Comp 17 ****(Exaggerated Motion/Emotion)****

[BiG ToE-3DT]

_Over Exaggerate_


The idea,
Alrighty then, this is a 3 weeker, I think. I want all of you to think of a motion, or an emotion that seems to get over exaggerated every time. Ok, now animate it. This can be as simple as a big burp, a colon-cleansing fart, or just a sneeze. Use props if you need/want to. If you want, add music. Have fun with it. If you don’t have a character to animate, you can find one on the net(let us know you didn’t model it). One last thing, after the animation, let everyone know what it was you where aiming for. After, not before.
_Rules_

- The due date is December 3rd, (three weeks from now) a Sunday 12 midnight (GMT). Voting will be on that following week. Post your final entries in the Final Entry Thread.

- Minimum animation: your animation needs to have one (1) emotion, over exaggerated
-
- Recommended screen resolution in 320x240 (you can do 640x480 if you want, but why would you).

- You can post W.I.P.s but you are only allowed one complete entry. That link is also final. You can and should post your wip’s to get help.

- Websites where you post your finals is up to you.

- Remember, it's about animation, use your time for animation, not to get the best render possible, unless you can afford it.

- Use of plug-ins not allowed. Must be key framed (hand animated)

- Try to use QuickTime. It will allow everyone to view your hard work, plus it gives everyone the chance to go through your animation frame by frame to see how you did what you did

- You must post a render of some sort with your final entry post; also include a screen grab with key frames.

- Voting will be as follows -
- Vote on what best displays the emotion -

First place (3) points
Second place (2) points
Third place (1) points



Good luck!


BiG ToE

[DerekSc]

Thanks for unleashing this so quickly BiG ToE, I'm looking forward to getting started (my weekends are Wednesdays and Thursdays). There were a lot of great entries in the last competition, I'm anticipating some fun ones for this one too.

[Diabolos]

..........and now on to rigging :ugh: I'll be going for "Exaggerated Motion"

D,

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/diabolosgermany/Spidey01.jpg

[BiG ToE-3DT]

the way the idea thread is going Diabolos, you will want to hold on to him, for the next comp.

Another thing, why is he floating. I understand he is a bad guy, but when did he start ooozing bad vibes to the point that it made him fly. Or, is there a web holding him up that I just can't see.

[Diabolos]

Another thing, why is he floating. I understand he is a bad guy, but when did he start ooozing bad vibes to the point that it made him fly. Or, is there a web holding him up that I just can't see.

hardy har har - matey: that was just a quick render - no beauty shot.......meanie. :grr:

D,

I have other worries, like how am I going to get him rigged and weighted (phew - weighting - never done that before) correctly after all of that hard work - but I finally want my own model and rig to use.............

[DerekSc]

Fortunately, Maya tends to weight simple bodies pretty well by default (simple as in nothing sticking out all over the place), so you shouldn't have to mess with the weights all that much. See how the model moves after you skin it and tweak the weights after that. If you run into trouble, don't hesitate to post it here and someone can help you out.

[ItsaMystery]

I know a little bit of rigging (and quite enjoy it actually). If you need any help, send me a message/email and I can do my best to help. :wave:

[Diabolos]

thanks guys, for the support :smug: ! I'll post an update and questions on Saturday if you are around..........

D,

[Diabolos]

skinning sucks

[BiG ToE-3DT]

show us the problems D, I wanna help you, so help me, help you.

[KL-Maverick]

Skinning is tedious but I like it. Takes some time to get to grips with, but you'll get there!

Interesting topic!

[Diabolos]

show us the problems D, I wanna help you, so help me, help you.

thanks - I'll post some sreenie's tomorrow.

D,

[KVachon]

:dance: Hello! After being gone for a few months, I came back and saw this challenge. I love the idea! and would love to join.

I have only done speed model challenges before, so i bet this will be fun, having 3 weeks and all...

One question tho. I dont have a model to use right now. Any suggestions on sites to find one?

Thanks in advance

KVachon

[BiG ToE-3DT]

what program are you using, there is a animation links and what not thread that has links to riggs, most are for maya, but I think there is one for max.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

alrighty then, I'm finishing up work on a character for a comp, after I rigg him, I will start animating.

So, who's coming with me. Don't worry, I'm not just gonna flip out, if no one shows up for this one.

[DerekSc]

Already working on it, got my gag planned out, the set is done, and things are in motion. Oh, and Hero Joe has a new cape (new and improved, now with blend shapes!).
Things have been a little quiet in here lately, hopefully that means everyone is hard at work on their animations! ;)

[BiG ToE-3DT]

yeah animations are harder to show works in progress, they take longer to make and to post on a site.

