rice field hop

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:25 am

This is a very early test. But it was silly enough to share.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl269YwRUXQ

I wanted to give backgrounds a try in vector art. I'm not exactly happy with it. I may need to paint the background instead or try a mix of the two.

I wanted to create a set that I can practice water splashes on. So that will be the last addition. I also plan to add plenty of water effects to the edges and some in the middle of the water.

I wanted to also learn the physics tool. This forced me to. But the physics right now are more difficult to pull off. Currently you are seeing dynamics. I still plan to do the hard physics later.

-ray

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:17 am

Nice work

but too short at the same time

.

AS can be a very useful tool for making backgrounds.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:34 am

Nice, I love the way you've drawn that load. And the concept here has a lot of appeal. Are you planning for a drama scene or a comedy scene? This looks like it could work well in either direction.

Also excited that you're doing more effects work! I really want to try some water animation, too.

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:36 am

Thanks guys, yeah it is short isn't it.

I'll try for this...

Pan the camera a little slower but otherwise the same movement.
Wait a second to let people look at the scene.
In walks the character. He hesitates. And hops to the first rock, pauses to gain balance. Then hops to the second rock and almost falls so he has to balance himself out even more. Looks at the last jump. Hops but falls short and lands in the water, sit there for a bit and then the water pushes him over the edge.

I'll go for Dramedy.

Actually I'm a big fan of the movie "Kung Fu Hustle" so I'll probably try to make this silly like the movie was.

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 4:25 am

I tweaked the background and foreground by adding some shadows. Also added the tree and some place holder waves in the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXkJfthaJ18

still to do...
Animate the character. Add a simple shadow under him.
Add the splash effects.
Add animated water waves.

-ray

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:42 pm

I have a lot more of this scene done but, there no need to render any of it until I get the walk and jump animations done.

Made the walk and first jump. Will keep going and come back to do tweaks after first pass of animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s72E_5XnFP4

Things I can fix and will fix.

1. Make the man anticipate bending down for the jump.
2. Add more weight to the landing.
3. Put more weight into the step forward after the landing.
4. Make the back arm reach for balance after jump a more convincing move, perhaps move the center of gravity to the back leg and arc the spine back more.

I can't really fix the small things like the rope with a bell on the end not really responding to gravity.
However if you think the movement of the package is too extreme or not extreme enough I can adjust the physics settings some.

-ray

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:51 pm

IMHO:

I like it - the character movement is nice, and your fix list is spot on... which makes me wonder why you would settle for 'things you can't really fix'? I say ditch the physics and do it by hand - it will make it far better if you spend some time animating the bell nicely and the tower of stuff...

this is one case where auto physics will just look odd - the only way the guy wouldnt just topple over is by trying to keep the whole stack upright throughout his movement so what i would reccomend is very slight side to side movement, but more of an up down seperation of the stack to show gravity rather than just insane bending... subtlety and finesse is not a job for automatic physics

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:25 am

Nice one fracture, looks nice.
You could keep the physics, they are fun .
Of course keying would be classier but there's the time saving in one shot then over many, I too would avoid secondary and tertiary on labour intensive details if possible.

You could change the physics values when he jumps, or switch off and key the jump action for the pack?

I guess you've already got a solution though, be good to see.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:20 am

I agree chucky, if it were a time critical commercial project you may need to avoid labour intensive details - but if its a personal project I think it's important to spend as long as need be to make it as good as it can be rather than settling for corner cutting techniques... I guess it just depends on your attitude about the project, on a per project basis.

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:21 am

I misspoke when I said physics, sorry about that. I used the bone dynamics. in this one. I had wanted to use the physics but it didn't look as good at the dynamics.

Thanks funksmaname, thanks chucky
This is why I really wish the dynamics could be baked. So I could go in afterwards and tweak the heck out of it.

By hand eh? There is not really a time issue in getting this done. In fact I think I spent a lot of time having fun just setting up and tweaking the dynamic settings and bones.

The main point of the project is that I'm unemployed (laid off). I've been a 3D modeler and texture artist for 10+ years and I've always liked animation but never really gave it a serious try. So I figured I'd try my hand at animation and particle effects and see if I could do it and enjoy the process. Plus this would be in my portfolio.

So it sound's like from what you both said, I would benefit more from doing it by hand than by dynamics (even if it did look fun). I had figured that doing a little of both would show I can learn and do both but since I'm not pressed for time, I guess I could go back afterwards and do it by hand.

Perhaps use the first pass with dynamics as a guide...

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 4:26 am

Did you know you can see exactly what is happening with dynamics bones if you uncheck "allow frame skipping" on animation menu?
You can change in real time dynamic values of each bone. It's not an animated value, but you can see the change of behavior. To do this just use the select bone tool, open the constraints dialog, select the bone you want and press the play button. Now, dragging the right mouse button over each numeric box on constraints window you can change each value (dragging left decreases, dragging right increases). It's a very nice feature, very useful in cases like this, where you want to get a very exact result.
I recommend you starting by the bone of bottom. Once each it's just like you want, start with the others, from bottom to top.
For your animation I think it would be nice to use the scale bone tool too. This way you can give a weight sensation. The graph mode is fantastic to make it smoother.

Now, if you are sure to do it by hand (personally, usually I work this kind of animation by hand), as tip I can tell you it's one hundred times better to use the graph mode, and you must consider it's a wave movement so bones on top will react later than bones on bottom.
Maybe this little tutorial could be useful for you
viewtopic.php?t=15647

Don't forget to maintain the balance.

PD: I love your design and animation, please keep sharing

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:01 am

Dynamics yes, that's what I meant, I haven't tried the new physics in 7 yet, when I get time .
I would say, the only thing, with the 'dynamic' option is that they can look comical or stand out to much, this can be great for that persistent, automatic look which, as a aside effect, distances the viewer.
Maybe it's the look you want for your story, it might be all wrong, it all depends what happens down the path.

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:13 am

Thanks slegin,
I did know about the "allow frame skipping" for getting the real look of the dynamic movement. I also found that it acts really silly if I left the entire background visible because it to much for my computer to think about.

I did 'not' know you could adjust the values as you watched the animation play. Thank you very much for that tip.

Also thanks for suggesting using the graph mode. I've never used it so I built a simple test file and tried it out to see how to use it. I accidentally moved one curve point down below 4.40 off the screen and couldn't move it or select it again. Had to use undo to get it visible. I'm glad I saw that, even zoom didn't show it.

I finished the first pass but I'm going to hold off sharing it until I've done the pack animation by hand.

I did see that my setup for rendering the scene is not efficient. I wish I had a good video compositing program that I could use to mask together the man and the backgrounds.
The issue is that the computer has to render the background over and over even when the camera is not moving and no changes are occurring. I'm considered rendering out a png image of the background and switching it into the scene once the camera stops moving but I'm not sure if I'd be able to line it up very well. Any suggestions of a better solution are welcome.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:57 am

if it's not moving it should line up perfectly... just transform it numerically to 0 you shouldn't notice any change

meanwhile - i just spent literally 5 minutes messing about with box stack jumping across animation for fun

dunno if you will find it useful at all, but here it is
video
and anme file here
download mov - photobucket messed up the video smoothness

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:00 am

Did the dynamics settings get a spruce in the new version?
The input could have a more intuitive approach , customisable presets and a method for graphically extrapolating settings between two ends of a chain.

Maybe the new physics engine covers all this.
A secondary animation technique topic could be interesting thread to start in the techniques discussions, especially with the comparisons with keyframing results.