Great White Shark (Anim Test)

[robpauza]

Well....
I finally have done some more work on my shark. So far I've just been trying to get a decent swim-cycle. I rendered multiple views really just as a test for myself, but I decided to go ahead and post it. I definately see some things that need to be fixed, but I'd like to get your opinions on it.

The swim-cycle test is posted:
Here (5.5 MB DivX) (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/robpauza/multview.avi)

Below is a frame from the animation.

Thanks a bunch,
-Rob

[hrgiger]

Pretty good Rob. The opening of the mouth looks really nice.

You're right, I don't think you're there yet. The motion almost looks exaggerated and maybe the side to side motion goes a little too far. I might de-emphasize the side to side of the head and see how that works.

[astro-sanchez]

very nice stuff
are you going to add movement to the
smaller fins?
yeah the mouth opening looks very good
will be looking for more updates

[glassefx]

That is some nice work indeed rob... Makes me proud to be in TN with you! LOL!

It's hard to put it into words what that baby needs, it's something that with a tad bit of tweeking will be almost perfect and in 3d that is Kick-A!

Maybe Two modes of the cycle... One for a casual crusing speed almost like you have with more "dampining" in the long direction of the beast. I'd probably chill the head movement a bit in the casual cruise mode and in the full acceleration attack swim cycle I'd probably make that the maximum amount of head movment when it's really cranking for some meat! I think the back fin's "direction of dedication" should come into play in the cycle a bit earlier.... It seems it needs to curl in the direction its pumping a bit earlier or maybe at the same time the main tail moves?

Do this... Go to Krogers and get a nice Beef Sirloin (about 10 pounds) and sneak it into the Aquarium and throw it in the tank!

Get your wife, girl, kid, someone to have the film'a'rollin' then you will have what you need.

LOL! Seriously, VERY good work all the way up to what you have now... Something to be proud of... Just needs some tweeking.

This is where the 3d artist really gets in the head of the beast he/she is animating.

Keep us Posted of your progress.

Again, GREAT work dude!

[riki]

Looks good, can you post a quicktime.

[robpauza]

I'll post one for you tonight Riki. Sorry, I thought DivX files were Mac-friendly these days. :)

-Rob

[fxnut]

Looks great, but I think I can tell you what's wrong with the motion though... as the tail moves to the right, the head has already started moving to the right as well. If you delay the head by approx 0.25 - 0.5 sec, I reckon it'll sort it out. I'm pretty sure that as the tail is finishing it's move to the far right, the head should be only just starting to move across from it's position on the far left.

[starbase1]

VERY good! Love it!

I see what people mean about the movement though - its subtle, (and I could not do half as well), but to me it looks a bit like the fishy equivalent of the feet sliding on the flor.

I could be wrong, but is it possibly that the centre of the spine is fixed on the track? What I mean is that when the head and tail move to one side of the path, at the same time, the centre point of the spine seems fixed, and I'd expect something more like the centre of gravity to follow the track.

I mean if the head and tail move to the same side of the path, the middle should move to the other side?

Or am I talking bollox?

Nick

[Bionic Antboy]

I looks great! I see what you mean by the motion though, and I think that it might be a combination of what starbase and fxnut said.

The head does seem to be leading the motion, although I imagine it should be the tail that's driving it I'm no marine biologist, but that seems about right :) Because of that, it also messes up the whole "spine" or centre of gravity thing....

One other quick note: In the top down view, it almost seems that there is too much deformation on the head. Or not; the light on the body could be playing tricks with my eyes. I would imagine there wouldn't be so much squash and stretch from the jaw forward.

Once again, I'm no marine biologist, so that those points with a grain of salt (water). :)

[Zarathustra]

Divx is fine for Mac.

Is he supposed to be that blue?

I can't put my finger on it, but he's not frightening enough.

[Stewpot]

Ho Rob,

The head movement looks too exagerated and rhythmic, and perhaps too frequent. It makes the shark's overall movement look pivoted around a central point about half way along the body.

The other thing Zarathustra was saying about him not looking scary enough - well I would agree, and think its something to do with the eyes. They seem too deeply sunken, and almost insignificant. Things I have heard and read about sharks seem to emphasise the eyes as being prominent features.

Hope that helps any.

[robpauza]

Wow. You guys are great. The majority of you seem to be confirming my thoughts.

Sorry, but I'll have to wait until tonight to respond in more detail. I need to go cut grass. :(

Hey Riki:
Here you go:
14 MB Quicktime Version (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/robpauza/multview.mov)
(The quality is much better in the DivX version.)