[DerekSc]

So, what's happening here? Is it me, Big ToE, and Diabolos in this time and that's it?
Itsa, Vachon, Maverick? Any of you in this as well?
Voting will be strange for the competitors if it is just the three of us.
What happened to all the people who were in an uproar to get these challenges started again?!?!
Come on guys, it's not the holidays yet, step up and try something!

[BiG ToE-3DT]

and here I am about to start up the final entry thread, and no wants to enter. I guess it's just you and me Derek. I think Diabolos is a bit busy with a giant right now.


If I don't hear anything from other members by saturday, we can just pot our final stuff in here. It will save space, plus that way we wont have to vote, and I wont have to lose.

[DerekSc]

I'm not sure why these challenges aren't getting more people involved, like the Low Poly contest. I don't know if it's the difficulty level, subject matter, or what.
BT, perhaps you could have a poll based on the suggestions from the ideas thread, like you do in the Low Poly comps? Have varying subjects and difficulty levels and we'll see what people want to do. What do you think?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Yes, I was thinking about that the other day. It's not right that I pick what WE do, WE should pick what WE do.

I'll let this one run to the end, then next week I'll put up a poll of ideas to vote on.

That means anyone reading this that wants to animate something, toss your ideas in the idea thread, then you and your buddies need to stop by next week to vote.

[ItsaMystery]

Gah, I find myself getting into this perpetual cycle of getting really excited for a comp, start working on it, then get busy with school work and recently college apps. -____-'

Maybe I'll pull through in the last minute and make something, but I'm a little skeptical. *is lame* :lame:

[ItsaMystery]

In my opinion, animating something well is really hard...much more so than modeling something. Granted, there are many intracacies to modeling (especially organic forms and humans), but sometimes the minor details can be fudged or hidden by textures. With animation, it's almost immediately evident if something is slightly off. Perhaps it is this difficulty that makes other users less interested in animating, and so they gravitate to modeling instead...? Or perhaps it's just coincidental that the demographics of this forum are such that the majority of people prefer modeling to animation. Hmm...

Perhaps something slightly new would be interesting...like a communal project. One person could model a character, then pass it off to another person to rig it, then pass that off to another person to animate one or two idle/game poses (similar to the previous comp). Then, if we finish by a certain date, we all win...or something. ;P

Obviously, the variation in software programs and versions could pose problematic, but maybe we could team up by software, or export everything as an .obj file so we can pass it off to someone who's using a different program...Hmm, there are a few things that would have to be ironed out first, but conceptually I think it'd be kinda cool. ;P

[DerekSc]

Hey Itsa, good to see you.
I agree, animating something well is really hard, but the more we try to do the hard stuff, the better we will be at it (and faster). Just doing something simple, but trying to get it right on is great practice (remember, practice does NOT make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect). Similar to modeling, eventually we all find our own ways of doing things and tricks to get better, but we have to keep doing it to find these tricks and techniques. The animation turning point for me was when I met someone who constantly had a video camera with him so he could get animation references when he needed them. It made me realize "wait, I won't model something until I've had a good look at a couple of pictures of it, why aren't I doing the same thing for animation?". I did something about a year and a half ago that just disgusts me cause I didn't do that, and it came out like crap (after a lot of effort). Oh, and we can hide things like the modelers do, we use the camera angle to do that for us. :)

I like your ideas for the group thing as well, but I don't know if they would fit in this challenge or if it would be something we'd start in the main discussion area. If we wanted to keep it in the animation realm, we could do a group thing where we are all responsable for one character in a scene to animate, and each one has a specific action to do. Maybe one scene for the Maya people, one for the Max people, we block out what is happening in the scene, and then at the end of it someone combines all our files together. Ex: a street scene with someone walking a dog, someone arguing on a cell phone, a cop writing a ticket, a store owner sweeping the sidewalk, a drunk guy stumbling home from the pub, etc... The characters all play a part in the scene as a whole, but if someone does not finish it won't put a void in the scene. Someone would have to do the initial scene setup (ex: street, bar, gym, etc...), but we could perhaps convince the speed or low poly modelers to do this (or just put a shout out in those forums asking for someone to volunteer). I'd be willing to compile the Maya scene in the end, if we want to try this at some point.

Just a few thoughts there. Comments anyone?

[Mikademius]

Reference = king! ALWAYS!!!!

