Well after a ton of work here I present with pride our newest video.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqqTtJwIEjw

Oh Ya !
That was just to cool.
Great job.

Hey thats real good ,I enjoyed watching and listening very much ,well done
A lot of work but it paid off

Very cool!

Thanks for the comments!

Wow, you keep getting better and better.

Great work by all of you!

Lots of nice detail touches in that.

>Well after a ton of work

<you really can tell that!
Great result.

How much time do you estimate, went into this?

I guess, it`s no harsh critic from me, when I say, that your work could still
be improved quite a lot with some more effort put into the texturing and ligthing section.

I admire how fast and dedicated you are getting a hold of A:M and animating.

Keep up your good work

;>) Jake

approximately one month.

Love the boogie music - very fun animation - love the surprise elements - Ya jes' keep gettin' bettah-n-mo-bettah.

I have only managed to see the first minute so far. My ISP and firewall problems are making it very difficult to use the internet at all at the moment but I will keep trying to see the full video.
Well done for what I've seen so far!

That was great Gene. Loved the song too Myron. And nice job on the model Holmes.

Thanks folks.
I will say this...............................
After completion of a video yeah it is nice to have family dote over it or friends.
But most important to me is what feedback I get from these forums.
my peers.
I check back here religiously awaiting a crit or a good word.
What you folks think is what is most important to me.
And for the comments up to this point I am well pleased.
It means I did something right in the eyes of my peers.
And to me those comments mean the world.
Thank you.
Gene

Nice job man. Is that "Spleen" Beer the rat is drinking? (I love the rat model btw Holmes... a blues rat... what a great idea).

Gene I know you said it took you about a month but could you quantify that a bit more for me. A month of Sundays? A month of seven days a week eight hours a day? I guess I'm looking for a man hours estimate.

I like the song too. Nice background singers.

Oh and Gene that Preacher and Bear one is hilarious... and the felching one... gross but funny.

Good stuff opinion from this newbert.

yes 7 days a week 8 hours a day
Holmes made that Myron Character, I made tha rat.

Gene this is really wonderful work. Sure it can be improved but that applies to most of us here, and your progress is simply amazing. I posted a comment on YouTube but I think it was appended to your last comment instead of the main list. But the sentiment is the same!

Man, that was some nice fingerwork on the guitar.

Thanks

Kinda surprised nobody commented on the Hash logo in the film.

Ummmm...probably because the lighting/contrast didn't work? - it was not contrasted enough with surroundings, not lit very well - I had to now replay the video to see where it was used - I missed it before. And I still could barely make it out - even with looking for it. (it went by pretty fast as well for something not lit well)

The lighting/contrast is very important for most everything - if ya can't see it - it don't matter how good it's animated, modeled, textured, etc

But I meant to say before - loved the blue-jay as well - And what was that hopping creature thing at the end - kangaroo? (also potentially very cute - but hard also to make out due to lighting).

Simple trick for you to try is to use expand property triangle for chor - choose Global Ambiance type=Global color=white - just try it! - it's so simple - play with the Ambiance intensity (AI) to 50-75% (if you leave your other lights in) and leave Ambiance Occlusion = 0%. Play with the color, play with using an image instead for lighting (eg use a blue image for night time) .

Another trick for just isolating characters from their background is to create a "fake rim light" material - a gradient material that has an ambiance color, set in the second attribute only - drop this material on your character (whole character) - and see how it gets highlighted...(this trick courtesy of Holmes , courtesy of Matt Campbell) - play with the edge threshold, and ambiant color, intensity.

Try it on your mouse - it was not well contrasted with the background of the train - so it could use something to bring it out.

All this is info for you to try for your NEXT animation (or this one if you are inclined to re-render)

ok thanks.
On my puter it is clearly seen. So didnt think anything of it.
oh well next time maybe.I plan to sneak it into each of my videos and it will be a hunt and seek type thing:D

Perhaps your monitor is not calibrated? - How do other people's images look to you? Too bright ? Too blown out?

I have an HD monitor
Looks great on everything.

>Simple trick for you to try is to use expand property triangle for chor - choose Global Ambiance type=Global color=white - just try it! - it's so simple - play with the Ambiance intensity (AI) to 50-75% (if you leave your other lights in) and leave Ambiance Occlusion = 0%. Play with the color, play with using an image instead for lighting (eg use a blue image for night time) .

Another trick for just isolating characters from their background is to create a "fake rim light" material - a gradient material that has an ambiance color, set in the second attribute only - drop this material on your character (whole character) - and see how it gets highlighted...(this trick courtesy of Holmes , courtesy of Matt Campbell) - play with the edge threshold, and ambiant color, intensity.


<Hi Nancy,

Invaluable hints!

Just followed your advice and started to play around with these options and it opened a whole new world to me.
(Though AM tended to get a bit touchyon me, probably because I wasn`t really knowing, what I was doing.....

Thanks a lot!

Does the Image have to be HDRI to influence anything else but the color?

Why leave Ambient Oclusion alone? Just because of rendertimes?

Jake - glad it helped - it's so simple - makes even me look like they know what they're doing

I've never played around with HDRI - don't need it for Image based lighting. I don't know how it would impact IBL. It would be great if you ran some tests - and then tell us what your conclusion is.

I don't normally use AO with what I do - because 1) of increased render time and 2) it has a style that doesn't always enhance certain looks (introduces a dirty noise), and I don't like to render with more than 5 passes.

AO (Ambiant Occlusion) does look great if one is just using simple colors - but I tend towards more variegated abstract washes of color - which I don't normally want to get 'dirtied'

AI (Ambiant Illumination) is super-dooper quick render time. More my style.

Fun animation! Rock the Blues!!!!!!

Nancy is a treasure of wealth I am finding out.
More I listen, more I learn.

>I've never played around with HDRI - don't need it for Image based lighting. I don't know how it would impact IBL. It would be great if you ran some tests - and then tell us what your conclusion is.



<Did a quick test without picture at all and with A HDRI-picture of some skyscrapers applied as sphere.

No visible difference at all.
So I must be doing something wrong...I guess.

Will continue tests next week....

This is one superbly entertaining music video.

I hope you collect all the assets for these productions and store them in a safe place.
As you obtain a mastery of lighting I have a feeling you'll want to revisit this one.
As others have suggested getting the spotlight on the important element of the scene will accentuate the storytelling and take it to the next level. It'd pop the main characters out and blend the backgrounds in. The imagery is showing dark and important details are blending in with the background on my screen. (I completely missed the logo)*

As much as I like the cartoon conductor I'd really love to see a version of this with live action elements of Myron doing the intricate finger work.
This live action element would contrast nicely with the animated animals and really bring all the characters' personalities out.

Of course this is all very easy to say while watching from the sidelines.
I'm very jealous of your talents!


*Side Note: In the book 'Timing for Animation' John Halas/Harold Whitaker suggest using approx 16 frames for each word in a title card to account for viewer 'reading time'. Similarly, if an object is there for less frame time, which includes being viewed in proper lighting, it may be missed and not read in time. Unlike mediums like comic books, with film you may only get that one time.

Reading time must be planned into each scene. It must be intentionally designed. When there aren't enough frames available to allow for proper reading of the important details and story element the use of Anticipation can be used to attract the viewer's attention to where it needs to be at the proper time.

Of course Easter Egg details (those that people love to find on repeated and more thorough viewings of a film) can have a lesser emphasis applied.

Thank you!
And I am keeping all this advice in mind for the next video.
I improve because of the advice I get from these forums.
Great teachers all!