I'm working on an animation for the KeyShot Toon Render Challenge.
http://grabcad.com/library/boobytrap-run-w-i-p-keyshot-get-your-toon-on-rendering-challenge-1 (http://grabcad.com/library/boobytrap-run-w-i-p-keyshot-get-your-toon-on-rendering-challenge-1)
I'll post some shots here of my work-in-progress.
Tonight I modelled the 'avatar' I'm going to use for the animation.
Dries
That's really nice , i like your color choice...good!!!
Push it push ittttt....
Nice work Dries - I get mini previews, but i'll keep stum, I am not brave enough to put my effort on here just yet, maybe when i have more renders done!
Martin
Look great - can't wait to see the final animation.
ha, very good. The youtube vid reminds me of sesame street "1,2,3,4,5....6,7,8,9,10....11,12"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhd8bcl7cdo&list=PL3A4B40F0476AFC9C
Self portrait?
Bill G
Burning rubber...
Dries
Quote from: Speedster on July 01, 2013, 04:29:37 PM
Self portrait?
Bill G
Yes, only is my nose more rubbery...
Dries
Nice, the one with the road is very cool ;D
Thanks all!
I really, really hope I can finish this by July 25. :-\
Times are a bit hectic right now and my holiday only starts on July 22. :P
I hope tonight I can make my mind up about the general approach to modeling the track and boobytrap sections (in terms of having suitable part orientations for animation axes and having the flexibility to mate/swap boobytrap sections progressively).
Dries
You can do it Dries - Just design the parts you need, render the booby traps and their effects, render different camera angles, front , side and rear, straight sections and curves etc then use your editing skills in something like ms movie maker and stitch it all together and you're done
Martin
Quote from: TpwUK on July 02, 2013, 04:42:23 AM
You can do it Dries - Just design the parts you need, render the booby traps and their effects, render different camera angles, front , side and rear, straight sections and curves etc then use your editing skills in something like ms movie maker and stitch it all together and you're done
Martin
No worries, I'll crank something out. ;)
Dries
Nice characterisation Dries... the front one looks evil
Can't wait to see the finished product
J
Really cool stuff man..
LOVE where this is going Dries!! Can't wait to see the animation. Very cool character.
Here's a non-Toon version. Just for the fun of it.
Now starting to think about the track...
Dries
Looking good! Really like the metallic paint on the last images too. 8)
Another metallic paint shot.
Dries
I did some testing to simulate the dynamics of my avatar ball.
I tried it on a curved wheel...
It does require careful application/timing of multiple animations. Quite time consuming... :)
The other purpose of this test was to see if the avatar would look better on a rotating wheel than a beach ball. :D
Dries
Nice!
+1 for the rotating wheel Dries
Martin
Ha - very cool.
Gotta be a wheel! Like a hamster. Or a CG artist on a deadline! What's scary is that they have "character"- man, you have a winner here for a feature film!
Bill G
Okay, I finally found a flexible approach (easy to adapt and configurable dimensions) to modeling the track and boobytrap sections. I'm now using subassemblies for the track sections, as well as for the boobytrap 'zones'.
The gray cut-up wheel is the base part from which I have saved out split bodies that serve as a template for the track and boobytrap sections. Quick 'n dirty, but I prefer this approach over top-down modeling to get things done as quickly as possible while still having easy to manage models. (Maybe it's me, but often me and in-context modelling in assemblies in SolidWorks don't get along too well...)
Here are some reults of initial testing.
btw, this video works better in loop. ;D
Dries
Amazing work!!!!! It's really a super work! It's really nice! :)
Doody stuff Dries
What's a doody??
I sniffed around on urban dictionary and it didn't smell too nice. ;D
Dries
Sorry Dries ... Dudey gives my spell checker the burps - Dudie does too so it must be doody ... hmmmm that does now too :-\ .... It means it looks cool :D
Martin
Quote from: TpwUK on July 04, 2013, 12:20:46 AM
Sorry Dries ... Dudey gives my spell checker the burps - Dudie does too so it must be doody ... hmmmm that does now too :-\ .... It means it looks cool :D
Martin
Ah OK, thanks then! :)
Btw, I decided on a name for my animation.
