Weekly Carrara Animation challenge.#1 Theme Fast. Ends March 28 2015
mmoir
Posts: 821
Hey guys,
I am starting a new challenge thread here which I hope will get people animating in Carrara , there are very few rules and hopefully lots of fun to join.
Rules
1. Animation should be based on the theme "Fast" . Whatever this means to you.
2. Animation length . No longer than 10 seconds.
3. Animated with Carrara as the main tool.
4. Feel free to ask for help if you run into problems, this is supposed to be a learning tool to improve your animation/Carrara skills.
5. If you need a simple model , just ask . Someone might just model it for you.
5. You have 1 week to finish your animation.
6. Post your animation to your preferred site (youtube, vimeo etc.)
Have fun and I will post my animation within a couple of days.
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Comments
Anybody have any idea how to animate a four legged animal walking? I Googled 4 legged walk cycles and just got more confused - all I found was animated examples that move too fast to follow.
This is my first attempt ever at animation and I can get the animal to move from point to point with it's legs waving wildly but it looks like it's flying. :(
Sadly, no matter how matter how many times I set my cat in the middle of the room and tell it to walk slowly while I take pictures, it just refuses to cooperate.
You picked a very difficult thing to do for your first ever animation.;-) I would hunt for a youtube video of a cat walking in slowmotion and try to copy the motion from there.
Do you want it running or walking?
This famous series of photos may help.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muybridge_race_horse_gallop.jpg
This one has some animated sequences, including jumps.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Horse_gait
We have a specialist for that in this forum !
An exemple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqcyDA2L5L0
Thank you all! This is all awesomely useful stuff. :)
Here's my first draft: http://youtu.be/xx12z4artQI
Obviously needs some work - I'll go through all the links provided and take some notes. :)
Mark
Nice idea , and I like the music too.
Thanks. What could be more techno than a snail. :)
I'll probably keep playing with the tortoise during the week - it's still kind of gliding but I think just pushing it down a little might mostly fix that. Just in case I don't get to it, here's my current version: http://youtu.be/U87AVo0FgnE
I notice that in the Sequencer there are spots for a multi-channel soundtrack - does anyone know how that works? I can add channels but can't seem to load any actual audio clips. I ended up using a free trial of Corel VideoStudio to add the sound.
Mark
Awesome! Love that quote bubble!!!
I'm in! ;)
See you back here soooon. I hope :ahhh:
Thanks. What could be more techno than a snail. :)
I'll probably keep playing with the tortoise during the week - it's still kind of gliding but I think just pushing it down a little might mostly fix that. Just in case I don't get to it, here's my current version: http://youtu.be/U87AVo0FgnE
I notice that in the Sequencer there are spots for a multi-channel soundtrack - does anyone know how that works? I can add channels but can't seem to load any actual audio clips. I ended up using a free trial of Corel VideoStudio to add the sound.
Mark
Carrara is pretty picky about sound files. What is the format you are trying to load?
Nice job so far! I love the little swear/bleep at the end.
If it helps with the dreaded moon-walk look, I will use the grid as a reference and watch to see that the feet/foot that is on the ground keeps its spot relative to the grid lines. This really helps if the walk cycle is created as a stationary cycle. I just select the whole figure group and move it.
MDO2010,
For your first try at animating you did a superb job. Everything is well put together and the animation tells the story well. Congrats .
I think the file format Carrara accepts for audio tracks is wav files and you can get .wav files out of corel videostudio by exporting your sound recordings.
My animation is similar to yours in many ways, I will upload it shortly.
Week 1 - Jello from Hell :roll:
https://youtu.be/vEsqERgvWeI
Here is my "Fast" animation ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFVCN_O7P4Q
There is a "sound" tab a couple of tabs over from the Instances tab on the right side of the screen. If you open the Sound tab you can Add sound clips to the sound tab and then drag the clips onto the audio channel in the sequencer. Note: Carrara will only playback 1 audio track at a time, when you do the final render the animation will play multiple soundtracks at once.
Thanks. What could be more techno than a snail. :)
I'll probably keep playing with the tortoise during the week - it's still kind of gliding but I think just pushing it down a little might mostly fix that. Just in case I don't get to it, here's my current version: http://youtu.be/U87AVo0FgnE
I notice that in the Sequencer there are spots for a multi-channel soundtrack - does anyone know how that works? I can add channels but can't seem to load any actual audio clips. I ended up using a free trial of Corel VideoStudio to add the sound.
Mark
When I'm key framing character movement animations, the first things I work on sorting out, as I hint to the beginnings of in my Cafe article: Carranimation: The Rotation of the Hip, are the hip joint down through the toes on each foot - which are four in your case.
