here and there on the initial degrees of competence REQUIRED to actually make a movie.
 I relate the story of Mickey Mouse to this scenario. Mickey mouse was 'acting' way back, when he was only a stick figure with big ears. Yep, even then, Mickey was out there 'representing'. ;) Thank the gods that walt disney didn't hold back in those early days, or Mickey would still be on the drawing board being 'perfected', and disneyland may not, even now, have such an icon as 'Mickey Mouse'.
 If you're serious about making movies, you do what you can. You start with a stick figure if thats all you have. You learn to make him move, and talk and act.  Over time, you improve. In fact, you always improve, but only by 'doing'.
 Your first short movie is a milestone, and you're pretty proud of it. A year later, you look back at your first movie with a nostalgic grin, and probably some embarresment.  This is just the way it is. You can take 5 years making your movie, but the fact is that if you're in the process of learning, no matter how long you spend on your 'early movies', you will one day look back at them with that same 'nostalgia and embarresment. ;)


The most important thing is to get it done. (imho) There are so many talented people out there, who are stuck on the drawing board, trying forever to get thier story perfect.The models perfect. The lighting perfect, and so on, and so on. BUT, The spark does die down, eventually. Eventually, the great idea that you are working on, loses its initial 'brilliance'. Then you tire from it. Then its on the back burner, because a new interest/story has taken over your thoughts. 90 percent of those projects which are put on the back burner, never will be the perfected masterpieces that you initially set out to create. And, unfortuneately, most will never even see the light of day, (screening).

 re eart:
  I totally agree there is 'room for improvement in the modelling and story pace', and actually, there's room for improvement in all aspects of this vid.
 I can't say that i completely agree with 'the quality is not of a very high standard'. What 'standard' is that? and, the quality of what?
 I do appreciate constructive criticism. Hopefully my wee spiel above will help to explain why the end product is far from 'pixar' quality, which i would assume is considered as the highest standard.
 I hope that the standard is at least high enough that it suffices for the purpose of telling the story, because that is the minimum standard which i have aimed for.
 If i've done that, then yes, success. ;) :D

 Thanks again you all. I really do appreciate it. We make movies to please ourselves and others.(imho) I seem to have pleased you all with Eart, and that is huge payback for me.
 I'm stoked.
 Thank you. :)
johnar

Simon: yeah, i did try it initially, with subtitles, but it all got a bit crowded, so i decided against it. I wanted it to be 'easilly followed', which is why the text is alredy in English. But thanks for the suggestion. :)

 

Title: Re: EART
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on July 06, 2009, 12:14:05 am

Nicely put johnar, I couldn't agree more with your description of the art of CG animation.  One big advantage CG animation has over traditional 2D stuff is that changes can be made to an existing project without the need to rebuild the whole thing.  For example, if Disney had changed his mind and scrapped Mickey Mouse, and replaced him with Armand Armadillo or something, he would have had to completely reconstruct Steamboat Willie from scratch  (actually, I'm not entirely sure about that... were they creating animations with overlays back then?)

Anyhoo, what I mean is that you could, if you so chose, rework all your characters and sets at a later date and just re-render, all the action would still be there and the new models would do exactly what the old ones did (if properly constructed of course).

This could be a very useful tip from you johnar, to keep the creative juices flowing by not getting bogged down with complex models at the outset, and perhaps using simple stick-figure characters and basic sets to build a sort of "pre-visualisation" animation, like the big studios do.  Once built, and if you are happy with the action, it would be easy to replace your stick figures with better models.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: johnar on July 06, 2009, 08:15:44 pm

 ENSONIQ5. gday m8.  ;),

  What you are describing does ring a few bells with me.
 Not so much the 'later' replacing of 'better quality' characters for the sake of cutting immediate workflow, but for the sake of 'easier, faster, 'draft renders'.
 ie: If Mickey was initially a very detailed high poly dude, placed into a really detailed scene, test renders could take hours, only to spot those 'tweeks' that are bound to be more obvious only once you've spent all day rendering.  ::)

 OK. For test renders, the scene can quite easilly be simplified, and a draft render can be done comparitively quickly.
 But it would indeed be a great thing if the high poly charcter could be replaced with something a bit more basic, (stick figure), and that would share the exact same movements as the high poly figure would make in the 'final' render.
 I've been playing with that idea for a while now, and it CAN be done.
 The trick there is that your high poly and low poly characters need to share an identical rig.
 If the rigs are identical, all keys, (sequence and scene), can translate to either figure, no matter what object is attached. (high poly or stickman).

