Finally ... here's my first take for this shot.
Take 1 (667KB)

Nice!

Hah- this is a funny shot but I did have to watch it twice to see why scarecrow fell down.

David

This looks great, Holmes!
I'm not sure about Tinman's final pose though. It seems a little bit unnatural at the moment. It might just be the angle of the head or the chest...not sure.

HI Holmes, welcome back!

I like the idea of the scarecrow getting wacked at the end, that would fitting after he pulled the door open on the Tinman a couple scenes back.

Since that last pose is going to end up as a still frame, how about if we play that up and find a way to catch the scarecrow in mid-fall with his legs thrown up in the air like he got tackled almost?

?? like this maybe

Click to view attachment


-at the very start of the shot, they should appear to be already walking rather than starting from a stop.

-This is sort the the feel we're going for inthe last pose...

Click to view attachment

except they wont' be kneeling. Very straight (~95%) arms and not completely horizontal.

Notice how he's got a bit of a curve to his posture. Give Tinman and Woot a little sideways curve like this

) )

and that will tilt their torsos for the non-horizontal arms.


test

Hi Holmes,

slight refinement of above idea... how about if we stop just a hair after the Scarecrow gets hit, and then when the flash dissappates , the still frame reveals the Scarecrow in mid air.

Easier to animate.

Hi Robert,

For some reason I'm not getting email notices of new posts until several days after the fact.....
Anyway, would you please clarify that last post? What position do you want Scarecrow in on the last frame?

"when the flash dissappates" - what flash? Is there supposd to be a flash in this shot?

Thanks.

ok, you're going to make me work, aren't you?

Here are some more notes:

2_01_65_take1commentsmp4.mov

thanks!

Sorry for the delay Robert. I just saw your new post. Downloading your mov now.

Take 2
2_01_65 (667KB)

That's looking great Holmes. I'm really enjoying your work.

Hi Holmes, here's some cleanup stuff before we polish this...


2_01_65_take2_commentsmp4.mov


thanks!

Take 3 (664KB)

Hi Holmes,

This looks fantastic!!!

I only have 2 comments:

If you scrub through frames 187-189, Scarecrow reacts to Tin's forearm strike too soon. You might consider moving Scarecrows reaction pose a few frames ahead.

The last step that Tin man makes on frame 172 is a lot wider than the rest. Is he tripping? It just looks a little odd IMHO but maybe it's what Robert wants.

This is coming out exceptionally good!!!!!

George

That looks real good, Holmes! Here are some polishing tweaks to do:

2_01_65_take3_commentsMP4.mov

Thanks!

take 4 (667KB)

That looks wunderbar! put some ice on it and when we get the camera prop we'll add the last bit.

Here's the touch-up biz for the cameras. I believe David Higgins will take this one up since Holmes is busy.

2_01_65_cameramenpitchAMP4.mov

Excellent, thanks Robert.

I'll get a first pass up tonight. One question, do I do anything with the rabbit?

Cheers

David

I think he's out of frame.

Now that I am looking at the data.... Am I modifying 65 or 65b?

I'm also looking for the hat and card. I can't seem to see them under shared data. Do we have models files somewhere else?

Do we have anything that resembles a camera?

Cheers

Sc65. 65b is a temporary version, I'm told.



They may be in the Sc64 folder. Last resort, you can examine the file path inthe properties for an object to see where it is expected to be.


I know i saw it. In the modeling forum there's a thread for the camera, it may have some info.

OK, found everything and have an frame to look at if only AM 14 OS X (Leopard) wouldn't crash every time I selected the render icon........

Edit: Fortunately BootCamp and a Windows XP install works with the same version of AM so it's not my new hardware...... Here's a quick render. I think it might get too 'full' if we added another photographer on the other side.


Cheers

I'd have to agree with David. The one photographer looks good and with a flash going off just as SC gets smacked...

OK, I'm not sure if I should have waited for feedback from Robert but rather than waiting I have completed a pass of the animation. I needed to insert 2 new lights in the scene to show the flash effect and had to disable the skylight (as it caused AM v14 and 15 in OS X to crash).

http://project.hash.com:8008/movie/svn/act...01_65-take2.mov (~2mb)

Edit: Note that I added 2 extra lights to show the flash and disabled the skylight (to prevent the OSX version crashing on render) I assume these will need to be removed prior to final submission.

Cheers

Looks great David.

I can't speak for Robert here but having several photographers seems to be an essential element of the shot.
Having only one isn't going to work.
I think three photographers is a good target number. At least two photographers and probably more than three flashes.
Think Hollywood photo opportunity! These winkies don't get to see their Emporer that often.

If you have to overlap... overlap.
The photographers can be composited separately over the scene if necessary.

