View Full Version : The Magicman in "Coin Trick" - *Updated w/ non-quicktime file*
http://sheep.handturkeystudios.com/files/magicman0010.png
The Magicman's first animation is complete! It's called "Coin Trick" and it's his acting debut, so make sure you heckle him good n' proper. For reference, you can see his WIP thread (http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?p=613499#post613499) or follow some more detailed bits of the process at our studio's side projects blog (http://sheep.handturkeystudios.com).
A low resolution version has been submitted for the Animation Challenge (#33), but you guys aren't interested in that, are you. You want the big'un. Well, here's links to both of 'em.
High-res MPEG4 (http://www.handturkeystudios.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/magicman_final.mpeg4.mov) - 3.8MB
Low-res MPEG4 (http://www.handturkeystudios.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/magicman_anim-challenge.mov) - 1.7MB
And for those of you who are having difficulties getting Quicktime to play nice with your systems, here's an MPEG-1 version. It's got some noticable artifacts in it and the filesize is larger, but it should be playable just about anywhere.
High-res MPEG1 (http://www.handturkeystudios.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/magicman-final.mpeg1.mpg) - 6.08MB
What do you think?
Lol, that was funny. Love the scream cameo from "Rescuers Down Under" Perty funny stuff.
I'd say he's a little too good.
Aligorith
08-May-06, 05:38
Ha! That was great! :D
Aligorith
Streen: Awesome! Glad you like it. What part of "Rescuers Down Under" are you talking about? It's been a while since I've seen that movie, so I don't quite remember what you're referencing.
BeBraw, henrymop, Aligorith, and S-Slash: Thanks for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Wow that's good. I could of never done the animation of when he screams and bobbles his head. But I would use heavier motion blur for a more cartoony effect.
Thanks!
I tried hunting around... are the attributes for the new compositor nodes keyframable? I didn't think they were yet. Of course, I could have missed something. That would make a really nice transition for motion blur in during that section.
However, I suppose I could've rendered out that section with a higher blur factor and gotten a similar (although less smooth) result. I'll definitely play around with that for the next trick he does.
deltawing
08-May-06, 21:35
Great work Fweeb...very entertaining. Nice to see that level of animating here :)
That was FRIGGIN FUNNY!
Thanks! I gotta show my kids this.
Good work on the Blendering too. I almost forgot Blender was involved.
Arabian Outlaw
08-May-06, 21:56
where can i download quicktime without itunes??
where can i download quicktime without itunes??
Here....
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm
Download the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.49
Streen: Awesome! Glad you like it. What part of "Rescuers Down Under" are you talking about? It's been a while since I've seen that movie, so I don't quite remember what you're referencing.
The one where the lizard is in the cage and he's trying to get out...or when he gets scared while in the cage...can't remember lol.
deltawing: Thanks!
That was FRIGGIN FUNNY!
Thanks! I goota show my kids this.
Good work on the Blendering too. I almost forgot Blender was involved. Wow! What a great set of complements. Thank you! That really means quite a lot.
ARABIAN KNIGHT: Hopefully you were able to finally see the animation. VLC (or mplayer, if your in Linux-land) should be able to play it, too. If you're still having problems, let me know and I'll try and get a DivX version up.
Streen: See... now you've made it so I have to go and watch that movie. I halfway remember what you're talking about, but in order to really remember, I need to see it. That's not a horrible thing, though. IIRC, it was a pretty good movie.
TroutMask
09-May-06, 00:17
the video clip has crashed safari and firefox on me, so i won't be watching your clip. i'm sure it's very good, but i'll pass.
next time try using a standard codec.
the video clip has crashed safari and firefox on me, so i won't be watching your clip. i'm sure it's very good, but i'll pass.
next time try using a standard codec. Hrm. That's strange. I'm sorry to hear that. I was under the impression that mpeg4 in a quicktime wrapper is fairly standard. If you don't mind me asking, was this for the high resolution file or the low resolution one? Did you try opening it directly from Quicktime Player?
I can't say I haven't heard of this before, though. Each time, however, it was resolved with an update to Quicktime player. Now, I encoded this using Cinelerra (which calls to ffmpeg for mpeg4 encoding, IIRC), but previous situations happened with files that came straight out of Quicktime Pro. If you'd like (and haven't been completely put off by the crashing of your browsers), I can spit out a straight mp4 stream or create a DivX-encoded version and see if that works for you.
