Hi im Bertmac
This is my bootcamp start
and boy im excited
i made a commitment to my self for level 1 of the boot-camp to give at least 1 comment to an other boot-camper a day, and to add a Exercise every 2 day's to my own boot-camp (improvements, or a new Exercise)
I hope to be an better animator at the and of this camp
So please give any comment to my movielips
I probably will give some on yours

Level 1: Basic Movement
Exercises A-1 -drop two balls of different materials/weight, let their bouncing come to a stop
Thanks for your time

Welcome Bertmac

You've got the right attitude! By giving critiques you're more likely to get them. And by working on a schedule you'll advance steadily and rapidly.

Sadly I can't get your movies to play. Neither by clicking or saving to desktop. The file size seems small, are you sure they uploaded all the way?

-Alonso

Hmm strange
Dont know what went wrong
It's a simple quicktime 7
anyway i loaded them up again, it seems to work fine now on both my mac and pc
Thanks for the warning Alonso




Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours

Got 'em.

The beachball looks great. Good descending arcs, good consistent horizontal movement, excellent rotation, good stretch, good pointing the axis of stretch along the path of motion. My main critique is to me it looks like it's not holding it's volume as it squashes, I saw your post in C-Wheelers bootcamp about using math to maintain volume, are you doing that here? I think it needs to be more exagerated squashing out the sides, it doesn't seem wide enough right now. It's a really decent ball bounce, but it doesn't have the feeling of a beach ball, I think it's the weight your showing. Beach balls are filled with air, I think they don't have enough weight to pull them into a big squash. Easiest way is to find one and watch it a bunch, I think it might be tricky to actually make it feel filled with air. (Might help to make the ball a tad transparent?)

Softball. Of course if you are going to make the ball look like something we all know then you are setting yourself up for a big challenge because everyone knows exactly how it should move in real life. Where's the shadow on the floor, it would help define the impact better. Good job on the squetch, I didn't see it but I felt it. I think you need to get into your channels and put some ease at the top of the arcs, right now it feels like the ball is being jerked in a zig zag /\/\/\ you need more of a shape like nnn. The energy descends consistently. I think the ball shouldn't roll as loosely, I think the horizontal energy should descend more quickly also, I'm thinking that a softball is full of soft something that absorbs a lot of energy because it's not tight against the walls, so you have the quick energy loss in the bounces, but at the same time most of the energy is coming downward and the earth is swallowing a lot of that, there is a little forward movement and a little extra is gained from deflection off the ground, but not as much as you are showing.

very strong start. I like your background also

-Alonso

Hey Bertmac,

A really good start! I think you have the right number of frames for each arc but the spacing is a little even. The ball accelerates as it falls. It covers more distance each 1/24th of a second at the bottom of the fall than at the top. Try shortening the distance traveled at the top of the arcs and lengthening the distance at the bottom before impact. You can do this by adjusting the slope of the Y translation curve in the curve editor. It's just a small tweak. Nice job.

Bruce

Hi Bertmac. Thanks once again for your comments on my thread- its really usefull to swap opinions.

I like the first bounce- the arcs and timing seem good. The only crit I have is the first bounce- I think theres too much squash, as though the ball is really heavy, then the next two bounces are just right. I read somewhere(I think in the animators survival guide) that as long as you get the timing right, you dont need squash so much. Try it without, then add just a little on the first bounce

Chris
ps re the use of expressions- I have tried that in the pass, but this time I just did it by eye in the action window, but forgot to include the z axis

Hi Bertmac- just checked out softball bounce- Iv'e never bounced one so I don't know how soft it is but I assume you have

I think on frame 4(?). the roll goes over the edge without falling, so that the ball hangs there without gravity.
Then it seems to fall correctly, but on 9 or 10 the arc seems to switch directions until the bounce
On thr frame after the contact the ball follows one pathe, then next frame jumps on another path.
After that it seems to be good
I think this is probably to do with the splines on the action curves.

Chris[attachmentid=11802]

WOW cool
Thanks allot guy's so many cool comments, nice
I was about to put up my second Exercise, but reading your comments made me think again, because i agree with most of them.
eerhm lets see

Lets start with the Beachball


I think i u have super duper good eyes, i went back to look and you are so right, These where my numbers with the first bounce (x 1.075y 0.7 z 1.075) y should be 0.85 of-course. The rest of the bounces seem to be alright. But to see that lil mistake, dude respect.


I think your both right So i will take a look at that to

I hope i can fix al this,
Many many thanks for these cool critiques, i will take a look at it and load-up a new movie ASP
After that i will look at ht e baseball

Regards, Bertmac

PS C-wheeler
What i did with the xyz math is not an expression, i simply typed the numbers in the numeric panel for the ballmodel.



Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours

Hey Bruce,
I'll guess you are talking about the baseball right
Well i think you are right about that ,
I will fix that afther i do the Beachball
In the meantime i will take a look at your newly started tread here at the bootcamp

thanks

Bertmac

Ok this is my second attempt for the bouncing ball exercise
I have to thank you all for your comments.
They really helped a lot.
Also with the baseball
After seeing the mistakes i made with beach-ball
The baseball seemed to go easier
Hope it shows

Thanks again

Hi BertMac,

I just looked at your Beach ball bounce. I really like the way the bounces decay; that feels very good and so does the rolling motion. That is hard to get right. It might be rather fast for a beach ball.

I marked up the side view to reveal some standard bounce problems:

-Arcs with flat sides
-Those flat sides are also times when the ball is neither accellerating nor decellerating. Gravity says that can not happen.

We might argue that a falling beach ball reaches terminal velocity almost immediately due to air resistance, but then we have no way to explain the steady upward rise of the ball on the rebounds. Gravity+ Air resistance would create a substantial decellerating effect. For early exercises like this, we're better off ignoring the air resistance factor.

I'm not a big fan of squetchy ball bounces that only have one contact frame. I wrote some notes that apply on Bruce's test

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&sh...ndpost&p=146972

hey robcat2075
Thanks for visiting my bootcamp tread
Hmmm i think you where reading my tread while i posted my new movie clips.
I mean it looks like you took the old movie.
Most of the problems are hopefully not there anymore because of the help of your follow hashers.
The thinks you said are correct, and i took a look at them to verify with my movie-clip
So i hope that you want to look at the new movie clips, to see if i made progress.
Thanks for your comment

Bertmac

I'm looking at the new one, but it still has the same issues. Flat arcs and uniform velocity.

Track that ball frame by frame and you will see them.

Because of
all those mistakes i made before
i thought it would be an good idea to do the first exercise,
So here you go
An ball bouncing in place

Bertmac


Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours

Hi Bertmac!

I think you did very good with the balls rolling to a stop in your two first clips. I like your cameras for showing the falls, it reads well. I have a couple issues with your last one, it looks strange having the ball rolling like that and going perfectly straight up, and the ball i think should stay one frame longer on the ground.It also feels very uniform in speed. Nice texture on the ball with that plastic transparency. Good clips.

Michel

Hi Michel
Thank for visiting my Boot-camp and your nice comments.

About the rolling i think your right. it does look strange
but than again a looping ball cycle looks strange anyway
So i think i take it out, I mean i've been bouncing balls for 2 day's now but how the rolling works while bouncing is still not clear to me

After the comments from robcat2075
I took a long sleep, Now that im looking at it again. i think i understand what he means.
I will start working on it now
After that i think its time to start with the ball with the tail.

Thanks again


Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on your

Hey Bertmac!

Just droppin' in to tell you I love what you've accomplished with the last animation. It has a wonderful feeling to it! Great smooth motion and rotation. Also I must say that's a fantastic texture, I was hypnotized by it for a second! As I'm sure you know, the looping is a bit rough, you just need to match correct frames of course. Nice work!

The straight beach ball looks fine to me. I thought something was odd at first but then I realized that it was the lack of decreasing energy, but of course you can't decrease enegry if you're going to loop

Softball's looking pretty good. I kind of want just a hint of a final bounce after the last one, but it likely would just screw things up. Rob's right (like usual) think parabola think upside down U.

Keep going!

-Alonso

Hi Josh pixar ,
thanks for droppin in to my bootcamp, Thanks for the nice comments as well
About the loop, it looks fine on my Mac no probs there. But i will make a longer cycle so you can look at it better thanks.
I'll be visiting your bootcamp shortly, i heard that it has a lot of good tips on animating



Hi Alonso,
ha yep i had that same feeling, thats why i made that short loop from it.
PS:Many many thanks for the texture idea for the beachball
as u can see a lot of people seem to like it,

Thanks Again


Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours

Ok here is my first overlapping test.



And i uploaded an better "Bouncing ball in place"loop movie
(it's not a new render it's just a doubled quicktime movie)
hopes this one works well

Hi Bertmac.

Nice work on your bouncing balls! I was not brave (or patient) enough to add texture to my bouncing balls, as it adds a lot more work and challenge, so good for you! Your last beach ball bounce looks pretty good. The speed convinces me that it is a beach ball. The only two comment I have (as an observer, not as someone with vast animation knowledge) is that there maybe should be a bit of squash on contact and it may be spinning a bit too fast. Over all, it looks pretty good.

For the chain swing, it looks pretty good too. The tail lags nicely. You may be able to accentuate the lag a little bit more and you may want to move the base of the tail a bit more to make it look more like it is initiating the movement. On the other hand this may be the right movement if it is a heavy chain. As I said, I can only comment as on observer...not a knowledgeable animator!

Paula

Hi there Paula
Welcome in my Bootcamp
Thanks for the comments.

