just wanted to let you know that i started animating the scene, it´s a pretty long one with a lot of acting, this is going to be fun...

Somebody started that once (Steve Wolke?) What's the shape of that?

Steven Wolke just Keyframed it.

here are the first few seconds... for my taste it´s a bit too hectical... the part where tw stands up to grab his axe and the part where he sits down again after throwing the axe are too fast in my opinion... what do you guys think?

I agree - slow it down. (Double the time?) Looks good otherwise - excellent work.

Looking good Sebastian! But I agree, tin man does seem to move a bit fast when he's playing with the axe.

slowed it down a bit... here´s a little update...

If you have a CRT monitor I would invest in a dry ease marker and place dots on the screen tracking the characters nose or head. The head motions of these characters are traveling in straight lines which in most cases things that take away the feel of living things. We generally move in arcs and machinery in linear paths if you arc these charcters motions you see that they will start to feel more alive. This has been Keyframed and the next task is Inbetweening it and this is the stage were we put thes arcing motions in.

i didn´t have that much time for animating this weekend as expected, but here´s another little update, still a lot to do...

i´m not sure about the timing of the keyframing at the end.... tw is asking "right now?" and more or less at the same time he´s grabbing the axe and goes away... i think it would be more natural if he´s asking "right now?", then standing up, looking down to display his unpleasure about this, then sighing and grudgingly grabing the axe...

i´d like to change this if everyone´s fine with it...

Yes.

You're doing great Sebastian. It's looking better and better.

ok, i finally got some time left the last 2 days and could work on it again... so here´s a tiny little update... the last few seconds of tw walking are still to be animated, also some little tweaks here and there... question: will the knitting be cloth simulated?

That's a good bit. I'm glad we're going through this review stage. I won't comment on the animation (it's great) but I can say that we'll need to get Tin Woodman to pause what he's doing and sigh a couple/three times. Also, the Folley (axe swishing, falling, rattling, etc.) will really bring the point home that Tin Woodman is a nuissance.

That's great Sebastian. You put a lot of work into that, and it shows.
My guess about the knitting is that it will only use SimCloth if we absolutely have to. Try adding some bones to the knitting and applying a dynamic constraint. Maybe that will do the trick. Or just add some bones and animate them a little. The knitting plays a very minor role and it would be nice just to get the point across that she is being "domestic". We don't have to be too accurate or spend a bunch of time there.

ok, i finally found some time to get back to SO, so here´s the next update. please tell me if you notice anything that looks wrong, thanks.

martin: do you really think the pause/sighing before grabbing the axe should be longer? i mean why should a nice guy like TW let his girl wait with that heavy axe in her hand for such a long time? for me the timing lokks right as it is, he rolls his eyes, sighs and grabs the axe.... exactly the amount of time to think "what the heck??? ok, resistance is futile, so let´s go..."

greets..

I believe Martin is talking about when Tinman stands up and throws the axe in the air and catches it. IMHO you need to have a pause between throws and more aniticapation in the throw and over laping motion after he catches it.

Way to go Sebastian! I like it. I wouldn't move the camera quite so fast in a couple of the shots. I would either move it slowly, over 3 or 4 seconds, or would just cut to the next focus. But I'm not complaining. What you have is very nice.

Hey Sebastian, will you please upload your latest work to svn so I can update the shot in the status report?
Thanks for all your work. I think you are really talented.

thanks holmes... i´ll upload it tomorrow, i´m in kind of a hurry right now.... i was planning to continue my work on this shot this weekend, i´ll try to put in your and marks suggestions, i think you´re both right...

greets...

uploaded my progress so far to svn... added a few seconds after the axe-throwing for the sighing, but i have nothing i wanna show yet i also worked on some overlapping motion on the axe-throw...
i hope i can show something by the end of this week... greets...

Thanks man.

Hello all!

Had a look at the file posted the 25th of january, I am sure it got worked on since but I wanted to point out a few things from the perticular file that seems off, to me at least.

You need to work on anticipation, your characters take off from their seats as if they we're weightless or as if they we're pulled from the seats.

I know this is basic stuff but if you could add some back and hip rolls, a little pose or the such I think this would greatly help in making them look more beliveable, more alive.

Just my two cents!

Gilles

ok, tried to consider all your suggestions, i think i´m getting close to done...
martin, i decided to make him sigh just one time after the axe-throwing and then let him shake his head for a couple of times right before and while he sits down again.

if anyone notices something more please tell, i´m almost blind on judging this one...

Yeah, that works.

I notice that Tin Woodman's lips & jaw movement is restrained - probably because of a conflicting Chor Action fighting with the lipsync Action. Go ahead and call this "done," Commit it, and I'll take it from here.

Next assignment!

That looks nice Sebastian.

fixed the facial poses conflict with the actions by myself martin... looks fine now... uploaded the chor and the "rightnow"-action to svn (changed the last keyframes of that action and set it to "hold last frame" in the chor...) ... didn´t know where to put the "rightnow"-action, so i just uploaded it to the folder with the chor...

i catched a very bad cold on thursday, that´s why it took me so long... but i´m slowly getting better, so i´m ready for a new assignment...
my girlfriend is going to brasil for almost 4 weeks, so i will have some time to kill

greets to everyone...

Very nice.
Thats a fine piece of work Sebastian!

Animation-wise I can't see of anything that needs to be changed prior to final refinement.
Where there is time for such refinements I would suggest concentrating on the faces... the eyes in particular... to get these two to connect a little more despite whats going on in Tin Woodman's head. He's distant and detatched but still very much in love with Tin Girl.

Tin Girl's got that connectivity going pretty good but Tin Woodman needs at least a short bit of held eye contact to suggest he's still in love with her... only distracted. He's missing his friend. Her words might (very temporarily?) break that spell and remind him of happier times? A very slight smile at the moment of held eye contact would seal that thought in his head.

I'm not sure I could pull this subtle bit of acting off myself but these are the thoughts that run through my head as I watch the sequence.

I wouldn't mess with it now but... for consideration as the movie comes together.


Modeling/Texturing note:
The note I'd make about modeling/texturing would be to consider a slight change to Tin Girls dress and/or hair.
While the current dress provides a nice echo back to the first movie it seems unlikely after any extended length of time she would be sporting the same style hair and/or clothes. They've got people that are pretty good at fashioning tin around here.

Why change it?
This would show progression with Tin Girl and add much needed depth to her character.
As we don't get to see elsewere in the movie this is her time to shine.
I see no issues with Tin Woodman remaining the same but a subtler change would be nice as well.

What's up next for Sebastian, Holmes?

(We're closing in on getting the first half of this movie animated.)

I just sent Sebastian an email asking if he would animate 2_01_04