***LEVEL 666***
Wheel of the Misfortunates
Dries
Misfortunates ... hmmz ... that's not a good title to try to win a contest ! :P ;D
But you're on a roll .. don't let me stop ya ;)
Quote from: PhilippeV8 on July 04, 2013, 01:10:15 AM
Misfortunates ... hmmz ... that's not a good title to try to win a contest !
...
Philippe, the pun was absolutely -and quite explicitly- intended! ;) ;)
Dries
Ahhh, but maybe the Misfortunates are the runners-up Philippe ;)
Martin
"The Misfortunates" would be a great title for the first block-buster big-screen animation from KeyToons Productions!
Bill G
Tonight I explored the range of motion for my avatar a bit.
Except for the cheesy credits, this is raw KeyShot output. Even the broken camera lines when the avatar charges. ;D
Dries
That's cool - Have you come across any loss of contours or black squares appearing in any of your animated renders yet ?
Martin
Quote from: TpwUK on July 04, 2013, 06:01:01 PM
That's cool - Have you come across any loss of contours or black squares appearing in any of your animated renders yet ?
Martin
I haven't seen this behavior yet...
Dries
Grrrrppphhhh - Wonder if i have a hardware issue somewhere the :( ... I don't get any artefacts with stills, just on animations and just with toon
Martin
A bunch of (Mis)fortunates being suspended. Ready to be loaded.
Dries
For the metal-lovers among us. :)
Dries
Liking it more n more
Another quick shot.
Dries
Finished modeling the first track section.
Dries
Looking great. Can't wait for the finished animation.
Very nice. Me too Thomas, I can't wait to see the animation.
Thanks guys!
Still a lot of work to do though. :)
I'm currently modeling the first (of ten) of my boobytrap sections. At least I already have determined the nature of the 'traps'... I hope to finalize modeling by Friday next week.
Dries
Boobytrap #1 sneak peek. ;D
Dries
Looks like I should retire now - lol
Martin
Now that's a place balls don't want to go! You're going to need a shrink when you finish animating this!
Bill G
Quote from: Speedster on July 07, 2013, 02:46:04 PM
Now that's a place balls don't want to go! You're going to need a shrink when you finish animating this!
Bill G
Oh boy, let's hope I don't end up like this fella.
(http://cdn3.whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/prequel-the-shining.jpg)
All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy.All work and no play makes Dries a dull boy....
:)
Dries
Oh man,
Really love where this is going..
Can't wait for the result!
In the morning I've been testing the concept of my 2nd boobytrap section.
This one proves to be particularly challenging in terms of aligning the animations of the avatar and the dynamic parts of the boobytrap.
It's impossible to get it 100% correct (the required motion easing is more complex than what is available in the animation add-on), but I think I'm able to reach at least 95%. :)
Here's a quick impression of my test. Still need to add the nasty bits... ;D
Dries
Al these talks about booby traps, makes me think of Cube :) Could make good renders of that environement, even Toon renders would be great ..
Or...? ???
Not quite as interesting, but a lot easier to model and animate.
Dries
Detailed boobytrap section #1 a bit.
Dries
Boobytrap #2 sneak peek.
This one was quite tough to model cleanly. Lots of alignment, hinge issues were to be resolved. :P
I also made it preposterously huge compared to my avatar, which helps to accentuate the toon/game feel.
Anyway I'm currently one boobytrap section behind schedule (I planned to do two tonight :-\). The remaining contraptions should be easier to model though... :)
Dries
If you really want to twist your (and our) mind, add in a Geneva Motion! And perhaps an Archimedes Screw!
Bill G
A little exploration/preparation for tonight's modeling session for boobytrap section #3.
It will feature a trench.
Here are a few variations of the same test animation.
Works really well in loop. ;D
Dries
Love the amount of detail!
Must be electric day today... :D
Here's a sneak peek of boobytrap #3.
Built up a bit of a delay, as my watercooler is defect yet again. :(
Dries
Gulp!!
amazing <3
Got cooler fixed. 8)
Back up and running!
