[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;40089061]I say do your best to get the better lighting working because having it so bright really draws attention to the poor texture quality since everything is so clearly visible.[/QUOTE]
So, I gave alternate lighting a test with the upcoming Episode 5 in the works, still working on getting a little more visibility.
Here is how it looks with the basic sky lighting:
[QUOTE][IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/904070_10151537513063887_1682788420_o.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
This is with Low-Key Lighting, which thus far, might be a tad too dark. *Though probably appropriate for certain scenes that come to mind.*
[QUOTE][IMG]https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/902913_10151537518988887_491387443_o.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/902208_10151537519608887_661191829_o.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Does anyone know of a specific lighting setting I could go with to give shadow definition without it overtaking the scene entirely?
[QUOTE=milkandcooki;40102227]Think you're going to use the Peace Walker models sometime? Would love to see what you could pull off with that.[/QUOTE]
As I had mentioned before, I'm also working on a more action oriented PW series, but because of the amount of mesh it takes to rig each character or texture since import as single typically makes each models' texture look like a Jackson Pollock, getting all of them rigged and ready to go might take a while.
Til then, I just make PW shorts with the models I DO have, like this:
[QUOTE][video=youtube;x74AvCaQq5w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x74AvCaQq5w[/video][/QUOTE]
*Kind of an inside joke for folks who have played Peace Walker.*
Y'know, I'm a very firm believer that constructive criticism is an essential attribute to anything we do, if we ever hope to better ourselves and our work. There's a little step by step I follow when I handle criticism as instructed by screenwriting guru Richard Walter:
1. Shut your trap and listen to what those critiquing your work are saying.
2. Do NOT defend your work. Let them say their piece in peace.
3. Ask for specific examples and specification. Criticism isn't helpful if it's too generic or broad, ask for specification as to why someone felt a certain way, and then ask for a specific example in your work so you can see for yourself what made them feel the way they did.
4. When all is said and done, explain why you did it a certain way if it was intentional or out of your hands, and see if your message was caught or not. For example, "so-and-so wasn't the main bad guy because I wanted to portray the reality of how many of these warlords or terrorists really are just smoke screens and proxies to someone or something else. That a lot of what they do really is an illusion manufactured by the system, etc." Sometimes a message can go over someone's head, and it's very important to make sure that isn't the case. If they did indeed catch it, and it still didn't work, then take that into consideration.
5. Listen to the overall consensus. One person's review; however concise, means little compared to a mass consensus. See if the notes you receive have anything in common, if there is a larger scale problem you should be addressing and so on.
We never want to disregard what someone has to say, if they're legitimately taking the time critique your work in detail.
...That being said, this is not one of those occasions:
[QUOTE][IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a238/BigK7888/AlooSnackbar_zpsf3e1ca36.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
An unfortunate reality is, you're not likely to get much help from youtube and its' 500 character limit. You'll get plenty of ^that however. Which, I suppose, is largely why I rather post these here, since folks here can often provide far more insightful notes than subscribers and viewers alike in the long run, particularly those who are coming from the same place as oneself in terms of work. *IE animators, writers, voice actors, editors, etc.*
One of the wonkier looking problems in my animation pointed out and visually apparent was the way characters walked. *Hence why I cheated camera and just added footsteps when people got closer most times so folks wouldn't have to see, heh.* As dumb as I feel for saying what was clearly a very basic features for Max users, I wasn't aware that shift + drag meant you could copy keyframes on the spot. So every time a character breathed, I animated each and every frame, and did the same for walk animations. One of the reasons it looked bad was because only a few bones were moving, *thighs, calves, feet, and arms.* The thought of adding torso, neck, pelvis, forearms, head and hands to that sounded nightmarish. Then I learned about the cloning keyframes feature, and as a result, the process not only took a fraction of the time, but looked much cleaner and more natural:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAmCqtVO0-s[/url]
Still, the actual animation itself leaves me wondering if the pace is off, or if there are more animations in foot movement I should be adding and so on. If anyone sees anything that is off or should be fixed, I would greatly appreciate knowing how to get it looking proper.
There isn't any vertical bobbing when he walks. As your foot comes downs, your body lowers a bit and then rises after the foot hits the ground and pushes. If you add a bit of that, it'll make the animation look less stiff.
Nice work nonetheless!
[QUOTE=Yogkog;40685061]There isn't any vertical bobbing when he walks. As your foot comes downs, your body lowers a bit and then rises after the foot hits the ground and pushes. If you add a bit of that, it'll make the animation look less stiff.
Nice work nonetheless![/QUOTE]
Thank you kindly for the heads up, I'll be sure to try and add the bounce properly with the foot movement, which might hopefully make it appear less stiff.
