Working through TaoA:M is mostly an individual challenge.
You focus on getting that exercise done... then you do it... then its done.
Once all the TaoA:M exercises are completed you've collected some nice images and animations, great memories and the experience and perhaps even a certificate to show for it.

Animation BootCamp (ABC) is here to give you something to expand upon while working your way through TaoA:M, after you've graduated or anywhere along the way.

Bootcamp is a place where you get thrown together with others, collaborate individually or as teams, and generally defeat the challenges of mastering the principles of animation together.

Other challenges may be added as interest allows but there are some challenges that simply must be mastered. Bouncing those stupid bouncy (and not so bouncy) balls is one. Walk Cycles are another.

So... are you up to the challenge?
Do you dare strut your stuff in such a public forum?
Can you walk the walk and talk the talk?
Don't just sit there.. its all in the timing and spacing so... prove it!

There are other challenges, exercises and opportunities going on in the A:M Forum.
Take advantage of them as you can!

LIGHTING is one of the most important aspects of computer animation (still imagery too!) that you'll encounter. It's been said nothing improves a rendering as much as lighting... so check it out!

CALAVERA CAFE' (Lighting Challenge)


RIGGING is something you'll have to master before you can animate your character effectively.
Do you have what it takes to get it done?

If you've gone through Exercise 13 "Show Some Backbone" you are ready for this challenge!

SQUETCH RIG - (Step by Step Installation)


Creating Worlds from your imagination is a great way to apply considerable talents.
If you've got the talent and imagination this challenge is for you:

A:M CHALLENGE: LOST WORLDS

...and if THAT isn't enough... you might challenge yourself by working on a feature film!

TIN WOODMAN OF OZ



So, what challenge are you up to today?

Hey Rodney,

I check out a bunch of other art forums and many of them have weekly contests. For example, there are Art Jams in which one topic is given and everyone does their take on the subject, and Challenges in which two people take a theme and everyone else votes on who had the better piece. Is this what you're suggesting? If so, I like it. Here's a few other ideas for getting some feet wet.

1) TWO is great, but it's huge. For some of us with less experience it can be downright scary. I've been looking over the dot project site, and I've been following some of the production topics, and I feel like it's just out of my league right now. What about shorts that people could work on as a team? If you watch any of the Pixar DVDs, there are often shorts that use the same characters, such as Jak Jak Attack, and Mater and the Ghost Light. We could try to get a few of the more experienced fellows to mentor smaller groups and try to come up with a polished 2 or 3 minute short. That way when people do feel ready to work on TWO they have experience with the characters, using the squetch rig, and the directors could use this to see what everyone's strengths are when it comes time to assign shots.

2) Scott McCloud came up with an idea for comic book creators called the 24 hour comic, in which the creator has one day to create a comic from start to finish. It forces the artist to work within the limitations of a very tight deadline. We could try something like ten hours for ten seconds of finished animation. That's ten hours to storyboard, model, rig and animate a simple character. It'd be hard, but the focus might just be what some of us need. In traditional drawing, there are times that you want to spend hours on details and there are times that you want to do gestures. Couldn't the same apply here?

3) How about a round robin. One person does ten seconds of animation, and posts the clip and the project file. The next person in line takes the project and adds ten seconds to that and so on.

4) The "How'd He Do That?" Challenge. Someone posts a clip is which they use one of the features in a unique way, and everyone has to try and reproduce the effect. For example, can you combine animated decals for hair properties?

These ideas might totally suck and might not be at all you had in mind, but if I'm reading your mind right, the basic idea is to come up with fun learning activities to help the A:M group be a vibrant community, help get the word of mouth going, and mostly for all of us to have a great time doing what we love. Correct?

I like your ideas.
Without going point by point in your post I'd say 'Correct'.

You bring up some interesting points so maybe I will try to go a bit point by point.

