I started a thread to collect my animated stuff as I make it, rather than make new threads each time...
First up is an animation of the opening sequence (first 2 pages) from chapter 43 "Arrival." I absolutely love that part, and I thought Taeshi's art conveyed the action so well that I wanted to try animating it. What you see is a vector trace of the original panels that I animated and set to Bicycle Race by Queen. I consider it a really elaborate "edit." I tried to minimize deviations from the original comic, but I did simplify a few shots (aside from removing the dialogue). I also swapped out the panel that featured a certain fan character with a panel from page 3...
This was a blast to make, and I hope some of you guys enjoy it! Comments/critiques are always welcome.
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Aken's Animations
- matty_batty0
- Member
I like how you have steered away from voice acting, it is normally a big flaw and it lets you focus on the animation side of things. I think you have done a pretty good job, one thing which seemed a bit out of place were your fast movements like when Lucy swiped the DS out of Mike's hand, the whole movement just seemed a bit off.
This post has been edited by matty_batty0: 31 July 2011 - 04:52 AM
- #2
- 31 July 2011 - 04:46 AM
- Aken
- BCI Member
matty_batty0, on 31 July 2011 - 04:46 AM, said:
I like how you have steered away from voice acting, it is normally a big flaw and it lets you focus on the animation side of things. I think you have done a pretty good job, one thing which seemed a bit out of place were your fast movements like when Lucy swiped the DS out of Mike's hand, the whole movement just seemed a bit off.
Yeah, I think that movement had a few too many frames. In general my timing is sloppy. I might try filming some things to have a good reference for how long those actions should take.
- #4
- 31 July 2011 - 05:00 AM
- LackLuster
- Moderator
I liked some of the animation, especially Sue's. The only thing I could probably recommend is to try avoid to use tweens when animating mouths, it looks pretty awful.
- #6
- 31 July 2011 - 09:59 AM
- skykitty
- Member
Wow, could have took you nearly five hours because having the animate into Taeshi's style is hard, since it is hard to draw. The whole thing looked exactly the same (In a very good way), your camera animation is cool too and there's no different look and movement, I'm just saying. All you could improve is adding some detail to everything, then it is fine
- #8
- 31 July 2011 - 10:18 AM
- Aken
- BCI Member
Taeshi, on 31 July 2011 - 09:56 AM, said:
Wow, this is so impressive! How long did it take you to do that?
I always feel bad when people mimic my style because I feel it never looks good ;___; Which is not to the offence of the artist.
I always feel bad when people mimic my style because I feel it never looks good ;___; Which is not to the offence of the artist.
All told, it probably took about 15 hrs. I went at a pretty liesurly pace with it. Regarding the style; I really should put in the time to learn how to draw. It would probably look better making the vectors from scratch than trying to exactly match a panel, especially after enlarging it way past it's resolution.
@Lackluster - I agree, the tweens look pretty bad. Next time I'll try cutting between mouth positions and see how that looks.
Thanks for the positive feedback everybody! I'm glad you liked it.
- #9
- 31 July 2011 - 05:18 PM
That was fantastic and hilarious. I quite enjoyed it.
- #11
- 31 July 2011 - 05:56 PM
- ReyOzymandias
- Childish, as usual.
Member 
Wow, that was actually pretty awesome!
- #13
- 01 August 2011 - 11:25 PM
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- Aken
- BCI Member
I posted this video in it's own thread when I made it a few months ago. So, to consolidate everything into one thread, I'm reposting it here. I also changed it from unlisted to public on YouTube.
Doctor Who references and all that...
Old thread: http://www.bitterswe...__fromsearch__1
Doctor Who references and all that...
Old thread: http://www.bitterswe...__fromsearch__1
This post has been edited by Aken: 09 September 2011 - 08:04 PM
- #22
- 09 September 2011 - 08:03 PM
- akacatgirl
- Member
Aken, on 09 September 2011 - 08:03 PM, said:
I posted this video in it's own thread when I made it a few months ago. So, to consolidate everything into one thread, I'm reposting it here. I also changed it from unlisted to public on YouTube.
Doctor Who references and all that...
Old thread: http://www.bitterswe...__fromsearch__1
Doctor Who references and all that...
Old thread: http://www.bitterswe...__fromsearch__1
This made me laugh so hard!
You're really awesome at animations! Please keep it up!
- #29
- 10 September 2011 - 12:29 AM
- Aken
- BCI Member
Oh look, 3D animation...
I finally got my butt in gear and put something together. Some 3D stuff this time. Just a simple model fly arround and walk cycle. Let me know what you guys think.
I had been wanting to learn how the hair/fur engine in Carrara 8 worked, and this gave me with an excuse to screw arround with it.
I finally got my butt in gear and put something together. Some 3D stuff this time. Just a simple model fly arround and walk cycle. Let me know what you guys think.
I had been wanting to learn how the hair/fur engine in Carrara 8 worked, and this gave me with an excuse to screw arround with it.
- #34
- 20 February 2012 - 07:44 AM
- Tiggy
- Member
This is beautiful. You are beautiful. Your animation is beautiful. I've been noticing all the awesome art threads suddenly popping out of nowhere, I better catch up! But regarding your animations:
They all look great! The mouths from the first one kinda scare me. And I agree with Amazil on the 3d model, she looks mauled. But as said, they all are very impressive!
They all look great! The mouths from the first one kinda scare me. And I agree with Amazil on the 3d model, she looks mauled. But as said, they all are very impressive!
- #36
- 20 February 2012 - 11:42 AM
- Aken
- BCI Member
Thanks guys.
