Exercise 6: The Door's Stuck

[Odog2020]

Name: James Owens

Exercises competed: 1-7

Date Completed: 14 October 2005

 

I made this one to short, I will make a new one to be 5 seconds or maybe shorter. But to enphasize the struggle. Anyways, here is the exercise.

 

[attachmentid=10149]

stuckdoor.zip

[Dhar]

Thanks James, that did it

 

Well, when you first do the constraint, make sure the it is the forearm that you constrain first.

 

-Right click on the forearm, and select new constraint, kinematic.

-after that, click the button by the maganete key "compensate" button.

-then you can use the picker to click the door nob bone. or, in the properties menu, click target, and select knob.

-After that, you have to constrain the hand. To do this, you have to right click on the hand, pick new constraint Orient Like, then click the same button at the top, "compensate button",

-then use either method to select the door knob.

 

You shouldn't have a problem after that. Were you using Kinematic constraint with the hand, and not constraining the forearm? If you were, that was your problem. I did the same thing. Hope that helps

 

 

James

[Dhar]

Name: Dhar Jabouri

Exercises competed: 6

Date Completed: 10/16/2005

Instructor: TAoA:M Book and forum members.

stuck_door2.mov

[Rodney]

Now that is what I'm talking about.

When people help each other through the exercises everyone gains more from the experience.

 

Thanks James!

[splinesmith]

Name: Splinesmith(Kurt Lange)

 

Exercises Completed:6

 

Instructor:the manual and maybe the online tutorials

 

 

Remarks/Suggestions for improvement:

I actually did some of these earlier this month and I just now got around to posting which is why I say six, the other exercise renders I will post in their respective forum sections.

The_Door_Is_Stuck.zip

[higginsdj]

Hey, good effort guys. Some comments to take away with you for future reference.

 

1. When shaggy is pulling hard then the arms should have bends in them

2. Watch for overextending or extending too fast - joints tend to 'pop'

3. Take care with the line of action. If you are applying action in a line, make sure the character is posed on that line

 

Cheers

[Bruce Del Porte]

Hay Dhar,

 

Nice job, maybe a little more exaggeration in the arch of his back when he is straining. A really nice movie.

 

 

 

Hey Splinesmith,

 

Looks good. it might be better if you moved the camera more to the side of you can feel the pulling tension. Take a look at the angle Dhar shot his from.

 

Good clip!

 

Bruce

[Dhar]

Thanks for your comments David. Arching the back would have added more to the exaggeration and feel.

[kuep]

Hey Rodney!

 

I posted lesson 6 here in case you missed it.

 

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18045

[Rodney]

Thanks John... I think I got it but the link here will help to remind me if I didn't.

I'm about 24 hrs behind the download before I actually get to watch these so I grab and go as I get the chance.

 

Rodney

[Eric2575]

Name: Eric T Goesch

 

Excercise completed: #6 Stuck Door

 

Date Completed: 11/4/05

 

Comments: This one was a great one to really learn and apply what came before.

 

http://home.comcast.net/~pyglesias03/StuckDoor.avi

[noewjook]

Name:Marc Vancouillie

Exercise completed #5 The Door's Stuck

Date completed 11/09/05

 

Remarks:This was a difficult one.I have done it twice.The second

time I did it much faster and better.

 

Instructor: T.a.o.A.M. Book[attachmentid=10953]

the_door_is_stuck.mov

[rwilkens]

Would appreciate some guidance..

 

http://www.robertwilkens.com/hash/exercise6-test.mov

 

Was my first attempt at Exercise 6. It took about 1.5 hours where it's supposed to take 6, so even if I thought I was on the right track, clearly I've gone wrong somewhere.

 

First of all, if you look at above video -- no, I didn't imlpement the walk through door part. That's because the whole animation is supposed to be 5 seconds and i've expired time by that point. Which brings me to my next point -- clearly I've got timing off. I dunno, I always assumed 1/3 or 1/6 of a second was very short but it's obvious to me now that I've got to move time much faster than i expect. Anyway, pardon the slowness in my animation :-) i'm mentally handicapped (no, really).