One word of caution to all of course, the A:M Forum isn't like other forums.
Historically contests have been sporadically supported even when $1000 has been at stake.
There are probably many reasons for this but I'd guess the biggest is that people are just busy.

The idea behind the TaoA:M Challenge is to take those elements in A:M a user has already created and plus them up just a little more. A little more time devoted to extend an idea or exercise.

The Challenge need not stop there but there is a danger of taking away from the contests we already have going if not careful. Participation in the Image and Animation contests seems to be on the rise so the more we see of that the more you'll see of this idea. Its hard to say how many is 'too much' though until no one shows up to the party.

You have hit on some really important topics.
TWO is huge and scary but thats exactly what it'll be like in any production environment.
Decisions must be made, deadlines must be met... thats scary stuff.
As TWO won't be in production forever I think getting involved there is the best thing going yet.
It'd beat any challenge you'll see in any forum to date.

Trying to get to weekly would be a goal but how realistic is it?
We aren't utilizing the challenges we already have at our disposal.
The Daily Dose postings alone (Feature Focus and Tech Talks here in the forum) are enough to keep us busy for a long long time.

I'm familiar with Scott McCloud's '24 hour comic book'. I think thats a great way to just jump in and do something. Setting aside that 24 hours... thats another thing. That'd be a tall order in the animation world.
Not impossible but hard on a TWO movie scale of hard. (Fun though!)

The round robin has been done and remains viable. Will Sutton pieced together the Bouncing Ball animation where the only requirement was that a ball enter the screen from the left and exit on the right. The results are still viewable on A:M Films I believe.

The art jam is something we almost tried a few years back but the timing was never right for it.
The idea was to do a 'Character Jam' where everyone's character would be combined into one big scene (Think posed characters with Alpha Channel background). The result could then be shared and perhaps even be made available via poster. It would have to be planned and directed a bit to ensure the characters worked within the scene but it'd be one very cool display when complete.

There is nothing of course preventing us from joining in other challenges and contests in other forums.
That should always be considered too. The '10 second Club' was a favorite for a long time and really stretched people's animation muscles.

What we can try to do here is keep a contest/challenge in the public eye at all times.
If the monthly image contest is approaching... plug that for instance.
If there is a popular themed challenge like Calavera Cafe' - Lighting Challenge we can keep that in the public eye.

Additional challenges like the ones you've mentioned are ripe for the picking too!
Now all we need is a little more time.

One thing is for certain. If we see more support for the challenges currently offered we'll see more challenges form.

Thanks for the feedback and challenge topics.
Keep them coming.

Rodney

I'm glad this folder was created. Allow me to be the first to post some "post TAoA:M" graduate work.

I'm following Barry Zundel's Animation Training tutorial. Here first is an advanced walk cycle that I got done today.

Dhar,
Nice walk cycle. I will be getting those DVDs!
They look like great fun.

Its funny you should take up the challenge with a walk cycle.


I'm not going to match your challenge though as mine isn't animated.
But here's a still I from one started the other day with Woot.

It was influenced by some things learned from Cristen Mckee's 'Animate!' CDs.
But mostly I was trying to get more familiar with the Squetch Rig.

Its been said that one of the hardest things to master is the walk cycle.
Master that and you've found your character.

Great Arena topic!
Anyone else up to the challenge?

Sure im up for the challenge.. Umm what was it again? How long do i have? lol anyways i seen you Rodney an Dhar talking about videos. Can you inform me on what yous two are refering to ???

A:M Animation tutorials on DVD;

http://www.rafhashvideotapes.com/animatecdroms.html

http://bzundel.googlepages.com/animation%3...ter2005training

Dhar seems to have said that no one is up to the challenge of creating a decent Walk Cycle... with any character.
So far I haven't met his challenge. (But I'm hoping the still from one buys me some time as I never finished that one)

As far as how long you have... the deadline is now.
Firstest with the bestest will rise to the top of the challenge.

Did I just hear what I think I did?
Are you really up to this challenge?

Game on then!