I still have a lot to learn with hair simulation. The geometry underneath is pretty smooth, but the fur still has a lot of oddities. It got better as i screwed arround with it. Some of the early test renders I did looked like a deranged sock puppet.
I also need to work on face rigging and mouth structure. The way I built the mouth made it very hard to control, which is part of the reason I didn't try to animate her face.
I still have a lot to learn with hair simulation. The geometry underneath is pretty smooth, but the fur still has a lot of oddities. It got better as i screwed arround with it. Some of the early test renders I did looked like a deranged sock puppet.
I also need to work on face rigging and mouth structure. The way I built the mouth made it very hard to control, which is part of the reason I didn't try to animate her face.
- #37
- 20 February 2012 - 04:18 PM
- LackLuster
- Moderator
To be brutally honest it could do with a lot more work.
How did you start modeling the figure initially? Guessing from the look of your geometry you tried to use the sculpt tool to make the model smoother judging by the misplaced lighting and shadows in the 3D turn around. The sculpt tool is tooled towards showing detail like cracks or bumps so things look realistic. The BCB characters are designed so they look cute; simple and cartoon-y. You should make any curves or edges through your geometry and not through the sculpting tool. Otherwise things just look messy and uneven when you apply the displacement.
Consider going back and refining Lucy's geometry more and give her a proper face. If you're going to use the fur option, don't use it just for the tail, cover her with it and adjust the values accordingly.
Lastly your animation is really stiff, consider putting more keyframes in and give her a more unique walk, maybe a bit of a bounce.
Otherwise not bad for a first attempt!
How did you start modeling the figure initially? Guessing from the look of your geometry you tried to use the sculpt tool to make the model smoother judging by the misplaced lighting and shadows in the 3D turn around. The sculpt tool is tooled towards showing detail like cracks or bumps so things look realistic. The BCB characters are designed so they look cute; simple and cartoon-y. You should make any curves or edges through your geometry and not through the sculpting tool. Otherwise things just look messy and uneven when you apply the displacement.
Consider going back and refining Lucy's geometry more and give her a proper face. If you're going to use the fur option, don't use it just for the tail, cover her with it and adjust the values accordingly.
Lastly your animation is really stiff, consider putting more keyframes in and give her a more unique walk, maybe a bit of a bounce.
Otherwise not bad for a first attempt!
This post has been edited by LackLuster: 21 February 2012 - 10:54 AM
- #38
- 21 February 2012 - 10:44 AM
- Aken
- BCI Member
Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate honest critiques. I tend to lose perspective after working on something for a while. It helps to get an outside opinion.
The model geometry was created one polygon at at time referencing a couple of panels from the comic. The main mesh is relatively low-res with approximately 1150 verticies, then I applied smoothing and added fur. I did not use any displacement painting.
The entire model (minus the inner ear, inner mouth, nose and eyeballs) is covered with fur. 1.25 million hairs all told. I'll try to post a render without the fur, so you can take a look at the underlying geometry if you're interested.
I animated the walk on 3's. Maybe I should try it on 2's, though I think I just need more practice.
The model geometry was created one polygon at at time referencing a couple of panels from the comic. The main mesh is relatively low-res with approximately 1150 verticies, then I applied smoothing and added fur. I did not use any displacement painting.
The entire model (minus the inner ear, inner mouth, nose and eyeballs) is covered with fur. 1.25 million hairs all told. I'll try to post a render without the fur, so you can take a look at the underlying geometry if you're interested.
I animated the walk on 3's. Maybe I should try it on 2's, though I think I just need more practice.
- #39
- 21 February 2012 - 04:24 PM
- LackLuster
- Moderator
Aken, on 21 February 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:
The model geometry was created one polygon at at time referencing a couple of panels from the comic. The main mesh is relatively low-res with approximately 1150 verticies, then I applied smoothing and added fur. I did not use any displacement painting.
Fair enough that'd be the other reason. Though what you can do for parts of the body is grab the edges of polygons and move them as a group. That's how you get your smooth limbs.
Aken, on 21 February 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:
The entire model (minus the inner ear, inner mouth, nose and eyeballs) is covered with fur. 1.25 million hairs all told. I'll try to post a render without the fur, so you can take a look at the underlying geometry if you're interested.
Both of those would be interesting to see including your polygon placement.
Aken, on 21 February 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:
I animated the walk on 3's. Maybe I should try it on 2's, though I think I just need more practice.
If you go from 3's to 2's that will only make the animation quicker but wont solve the issue of the animation looking stiff. If Hexagon has a dopesheet/animation chart you should look at some tutorials on how to make the keyframe transitions smoother. Animation into her hands couldn't hurt either.
- #40
- 22 February 2012 - 12:40 AM
- Aken
- BCI Member
By animating on 2's as opposed to 3's, I was assuming a walk cycle of the same frame count. Simply scaling back the key frames would just run it faster like you said.
Links to screenshots showing polygons:
Body
Polygons - aken1861's Sta.sh
Head
Polygons 2 - aken1861's Sta.sh
Head
Polygons 3 - aken1861's Sta.sh
Link to render without fur:
Model Rendered without fur - aken1861's Sta.sh
Links to screenshots showing polygons:
Body
Polygons - aken1861's Sta.sh
Head
Polygons 2 - aken1861's Sta.sh
Head
Polygons 3 - aken1861's Sta.sh
Link to render without fur:
Model Rendered without fur - aken1861's Sta.sh
- #41
- 22 February 2012 - 02:40 AM
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