Weekly Carrara Animation Challenge #2 "SLIDE" or "SLIP" Closes April 4
mmoir
Posts: 821
Hey guys,
Here is the new weekly animation challenge , the response to the first challenge was awesome.
Rules
1. Animation should be based on the theme “Slide” or "Slip". 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.)
7. If you want you can post your carrara file so others can download and learn from the file.
Have fun with this.
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Comments
going to think on this one - lots of ideas :ohh:
Lunch time.
I remember several years ago when Ford did an ad with their Mustang sliding through water at night in slow motion. Thought it would be fun to try.
The movie is here: https://youtu.be/g-NwCawqc2Q
The .car file is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3xg7mp2qjem8tg/slide2b.car?dl=0
I used the absolutely horrible Carrara stock model "80s Coupe" and changed the textures and added smoothing to the geometry so it might look at least a little better...
There are some shader tricks in the particle generators if you are unfamiliar with the Particle shader node. Well, actually, there are a bunch of tricks in the file. Have fun!
So cool! Looks just as I remember the commercial looking - even the same slow-mo speed! Great job, Mark!
Thanks for sharing!
That looks cool Mark, when I chose "slide" as the theme this came to mind. Great job.
Drunk - no way
https://youtu.be/xNZVmkX5aHw
Don't move that dial
https://youtu.be/VA_vc6WxnL0?list=UUSDQPl5q0QoWh0fIj9dXMpg
Bigh,
Great , good stuff on the drunk guy.
Here is my "slide" animation and carrara file ,nothing special in the file. The hill should be bigger and I could fix a bunch of things but for the time I spent on it I am happy with it.
Video Ski Jumping Olympic style
http://youtu.be/ytpbvruXFQY
File
http://www.mediafire.com/download/nevv9t9osl6y5bj/SlideChallenge2.zip
thank you !
Fun entries!
Ummmm.... Her hands slipped off her chest?
Anyway, my first attempt at using Genesis 2. Why do we not see more done with the pectoral bones?!?
If interested a clip I made of the animation. Uses Genesis 2 Female, and I think the character is the supermodel preset. I did increase the bust for obvious reasons. ;-)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7370483/Genesis2-jiggleClip.cbr
Awesome job, folks!
bigh - I love your dinomations... always have! :) Drunken dude is cool too!
mmoir - very cool!
evilproducer - here's to making yourself hot and steamy! ;) :ahhh:
Mark Bremmer - as I've said before, I think you nailed this one! Awesome!!!
My second ever attempt. Still in the "ugh" stage. I definitely need to budget a LOT more time if I attempt an animation. This is unfinished, but I want to show interest. You can see where I was trying to go, anyway. There just isn't as much time to edit as for stills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz3WZm0SM6g&feature=youtu.be
Hey, that's not bad. It's learning, and learning can be fun!
That was fun! Love the concept.
There are two things that make animation much easier: 1) Start animating with key frames only at significant 'key' points and then finesse in between the keys, and 2) Use a Target Helper Object (known as a Null in other 3d packages) with a Point-At Behavior/Modifier for the camera. That way camera movement is much smoother.
Oh, as a last thing, Carrara defaults the Tweens (the space between the key frames in the timeline) as Linear which leads to very abrupt changes. You can adjust the easing in and out or change them to a bezier to make things flow better.
Looking forward to seeing more!
Also, to prevent unwanted movement before a ky, such as Jessica Rabbit starting to move to early, use a Discrete tweener before the movement starts.
That was fun! Love the concept.
There are two things that make animation much easier: 1) Start animating with key frames only at significant 'key' points and then finesse in between the keys, and 2) Use a Target Helper Object (known as a Null in other 3d packages) with a Point-At Behavior/Modifier for the camera. That way camera movement is much smoother.
Oh, as a last thing, Carrara defaults the Tweens (the space between the key frames in the timeline) as Linear which leads to very abrupt changes. You can adjust the easing in and out or change them to a bezier to make things flow better.
Looking forward to seeing more!
Ah, a target helper! That would have improved things a lot. Thanks. Lots more to learn.
Hey, that's not bad. It's learning, and learning can be fun!
Its pretty bad, but I've never minded showing my beginner's stuff because LEARNING IS FUN (yes, you are correct, and I am shouting).
Just found the storyboard room. Whoah, forgot that even existed. Lots more to explore.
If it helps, here are some things that I often use or do:
- Use more than one camera per saved animation -
I do this so that I can switch back and forth between them in the final cut if I need to remove unwanted frames. It also adds drama to any shot.
- In designing my animations, I always start simple and try to keep them short -
Maybe a second or three... I imagine (or act out, etc.,) the timing of the action. If it takes a second, a second it is. If it's two or three, etc.,
Create the first and last poses, and time out where any changes in between should belong, and add those next, starting from the last change and working toward the beginning most of the time, even though they may not be done in order. But there's almost always a final change in pose before the final, and I try to make that the third pose I work on. After that, I might go back and make the second change after the first as my fourth pose to make it easier to figure out what needs to be done in between.