Just finished modeling boobytrap section #4.
Because the track is curved in two directions this was pretty challenging to model...
Had to make sure all parts aligned perfectly after 30 degree rotations.
Dries
Can't wait to see the whole track.
I agree, can't wait to see the end result. Looking great so far.
A variation of boobytrap #4 on a different mini wheel.
I'm currently rendering a test animation in Toon of this wheel.
Dries
Here's the test animation I did.
Rendering a single frame at 1000x1000 px took less than 10s.
Dries
Wow impressive stuff Dries. Your entry will be a hard one to beat. Keep up the great work.
Just finished modeling section #5.
I'm halfway through. Yay! 8)
I also did a few renders in Toon to check if it looks interesting enough without complex shading.
Dries
Amazing commitment.
I agree with Thomas- "Medieval Madness"!
Bill G
Heck DriesV - don't you ever sleep.... ;)
Stunning work.
Boobytrap section #6 finished. It features an 'egg cutter'. ;D
Quite an intricateo one. I made it so that I can use it twice in my wheel. ;)
Dries
This scene actually does look clearer in Toon...
Dries
You should get this one actually made.
Here's a little status update of the complete track.
Still need 4 boobytrap sections. I'm aiming at completing the model on Monday. Should still give me more than enough time to properly animate/materialise/render before the deadline. :)
I've already figured out wht to animate and how best to do it. It should be a straighforward process.
Now that I look at it like this... Maybe I should make the wheel more halo-like. ;)
Dries
I think it is an improvement? ???
Dries
Great progress. I like the open wheel.
The wheel was intended as a 'halo-like planet' conceptually from the beginning. So I decided to model in a bit of drive mechanics.
Now it's a planetary gear planet. ;) Makes sense in a way...
Dries
Ah now that is clever - luv it!
Martin
Just finished modeling boobytrap section #7.
Dries
Dries - you are having too much fun with this.
Next you need laser beams. I hope your video will have sound. Pew - Pew - Pew!
Ed
Now I'm starting to get it. It's an exercise wheel for CG artists or Luxion code writers! Looks like something Arthur C. Clarke would have dreamed up. I can't even imagine what your animate tree will look like!
Bill G
Quote from: Ed on July 14, 2013, 04:13:20 PM
Dries - you are having too much fun with this.
Next you need laser beams. I hope your video will have sound. Pew - Pew - Pew!
Ed
That's a GREAT idea! :D Will have to integrate that one...
Quote from: Speedster on July 14, 2013, 04:19:29 PM
...
Looks like something Arthur C. Clarke would have dreamed up.
...
Possibly the greatest compliment I can think of. ;)
Just finished modeling boobytrap section #8.
Dries
very cool model! love it!
Just finished modeling boobytrap section #9.
Ed, thanks for the hint about lasers! ;)
Just one section left to model now.
Dries
Dude!! ... This is going to be so cool when it's all done, if you get the time I would love to see it done in PR rendered animation. It's just totally awesome Dries, well done!
Martin
Quote from: TpwUK on July 15, 2013, 04:37:39 AM
Dude!! ... This is going to be so cool when it's all done, if you get the time I would love to see it done in PR rendered animation. It's just totally awesome Dries, well done!
Martin
Thanks! Glad you like it. ;)
I was actually just thinking that yesterday. I'd happily donate my scene to a render farm. ;D
Dries
We can render it for you once it is all set and done. Just let us know.
Quote from: Thomas Teger on July 15, 2013, 06:10:13 AM
We can render it for you once it is all set and done. Just let us know.
Wow. Good to know!
Yay! I just finished my last boobytrap. 8)
Now on to checking the final model and into KeyShot. :)
Dries
I hope you still have enough time to render the toon DriesV, have you worked out the length and frames yet ?
Martin
Dries - we have 200+ cores here, hopefully even more by the end of the week. Ping both me and brandon@luxion.com directly when you are ready.
Quote from: TpwUK on July 15, 2013, 11:49:56 AM
I hope you still have enough time to render the toon DriesV, have you worked out the length and frames yet ?