Is anyone else having this problem? I'd hate to a) be crashing other people's browsers and b) have fewer people see this guy because of it.
Is anyone else having this problem? I'd hate to a) be crashing other people's browsers and b) have fewer people see this guy because of it.
No problem here. I use FireFox, updated version.
Also, I Downloaded the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.49
from here...
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm
ha ha ha
great animation really funny
Unfortunately I'm not able to watch the MPEG4's on my comp.
This is the first time I actually see this character, and I was bafflegasted (surprised) to see the similarities with a character from one of my own (unfinished) movieproject. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/sago/Pics/Mr.jpg)
Any chance in showing it with a different codec? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/sago/Pics/Emoticons/happysad.gif
Sago
spleblem: Thanks!
Sago: Wow... I can definitely see a similarity between those two characters. Maybe they're long lost relatives? Hopefully this doesn't cause you to lose your desire to finish that project. The character you've made looks like he's got a lot of personality.
And since folks have been having issues with the MPEG4 quicktime files, I've also uploaded an MPEG-1 version. How's that for universal? Granted, there's some nasty artifacts in there and the filesize is a couple megs larger, but it should be playable by just about anything. You can get it in the first post of this topic, or right here (http://www.handturkeystudios.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/magicman-final.mpeg1.mpg).
Haha, that was great! good work.
Btw. the intro-studio-logo-animation (don't know how you call 'em) looks very pro.
Sago
Nice work!
The movement in the fast parts was maybe bit too slow/floaty for cartoon style. Try watching some really good snappy cartoon animation frame by frame for reference. I know how damn hard it is to animate 24fps (or 25 or 30) so really good work anyways!
And yeah the intro was very cool, was that made by you also?
Aligorith
09-May-06, 05:56
A few crits after watching it again:
-> He walks in a strange way - legs too straight
-> When he does that stamping bit (around the time he screams), it looked like he had no weight or weight transfer (upper body stayed locked in one place while the legs floated up and down)
-> After he claps his hands and makes the coin disappear, there could have been of a pause, before he launched into the next thing. I felt that it was a bit rushed.
intro-studio-logo-animation
What? Where? Was it added in one of the newer files?
Aligorith
It is at least in the high-res mpeg4 file which I downloaded.
Awesome stuff Fweeb. I loved it and it's hillarious too. The scream and the expression he has when his *spoiler* are awesome!
bafflegasted (surprised)
Isn't it flabbergasted? I'll have to check But nevermind :o
Are we to expect a next episode of the wacky magician ?
Slep
Sago: Glad you liked it! And thanks for the complement on the intro animation. That was actually quite a lot of fun to make, too. It was done with a combination of Blender, Inkscape, The GIMP, and Cinelerra. Getting those apps to dance together was a bit of an adventure in and of itself, but I like the final result.
ook: Yeah. He is kind of floaty at the beginning and in one or two other places. I keep bouncing back n' forth between wanting to go back in and noodle with it to tighten it and just making sure to do better in the next version. And yes, I'm responsible for the intro animation. The sheep-head was drawn by someone else in the studio, but I animated it.
Aligorith: His legs actually are bent most of the time. It's a combination of black pants (no shading to reveal depth) and the downward camera angle the makes him look so straight-legged. I probably should've used a different angle... or maybe bowed his legs out more when he walked. I'll keep that in mind for the next one. The floaty bit... yeah, there is a bit of that. He needs more weight on his landings, I feel. And like I said to ook, I can't decide if I want to go in and fiddle with it or just make sure the same problem isn't there in the next one. As for the pacing... I see where you're coming from, but I kind of like how it is. Maybe I could make him wait a beat in one or two spots, but I'm not sure. I'll ponder this more.
And the intro animation is only in the high-resolution ones. Since the smaller one was for the Animation Challenge, I figured I'd let that one be just the character animation.
Slepnyrl: Thank you! And yes, you should *definitely* expect another episode of magic gone awry with the Magicman. Not sure how soon it'll be, but since he's all modeled and rigged now, animating him should go a lot faster. Maybe another one by the end of the month?
Lord of the Rings Junkie
09-May-06, 16:47
We'll have to have a new one every month. ;)
Kind of reminds me of a teaching device one of my pastors use to use when I was little. His name was Pasqualee(sp?) the stunt potato, he was just a regular spud with Mr. Potato head parts stuck in 'em. By the end of the drama he always somehow ended up as a pile of mashed 'taters. :D Against the wall, smashed into the ground, whatever. Something always went wrong with the "stunt".
