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Artwork => Finished Works and Works in Progress => Topic started by: Kubajzz on January 09, 2010, 10:52:20 am

Title: A very short animation...
Post by: Kubajzz on January 09, 2010, 10:52:20 am
The Simple Machines challenge (http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=2891.0) inspired me to create this short animation. I found myself too lazy to create a good, textured model for the challenge, so I started animating.

The whole thing was done in 2 hours, I spent most of the time trying to simulate physics...

Check out the video: http://vimeo.com/8630276 (http://vimeo.com/8630276)
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: rellik420 on January 09, 2010, 02:24:42 pm
did u use any scripts or anything? or was that pure manual animation?

either way it looked really good
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: Kubajzz on January 09, 2010, 02:45:56 pm
No scripts or physics engines... Just a bunch of keyframes :)
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: TheRetroZombie on January 10, 2010, 12:33:53 am
how do you do that? I want to know how to put physics (I think thats what you call it) on animations. Like a stack of cubes falling.
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on January 10, 2010, 01:57:38 am
Nice work Kubajzz, the roll and collision action of the cubes is very good, very realistic looking.  My only crit is that the small cube technnically goes the wrong way... in reality it would flip to the right and probably land on or nea the big cube.  It could flip the way shown only if the small cube was only partially resting on the plank.  It's a very minor quibble, and this is actually one of the best manually keyframed physics simulations I have seen.
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: Janro on January 10, 2010, 05:02:35 am
Great work! It looks pretty realistic. Although the only thing that seem to stick out is the smaller cube. Not sure why though. Might be the trajectory or something. Very nice for pure keyframed animation.

I find actual physics formulas useful for doing stuff like this(I did it for physics class once. lol) Did you use formulas as well?
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: Kubajzz on January 10, 2010, 05:43:24 am
Thanks for the comments guys :)

I didn't use any physics simulator and I didn't even use any formulas to compute the keyframe values... I just guessed the movement. It was actually not very difficult to animate this, because the whole animation is only 2D (if you looked at the plank from the side, nothing would move or rotate in the Z-direction...)

Maybe the small cube should have gone the opposite way... I didn't think about that, but now you told me I have to agree with you.

I would like to create a bit more complex animation, but I'm afraid I can't do much more than this :-\
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: Andy_Rch on January 10, 2010, 06:17:10 am
This animation looks really great.

I like your physics. Very realistic.

And the simple black and white style of your scene looks very good to me.
Title: Re: A very short animation...
Post by: johnar on January 17, 2010, 12:04:49 am
 Hi there Kubajzz.

  Cool. I like that plain textured effect, with the right lighting its cool.

 Just my 2 cents here, and i notice it with plenty of anim8ions, and thats the 'speed' of things.  Eg. I can understand why you would allow a couple of keyframes for the big cube to land, but i think that in reality it would hit the plank/ground quite a bit faster. Even when the little cube flies into the air, i think that you could do away with a frame here and there. But the speed of the roll when the small cube hits the ground looks about spot on.

 I usually anim8 at 24fps and theres been times when 1 frame between keys still isn't quick enough. (ie: anim8or pinball) Perhaps, in rare cases like that, it would be worth thinking about using 30fps, or even more.?

 I know that i should be entering these challenges. Got a bit more time now, and finally an internet connection at home.  ;D.
  A long time ago, raxx had some 'simon says' challenges going, and they were some really enjoyable times, plus, i learnt a lot.

 Anyway, nice stuff.  ;D