More than a few have got past the basic part of this challenge through TaoA:M.
I'll bet they could wip up some even nicer walk cycles now.

Attached are two examples from the past demonstrating how Ellissa and Zev rose to the challenge.
Everyone starts walking the walk cycle somewhere.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Still not up to the challenge?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out Exercise 5 in The Art of Animation:Master.
You can find the 'Take a Walk' exercise and more here to get into shape: http://www.hash.com/2007web/vm.htm

Can it be any easier to get started with a walk cycle than that?

Yes. It can.

Watch Steve Sappington as he demonstrates a basic 2 Keyframe Walk Cycle and then goes on to demonstrate Wheel Cycles and how they differ from character walk cycles. (Note: This video tutorial is also available on the video tutorials page)

Walk and Wheel Cycles

Game On!!! Umm wait a minute, Who's am i challenging again?? You Dhar or myself or is it all 3 combined???



Theres a ton of Dvd's an there not cheap. Any ideas which ones from each site are the most benifical?? Id hate to spend all that money only to really need 1 or 2 of them.

Everybody, I guess - I'm thinking it would be a good way to learn the Squetch rig while I get started on TWO.

Great walk, Dhar - I watched it over and over.

I'm not even an anipotato yet, and I definitely need critiquing lessons, I was going to say about hips swinging, but I walked up and down, and they don't, unless I'm being Jessica. If I manage to get just a little of your lifelikeness, I shall be ecstatic.

How long did it take to achieve that?

The task.
Yourself.
Each Other.
Disney/Pixar.
Animation:Master!

The most important challenge you'll face here is that of mastering character animation.
The Walk Cycle may be one of character animation's greatest challenges.
We will master it or die trying right here in this arena.
Some will survive to move on to the next challenge.
Others will just watch from the stands.
All eyes are on Dhar for the moment.

In the process of mastering the walk cycle challengers of varous skill level and talent will enter the arena.
Thats where the arena takes on a life of its own.

Anyone with something to contribute to the theme is encouraged to step in.
Post a question if you don't have an answer.

Who thinks they've learned enough about the art of walk cycles to talk the talk and walk the walk about it?
Is anyone brave enough find out?

Go on then.
Enter the arena.

...and the crowd chants "walk cycle", "Walk Cycle", "WALK CYCLE!"


Note: Caroline's suggestion to use the Squetch Rig is a VERY good one.
The odds of a future Squetch Rig related challenge are pretty good.
And its a really wise thing to learn everything you can about it.

Money doesn't guarantee success here in the arena. It might help of course but certainly isn't required.
I think Round 1 can be completed just by posting a walk cycle.

Use what you know right now to get going. Others will find you and help you get better equipped for the next round.

This may be one of the strangest walk cycles I ever created... it accidentally got on the Extra DVD!

The walk cycle itself is not of much interest but it actually consists of 2 walks cycles.
One for the character and one for his second set of clothes.

I had decided to see what would happen if I constrained a duplicate of the character (with all geometry deleted except his suit*) on top of the main character.

I do not recall what prompted this exploration but I learned something through it.
You can modify characters pretty easily and layer actions using the same characters too.
As the project folder was called 'PoseWorld' I'd guess it had something to do with showing a former Poser user how he could do something similar to what he was use to in A:M. The movie looks like the colors just change but the pink suit gets added.


*I'd have to check. I don't think I just hid the geometry.

OK, updated the walk cycle so that it's looped. Here's a run cycle to up the ante.

Love it Dhar!

That definitely upped the ante.

Woo he's moving!

Then so be it, This gladiator knows now who his enemies are. Dreamworks, Pixar, Walt Disney, All those other 3D products who make animating twice as hard. Dhar, Rodney, Caroline, As well as anyone else who tries to take on the Mighty Logrus of the Courts of Chaos!!

Damn thats good, infact too good... Dhar i think you wounded this mighty Gladiator with that one...