 

I'll have to start from scratch tomorrow afternoon or later tonight. Before i do:

 

Questions:

(1) Cameras -- I figured out how to add a second camera, but I don't know how to select between cameras at different points of the 'movie'. I'd appreciate it if someone could fill in the blank in my knowledge there.

(2) Keyframes -- I'm guessing when you want the door to stay closed up until point A, you have to set a keyframe at that point? In the above linked video, you'll see that the door starts opening BEFORE the end of the video. So what is it I'm supposed to do -- Do I select the door, then press keyframe, then go to where I want it fully open timewise and then Set another keyframe? Do I do this by pressing the picture of the key while the door bone is clicked?

[Dhar]

Would appreciate some guidance..

 

http://www.robertwilkens.com/hash/exercise6-test.mov

 

Was my first attempt at Exercise 6. It took about 1.5 hours where it's supposed to take 6, so even if I thought I was on the right track, clearly I've gone wrong somewhere.

 

First of all, if you look at above video -- no, I didn't imlpement the walk through door part. That's because the whole animation is supposed to be 5 seconds and i've expired time by that point. Which brings me to my next point -- clearly I've got timing off. I dunno, I always assumed 1/3 or 1/6 of a second was very short but it's obvious to me now that I've got to move time much faster than i expect. Anyway, pardon the slowness in my animation :-) i'm mentally handicapped (no, really).

 

I'll have to start from scratch tomorrow afternoon or later tonight. Before i do:

 

Questions:

(1) Cameras -- I figured out how to add a second camera, but I don't know how to select between cameras at different points of the 'movie'. I'd appreciate it if someone could fill in the blank in my knowledge there.

 

I personally do not use another camera. If I want a different shot I simply move the camera to that second shot. It'll look as though there was a second camera because the frames move so quickly you wouldn't notice that the camera had moved. However, to avoid the premature "sliding/moving", I open up the Timeline window and set the keyframes to "Zero Slope".

 

(2) Keyframes -- I'm guessing when you want the door to stay closed up until point A, you have to set a keyframe at that point? In the above linked video, you'll see that the door starts opening BEFORE the end of the video. So what is it I'm supposed to do -- Do I select the door, then press keyframe, then go to where I want it fully open timewise and then Set another keyframe? Do I do this by pressing the picture of the key while the door bone is clicked?

 

Yup, you have to create a keyframe just before the door opens, otherwise the computer wouldn't know when to open the door.

[rwilkens]

I personally do not use another camera. If I want a different shot I simply move the camera to that second shot. It'll look as though there was a second camera because the frames move so quickly you wouldn't notice that the camera had moved. However, to avoid the premature "sliding/moving", I open up the Timeline window and set the keyframes to "Zero Slope".

 

Ok, I'm not comfortable enough yet with the "Timeline window" to play around with "Zero slope"...

 

Yup, you have to create a keyframe just before the door opens, otherwise the computer wouldn't know when to open the door.

 

Thought so, but wanted to confirm before I got started again.

Thanks Dhar,

Rob

[Dhar]

Ok, I'm not comfortable enough yet with the "Timeline window" to play around with "Zero slope"...

[/color]

 

 

 

In that case, follow the tutorial step by step, be patient and meticulous. It'll tell you when to create a keyframe, and that should work for this excercise.

 

Good luck

[dkarpp]

Name: Douglas Karpp

Exercise Completed: Exercise 6, The Door's Stuck

Date Completed: December 11, 2005

 

[attachmentid=12182]

Ex6.mov

[TeresaNord]

Name: Teresa Nord

Exercise Completed: Exercise 6

Date Completed: 11/25/05

Instructor: A:M Manual

 

Remarks/Suggestions:

Umm, this is my last successful project, right now I'm stuck on Can You Say That. I hope this works, I had a difficult time trying to reduce the file size. I liked this exercise. It would be fun to come through here later when I know the program better and add stuff to it. (different camera views, or play with the lighting)

Sequence_1.mov

[Rodney]

Teresa,

That looks spot on to me.

The size/compression obviously stripped some detail from it but the action is all there.

 

Great job.