Martin
8 evenings + a weekend should be more than enough time to finish this. ;)
IF everything keeps running smoothly that is. (My CPU cooler died last week... I hope my new one will keep up. :-\)
I have a pretty good idea about what I'm going to do. I also made my model in such a way that I don't have to pick 'helper' pivot points for any of the rotation parts. This is a huge time saver in itself.
Anyway, I'm currently checking my assembly and hopefully I can prepare a KeyShot working bip tonight so I can start animating like hell tomorrow. ;D
Dries
Dries
Well, being toon, each frame should render in mere seconds. At least that's my experience- I did some large ones that rendered in about 2-3 seconds!
Bill G
Testing the look of my scene a bit.
Hmm, I actually think 'rubberized' 'tarmac' will look very good. I don't know yet how that will impact render times though.
Dries
I tell you what DriesV, even if you don't win the challenge, you will certainly be able to add a new skill-set to your companies profile and to your own personal CV, this has been a pleasure to watch develop and I sincerely wish you the best of luck
Martin
Re: render times. Render out a single frame and see how long it takes. Then multiply by number of frames. This should give you a good idea.
Man Dries, was on vacation and I come back to see this!! Love everything about it, especially the 'planetary gear planet'. Absolutely impressive and super excited to see the final animation!
Oh, reminds me of the traps in the 'Cube' movie for some reason. Do any of the avatars get sliced and diced?? You need some prime numbers at each section :)
Amazing work Dries! Great stuff and good luck. Looking forward to see your animation running!
Abed
Thanks for the support guys! Really keeps me going... 8)
I'm really, really glad that I can leave behind SolidWorks now and work in KeyShot. Now things are real fun. :)0
Tonight I did quite a bit of animating. I animated my camera intro sequence, 'avatar drop-off', start light flipping and 5 boobytrap sections. Evidently all in DRAFT (I still have to tweak the position/duration of animations), but the basic structure is there.
Tomorrow I hope to finish the complete animation in DRAFT and do some further materializing of my scene.
Dries
Btw, my scene is 22.511.986 triangles large. Gulp. :P
Dries
Here's two snapshots of my progress so far.
note: I'm not making a 'side scroller'. I orbit to the side in the event of very large boobytraps. A nice side effect is that you can see the gears spinning.
Dries
You're going to have major withdrawals when this is done and dusted, you know that don't you ?
Martin
Well Martin, I don't know what tricks other people have up their sleeve... :D
I'm actually amazed myself to see how this stuff has come along in barely two weeks. :o
And all it took was a very simple base idea (rolling ball on a ginormous wheel), elaborate expansion on that idea, clear goals, determination and discipline.
Quite frankly anyone can do it... ;)
Dries
Yeah, anyone with fore-thought, modelling skills, an eye for detail, stamina, discipline and so on. The problem is that it becomes way to addictive and then you bump back to earth when the due process is complete, and then the nail biting waiting for results ... May be it's just me being too new to entering competitions and challenges ...
Martin
Okay I admit, I want to crush all competition! (then who doesn't?) ;D LOL
No seriously, initially I wasn't actually planning on entering the contest. Then suddenly this idea about a floating halo wheel popped up in my mind and things 'started rolling'. ;)
I just HAD to do this animation no matter what...
What I'm trying to say is: passion helps to push things much further than you'd have thought possible. Especially in KeyShot...
Dries
Well, I was going to enter, but honestly man, my measly still renders will not have a hope in hell against your anim Dries...
I think (according to what I've seen) you have one contender, and that is Abed (sorry Martin, haven't seen a sneekpeek of yours yet)
And I'm echoing the words of other people here, I want to see a non-toon HD version - It'll be cracking !!
J
Tut tut tut Metal Master - Mine is still under construction but it's nothing like Dries's effort ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I-UkV819gyE is where my latest WIP is, don't laugh too much ... please.
Martin
HAHAHAHA ! Martin ! .... "this video is private" ... priceless ;D
It is private to anyone but should be watchable from the link ... lemme go check it - lol
Martin
It does look tooned tho ;D
Should be fixed now - lol
Thanks for the heads up Philippe!!