That was a great run cycle, Dhar, but I kept feeling he should do this:
Click to view attachment

Oh you're clever girl, Caroline

Hey, watch your overlaps

Dhar and Caroline have inspired me to test his run cycle in the Sequence Editor I'm currently building in A:M.
Not much to see but the images below demonstrate the basic idea.
A 30 frame setup isn't much to work with here but that was about all the time I had to mess with.

The big image is Dhar's animation (motion blur and lighting have changed it a little)
If I remember correctly the first little image below is the cycle repeated 3 times.
The second is him running backward. (Doesn't really look like that so I might have set it up wrong)
The third is some ease at the height of the jumps.
The forth is ease in and ease out (with only 10 frames to work with this is more like hold in and hold out)
The fifth is a slight favoring toward the end of the cycle (7th frame key)

The sequence editor is part my experimentation into building my own compositor using only A:M.
Isn't it amazing how Hash Inc lets us create our own features.

If this particular version was completed it might have a Edweard Muybridge type sequence at the bottom defaulting to a particular frame in the sequence. There should be so F.A.C.E. type frame advance manipulators on each one. I ain't that smart though so... I'm still at the very early testing stage.

Of interest to some might be that motion blur apparently works on images really well.
Just in case you (like me) imagined otherwise.

I need to get back to my TWO shot so I'll leave you guys/gals alone in the arena for now.
I'm at least going to try to stay away.

Everyone has at least one walk cycle right?
So what are you waiting for... post it!

That's pretty cool, Rodney. Using a 3D program to produce 2D animation. You're now the 'Animation Tinkering Gnome'

Thanks Dhar.

I use to bemoan the fact that A:M had no script editor.
Not anymore.

Hash Inc has long had a script editor in A:M that you didn't even need to type script into.
We can program our own utilities without typing a single line of code. Truly amazing stuff.

I'm currently investigating several mini-utilities created completely in A:M.
A few won't even require A:M to run.
Who knows...if I can get smart enough I might even make something useful.

Just be glad you didn't use Alpha Channels in your run cycle or I would have really gone crazy.
THANK YOU for not using alpha channels. I really don't have that time.

I do want to get Barry's DVDs but how do I find the time to dive into them?
Not a valid question... I will just have to find the time.

Keep posting your progress Dhar!
I'll be watching.

I think, for practice sake, I will make a walk cycle for each TWO character and post it here. I will save the Action files until it is good enough to be committed to the TWO project.

It will be a challenge to analyse each body's walk style when taking into consideration their height, perceived weight, and form.

Of course, since the king is always at the top of the list, I started with the King of the Winkies

In this exercise I added a little more snap to his step.

I'm not satisfied with it. It looks too mechanical. I'll play with the keyframes and see what I can get.

What a great idea, Dhar - it will be an education for us to see different weights and character types.

Shouldn't the TW have a mechanical walk? He is after all not flesh.

Dhar,
Outstanding idea.

Could you delete/hide the ground plane and turn on Alpha Channels though.
Then your walk cycles can be used in promotional material (stills, animation... who knows).

I know this isn't the intent of the challenge but being able to reuse resources for other things is always a good thing.
If you are wanting to show no foot slippage that's cool too but I think that isn't as important as the walk cycle itself.

Either way... just keep on doing what you are doing!

How did I miss your question, Caroline? It must be old age

Remember that, in animation, we'll portray moves we normally wouldn't do. That's because we're trying to achieve believability. Our hips move in negligible increments, but what the animation masters have found is that when you try to exactly immitate reality your animation will look dead, lifeless, unreal, unbelievable. So, to overcome that visual disadvantage they exaggerated their animation. The bouncing ball exercise is a perfect example.

Why do you consider my animation "lifelike" yet when you walked up and down your hips didn't even swing? So, in animation, exaggerate the hips movement, twist the shoulders in opposite direction to the hips, then suddenly you'll find that the motion is looking more believable, even though in reality it never happens. But that's what we're learning, how to achieve an illusion of life.