As for me I do not have the time right now. If I was going to contribute here I'd have to work between 00 and 08. Sorry to seem selfish, but I prefer sleeping ;)

[ItsaMystery]

I like your expansion on the initial ideas. Perhaps if we're to continue discussing this, we should take it to a separate forum? I'd be up for something like that for sure =)

In terms of the anim comp though, I guess I find myself faced with a hurdle, as other animators possibly find as well. I start very excited for the competition and start animating one evening, but then I have to put it down to do other work or sleep. When I log back onto the Threedy forums, I get semi inspired to continue working on the anim, but then realize I have other work and such that needs to be done, so I find myself distracted with work and the like. Then of course I'd want to talk to friends when I'm finished with work, so I don't allocate any time to animate.

I think once I (and others) can just stick to it and force myself to finish an animation, it will start to get over that small hurdle, and it will be easier for me to do future competitions, since I'll feel more motivated to do them knowing that I've already completed one so far.

Maybe it's just me and I'm trying to make excuses/explain myself, but I just thought I'd put it out there as another guess for the lack (for lack of a better word; no pun intended) of participation recently.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

not to get off topic, but here is my wip. Keep in mind that all I animated was the legs/feet, and that's not done yet.

http://media.putfile.com/Test-36-99

[BiG ToE-3DT]

just about finished with this, doing some fancy renders for the ole portfolio, but I feel the final movie will be a clean quick preview. I'll even make it a mov, for all you guys, stuck using an apple.

[ItsaMystery]

Hey, I had a choice to get a Mac. I'm glad I made the right choice. ;P

[BiG ToE-3DT]

are you trying to say that people who own a Mac are smarter and don't get any comps done, or are you saying PC owners just rock.

I think, you think it's, "PC owners, ROCK". Right, right...

[Scrub]

Hey Big Toe, I just saw the pimp animation, good work, and it made me laugh.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Thanks Scrub, hope to see you in the next challenge.

Now for the goods, I'm done.
Ok, let me explain myself real quick, I was trying something new with my rigg. I mainly go with a 2 bone setup for the legs to give that nice bend at the knee, but this time I went for 6 bones. It gave that cartoony bend that I was looking for, that fit the personality of this character. Which is a smooth talking, smooth walk, Ladies Man.

First Render:
http://media.putfile.com/done-1

Second Render, different angel:
http://media.putfile.com/done-2

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/DJBiGToE/Portfolio/052.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g129/DJBiGToE/keyframes-4.jpg

[ItsaMystery]

are you trying to say that people who own a Mac are smarter
Yup.

Is this still be considered a real comp, or are people just submitting stuff for fun at this point?

I ask because I'm going out tonight to celebrate birthday-ness for my brother, so I won't get the chance to finish up the animation and submit it by the deadline. So, if it's not a real comp anymore, I'll just take my time and submit it tomorrow probably, but if it is still a comp, could we extend the deadline by a day (to, say, 12am [midnight] PST)?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

this one is just for fun. Like a Mac, this wont count as the real thing. :drool:

[ItsaMystery]

Ouch.

That hurts.

Right here, man. *points to chest*

[BiG ToE-3DT]

did that last one cut too deep. I'll get the band-aids.

[ItsaMystery]

And Neosporin.

"Nah nah nah, nah, nah. Neo.

Nah nah nah-nah nah nah nah. Sporin.

Dodododo..."

But hey, just 'cause you can't upgrade the innards of the Mac doesn't mean it isn't good for what it's worth. I'm happy with it, and it's not like I'm jumping through your window like a MacNinja and forcing you to use one...yet.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I think you will agree that in the end, this is all fun a games.

[ItsaMystery]

Just like a Mac! >:D

[DerekSc]

Except lots of game companies don't develop for Mac anymore. *cough*Lucasarts*cough*
Good to hear this isn't hardcore, I want to get some sleep tonight, and it needs sound effects and a lot of tweaking. So instead of rushing it (there's lots of side animation), I'll make it work and post it tomorrow night.
Is it poll time yet, BiG ToE?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

yeah, I'll put up the poll soon, so don't rush the sound effects, you got like the whole week to finish up. I figure if anyone wants to partake in this one, they have untill the poll is closed and the next comp starts up.

[ItsaMystery]

Silly LucasArts...;P

Sweet, glad to know we have more time to do touchups and such.

What are you thinking about for the next comp?

[DerekSc]

Sorry folks but the motivation just isn't in this one.
Going to let it go and concentrate on the next challenge.
There's lots to do around this time of the year, and I just feel like I'm beating myself over the head with this challenge for nothing.
Next one I'm back in for sure.
Congrats to BiG ToE for actually finishing, and it looks great too!

[ThatDon]

Keep up the amazing work Big Toe!!!

<3 Don