Rodney

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Crud... posted to the wrong thread... I'll edit this post when I get the door unstuck

 

Edit:-----------------------------------

 

Name: Jody Krivohlavek

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 6

 

Date Completed: December 28, 2005

 

Instructor: AM Handbook, Video Tutorial and everyone that's ever posted to these forums.

(Been around since the Playmation days)

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

Okay, got this one done. I ran it a bit to long as it is, but I had fun with it.

DoorStuck.mov

[iUberWalrus]

Name: Cameron J. Steele

 

Exercises Complete: Exercises 1-6

 

Date Completed: January 8th, 2006

 

Instructor: None

 

Comments: Messed up the arm a bit after I tweaked something. Positioned the camera so it's not so noticeable.

 

Exercise 6

[rossk]

Name: Ross Klettke

Exercise completed: #6

 

Date completed:1-18-06

 

comments: Return to doing the animation exercises after a somewhat extended time messing with reusable motion.

Comments/critiques would be awesome... especially looking for tips on making Shaggy's attempts to open the door look more forceful. (I kinda cheated out and just made his body move all over the place...)

doorOpen3.mov

[Dhar]

especially looking for tips on making Shaggy's attempts to open the door look more forceful. (I kinda cheated out and just made his body move all over the place...)

 

The exercise is actually made to make Shaggy look like he's forceful in his attempt. After constraining the hands to the knob, all there is left to do is play with the hip and head bones to simulate the use of force.

 

In Shaggy's case, the pulling illusion is accomplished when his arms straighten out fully while his back continues to arch and his head continues to drop back. That's the basic illusion, ,but exaggerating it will make it look believable.

 

Look at other people's exercises and see which one is the most convincing and analyze their work. Or even ask them.

 

Good to see back btw

[rossk]

Thanks for the advice. I redid the pulling door open thing and I think it looks much better this time. Thanks again.

doorOpen4.mov

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Excellent! Very good motion now. The only thing you need to clean up is the constraints on the door knob.

 

My first thought is to chack the channels of the constraints in the timeline and change the interpolation method to 'zero slope' this will get rid of that hand jiggling you have going on.

 

Definitely top notch on the rest of the animation! I really like the angle you took on poor shaggy's problem.

[rossk]

Ah... good catch on the hands slipping around on the knob... I was kinda hopping to get away with it

 

Luckily, it was easily resolved with 2 translate-to constraints.

Thanks for the suggestions and comments.

 

--Ross K

doorOpen5.mov

[Robert-Jank]

Name: Micah Jank

 

Exercises Complete: Exercises 1-6

 

Date Completed: January 21st, 2006

 

Instructor: None

 

 

Commets, Could be slower...it makes it hard to see whats going on.....unfortunatley i dont know how to make it go any slower without having to redo everything....

 

Hey Rodney How can i make my file samller without making my size so small?

THe_door__s_Stuck.mov

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Quick answer here is 'Sorensen 3' compression on 'medium'. If the file is still too big, go down to 'low' setting.

 

I've never had to use the 'least' setting before (unless the clip had sound).

[Robert-Jank]

Sorensen 3??? Is that a type of reselution?

[Atomike]

Mike Dalton

Exercise: 6

Completed: Feb 15th 2006

 

Learned alot on this one.

shag.mov

[Robert-Jank]

nice! almopst looks like he's floating when he moves his feet onto the door

[KenH]

Good one Robert. I'd like to see those extra little touches added. Things like eye blinks. Or the head turning in an arc like motion....rather than rotation on only one axis. Or fingers curled naturally in the neutral position.

[Leo73]

Name: Leo Mitchell

Exercise Completed: # 6 The Door's Stuck

Date Completed: February 16, 2006

Instructor: Manual and forums

Comments: Learned alot from this one as I left this one for last. Finally I am done with the tutorials.

 

 

The Door's Stuck

 

[fybs]

Name: Claudio Ravenstein (fybs)

Exercise completed: 6 The Door’s Stuck!