- A Camera in Motion -
I always like to have my actual render cameras set in motion. Sometimes it's incredibly subtle. But it's always very helpful to also set up at least one stationary camera to test render the actual action of the animation.
- Test Renders are everything -
I've spent the first several years of my time in Carrara just shooting animated test renders to check the results of my actions. Like everything else, we learn best from mistakes, so I would put together a pile of tests and batch queue them. My naming conventions for my renders told me which attempt it was, and they were all saved to the same folder as the actual CAR file of the animation, so I knew where I was when I was viewing them. Sometimes I'd have to wait a few days before I could actually see the results of my batched renders. work, work, work! I'd love to get some sort of grant that allowed my to just spend my days doing my own thing here! LOL
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Diomede, Love the test render! Great job on the toon look and the animation part is getting there nicely! You'll get it down! I think that we can all see that you know what you want the outcome to be... now all it takes is to keep trying tweener changes and other tweaks to fine tune everything... Sweet!
When Dart talks about multiple cameras in a scene he is spot on. One thing it does is save time. If you have gone through the intricate process of animating a character, lighting it and so on, the last thing you want to do is set it up multiple times.
My Black Hole video used several cameras moving in the scene and following different parts of the action in many sequences. I also made heavy use of compositing layers of animations. Maybe not as complicated or refined as Joe would produce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS-sNje4k0o
I also used multiple cameras in Dystopia fly through. I think eight of them. This video was an experiment in using Motion Paths, so being able to edit around the rough spots was essential. It also gave me more options to lengthen the video by cutting and reusing clips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBX28ZsaVUg
My jiggly A3 video also used multiple cameras. The different angles helped to illustrate- umm... stuff.... And...uh... lengthen -er-stretch- make the video take more time. :red:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkWBRuJlQhA
Thanks for the tips, everyone. Am I right in assuming that you are using another program to switch camera angles by combining two separate renders? Or, can the render camera be changed in the middle of an animation?
For anyone feeling nostalgic, here are some examples of Tex Avery's toons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXcWQrhzlMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtcJ7gvJP0Q
You must make two separate renders with the same scene.
Yep. It can be cheap or free if all you are doing is stringing together clips. If you render to an image sequence, the software will need to be able to compile them. I think Windows comes with Moviemaker? Not sure how it does, but that may be a simple and cheap way to edit clips.
To actually render multiple cameras from the same scene, I use the Batch Queue and load the same scene multiple times, once for each camera. I then go through and do three things:
1) Make sure each instance of the scene in the queue has the correct camera selected for the output.
2) Make sure each output render has a unique name, otherwise the default name of the render could overwrite the other files, or stop the queue after the first one in the list is done, until you answer Carrara if you want to overwrite the file.
3) Find something else to do while all that stuff renders. Which is why step #2 is important. I hate to go to bed, wake up in the morning (or if weekend, early afternoon ;-) ) and see that Carrara has stopped rendering until I can tell it what to do.
Ah, a target helper! That would have improved things a lot. Thanks. Lots more to learn.
Ask me about Target Helpers! Ask!
I l-o-o-o-v-e Target helpers!
But, what about target helpers? :cheese:
Put a figure of choice in a scene. Place a target helper in the scene. You can use the effects tab to scale it down or change its color. Move the helper to around the right or left foot ankle joint and center it as best you can. Now, in the figure's hierarchy, find the foot bone of the figure and under modifiers, select the option to use IK tracking and select the target helper. I usually disable the option to track orientation, although it can come in hand sometimes.
I did notice that Genesis didn't have the modifier, so I added it. I'm used to working with V4's rig.
Now that you are tracking the target with the foot, grab the hip bone and drag it. Notice the foot stays locked to the floor? If you exceed the constraints of the figure or move the hip a long way from the original position, the figure tries to track the helper, but the foot will probably not stay completely locked.
For better control, set one up for the other foot.
This method also comes in handy just because with a target help, you have a bigger handle.
They're great for the eyes to. Have them each track a target for easy movement or to look as if the figure is watching something. My recent 'toon style video uses target for the eyes. It also uses them for the feet and the the right hand grasping the handle. The handle turning down is what drives the hand and arm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd6XKMB5Cv8
Darn near this entire animation is driven by IK tracking and target helpers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5mq9Sdpwc
More Fun with Soft Body Dynamics
The wave was made just the same way you used to makes waves with your bed sheets as a kid.
https://youtu.be/ci4Vf8sCbYs
Nice animation and very challenging.concept .
Thanks mmoir.
Very cool. I'll be playing around with that stuff soon. Not sure when though.