So initially, I work out where the hip needs to be at the beginning and the end of the animation - and I always keep each actual animation very short in the timeline, and just make more animations to complete a whole range of what that character is doing - often using the end of one animation save as the beginning of the next. So for each of these short strings I try to:
- Animate the hip -
The whole body's translation from left to right, front to back, and up to down should be done via the hip. This is because it is the main root of the model in most cases - certainly yours and mine. So here's what I do for the hip:
I like to imagine and then create the entire figure pose for the first and last frames. This gives me a starting point of how far the character has to move, which direction it is facing, and, most importantly to me, what the feet are doing and where they need to be. If the character needs to be crouched down, I might begin by shaping the leg joints right away, so I "see" the right body shape for the pose, simply because I need to know where to put the hip. So the up and down and overall rotation have a lot to do with being where it needs to be for the legs and feet, but also, I have to keep in mind what I need the torso to be doing. Do I want the abdomen bent forward or twisted? I need to be sure that the pose is balanced according to the momentum, or lack there of, of the motion of the animation. The last frame is important too because it is the final resting place of the motion - even if it is meant to end at the beginning of a continuation of the motion, in which case I often dummy-in a placeholder location for the hip further down, how the continuing motion should be run.
I've mentioned a few other joints so far, but only because I need them. I need to keep them in mind, and even spend some time shaping their positions, but only for the reason, at this point, of placing the hip. I need the beginning and the end sorted out right away so that I can see the flow of movement and often the movement will require some intermediate actions to create the right needs of sorting this all out. Like if the character is going up and back down, spinning*, etc., where just the beginning and the end are just not painting out a good enough sense of timing and movement - I'll go ahead and tween in my own intermediary positions, if not the entire, complete poses - but, again, just for the sake of where the hip needs to be.
After proceeding through the rest, I go back to the hip for the beginnings of each tween pose I need to create.
- Using the Grid and/or other Targets -
Now I use the grid or other targets to get the toes placed and pointed where they should be to keep them from sliding incorrectly. For example, if I am working out a run, the feet get aimed forward to their target location until they finally hit and become planted to the ground where they must remain until they get an opportunity to break loose from whatever friction they have against whatever surface they're on. After the foot pushes the body forward and leaves the ground, it will be pointing at where it just came from for a frame or three and continue on in it's recoil while the other leg does the anti-gravity work.
Bezier curve tweeners will drive you absolutely bonkers if you want to try to prevent moonwalk foot-slide - and you MUST prevent moonwalk foot-slide! Instead, use "Linear" as your choice of tweener - at least for the legs and feet.
Follow the movement of the hip.
Since the Hip is already in motion, go to the next logical point along the timeline (from the beginning, moving forward) and work out the pose. If you haven't done the hip yet, do that first. For walking, running, and most other forward motions requiring the legs to work opposite each other against gravity, keep this, most important thing in mind as you work: The Hip Has To Rotate, Being The Motivator - The Engine of the Movement In Question
Whenever the legs are animated before the hip, the animator would have to start all over again on the legs if the hip rotation was forgotten. So they often decide wrongly to simply avoid fixing it. Don't get caught into that nightmare. Start with the Rotation of the Hip, then shape the legs and feet and, perhaps, work on the hip some more, and its relationship with the rest of the body.
Now that the hip is where it should be between two near points in time, go back and forth between those two points in time and shape the pose of the legs and feet, keeping considerate of the initial pose of them - where they're located and how they're posed: How should they be posed now? That is the question that your next pose will answer. How smoothly they move (or not) between those two points in time will reveal how well of a job you've done - even if it is clear that more work will be necessary, as t often is.
Use the grid and/or any sort of identifier to keep the feet planted as they should be during the phase where they must be planted to the ground. As a helpful hint, I seldom do this by selecting the foot and moving it, forcing the changing of the leg joints. If you have a long way to move the foot, this might be a decent helper to get started, but I still recommend starting from the hip and working down. This requires a good focus of what the entire leg is doing. I prefer to finish one legs, then move to the other for each point in time. In doing this, I'm certain to not have any surprise twists of any of the joints - which is important. Sometimes relying on IK can actually make more work for a good, believable set of motions simply because of awkward twists where we don't need (or want) them.
- Follow Through Motions -
Be sure to pose some follow through after and major job that a limb must perform. Walking requires a lot less follow through after each leg pushes the body forward, keeping it from falling, as running would. Forgetting to add follow through for your motions will quickly make them look incomplete.
- Tweak -
Don't give in and call it a day if you know that you're not happy with it. Do a test render of the animation and figure out what you don't like and fix it. Timing can be a big one. Sometimes it's not the actual motion that isn't right, but the time it takes to perform or perhaps even just the timing between one or more of the sequences within. If you want to test a theory, just save your work and make your changes and save as a new name. Do this a lot so you always have a spot to go back to. Now grab some keyframes in the timeline and drag them right or left to change the timing within the animation, or you can select them all and hold down the Ctrl key and then drag right or left to either stretch the whole thing longer or shrink it to be shorter. Holding Alt allows us to copy as we drag, paste where we release the mouse.
