Omnibus on deserted Broadway

human · Post by **human** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:54 am

I've now completed my first scene for this blasted project.

It's not perfect, but I hope it's good enough to offer a few seconds of footage for the actual production.

(DivX and MP3):

EDIT: See below (vvv)

I apologize in advance to Mac users that it's not in QuickTime format.

I mixed several sound effects courtesy the fine fine fine folks at freesound

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

and soundsnap

http://www.soundsnap.com/

=================

EDIT: I've uploaded a halfsize version with a foreground tree. This one is gritty as it offers half the resolution:

http://generalpicture.com/animation/omnibushalfsize.avi

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:54 am

Nice work but the video is upside-down.

Why don't you post in the share your work area?

Also, divx is available for mac. http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/

JimmyC · Post by **JimmyC** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:32 am

Plays OK for me. I love the light with the bugs around it, and the horses move in a very realistic fashion (not easy). This is high quality work, with plenty of atmosphere. I played it over many times, so I must like it

Thanks

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:32 pm

The perspective on the animation movement is skewed -- otherwise, it looks pretty good!

human · Post by **human** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:36 pm

Thanks all for your comments.

@jahnocli: I may have failed to portray the movement in alignment with the wagon, but that part looks fine to me. Are you sure that your playback is showing the proper aspect ratio? I've had trouble, for instance, ensuring that GOM Player knows that I want it to use the source's native aspect ratio. (J Baker's playback was happening upside down!)

Here's what the picture should look like:

Note well, however, this snapshot is taken from a subsequent version which now adds a gently swaying tree. The current link is a lower-res version of the tree flic.

The tree adds more animation interest and significantly improves the composition.

Finally, I've exiled myselt to "Chit-Chat" because this work doesn't involve Anime Studio Pro.

To post without proper justification in the "Share Your Work" section would make me feel... well... rather unfair

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:05 pm

On the clip I can see, the horse and wagon sashays slowly across the street like they are on ice. The horse movement looks OK, but they are not going in a straight line down the street, that's all. I agree that the tree adds a lot more spatial interest...lookin' good!

JCook · Post by **JCook** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:23 pm

I like the general look of this. I agree about the wagon not going in a straight line; I think maybe the angle of its path needs to adjusted a little to the right to correct it for the perspective of the wagon. Also, at the start the wagon comes from behind the building (I presume that's a building on the left), but then it appears to go OVER the lower part of the building. The sound is discontinuous, but I know this is just a preliminary so it's not perfect. Overall I like this, and look forward to seeing more.

Jack

human · Post by **human** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:29 pm

Thanks for your help in seeing what was wrong with this.

Hmmm. Sometimes, as a result of struggling with this kind of thing, I wonder whether I'm innately suited to this kind of work.

For your general amusement, the video was created by a screen capture of DHTML animation in Firefox.

The omnibus was a GIF sprite which I enlarged and moved via Javascript.

(If anyone is interested in how I composited such a complex animation -- horses, bus, driver, reins, I could discuss it in this thread, but I won't force all that on you now.)

I fixed the problem by going back into my Javascript code, which was based upon Apple DHTML code found here:

http://developer.apple.com/internet/web ... ation.html

In retrospect, it was quite naive of me to think that the slope created by using two integer pixel values for the rise and the run could provide a good match for the arbitrary camera angle on the omnibus.

After you showed me that the path and the wagon perspective were out of synch, I was able to fix it by using a run of Math.round(2.5).

I would however add that I've realized as I pursue this technique, I need to join the 21st century and do this work not in DHTML but rather in the Firefox Canvas.

It's a far more advanced graphics engine designed for such work.

If you haven't seen the potential of Javascript animation, run don't walk over to Gerard Fernandez's gallery at

http://www.dhteumeuleu.com/

Fernandez's work is toylike/stuntlike and not really involved in storytelling but any of you will recognize the potential.

You want inverse kinematics? Fernandez gives you inverse kinematics in stinkin' realtime.

human · Post by **human** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:21 pm

For the sake of closure, here is a tiny GIF of the corrected animation.

(It will probably display very slow on your browser, and don't mind the transparency artifacts...)