Date completed: 19. February 2006

Instructor: The book

 

It is strange that for the same render the quicktime file is more then double the size then the windows media player file. And the windows (wmv) file is also a better quality. How come? I edited the sound in Adobe Audition, and rendered the sound together with the video in Adobe Premiere. I tried the whole day to get a better quality within quicktime but without success. I had also problems getting a mono file from Adobe Audition into Animation Master. I thought I render it again together with the audio file in A:M into a Sorensen Quicktime but there was no sound. Here are both files. As I mentioned it, the video and sound quality are better on the windows media file.

 

Fybs.

Stuckdoor.wmv

56KStreamingPal.mov

[Robert-Jank]

Leo, Fybs, Exelent work on those! I would have like to see some more exageration tho...

[Liquidspaceman]

From the Lagoon of Liquidspaceman...

 

 

Ok, Shaggy isn't the only one stuck on this exercise!

 

After looking at all the posts in this thread, I'm still no further along with this project. I find that I need to keyframe each and every frame regarding Shaggys hands. Are others having to do this? Why use constraints? They seem to be such a bother! In one frame, Shaggy's wrist, out from nowhere has a twist in it, ouch! Where did that come from? I have done the constraints properly and I am using the updated Shaggy. What gives?

 

Liquidspaceman, over and out

[Dhar]

Is it possible that you're pulling Shaggy too far away from the doorknob? That would create all sort of crazy things with the constraints. Then again, since I can't see what it is you're talking about, I could be wrong. Some screen caps would help us find out where it is you're having problems.

[stinkyu111]

Name: Stephen Molloy

 

Exercise #6

 

Date: March 07 2006

Door_stuck.zip

[Robert-Jank]

something wrong with his walks there.....Aside form that..it was awsome! I loved his face he did at the end...that was funny.

[Liquidspaceman]

Is it possible that you're pulling Shaggy too far away from the doorknob? That would create all sort of crazy things with the constraints. Then again, since I can't see what it is you're talking about, I could be wrong. Some screen caps would help us find out where it is you're having problems.

 

 

Yes! I extended his arms a lot, to make him look really exaggerated. So I will go back and try it with the joints still touching. I won't use the up/down keys to make his arms longer. Thanks Dhar for your guideness

 

Liquidspaceman, over and out

[stinkyu111]

Robert-Jank Posted Yesterday, 07:39 PM

something wrong with his walks there.....Aside form that..it was awsome! I loved his face he did at the end...that was funny.

 

 

Thanks Robert-Jank....the walk at first was sooo missed up ( feet sliding and the arms where cued on the wrong foot )

 

i hope it looks better now...

 

the quality waas lower so i didn't have to put it in a zipper folder

 

sm

door_stuck3.mov

[Robert-Jank]

Much better the walking doesent have any slippage now!

[bobkoonce]

The last in the section ANYONE CAN ANIMATE to be completed.

 

Name: Bob Koonce

 

ExerciseCompleted:Exercise 6: The Door's Stuck

 

 

Date Completed: 3-12-06

 

 

Instructor: None at this time

 

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: None at this time

 

 

 

Any comments will be appreciated

 

 

 

Thankx,

 

Bob Koonce

[Leo73]

Bob,

 

Overall good job. Some things you might want to watch for is the slipping your character does. He geometry also passes through itself and different points. When I did this one(which I saved for last)I took a layered approach. I would work on separate parts of the body and then when I had what I wanted, I would look at it and tweak as needed. This exercise can be quite difficult, but at the same time can be great fun.

I like how the door pulls him through in the end. Nice touch there. Also, watch the popping of the joints. If you have to go in and add another keyframe to prevent that from happening or you can adjust the ease in and ease out in your timeline.

 

Like I said, Overall good job, (just my opinions though)

 

Leo

[mfortunato]

Hello All -

 

While I have just "completed" Exercise 6, I wouldn't say it is a complete animation. I have had a lot of problems with this which I will describe in the remarks below. But here's the basic details:

 

Name: Michael Fortunato

Exercise Completed: Exercise 6 - The Door Is Stuck (completed exercises 1 - 6 at this point)

Date: 03-22-2006

Instructor: Das Book

Link to animation file: http://www.geocities.com/m_fortunato/Ex6-t...elFortunato.avi

Remarks:

I don't feel the book delves deep enough into the program to successfully complete this exercise. I had to take it upon myself to "play" with the program. Mainly, to learn how to use the timeline tools to move, delete and recreate keyframes to correct a TON of mistakes I made. I'm not saying it hasn't been fun to play with. I did a LOT of tweaking of the timeline to get this animation where it is. As I watch it, I see where I can delete more and tweak some more to fix some weird shaking of shaggy's arms and to fix where his arm and leg intersect each other. The nice thing, is I know how to do this now. But I wish the book had a tutorial to aid me.