I didn't time myself when I was following the exercise. I could guess about an hour? I was simply following Barry Zundel's DVD tutorial (Disc 3: Animation).

You're right about the flesh part. But he is not a robot, and that's what I am trying to convey. In the movie Robots, the robots were alive yet the machines they were using were very mechanical. That's the distinction that I'm trying to achieve. That's a real challenge.

Here's a tweaked version of the Tinman walk cycle. Less mechanical yet there is a jitter that is bothering me.

It's time for bed. I'll work on it some more later.

Rodney, I'll deactivate the ground once I'm happy with the walk.

An hour, huh? I'm being a bit ambitious in trying to install the Squetch rig into a character before I do the walk. (An hour. Shakes head.)

You're completely right about exaggeration, and I hadn't even given a thought about the shoulders and hips going in different directions.

The updated TW walk is very smooth. I enjoyed the overlap in the hand coming forward - I watched the section on the Anzovin Animate CDs about overlap, and I think I understand it now. However, could your 'jitter' be not having an follow-through and overlap when the hand goes back? It seems to stop a bit dead.

(Stand back, I'm learning some technical terms, and can't wait to bandy them about )

Where can a layman get these models you are walking all over? Or can we?

Mike

The TWO models are currently in distribution to those working on the feature film, Tin Woodman of Oz.
After the movie is released the models will go out to the public (but note... not to the public domain).

Check the Extra CD/DVD for additional characters too!

The first model I used came with Barry Zundel's DVD Animation tutorial. I don't know if he's on the Extras DVD. But that is one cool looking character.

Ok, I made a walk cycle for practice and to throw my hat in the ring.
This time I try a slightly different method and pay attention to matching the slope of the splines from beginning to end by adding a key frame(on some bones) before the action starts, and after the action ends - see pic.

I want the action to run from 00:00 to 01:09.
So I set the start and end frames as you would, stopping the action one frame before the last(or first)frame.This renders out as an action o.k. ....... see walk cycle_take 1.mov.
So then I drop KuKlip into a cho window, shove him around till I get him in position, drop the walk cycle on him and hit repeat 3 times so I can get a looping action, render out............. then this happens......walk cycle_take 2.mov

So my question is - how do I cut the action off at the required point so that it loops properly?

The action file can be downloaded Here

What a great thread...and a good read! Thanks Rodney.

HERE is a walk cycle I had made with an early TWO-Woot model I had come across. (1mb)

It was my first attempt at animating with the SQUETCH rig and I really liked it...it's a great rig for animating with. I wanted to use a lot of the implemented 'squash-n-stretch' that the rig includes, and if you look closely...there's a lot of SnS in there. Walk cycles are a great thing to practice, you can never really do enough. In this one, I was also testing-out action blending, which you can see as Woot launches into his walk and then eases out of it. Sometimes, you will notice a little of yourself in your animating...I have a slight limp and I think I see it come thru in Woot. Also, for some reason it looks as if he is walking UPhill...Click to view attachment

HEY!!!

What the HECK! I was just looking at C-Wheeler's KuKlip animation above...walk cycle take2.mov... and on the 74th frame there is a lighting anomoly the likes of which my renders are PLAGUED with! I have on 2 occasions asked the forum if anyone else got such things and learned it was just me...and now I see it in someone else's movie???? And the weird thing is...I worked on KuKlip's beard so the demon may have leapt from my realm to anyone else who works on KuKlip!!!!

Here is a picture of the 74th frame to see what I mean: Anyone else ever experience this or have any ideas as to what causes it??? I have some renders where 15 out of 100 frames have some degree of this glitching...and when I rerender the bad frames sometimes it reappears...sometimes it does not. I'm pretty sure it's caused by Hair...even though C-Wheelers test has hair OFF.

FREAKY!