Thanks so much everybody. I'll get back with you later,
-Rob

[hunter]

Wow! Me Likeee. THe head should lead the movement even though the tail is the motor. It looks good but as others have said rhythm is off. should be more sinewy, sp? if thats even a word. I'd set one up with a sub-d plane in the Y axis and apply the ripple displacement so the wavelength is about the same a your shark and use it as a guide for you bones. Might work.
Show us more.

[fxnut]

Hey Hunter. that's a great idea with using a rippled copy in the background. What you said about setting the wavelength to the length of the sharks body is right too, but I reckon it could even be longer than that - anything up to twice the length of the body. That'd definitely get rid of the strange out of phase motion that's going on at the moment.

[hunter]

Yea. The longer wavelength would be better. I guess it depends on how fast she's movin';)

[riki]

Thanks Rob, going to grab it now.

Hey Zara

Divx is fine for Mac.

They work for me sometimes but not others.

[robpauza]

Okay, here it goes...

hrgiger:
Thanks. I'm planning on having two more morphs to be able to make the teeth actually move out from the mouth a little bit, like real white sharks do.

My brother Mike said the same thing about the side-to-side motion maybe being too much. I'll probably watch some shark footage to check things out. Thanks again.

astro-sanchez:
I'm definately going to add motion to the pectoral fins, but not the "little ones" on the tail. Thanks.

glassefx:
A fellow Tennesseen! Wow! What are the odds that two Tennessee boys not only have computers, but also own Lightwave? Pretty slim, I'm sure. Anyway, thanks for the crit. I agree with you and others that the head movement is probably a little strong. I'll work on the "direction of dedication" also. I think you hit it spot on there too. I will, however, skip the whole beef sirloin aquarium thing. :)

fxnut:
I understand what you're saying, but I would have thought the head preceeds the tail movement. I'll have to watch some video to look for that. Thanks a bunch for pointing that out though.

starbase1:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/robpauza/bodkey.jpg
Well yes and no, I think. I'm using a master null to animate the motion along a subtle "S" path (see above pic). My purpose of the "S" path instead of a straight line was to account for the center of gravity thing as you described. Perhaps it needs some more though. This is probably another "get out the videos" kind of thing to do. Thanks for your keen eye.

Bionic Antboy:
Thanks. I agree about the deformation in the head. There's some problems in other places too. At this point there are no weight maps. That was another reason to render many different views -to see where it needs them. You may not be a marine biologist, but I'm no great animator either, so I hugely value your input.

Zarathustra:
Yeah yeah I did get carried away with the blue. :) They're definately more grey. Hopefully some more surfacing will help to frighten it up. (more red splotches around the mouth and some scars) Also, the body looks a little thin to me. (from the front view) I've been meaning to change that, but haven't yet. Thanks.

Stewpot:
Thanks. That seems to be the general concensus. I'll work on that. I'll look at the eyes again too.

hunter:
Thanks. Interesting idea about the sub-d plane, but wouldn't that make it a little too snake-like? - if I'm understanding you correctly. By the way, thanks so much for your help throughout my shark project.

riki:
No problem. The DivX version I used is 5.0. (if that matters) I like your new avatar. :)

------------

Thanks again everyone for the great feedback. I'm always amazed at how generous you guys are with your time and knowledge.

I'll post my updates when I can. You know me... it may be awhile. :)

-Rob

[fxnut]

Originally posted by robpauza
fxnut:
I understand what you're saying, but I would have thought the head preceeds the tail movement.
Yes I'd agree with that, although that just depends at what point you start looking at the swim cycle and by what you mean by preceeding. I was more talking about the phase relationship between the head and the tail. At the moment the head and the tail are mostly in phase with each other, and I'm guessing that they need to be more out of phase. (sorry, I'm a physicist at heart and using the term 'phase' is the best way I can describe it - I hope you get what I'm badgering on about :) )

[robpauza]

By "preceeding" I mean before, but I see what you mean by the phase thing. (before and after are pretty much the same depending on perspective)
Sorry, I misunderstood you before. Thank you for clarifying. Now, I totally agree with you. :) I'll do some tests to sort things out.

Thanks again for your help,
-Rob

[glassefx]

Gotta go wack my aggresive-strain of TN-Grass this weekend. Stuff chokes me and my lawnmower up!

[robpauza]

I hope you have as much fun as I did yesterday. :) The grass cutting season is about over though, thank goodness.

Talk to you later,
-Rob