Martin
Oh and by the way Metal Master, there are two categories - Stills and Animation - Roll ya sleeves up n get stuck in
Martin
Taking off into space! Testing some space setting.
The (twin) planets are actual geometry (they spin). All hail to the Metal Master for the procedural shaders. ;)
Dries
Each post leaves me even more impressed than the one before it, way to go Dries
Martin
Just finished embedding the opening credits in my animation. I strive for an unedited (no post) animation. :)
Dries
I can't wait to see this .. i am getting all excited, in space no one can hear your squeak - get it on!
Martin
Here's a very drafty rendered animation of boobytrap #9, aka 'laser slicer'. :)
Dries
Very cool!
More!
Martin
What do you think of the sense of speed?
I tried to make the avatar roll not snaily slow, nor blazing fast (because then the movements and camera actions get crazy...).
Dries
Speed is ok because we don't know it's weight or mass, if it's not too late, it could do with a little bounce or two when it hits the track surface again.
Martin
Quote from: TpwUK on July 19, 2013, 03:41:59 AM
Speed is ok because we don't know it's weight or mass, if it's not too late, it could do with a little bounce or two when it hits the track surface again.
Martin
Yeah, I did the bouncing during testing and it does look really great!
However, it requires
at least 2 additional animations (ease out UP + ease in DOWN) for every 'avatar drop'. There sure is a lot of jumping and dropping going on. :)
And then things are further complicated by having to synchronize the avatar animations with the wheel rotation, as well as with the boobytrap actions...
So -for the challenge entry- I'm not going to implement bouncing.
I might do it afterwards though for a PR HD version. ;)
Btw, the same goes for keeping the avatar upright when it rotates sideways on the curved track. It looks more natural, but it is a hell to manage animation-wise when the avatar is moving sideways a lot. (Which is the case...)Dries
It's why one of my most recent 'Wishes for the Future' is oscillating animations. ;)
Then you could do even a double bounce with a single animation (versus four now).
Dries
I understand, as much as I love KS i don't want to see it going too far down the animation route and I totally respect you not wanting to go too far with this, KS was never really meant as an animators tool, more a designers 3D viz presentation toolkit at which it sings like no other, but it's a difficult marriage, we need the extra functionality for projects like your doing here, but then wont need them to show Mr Hobbs your latest toaster idea if you get my drift ... I still can't wait to see the result though .... 7 days to wait or less, lol
Martin
Quotei don't want to see it going too far down the animation route
I think there IS some serious potential leeway to be gained in the animation department though. :)
I'm currently counting 25 material types.
Why can't there be more than 3 model animation types (turntable, translation, rotation)? Adding a few specialized animation types alongside the standard ones -like oscillating translations/rotations- would make complex animations MUCH easier to manage. Easier is better, right? ;)
Dries
Dries, if you don't get poached by Pixar after this, my name's not Lightning McQueen.
Signed
LMQ
QuoteI'm currently counting 25 material types.
Why can't there be more than 3 model animation types (turntable, translation, rotation)? Adding a few specialized animation types alongside the standard ones -like oscillating translations/rotations- would make complex animations MUCH easier to manage. Easier is better, right? ;)
Hell yeah, Easier is always better in my book. And what you ask is not much, and I would like to see things in there too. Animated materials or roto-scoping being able to animate the scale of an object etc etc, but eventually we will start bumping into physics, after all we have the best most realistic light handling render engine, and then all those lovely extras will thump up the price beyond the hobbyist like me and i'll weep like a baby that's had the top of his ice cream slide off cone in the heat.
Martin
Yay! I got all my animations set up now.
Tomorrow will be all about fully materializing the scene.
Dries
Getting close to final opening credits. ;D
I try to get a F-Zero vibe going on...
Also a shot with some final planets.