The animation was beautiful and I can only marvel at the actual dynamics of the characher. I'm most interested in your intro.
Finally, something I have always been wondering. How do you animate the coin to dissappear? This is a concept that is almost as boggeling as the coin trick in real life to me!
:cool:
Arabian Outlaw
09-May-06, 18:57
thanx spin
whyb didnt you finish youur project sago??
Lord of the Rings Junkie
09-May-06, 21:21
How do you animate the coin to dissappear? This is a concept that is almost as boggeling as the coin trick in real life to me!
Use an IPO to move it to a different layer.;)
Lord of the Rings Junkie: We'll certainly try to have one a month. That sounds like a good goal. And... um... what, exactly was your pastor trying to teach by obliterating a potato? Was it effective?
montyxc: Thanks for the complements! You know... I was going to go into some spiel about magicians and not giving away their tricks, but LOTRJunkie kinda ruined that for me ;). It's pretty simple. You keyframe moving the object (in this case, a coin) from one layer to another. Just make that "another layer" hidden when you do the final render. Whammo! Disappearing coin (or anything else)!
:mad: *GASP* You ruined it for me!!!
Sorry anoncompboy, but FWIW, I didn't quite use that method for his hands... they're part of the same mesh as the body, so making the hands disappear is a little different process.
I'm sure you can figure it out, though :).
Lord of the Rings Junkie
09-May-06, 23:07
And... um... what, exactly was your pastor trying to teach by obliterating a potato? Was it effective?
Each drama had a small moral, but I can't really remember, so it must not have been all that effective. All I remember is the high-piched, squeaky voice and mashed potato ending up everywhere. I'll leave the moral lesson to your imagination, the aforementioned pastor was quite a goofy guy.
Haha... I see. Well at least you got *something* out of it (in that you were, hopefully, at least mildly entertained enough by it to remember it later).
Man... now I want to eat some french fries. :)
stevenhorton
10-May-06, 08:09
Very nice animation:) I liked the motion of his hands especially.
nice! the sleeve falling off at the end made me chuckle!
The character animation is quite good, although I think that the part where he stomps his feet is a weak point. I don't get the feeling that the character has any weight. If you do more with this character in the future, try exaggerating the motion in the hips more to show the transfer of weight from one foot to another.
Also, while the arm animation was good and believable, I think it could be pushed further using FK instead of IK. This would allow for a successive breaking of joints effect that would really suit this character.
Great work! An inspiration to all us character animators I'm sure!
I agree, the stomping act was the weakest point. It could be patched up by making it faster and turning up the motion blur.
stevenhorton: Thank you! The hand animation, in particular, was a lot of fun. A lot of personality can be conveyed through the hands subtly. His joints are a bit knobby, but maybe he has a future as a hand model for advertising watches ;).
sketchy: Thank you for your [very] kind words. The cuff is probably one of my favorite parts of this piece... one last little slap in the face to this guy before it ends. I agree about the stomping. That's something that will definitely be addressed in future episodes. I also agree with you on the IK vs. FK for the arms. He's rigged to be able to go either way. I stuck with IK on this one because I was testing Blender's DoF limits for IK chains and seeing how much they help. They're nice, but the elbows still go squirrelly on occasion, so in the time it takes to tweak those elbows, the arms could have been properly placed with FK. And I agree that successive joint breakage would really suit this guy nicely. It's in my notes :).
anoncompboy: While speed and added motion blur may have helped a bit, it'd still be more of a band-aid. The real issue is as sketchy and a couple other people have pointed out, his hips don't give a good and clear indication that he's putting weight down during that movement. Part of that is because of Magicman's simple rig and part of it is because I didn't quite push the pose far enough on each keyframe. And I think it's really more on the latter than the former of those two (the fault of the animator, not the puppet).
Finally got a chance to see this one. Wouldn't play on my work comp for some reason.
Really nicely done. Great timing and it was humorous as well. Good work!
BgDM
nice job :) verry funny :)
BgDM: Rockin'! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Technical nuances aside, if it can squeeze a giggle out of people, then I'm pretty happy.
p00f: Thanks! :)
When he jumped, towards the end, he looked a bit weird, but that aside, it's marvellous.
The_Warder
12-May-06, 22:20
very nice I liked the animation a lot.
nerdVANNA: Are you talking about the stomps, or the jump before the stomps? Just trying to clarify. Thanks for taking the time to watch it!
The_Warder: Great! Thanks!
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