I noticed that, and just ignored it
I think it could have been caused by me putting my hand in front of the rostrum camera lights. I used to do that all the time in college

Yeah...that's what it sorta looks like...except it can be a totally random shape from one frame to the next...almost like ghosts. Yeah...those OxBerry lights could BURN!

OH- and there's another walk...over there in my NEW avatar...up and to the left. That was not animated though...I used a BVH motion capture file on my character.

I'm currently laying out some scenes in Yoop's Castle for TWO. In 2_09_20, Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, and Woot are carefully walking down a scary castle cooridor. We could use some "sneak" walks for each character. Walk cycles get a lot of use in the movie. Your's could become famous?!

Hmmm ...a sneak you say?

A sneak of sorts. Toned-down Preston Blair.
Click to view attachment

But I have a question.
Stride length. When I actually measured the stride and put the two dots in the right place, his feet then slipped along the grid, which meant that he slips in the chor. When I put the feet along the grid lines, he doesn't slip, except for a little bit sideways turning the corner, which I can't figure.

Example:
Click to view attachment

So I thought the grid lines were more important than the stride length.

However, when I wanted to slow down the downward movement of the legs, by stretching out the timeline for those keys, the grid lines no longer matched, so slipping occurred, which meant that to stop slipping, I have to reposition the feet all over again (aaargh) .

In conclusion, how do you get the stride length so that it doesn't slip in the chor?

Also, I could not paste a mirrored keyframe.

That looks good. How about an apprehensive walk for Woot - like Scooby Doo would walk down a haunted cooridor.

I'll have to look at it.

Did you remember to click first on the bones that you want the Paste Mirrored to go to? Often people forget and simply pick "paste mirrored" without first click on the bone where they want the mirrored action to go.

Hi folks,

I'll toss my walkcycle exercise into the ring today. This is a basic walkcycle where I used one action for the legs and body, one for the arms, and a chor action for the head and model bone. I broke it into parts as an experiment.... don't know if that causes problems or not, but the layering seems to work pretty well. See what you think.

Mark

(Quicktime H264 codec)

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Very smooth Mark. I like!

Thom's feet are slipping though. <kidding!>

Layering eh? Sounds like an interesting technique.
Its amazing what we learn through experimenting.

The two exercises that are most often pointed to for mastering animation are the Ball Bounce and the Walk Cycle.
Like I said... yours is smoooooth!

I imagine it would be easy to reedit/repurpose the way you've got it set up too?


Note to those interested in walk cycles:
This challenge will most likely move to the ABC forum.
So if you lose it look for it there.

he he he he

Very funny Dhar! (and very good!) lololol

Very cool idea, Rodney. I didn't see this until just now. I like what you're doing with it!



Caroline, that is an outstanding sneak cycle you've done. Great job!



Thanks for the note, Rodney. The layering approach using several actions seemed like a nice way to compartmentalize some of the detail involved in the process.

I meant to put a bit of a walkthrough/tutorial on image editing but haven't got around to it.
So... I'll post my mini-flap cycle in the sky.

Note that the attached project file should consist of a goose fly cycle (a 19 image one flap sequence with alpha channel) and one sky image.

Smashing them together and using v14's new image keyframing feature I came up with a little movie.
I'm sorry to say I'm not sure who created the goose flying sequence but its taken from a shot in TWO.
The sky image is grabbed from A:M's library.

No other programs were harmed in the making of this mini-movie.

For the curious look in the Rotoscopes under the camera and open the timeline.
What you want to see is under 'Timing'.

That's an interesting thread. Caroline your sneak action looks very good, I never tried it, I don't see why it has this very small slipping sideways.
Mark, that looks so relaxed and smooth. How do you crop your action in the cho? I always wonder if I have a walk cycle 24 frames, should I crop 0-23,0-23.5,0-24?
Here is one I showed in a earlier thread but I refined the walk since, I also experimented on layering actions. It looks a bit mechanical but TM is mechanical.
Click to view attachment

Michel