If you want to test that out without doing a lot of extra animation render the photographer out by himself from several camera angles. Have the Alpha Channel option on. Then place the photographers over the scene as Rotoscopes.

I'll be glad to assist where needed.

The trouble is screen real estate. Directors requirement is that the characters are not obscured (Plus there were only 2 reporters in the previous scene). I'll play with it some more and see what I can do.

(I spent most of yesterday troubleshooting OSX render issues - and in the end they seem to have gone away - but at least I think I know what was causing the problem)

New version posted with 2 photographers:
http://project.hash.com:8008/movie/svn/act...01_65-take2.mov (~2mb)

Cheers

What if one photographer popped in an out of the screen and then the other popped in and out...

I imagine that the last part of this sequence will be obscured by the flashes anyway.
If there were enough frames left I might suggest having a photo fly into view showing what one of the photographers captured on film. Then it wouldn't matter as much that this shot was partially obsured.

Just thinking through the possibilities.

Thats close... The end result will be a freeze frame of that shot and then it draws back to reveal it as a photo in a newspaper - at least thats the plan I imagine.

Cheers

Ah. I should pay more attention to what has been going on.

If that is the case I wouldn't worry so much about the characters being obscured.
While you don't want to over do it unnecessarily obscuring them in this shot adds more effect to the reveal via the newspaper.

Yeah, but the director said don't obsure them.....

Not quite what I got out of his commentary but you are right. Don't obsure what doesn't need obscuring.
I may be reading into it but he sure seemed to want more than one photographer to appear in there. He spent considerable time demonstrating the possibilities.

Robert knows we can't have it both ways (photographers everywhere with no obstruction) without really working it in there.
He gave you the green light to do your best. Thats all that can be expected.

Hmmmm, yes you might be reading a lot into it. At 22sec Robert states "insert.... either one or two photographers". If there was flexibility here I imagine he would have said at least rather than either. At 47sec he states "you don't want to block out the view of the tinwoodsman whacking the scarecrow". As a directed scene I must take Roberts comments literally unless he tells me otherwise. I see it as I have free reign to do anything as long as his requirements are met! (unless I am totally missing the point of these directed scenes?!)

No doubt he will take all comments into account when providing feedback. It is certainly easy enough to add more photographers but from a continuity standpoint, where did they come from?

Cheers

Hi All,

Merry Christmas all (it's the day after here). I know it's christmas and all, but are we supposed to critique between ourselves or are we expecting critiques from Robert on this directed scenes?

Cheers

Robert stated elsewhere he was going to be out of town (I believe at least until tomorrow).
I'm sure he'll catch up quickly upon his return.

Critiquing each others work is fine but in the end its all really Robert's call.

Thanks Rodney, just wanted to make sure.

Cheers

David,

Before you spend countless hours working on Robert's shots, you should verify with Martin that their actually going to be used. I only say this because based on an email I received. I get the impression that TWO animating is completely done.

I'd hate for you to put a lot of work into something to find out it's not being used.

The email I received from Martin stated that this movie is wrapped up. Although he didn't state it, I got the strong impression that all animation is done and the only thing left is sound effects and rendering.

If this is the case, I know for a fact that Robert is not going to be pleased.

George

It could just as easily mean that the bulk of the animation is completed ie no more assignments outside what has already been assigned. This stuff for Robert is little more than clean-up and gives me an opportunity to get to know AM on my new iMac. With any animation work, we run the risk that the animation will never be used. Who knows what might get cut on the editors floor!

Cheers

Yeah I sent an email to Dhar and he said the same thing. I'm probably interpreting the email the wrong way.

You're right. Even if you spend hours and hours of work that may never be used in the movie, you are still getting a lot of practice. And if your shots come out good enough, you could even use them in a demo if you ever decide to try animating professionally.

Happy New Year!!!!

George

Hi All, I'm back from my trip.

Martin has told me that he would like these sequences finished according to plan and that he'll put them into the movie when we get them done. And he confirmed that again today.

That's the story and I'm sticking to it.

Hey David, I like what you did with the shot, I'll get you some comments tomorrow.

Welcome back Robert!

Hopefully I'll have something to show on the refined mopping scene tomorrow.
I've had too many distractions of late to get much done thus far.

That looks real good David...

2_01_65CameracommentsMP4.mov


thanks!

OK Robert,

New draft posted:
http://project.hash.com:8008/movie/svn/act...01_65-take2.mov (~2mb)

Cheers

Hi Robert,

I've heard nothing back. Do I take it this one is a wrap?

Cheers

Sorry, I didn't see this one.

The arcs are much better.

But it may be too fast now. I there a medium between the old speed and the new speed?

This could be

-bringing them in slower
or
-bringing them in sooner but not slower
or
-some combination of those two

New version up. Both entries are slowed by 3 frames.

Cheers

That looks good. Thanks!