 I'm drifting a bit from your idea here, but the ability to use the same rig on different characters is something worth pursuing, because it can be a real time saver.
 This basic idea has a lot of potential.
 Another 'related' plan, is the use of morph targets.
 If a character is well enough modelled, then by adding some fairly radical morph targets, the whole appearance of that character can be changed, yet the 'new' character can be used with all original sequences.
 
 I'm starting to rave on a bit here. This is all quite far reaching, with a whole lot of potential possibilities.
 Thanks for bringing it up. I'll keep at it, and one day we'll have some solid rules for swapping characters and keyframes.
 Whew.. Better end here... ;)

 Cheers ENSONIQ5.
 cya. :)

Title: Re: EART
Post by: lizeal93 on July 06, 2009, 09:21:07 pm

its simple. you take your full rigged character and you use melody or another such program to create a LOD model which you import and attach to the skeleton,( which must be an exact copy of the high poly skeleton, ie. same named bones and same bone limits.) then you can animate and render your lower poly one and when you are satisfied you can just attach your high poly one to the skeleton. and do a final render.

i'm sorry if i didn't explain that too well.

any questions?

Title: Re: EART
Post by: johnar on July 07, 2009, 01:25:35 am

 Hello lizeal93, :),
 I understand what you're saying, mostly, but aren't familiar with LOD models.
 Sounds ideal
 Thing is, i'm 99% sureyou can already do it with anim8or on its own.
 
 But hey man, if that works for you, then all i can really say is, "nice".  ;)

 Its probly me thats not explaining things very clearly. Sometimes if i 'quickly' drop into an internet cafe, i've gotta be carefull not to get into a rave, coz the clock is ticking, and i rush a bit, and then its not till thinking about it later that i realise what i said could've been explained better/differently.

anywho, Cheers for your input. :)
  

Title: Re: EART
Post by: hihosilver on July 07, 2009, 02:24:50 am

Johnar, those words are something to live by.  In other words I need to start following your advice there.  A lot of people - including me- need to simply take the dive.  Just get into it and develop what you can without worrying too much about perfection (being a perfectionist gets in my way.)  So thanks for the words, I'll do my best to follow them!

Title: Re: EART
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on July 07, 2009, 07:14:00 am

Nicely put Hiho, that's exactly what I meant.  There seems to be far more effort put into models than motion in most Anim8or animations I have seen, probably as a result of a top-down approach to animation (models > figures > sequences).  Turning the workflow around and approaching the actual motion or animation first, with basic stick figures, would potentially allow more creativity in this area.

On the subject of how to rig basic models, my thought would be to create a stick figure Object and apply it to a bone structure in Figure mode that has all the joints and bones required by the final, yet-to-be-built model.  Some thought would be given to how the final object might look so the stick figure is a reasonably good facsimile.  Once the motion is defined and the final model(s) built, the stick figure object would be removed from the bone structure, and the new object applied to the existing figure.  Bone lengths could be adjusted if necessary without effecting Sequence or Scene mode keyframes.

I am planning a figure-based animation at the moment, and I will definitely explore this back-to-front workflow concept in its construction.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Arik_the_Red on July 07, 2009, 11:00:29 am

Heh, I was thinking just these things the other day, when wanting to put my goblin movies together.

One thing about the replacement of objects on a figure though, it seems that in using painted weights the figure needs to be re-painted any time there is a replacement object since the relationship between object and bones is a bit more... ummm... intimate?  Even modifying the object causes need to repaint areas that are new or reworked.

Then, too, bones used the other way also need adjustments to accommodate the size changes when updating the object to more details.

Of course, the use of morphs is a whole other issue... and I haven't dabbled there enough to know anything of substance.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: hihosilver on July 08, 2009, 09:58:30 pm

One thing to be careful of when doing preliminary animations is the size and structure of the character, as that will influence the animation a lot.  Therefore, if you are to follow the animation first method, you have to do a very good job of blocking out a basic character.  I would personally say stay away from stick figures, but instead use more basic shapes (don't be afraid to overlap them) and get the correct shapes and volume for the character to make things more realistic and to give a perfect representation of the character for skinning it.

I do admit it's a good method to get into animation quickly, but once you have experience I would personally say it is not recommended if you're going for a masterpiece (this is after your first few films of course).  The method is not perfect as skinning requires a lot of perfecting to get good movement with the actual figure and topology which is why modeling etc. is usually done first and animation afterwards.