Have fun and ask questions! Carranimation is fun! Be a CarraTor!!! :ahhh:
wow..
I have never done or attempted any animation at all... I don't even know where to start..
what a challenge this will be for me!
I did one lol :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0b1YNdGCw
good for you !
And I expected to see you with a bird in your hand and a top hat for your avatar! ;-)
Nice job! Motion path?
That will have also been interesting for something : who is behind the avatar “Stezza”...
Good start Dave !
I was inspired to try and write with a particle emitter in this thread:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54224/
Then I thought, what was a fast way to communicate and store ideas before the advent of video and voice recorders? Before the computer or typewriter? Before the printing press? Writing of course! Probably the most important technological human invention after learning how to start and control fire. Arguably more important to developing societies than the the wheel.
So, what did I write? "Fast" of course! Had to keep with the theme after all. ;-)
Anyway, I'm making the files available for everybody to look at, tear apart or improve. If you do improve the look or performance, please share that with all of us! There are two .car files. One has the image map that I used as a template to animate the emitters. The other file uses no template and is a blank paper. I used several emitters as I couldn't keyframe multiple start and stop times for an individual emitter.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7370483/emitter-writing.zip
The video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmQySueK00c
That's very cool Evil! :)
If you're getting bored with hair, I'd be interested in seeing what you can do with a particle emitter or two!
Some great animations guys, nice to see some people animating for the first time.
It really is, I agree! :)
And it should help to show how incredibly easy it can be to make any kind of moving images via Carrara.
Here's the thing, once you begin to delve into Carrara from an animation point of view, you'll start to see why I'm so incredibly excited to own it! Perhaps you've already noticed some of the animation tools built into this and that all over, but if you weren't creating animations, chances are you couldn't actually appreciate that those features are there and, even more so, how much time it saves by having those simple parameters to set and use! You might start animating what modifiers do, like changing the parameters of the wave or ripple as your ducks move, the wheels start and stop on a car or bicycle, the flickering of flames... there's a lot of really fun animation assistance built right into the interface!
Anyways... I'm glad to see this too! Cools works, my friends... very cool!
And I expected to see you with a bird in your hand and a top hat for your avatar! ;-)
Nice job! Motion path?
I have no idea what I was doing with that.. lol
took about an hour to get things to stay where they should and not disappear when clicking in the timeline
beam me up Scotty!
thanks Dudu ;-)
There's a lot going on in this. Please keep in mind that, like I'm always saying, I spend most of my Carrara time building stages for just this sort of thing, so that I never have to begin an animation project from scratch. I also save vehicles with working lights (I can turn them on and off) and fully optimized characters along with various costumes for them to wear. In addition, I have had a LOT of practice animating in Carrara using key frame animation combined with aniMation files I've purchased. This one uses a run-and-jump from GoFigure, but the rest I did by hand, as well as hand-tweaks on the imported aniBlock, so... If this is considered to be unfair in such a challenge, I would totally agree - but I had this couple of days to get this done, so I used one of my stages as a starting point. I just had to animate the Dartan character, jumping off the roof, catching the speeding probe, and holding on for dear life, as well as the probe itself and a few vehicles. The people are all using NLA clips that I had saved and I only added them to fill out the scene. The guy who gets startled as we run past him with the camera is using an imported aniBlock.
I can see that it needs a lot of work to actually make it into something worth keeping, but I'm not going to have the time to fix it. I also didn't have time to work with any of the (four) renders in Howler, so these are straight out of Carrara and into Sony Movie HD to stitch them together. So I did take a screenie of it in Media Player and applied a bit of Howler to that for the poster below - again... no time to really play with it! LOL
I've noticed that, in YouTube, it shows 11 seconds. In Sony HD, it was just over 8 seconds. Hmmm....
FAST - by Dartanbeck
Actually part of an idea I've been kicking around. The stage is built using Coflec-Gnorg's Sci-Fi Streets (renderosity) construction kit, which I find to be outstanding, but it all comes in bits and pieces so it took a long time to build this scene and get the shaders and lighting to where it is now - something I did a long time ago. It is set up as part of a location that will be frequented in my production stuff I've been working on and has only been visited once since I've put it together way back before I made my "Just for Fun" video, which features this scene for a few seconds.
I really like how the timing went together on this, and intend to revisit the save at a later date and fix the issues I have with it. Even if this one doesn't count, I sure had fun putting this together - I haven't had hardly any Carrara time over the past couple years and that is truly killing me! I hope to make a full return very soon... like, this April.
Dart, that's awesome!
better than awesome, it's dartsome!!