However, I suspect I need to work on the timing of the bump up and down of each footstep a little better since at my first attempt, this was the apparent 'groovy' result:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGBe-X7mhUk&feature=youtu.be[/url]
Two things dawned on me as I continue trying to get the walking animations down:
1. I've been using different skeletons for the MPO+ models than I have for the PW models, so if I use the same rotation coordinates, they end up looking like cheap wind-up dolls.
2. Pelvis should rotate the body and cause the lift and root should push the body forward in motion. As it turns out, I've got those two switched up. Which is why attempt two ended up looking like this:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfsiStzWu1I&feature=youtu.be[/url]
I THINK I got the bounce you mentioned down though. Each footstep is 15 frames, with the 7th frame reserved for mid joint movement like bending calves and forearms. I use the 7th frame to lift the pelvis bone by about 0.137 then it falls back to 0 on the first and 15th frame, giving it a subtle lift. Though, I'm unsure if that is visible in this clip due to the camera position / lack of a background.
*It's times like this where I wish I wasn't technologically incompetent, otherwise I'd just use Brekel, Kinect and MotionBuilder combined and call it a day, heh.
Generally the upper body moves in "reverse", as in when the right leg is forward, the left arm is - not the right. And it moves back and forth like that, letting the shoulders sway accordingly.
[QUOTE=Doakes;40680908]One of the wonkier looking problems in my animation pointed out and visually apparent was the way characters walked. *Hence why I cheated camera and just added footsteps when people got closer most times so folks wouldn't have to see, heh.* As dumb as I feel for saying what was clearly a very basic features for Max users, I wasn't aware that shift + drag meant you could copy keyframes on the spot. So every time a character breathed, I animated each and every frame, and did the same for walk animations. One of the reasons it looked bad was because only a few bones were moving, *thighs, calves, feet, and arms.* The thought of adding torso, neck, pelvis, forearms, head and hands to that sounded nightmarish. Then I learned about the cloning keyframes feature, and as a result, the process not only took a fraction of the time, but looked much cleaner and more natural:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAmCqtVO0-s[/url]
Still, the actual animation itself leaves me wondering if the pace is off, or if there are more animations in foot movement I should be adding and so on. If anyone sees anything that is off or should be fixed, I would greatly appreciate knowing how to get it looking proper.[/QUOTE]
Thing of how walking is displacing weight!
Now animate the weight being displaced from one foot to another.
[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;40804526]Generally the upper body moves in "reverse", as in when the right leg is forward, the left arm is - not the right. And it moves back and forth like that, letting the shoulders sway accordingly.[/QUOTE]
To be honest, I thought I was already doing that, but it just dawned on me as I re-watched that video that I was indeed making the arms follow the legs. Thank you kindly for the heads up, I'll be sure to make the arms wave opposite to the legs.
[QUOTE]Thing of how walking is displacing weight!
Now animate the weight being displaced from one foot to another.[/QUOTE]
So I should add some kind of rotation to make it appear as though pressure is being applied to each foot as the step is taken, yes? Would you recommend I do that at the end of the 15 FPS or should I extend the frames outward to make sure the weight is being applied? *I apologize if this seems kind of redundant or mundane to ask, I just need to make certain that I properly know how to animate weight displacement.*
Thank you very much for the information as well!
While I work on fixing my suddenly jihad-tastic computer, I'd just like to congratulate my man David Dixon, who provides the voice of Stone in this video and the series, as he will be providing his augmented vocal goodness to the latest installment in the Deus Ex franchise; Deus Ex: The Fall! Glad to see such a talented and stand up guy movin' on up in the world behind the mic.
So, on the subject of other areas that have room for improvement, I was initially dissuaded from wanting to try to rig any of the faces since none of them have the bone meshes required such as eyeballs, or teeth, etc. However, face vertex editing; while not the CLEANEST method for facial expressions, at the very least gives somewhat of an option for facial expressions, and thus not leaving everything to bobbing heads.
[video=youtube;3mZQAmd_LMI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mZQAmd_LMI&feature=youtu.be[/video]
My question is: would this actually be an improvement from how characters currently do the 'no face moving Syphon Filter 2' method of talking, or does it look too messy without a proper rig behind it?
So as I've been working on the next episode as per notes provided here, I hit a bit of a speed bump. I tried animating tires for rotation, but every time I animate them in max, no matter which direction they're facing, they always go wonky and spin in all directions. Does anyone here know if there's a certain step you need to take before you can animate a tire?
Also, since we're on the subject of vehicle animation:
[video=youtube;lUeE7JrIM4I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUeE7JrIM4I[/video]
*I apologize in advance if that was glaringly stupid in an unfunny way.*
Okay, so I'm shooting to have the next one done within the next two or so weeks.
This is a rough cut of the opening, in accordance with many of the suggestions you guys made, which I appreciated immensely. If there's any other technical notes, I'm more than grateful to hear them:
[video=youtube;E5QhqTo-8oo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5QhqTo-8oo&feature=youtu.be[/video]
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