Just my 2 cents.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: johnar on July 11, 2009, 10:15:52 pm

 Hey there guys.
 I've been playing with this, and the answer is actually really simple.
 Don't replace the objects on the figure, replace the whole figure.

The experiment i did is a bit back to front, but;

 I have a file with froyd in it. It  also has  a walk sequence, and a scene, with froyd walking. (added walk sequence).
 Its about 200 frames, and froyd is walking and waving his arms around occasionally.

 I exported froyd figure, and opened in a new file. Deleted all objects from figure mode, leaving just froyds bones. (rig)

 Then i added new objects to the rig, and saved the figure under the same name. (froyd).

 Opened up the first file,. and imported the new fig.
 Anim8or asks if i want to replace froyd (original) with froyd (new). Click yes, and hey presto, theres the new froyd.

 The sequence still works fine, and new froyd is doing everything that the old froyd was doing. Still in scene, walking and waving his arms around, but unrecognizable as the original froyd.

 So, its actually that simple.  I think there may be some issues with object names and materials, perhaps i, but nothing has come up this time.

 notes: adding the new objects to the original froyd rig.
 I added default cylinders and spheres. ie:Figure mode -> select bone -> build -> add cylinder
 I added cylinders to arms, legs and neck, and spheres to torso, chest, head, hands and feet. I left the cylinder/sphere settings as default and just clicked ok.  The result was the skinniest of stickmen, and he moves around at 100mph.
  So, i should be able to do any animating, (sequences and scene) with this ultra skinny man, and replace him with froyd at a l8er date.
 Cool. :)  I'll try it some more.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Bobert on July 14, 2009, 05:13:55 pm

Hey Jonar!

I just wanted to say that your movie project was very clever and entertaining as well. Your work sure paid off! :)

I wanted to know..what softwares did you use for video processing and audio processing?

Title: Re: EART
Post by: johnar on July 15, 2009, 08:41:30 pm

 Hi there Bobert.

 For video editing, i always used to use Sonic foundry Vegas video 4.
 (old but xcellent). so excellent, in fact, that it was taken over by sony.

 I've updated my software l8ly, and purchased Sony Vegas movie studio 8.
 Was only about 70$. Got it through newegg.com

 Also, i picked up Sony Sound Forge. Similar price, awsome sound editing software. Have scene it described as the photoshop of sound editing.
 ( and it is that good)

 In Sony movie studio, i use the chromokeyer 'a lot'.  ;)

Title: Re: EART
Post by: Bobert on July 17, 2009, 08:21:34 pm

Ahh i see very interesting. Once again great job and thank you for replying :)

Title: Re: EART
Post by: karate5662 on July 27, 2009, 09:04:40 am

Quote from: johnar on July 11, 2009, 10:15:52 pm

Hey there guys.
 I've been playing with this, and the answer is actually really simple.
 Don't replace the objects on the figure, replace the whole figure.

The experiment i did is a bit back to front, but;

 I have a file with froyd in it. It  also has  a walk sequence, and a scene, with froyd walking. (added walk sequence).
 Its about 200 frames, and froyd is walking and waving his arms around occasionally.

 I exported froyd figure, and opened in a new file. Deleted all objects from figure mode, leaving just froyds bones. (rig)

 Then i added new objects to the rig, and saved the figure under the same name. (froyd).

 Opened up the first file,. and imported the new fig.
 Anim8or asks if i want to replace froyd (original) with froyd (new). Click yes, and hey presto, theres the new froyd.

 The sequence still works fine, and new froyd is doing everything that the old froyd was doing. Still in scene, walking and waving his arms around, but unrecognizable as the original froyd.

 So, its actually that simple.  I think there may be some issues with object names and materials, perhaps i, but nothing has come up this time.

 notes: adding the new objects to the original froyd rig.
 I added default cylinders and spheres. ie:Figure mode -> select bone -> build -> add cylinder
 I added cylinders to arms, legs and neck, and spheres to torso, chest, head, hands and feet. I left the cylinder/sphere settings as default and just clicked ok.  The result was the skinniest of stickmen, and he moves around at 100mph.
  So, i should be able to do any animating, (sequences and scene) with this ultra skinny man, and replace him with froyd at a l8er date.
 Cool. :)  I'll try it some more.

I knind of experimented like this, I also found that you can use figures under different names, but still have the same sequences work for the new model, handy if you have all of the animations made for one character and need another, similar character with the same animations.

Title: Re: EART
Post by: fireking2009 on July 27, 2009, 03:45:40 pm

i always thought that swine flu and all those bad things are like antiviruses beacause we made to much damage to the world