Dries
Looking better and better
Martin
Quote from: TpwUK on July 20, 2013, 04:33:43 AM
Looking better and better
Martin
Oh, I added bounce on several places. ;)
Dries
Excellent, you probably can get away with it other than on the close-ups. I didn't realise until today that you can drag n drop animation settings to the other members in a scene so where you was on about the smooth in smooth out or dampening effect, you would only need to do it once, then you can replicate where needed and just adjust the timeline to suit .... Learning still :P
Martin
Phew! Finally finished...
And now on to rendering. ;)
Dries
Send it over to Brandon and myself - we can set it up for you and render it out.
Getting fatigued yet ? Animations are draining to the mind and can be demoralising to the soul
Martin
Starting to work on a non-Toon version...
Dries
Still getting better ... keep it coming - ;
Don't forget to grease those gears! With "Flight Mission Compliant Grease"!
Bill G
Here's a few other non-Toon shots. I've finished up a complete non-Toon version now. Using a lot of Axalta paints... ;D
Dries
Looking great. Let us know when this is done, and we will render it out for you as well.
Dries, I see that you're having fun here. Good stuff!
Abed
I just uploaded my final animation.
https://vimeo.com/70823140 (https://vimeo.com/70823140)
It's an unedited, single rendering KeyShot animation. Only postwork done is the music I added.
Dries
And it rocks Dries ... I have seen it twice and i am still not catching all of the work you have done on this, it needs to be studied not looked at and that's great...
Martin
What a blast!!! I love the tiny little bounce as he/she is traveling down the track. And how nonchalant he/she is negotiating the "Travails of Life"! But I miss the blinking eyeballs from an early test animation...
Bill G
Quote from: Speedster on July 22, 2013, 08:05:28 PM
...
But I miss the blinking eyeballs from an early test animation...
Bill G
Darn, you and your eagle eye, Bill! ;D
I was thinking about adding the 'blink', but there simply was no time for it. I set a hard deadline for myself to finish the animation part on Saturday.
I might add it for the non-Toon version though...
Dries
I can't view the animation because the proxy server where I am won't allow HTTPS site access, and Vimeo is a HTTPS domain
Damn and blast it
J
John, Youtube comes to the rescue. :)
Dries
Changing over my materials and lighting a bit.
I think a very coarse flake metallic paint looks cool for the avatar.
Dries
It does indeed - A fine choice sir - lol
Martin
This is very impressive ! I tip my hat to you my friend !
You have raised the bar. I need to catch up.
It's a keeper !
Tim
So I was at SIGGRAPH yesterday. I wish you could have seen the crowds that formed every time the KeyShot Team ran it on the monster monitor! They even applauded when it was finished! Hit of the show, my friend!
Bill G
Thanks, Tim! ;)
Bill, WOW! :o
I would indeed have loved to see that. So did they show it with the sound or the mute base animation?
Dries
Muted. And rather bright, as is common on those large monitors in a show environment. And EvilMaul was there as well. Folks really did a double take when they saw his awesome self-portrait on the screen, then turned around to see him standing there. Funny to watch! I will say that KeyShot had one of the best displays at the show, and it was always packed.
Bill G
Just for fun...
A very very angry avatar.
And a very sad avatar.
;D
Used rounded edge on tire with radius value of 2. It works surprisingly well.
Dries
Drowsy blue and Hyper Red - They look cool Dries :)
Martin
Congrats on winning the render challenge for best animation Dries!
(http://www.keyshot.com/get-your-toon-on-render-challenge-winners-announced/)
Thanks, Josh!
I had a LOT of fun making it and I learned quite a few( animation) tricks along the way. Winning the challenge is the perfect icing on my animation cake. ;D
Btw,
Extra special thanks to Ed, who provided the hint to add lasers.
The 'laser gun' boobytrap (#9 out of 10) actually turned out to be one of the most exciting traps! (in my opinion...)
Dries
@Dries Hi there,
I see that this topic is probably long dead, but I also see a pretty nice basic laser beam. Would you be able to describe the steps you took to create this effect?
Thanks!
I believe these were the settings I used for the lasers. The beams are long, thin cylinders.
The most important thing is to make sure 'Visible in Shadows' is unchecked. Otherwise the 'laser beam' will cast a shadow. :)
Dries