Barry Baker wrote:
So I can see you took the shape of the girl from the graphic, but that is a very specific, and quite extreme, standing pose, and doesn't tell one how she would look when sitting, for example. I think that your puppet has bending problems - ie. the bones distort the girl's form when you take her away from the original pose. Rigging is an art in itself, and merits a whole job description in 3D animation.
I agree. I didn't notice that before, although I knew it wasn't very anatomically correct. I'm a little rusty on my anatomy and figure drawing. Your draw over does look better. I was just happy it looked as good as it does. Getting her to sit took a bit of wrangling, and her body turned out to be a lot shorter than the guy's body. I covered up for it by not showing the full bodies.
Here's a bigger image of the original:
Check out the head turns in the theater scene. I know it could be better, but again I'm happy that it looks as good as it does. I was worried about it because I don't have any reference for the facing view. All this would have been easier if I could have used a 3D model to create the silhouettes.
I went back and tried to fix her body curves, but it was more difficult than I thought. I guess I had already done some point animation, so after the frame that I fixed it went back to the old shape. It took a lot of selecting points and deleting keyframes. Then, I had problems with the bones causing point overlapping. I wish there was a way to change the fill behavior so that wouldn't cause problems.
I agree, it can be a nightmare changing the model after some animation has been done, but I'm sure you know you can also delete all the animation from a single layer from the animation menu (to get rid of unwanted point animation).
The couple in the cinema look great! I think the head turns work perfectly.
Barry Baker wrote: but I'm sure you know you can also delete all the animation from a single layer from the animation menu (to get rid of unwanted point animation).
Thanks. Yes, I did finally get rid of the unwanted point animation, but bone animation is still causing point/path overlap and I don't know how to fix that beyond going back and doing point animation to fix it frame by frame.
I haven't experimented with the new patch layers yet. Can that fix holes caused by path overlap?
SpaceBoy64 wrote:Thanks. Yes, I did finally get rid of the unwanted point animation, but bone animation is still causing point/path overlap and I don't know how to fix that beyond going back and doing point animation to fix it frame by frame.
I admit I havent read the entire discussion, but for this have you tried to paint more than a shape inside a figure?
You can draw a line from one existing point to another, erase the original shape and paint two different shapes, like this image in the manual:
The good thing about this is you don't need to add or remove points, so your point animation won't be lost.
Too static? Could you be more specific, suggest a way to fix it? It's too late now anyway.
When I made new shapes, it caused another problem that I didn't have before. It caused little bumps at every point two shapes joined. I had to add an outline to it to make that go away. Maybe you can see it here:
Here's my edit, and the producer's edit of the commercial. Any suggestions? I created way more animation than was needed to fit into a :30 spot and it requires that something be cut, but I don't want it to feel hurried and rushed.
I can see what the producer was trying to do; by skipping unnecessary narrative, like the first shot inside the jeweller's shop, and trimming animation, like the antic on the boy's arm gesture when the girl has agreed to come on a date, he has made it move along quite snappily.
However, I find the extra texting at the start doesn't add anything to the film, and the sound fx chosen for the keys being pressed is just irritating beyond belief! He also seems to have speeded up the animation of the climactic proposal shot, and cut it down to a stump where it looks thrown away and hurried.
I think your version hangs together better as a whole, but could also benefit from some of the trims your producer has made where they work. It's always hard to cut your own animation, and it's often better done by sitting with an editor where you can share ideas and finesse things until it's just right.
As for the voices, I think the actions actually are clear enough on their own, and perhaps it's better not to make the couple too specific by giving them real voices.
That is exactly what I said about the texting. It's way too long and that key click sound is very irritating. I think it would make people hate the commercial just because of that. That scene is so long that it makes the rest seem very rushed.
What do you think about the calendar? I took it out in mine because it specifies the amount of time that's gone by and I don't think it's necessary.
Totally agree with you on the calendar. There are other ways of showing time passing (the simplest being some kind of wipe) and it is distracting to be so specific as to show 2 months going by.