Well u know, i did not think about it either. i realized it until Alonso made a comment about it. but thanks to his tip i think they came out nice.
Well i appreciate all the comments i receive. I take them very serious. Pro animator or not.
I mean sometimes the explanation of a Amateur Animator (well meant)hits me better that the one from a pro.
Thanks for your comment Paula
all comments are noted

I also like the textures on the beach ball but the ball is rotating and bouncing in place without showing any slight movement in the direction of rotation once the ball hits the ground. Hope you don't think I am being to picky but the rotation takes away from the animation because it does not look right if I get a beach ball and through it up in the air and it is spining, once it hits the ground the friction of the rotation affects the upward direction if only slightly

Hi <PF> Mark
Thanks for dropping by and those comments

About the beachball, I know the rotation is bad but im not gonna correct that
I think i have done enough balls for the first exe.
Not only that but i need the do so much more balls
So i think its best to move on to the tail ball exercises and put my experience i have gained with the bouncing balls exercise in to work at these exercise.

Im browsing true this forum for a week now
And im very pleased with the way you guys and gals treat each-other here
The comments i received where all useful.
So thanks for that

Oeps forgot to upload my new bouncingball
I started again, totally from scratch.
I think it's better now.
Thanks for all the help one this one people.

-I also made an other version of the ChainSwing


Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours

Eeh huh
Sorry Double post

The chain looks great. Can't say much else about it, excellent dynamics and follow thru.

The beach ball feels more like a soccer ball. Doesn't feel as light as a beach ball should be. If it were a soccer ball it would've been perfect.

(Hey Bertmac, why don't you have that drill sargent as part of your signature, I just noticed you're having to add it in every post?)

That seaweed is really great! Nice and lazy. Looks like you've got the idea, let's see you walk the walk with follow through on a moving object

The beach ball looks good. It's true it's a little heavy to look quite like a beach ball, but honestly a beach ball is a super huge challenge since it is filled with air, and not really worth fighting for in this context. But the rotation and bounce and everything look fine.

Man, get into some biped stuff. Throw a coon skin hat on Mr. Ball or something.


-Alonso

Beach ball strait2:

This is pretty close. I like the minimal squetch, which is characteristic of a slow-moving, low-mass object.

Some odd things:

-Its stays compressed when it leaves the ground.

-Its height doesn't decay after each bounce. A ball with such low intertia and high drag would lose height quickly.


Chain0.1:

This looks very graceful. The overlap is extremely slight. More a "tail" than a "chain" since the base is not moving.

He you Guy's
Thanks for the comments again. i can't get enough from them.

Dhar; Cool to see you visiting my bootcamp.
About witch beachball are you talking,
B_Beachball0.3.mov or  BeachballStrait2.mov

Alonso: Yeah you're right, i know, But sometimes i think i take to much space with that pic, i mean 3 posts of me means megascroll ( i dont like scrolling)

I take this as an very big appreciation
thanks dude, i mean my drill-sergeants is telling me to go on, with out doing the end exercise of level 1. Cool
But no, Sorry i need to gain discipline, that's why i came down here in bootcamp as well.
So i will make my end movie first and than go on with the next level.

robcat2075:
Geezah, Are you talking about B_Beachball0.3.mov i hope so. meaning is there still Flat arcs and uniform velocity or is it better
Anyway if its good. i seemed to messed up the decay part witch u liked before.

He thanks again guy's For al the comments

Hmm yeah, i know
I need to upload an Movieclip with a ball with a tail or anything (read my first post in my tread)
But im Sorry there are some tuff day's ahead, it seems now that i moved to Barcelona.
People in Holland want me to work for them, If they only had asked me that before.
But he i should not complain the weather is nice here, I mean Sony-Holland asked me to make Christmas-cards for them to send around to their clients.
So again not to make any excuses, but i will be busy for the next 1 or 2 weeks
and won't be reporting to much
I'll be back

PS Alonso: what the hell is a coon skin hat
Sounds cool but uuuuuh ?????
C u guy's

Actually I was looking at #2 but I just dry-erased #3 real quick. Still flat sides and linear motion.

But you found that out when you dry erased it yourself.






You did dry-erase it yourself , didn't you?

Hmm i'll guess i misunderstood you:(
I mean i thought you where talking about the spacing.
Like that the space of the balls movement was equal every frame. and that i needed to make my Y curve-line more like an m , but i see now that you are talking about the movement of the ball in general.
Damn, i never even thought of that. i was just blind-staring on my curves make'm dem look like an m. PFFF not normal.
At the moment i only have keyframe on the y curve
my x curve only has the starting and ending keyframes i'll guess that i have to put more on them to accomplish this.
So in stead of a strait-line in need to put 2 more keyframes at every-bounce.
Really i'm ashamed.
But thanks Robocat for looking at this for the 3rd time

And yeah i did dry erased them and ghost them. but i just did not look at the right thing

Thanks again

Barcelona's a fun place. They've got the cool wooden 1800's submarine, and the cement poles the go up and down with the traffic lights to stop people from running over pedestrians.

Coon skin hat

-Alonso

It seems every time I go to critique someone there on vacation. There's really not a whole lot I can say. I've watched your latest chain and beach ball a million times, and I can't find a damn thing to say. Good work.

Very nice i really dont got any critiqs for it...