#Help
13 messages in this thread
Greg, Hi there. I uploaded a file earlier called Vault.zip. It is pretty small
(43K) and if you could take a look at it for me I'd really appreciate it. It is
a 30 frame anim of 50Pman bending over. The problem I'm having is as he's
bending his feet submerge into the ground. The only thing that moves (position)
is the pelvis, which is at the top of the tree. Everything else moves via
rotation keys. As I think about it do I need to have his legs rotate faster
into frame 30? I mean is the pelvis moving down too fast? If you could look at
at it you'll know what I mean. One more thing – a while back you suggested a
method for making a spring bounce back and forth from one end by attaching a
box to one end then detaching. Using three springs to morph between this works
very well – I just don't know why. That bugs me. Well, thanks for any help.
Dave Mennenoh
Dave – I'm not a guru on this stuff, but view the path of the pelvis. There may
be a weensy loop between the keys where you really want its position to stay
the same. 3DS tries to give smooth motion by creating splines between the keys
and I have gotten some unwanted effects as a result. If so, try taking
Continuity to zero on the keys framing the loop (if there is one). That makes
the path a straight line instead of a curve.
DT
David,
Thanks for the suggestion but I've already tried this. I feel it's a
combination of the other keys tension/bias but just can't seem to get it
perfect.
Dave Mennenoh
Dave:
>> Vault.zip
I downloaded your VAULT.zip file and checked it out. You have a few
problems, some in the 3DS usage, some artistically. I'll hit both quickly.
You have set the pelvis as the master object. In itself, this is not a
problem, but I would recommend linking this as the child to a dummy right
below the floor (track). This will make it much easier to animate the
running sequence later.
Any time you move the master object, everything else moves with it. When
you move the master object down, all other objects move with it. This is
why the feet go down below track level. The only way to fix this is to
manually move them back or play with the rotation of the legs and knees.
This is what inverse-kinematics fixes for you, BTW. (Maybe release 4?)
IK will allow you to move the feet and have everything else work with it.
Check out Soft Image for a really good implementation of this.
While you're at it, check out Edweard Muybridge's excellent books on human
and animal locomotion. All pictures, you can copy the motion and get
perfect keyframing. When the runner squats down, if you turn on 'path show'
for the pelvis, you will see it is a perfectly straight line down in your
animation. However, if you think about it, the pelvis would move forward as
he squats to keep his balance (try it yourself!).
This type of character animation is extremely difficult. You almost have to
go in frame by frame to set the proper keys. That is why you don't see too
much of it anywhere.
A noteworthy exception, for those of you who went to the Siggraph party
Tuesday or stopped by our booth, is the singing mouse animation done by
Bruce Edwards, a professional old-time cell animator. Excellent keyframing,
morphing, all perfectly lip synced and to the music. And this was his first
project in 3DS! He's only had 3DS for 3 months! Humbling! Look forward to
seeing more of his work on future demo reels.
Greg Pyros
Ditto… I can't WAIT to see more work from Bruce.
– G
Greg,
>> I would recommend linking this as the child to a dummy right >> below the
floor (track). This will make it much easier to animate the >> running
sequence later.
Why will linking the pelvis to a dummy make it easier to animate the running
sequence later? I kinda figured that I'd have to do all the adjustments
manually. So, adjusting the TCB settings isn't going to help me out huh?
Bummer.
>> While you're at it, check out Edweard Muybridge's excellent books >> on
human and animal locomotion.
Are they available in general book stores? I'd love to use them. Sounds like
they'd be extremely helpful.
I'd love to see the singing mouse anim. Is it on the Siggraph demo reel? I hope
so. If not you don't have a copy of it do you? Only 3 months huh? That is
humbling.
Thanks for the help Greg. I really appreciate it.
Dave Mennenoh
Dave:
>> Why will linking the pelvis to a dummy make it easier to animate the
>> sequence later?
I've found that it is much easier to animate a person by having a single
dummy with everything linked to it below grade level. It is much easier to
grab from a distant view than a part of a body, and won't be affected by the
up and down motion of the pelvis while running. (I just added that 'while
running' part to keep this as a family bulletin board).
Muybridge's books may be available at some larger bookstores, but we had to
order the set ourselves. (Three books total, somewhere around $50 each).
Greg Pyros
Greg,
Thanks for the tip. Know if I could just find those books around here. I'll see
if I can't order them myself.
Dave
AHA!
So Bruce Edwards is a *cell animator*! That explains it.
Evan
Evan:
>> So Bruce Edwards is a *cell animator*! That explains it.
Yes, today he brought in his bar sheets, exposure sheets, track analysis,
etc. for the 'singing mouse' animation and showed me how he put it all
together.
Man, he could write a book on character animation theory! I'm signing up
for lessons!
Greg Pyros
Greg – Feel like elucidating on Bruce Edwards' description of the character
animation process, based on your remembery, for our edification?
David Taffet
David:
>> Feel like elucidating on Bruce Edwards' description of the character
>> animation process, based on your remembery, for our edification?
He spent a few hours with me, and barely scratched the surface! We are not
talking something simple here, or more people would be doing it!
Have you read "Animation from Script to Screen" by Shamus Culhane? Required
reading for the basics of cell animation, most of which can be directly
applied to computer animation!
Greg Pyros
>spent a few hours with me, and barely scratched the surface<
Oy vay, I'm weepin', here.
Have you read "Animation from Script to Screen"
No, but I am about to order it via fone even as I type.
DT