Final renders

Just noticed that I never added up my final renders, so now that everything's complete here they are in horrific Blogger quality until my Vimeo upload limit resets:


Bowling ball


Closeup

Medium closeup

 

Shuttlecock

Closeup

Medium closeup

Tennis ball


Closeup

 

Medium closeup

Sneak cycle

Perspective

Side

Walk cycle

Perspective



Side

Action sequence

Front

 

Side

Moom action piece V35

Finally finished both arms...

Front



Side



I've been playing with the timings and whatnot, trying to loosen it up a little - I quite like the arm swing at the beginning but the rest of it I'm still really not happy with. I don't know if maybe I'm just running out of steam but I just can't seem to get a grip on anything... plenty of things I'm still really not happy with. Lots of shoddy timings, and I dunno, the whole thing just feels really robotic to me. I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to use my creative interpretation to exaggerate certain bits and bobs...

ahhh!

Nonetheless, I guess it's looking okay, considering how much I was freaking out about it when I first started. I think I might just try tweaking the head tomorrow and then seeing how we go... there's plenty more I'd really like to do to it, I'm still very dissatisfied but I can really feel the Softimage part of my brain beginning to burn out. Perhaps caffeine is needed.

Moom action piece V27

One arm... almost done!



It's taken me far longer than I'd anticipated (or hoped) and I'm still really not at all happy with some bits of it. But, the basic movement is there. Once I've got it all nailed I can start really fine-tuning things!

Right near the end as he lowers his arm after 'punching' forward, I couldn't quite figure out how to get the arm to rotate... inwards, like Sam's does, if that makes sense. As the bicep lowers the forearm kind of goes downwards and towards the body, rather than rotating outwards. I couldn't quite figure out how to replicate that in Softimage so I think it looks very peculiar...

Going to have a look at the other arm next... then, probably the head and neck, hopefully which won't take too long!

I'm just hoping I can get it polished well enough for submission. It's a pretty tricky shot.

Moom action piece V19

Always forget how difficult arms are...

First section. Not at all happy with (our) right arm - I think I tried to animate too much too soon. I think the best thing to do is just get the motion and timing right with the shoulder before I start messing with the effector. That's what I did with the left arm and I think it's a million times better. Not perfect... but hopefully I'll get to adding some follow through/overlap with the effector once the basic motion is blocked. Still got the head and neck to do, too, argh. But oh well!

Moom action piece V16

From last night, but unfortunately I was too busy collapsing into bed to post about it...



I think the blocking stage is fairly complete by this point; few issues with the feet I'd like to sort out (it remains perfectly still right at the end before suddenly slapping down which I think looks really weird)

In terms of overall movement though I think it's matching the reference reasonably well... with the exception of the arms floating through the crotch, of course.

I'm sure there are plenty of issues with it but hopefully they'll become apparent as I start working on the arms and such.

Moom action piece V15

Still slow. Added... another couple of steps!! Whoopeee!!

In my defence, I took a break. I have a headache!



Not too much to say... Nearing the end of the shot now so hopefully I'll get the legs/chest etc. all sorted today. I've encountered a very peculiar problem, though, that is slowing down my progress quite significantly. The loop bars/markers/whatever they're called have disappeared, and I have no idea why. Perhaps Softimage thought it would be funny. It's not. It sounds like a minor thing, but it really does make the world of difference - I'm effectively unable to preview anything unless I want to watch the entire shot, which makes analysing/checking the section I've just animated virtually impossible. Agggh. Oh well.

My thoughts are returning to the beginning of the shot now, and though part of me is tempted to add in the walk at the beginning... I don't know. We'll see how busy this next week is...

Moom action piece V14

As the tortoise said to the hare, "slow and steady wins the race..."

But probably didn't hit the deadline.



More progress! Admittedly I'm being quite... lazy with it but there's still lots of time left in the day. Hopefully I can at least finish this refining this stage of the blocking so I can concentrate on the arms tomorrow.

Still not much to say, other than that I'm much happier with that step now. It's got far more weight to it and I think the timing is actually pretty decent. Then again... this is only the front view. It might look like arse from the side. I'm too scared to check.

Only five million more keys to do!...