 

Another thing I think is lacking in the book is how to link actions and choreography actions. I wanted to originally have Shaggy sit on the ground in frustration and sadness at not being able to open the door and as he sat there, rabbit walks on by, opens the door correctly and walks on through. I created my path, set the rabbit on it, set my walk cycle on the rabbit but couldn't get the walk cycle to repeat enough to complete his trip to the path. Then I couldn't get another action to smoothly happen after he got to the end of the path. I went through the forums to look for help and found a couple of threads on this but after reading them I had no clearer picture on how to accomplish this and unfortunately the A:M Matrix has a beginners section with a tutorial on this, but the link doesn't work anymore. So finally I decided just to have Shaggy figure out that he was trying to open the door incorrectly. This way, I didn't string actions together, I just keyframed every movement, kind of like stop-motion-animation (I felt like Ray Harryhausen ). I wish I could figure out how to string actions together because I really feel that is the bread and butter of computer animation. Creating the repeatable actions and using them in your scene, interspersed with hand or rotoscoped keyframing for non-repeatable actions and just building up in layers, so-to-speak.

 

Last - what the heck is up with his eyes? They want to point in one direction. So I just let them go where they wanted. I felt I had learned enough for now and needed to move on to another exercise because it was becoming obvious that what started out as a lot of fun was quickly turning into tedium and I know it's because I'm so new to the program.

 

So I'm going to move on to the lip sync exercise and then move on to modeling. I will definitely come back to this project because I'd like to fully realize my idea of rabbit walking through the door.

 

Please feel free to comment on the animation and my post. Thanks.

 

- Michael

[Leo73]

Michael,

 

Good job on your animation despite the problems you had. Your right about the linked actions and such. I wish the book would have covered that as well. Make sure to report that link over at A:M Matrix. Maybe they will be able to fix it. I myself, find that I spend more time in the timeline that anything else. It is a great and powerful tool and as you animate more and more you will find all kinds of uses for it. You should check out Anzovin Non Linear Animation CD

On that training cd they talk about blending actions and such. I have it and found it to be a great help. It is a little outdated as far as what version they use in the demos, but the points are still the same.

 

Keep up the good work

 

Leo

[tysono_71]

Hello,

 

I am having difficullty with exercise 6. I have a path which shaggy follows using a walk action I created. I need to transtion from the end of the action to another that will have him reach for the door knob and the complete the rest of the animation. I have found the Add Chor action and I am not sure quite how to get it to transition to the next action. Can anyone give me some pointers on how to do this? I tried searching but either didn't search correctly or didn't find what I was looking for.

 

thanks.

[Leo73]

Tyson,

 

From what I just tried, you want to apply both of your actions. Then select Chor Action and goto the properties window. At the bottom of the properties window you will see the Blend Method. You can choose between Replace, Add or Blend. Choose Blend and you can mess with the Blend Ratio. Also make sure to choose Transition to next action which is right above the Blend Method option. You will have to do some tweaking until you get what you want.

 

Heop that helps

[tysono_71]

Tyson,

 

From what I just tried, you want to apply both of your actions. Then select Chor Action and goto the properties window. At the bottom of the properties window you will see the Blend Method. You can choose between Replace, Add or Blend. Choose Blend and you can mess with the Blend Ratio. Also make sure to choose Transition to next action which is right above the Blend Method option. You will have to do some tweaking until you get what you want.

 

Heop that helps

 

 

So do I change the ratio on both chors or just the new one?

[jbooker]

Name: John Booker

 

Exercise Completed: # 6 The Door's Stuck

 

Date Completed: April 07, 2006

 

Instructor: Manual and forums

 

Comments:[attachmentid=15840]

Ex06John_Booker.mov