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animated cats for research

abbythistlethwaiteabbythistlethwaite Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in Art Studio

Hello!

I'm an ecology and evolutionary biology student at the University of Tennessee and am conducting a research study in regards to how lizards (brown anoles) react to an approaching cat. The study will provide insight into lizard-predator relationships and perhaps most importantly, provide a greater understanding of how prey species are affected by the ever-increasing problem of non-native "feral" cats in an ecological context.

So, that's the rundown of the experiment and this is what I need to conduct it successfully:

A video of a realistic 3D cat that approaches the screen from a distance away. The whole video should be approximately 20 seconds long, as the lizard will need to see the cat from a distance and recognize that it's approaching the lizard as a target. Also, the background needs to be a solid color (perhaps a mid green?). If the cat was sort of "stalking" as it moves towards the screen, that would be perfect! When it reaches the screen, perhaps it could sniff, curl back it's lips, or something else that a cat might do upon investigating a prey item.

That's (almost) all I need! There's a problem called pseudoreplication that people can accuse one of in this type of research. To avoid this, I actually need 3 different videos that are exactly identical with the exception of the color of the cat. The color doesn't really matter, as long as they're natural and different enough from each other.

Any advice and/or assistance with this would be SO VERY GREATLY appreciated!

Cheers!

~ Abby

Comments

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    My advice...get 3 real cats...and film them.

    Without a substantial outlay, 1 minute's worth of that level video won't be cheap, you aren't going to get close enough to 'real' to make it worth it.

  • abbythistlethwaiteabbythistlethwaite Posts: 0
    edited December 2013

    Do you think that Millennium Cat would work for these animations? I can't really use real cats because the movements and video have to be identical for each cat.

    Post edited by abbythistlethwaite on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    No...the MilCat won't work....it doesn't have enough mesh resolution to look 'good', and without one of the hair plugins, it is rather flat and naked, too (using displacement for fur is NOT a good thing for animation), but without 'physics' the curve based fur doesn't animate well, either. To get around both, you need to move into something, at the minimum like Carrara...which does have a decent hair. But then you are still up against the mesh problems...and one of the big ones...not enough detail to show a 'realistic' lip curl.

    So that leaves you with moving up another step to something like Max...then refining the mesh, re-rigging, re-texturing...animating...in other words, up to 'studio level' work...

    I'm betting Wendy (wendy♥catz) will drop in and say something...she's into both animating and cats...

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,289
    edited December 1969

    except mine hardly look realistic!
    I can try to give it a go later but doubt it will look anything but silly like most my videos!

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    You are probably one of the most 'experienced' with the MilCat, Wendy...so, post some footage?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,372
    edited December 1969

    abbythistlethwaite said:
    Do you think that Millennium Cat would work for these animations? I can't really use real cats because the movements and video have to be identical for each cat.

    I think the suggestion was that you film the real cats, doing approximately what you want, and use the best sequence as you are planning to use the animation. But I have to ask - how fast are the lizards' eyes? For a video to work its frame rate has to be high enough to fool the eye into seeing continuous motion, rather than a series of stills - are you sure the lizards will be fooled by a video that will play on your equipment, however it is made?

  • abbythistlethwaiteabbythistlethwaite Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Surprisingly, relatively simple models seem to work fine for this type of experiment. I've attached a link to a paper of a study that was done with pigeons, and the animal animations were actually done in Daz 3D.

    http://pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/ccs/pubs/files/2216-Asen_&_Cook_2012_PS_-_action_categorization.pdf

    I've been messing about with the program myself, but not getting very far. I'm not at all familiar with this type of software!

    Thank you SO much for all of the help/advice thus far!!!

    Cheers!

    ~ Abby

  • abbythistlethwaiteabbythistlethwaite Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    wendy♥catz said:
    except mine hardly look realistic!
    I can try to give it a go later but doubt it will look anything but silly like most my videos!

    Your skills would be IMMENSELY appreciated!!!

  • TjebTjeb Posts: 507
    edited December 1969

    What you had in mind, was probably something like this:

    The second one is MilBigCat, a screen-grab.

    MilBigCat.gif
    264 x 188 - 404K
    milcat.gif
    420 x 383 - 803K
  • abbythistlethwaiteabbythistlethwaite Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    That is almost exactly what I need!

    Does the program let you start the cat from farther back to increase the approach time to 15 or so seconds? I guess the cat would have to stop for about 5 seconds once it reached the "screen" and then walk out of view to the side or something. How much would you charge to do something like that?

  • TjebTjeb Posts: 507
    edited December 1969

    It's now too big to post it here, so here is the link:
    http://youtu.be/gSkTgpqLYkk

    It is crap, I know, but it shows what can be done with a little effort.
    The cat's walk cycle is from 'anymatter'
    I'put four walkcycles after each other.
    I think the walk of the Big Cat is more believeable, but that will cost you $10,-
    You need the Millenium Big Cat or Millenium Big Cat LE for this, here in the store. (don't know the difference, apart from the price)

    Here you can see that in action:
    http://www.es3d.com/sing_bigcat.html

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,289
    edited January 2014

    I did a quickie of my real cat http://youtu.be/Gts44wW0uzQ
    rendering a virtual one now but the fur making it very slow
    hopefully up tomorrow

    c352.png
    1920 x 1080 - 986K
    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,289
    edited January 2014

    uploaded video to youtube
    http://youtu.be/vsHIkkCztXM
    I am uploading the alpha channel png image series to box
    will take a while
    you can use them in cinegobs Keyer or your chromakey video editor of choice to add to a background of your choice

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • TjebTjeb Posts: 507
    edited December 1969

    Sorry Wendy, beat you to it:
    http://youtu.be/9S8ootk78h4

    By the way, check this out, a very well done green screen effect of a cat:
    http://youtu.be/bx2MURGsAHI

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,289
    edited December 1969

    I knew you did but the user can have options since I was asked
    I have the box link up
    https://app.box.com/s/hj4u34ps8pspes6k7foi

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