Animation for a company!

This is a side project that I’ve been working on for some time now. It’s rendered in Blender Cycles 2.72-2.73 @ 30fps using Raypump!

The actual rendered movie was completed a couple of months ago and the sound/music I just slapped together last week.

The tool you can see, which is the main part of the video is the first animation I have ever created.
The logo-animation was the second. And the last part was rendered in Blender Internal.

As many of you probably are aware. It is very hard to make something that you are completely satisfied with and I’m far from it.
But I chave learned so much in these few months and it will only get better for my next project!

I would really like to get constructive feedback on things you notice that I could improve.
I probably won’t make any drastic changes to this, but I want to know what I can do better in the future!

So I hope you enjoy watching this and give some valuable feedback!

EDIT: Only made a small change to the text:

Just to make sure. I’m not using this video I uploaded to promote anything. I don’t know how this qualifies as on vimeo.
I just wanted the best video quality to show what I’ve done!

Page not found using link.

I’m sorry. It’s processing on vimeo! Should be ready soon!

Nice work. The logo is especially impressive.

The gizmo is nicely modeled, but I have some comments about the overall demonstration it’s doing. First of all, why are there two tables in the scene? As far as I could tell, the bucket was lifted from one table, dumped, and replaced on the same table. If this isn’t what is happening, then what IS happening isn’t clear.

Secondly, the animation only shows the gizmo’s control to open or close the grabber. But the gizmo is doing a lot more than just grabbing and releasing. I’m kind of assuming that the remainder of the motion is controlled elsewhere? By the support mechanism mentioned in one of the captions? At any rate, there is a bit of ‘how did it do that’ which isn’t answered by the video.

Thirdly, I also assume this is designed for handling something that shouldn’t be touched? Or too heavy? I’m not sure. A caption with some example applications might help. If it is for toxics, shouldn’t the controls be remote, rather than attached to the gizmo itself? (Sorry, that has nothing to do with the video…)

Yeah… with vimeo, you should wait until you’re notified it’s done processing before you use the link.

Thanks for the feedback!

I want to make it clear that it was never made to explain every function or how it is working. It wasn’t my decision but I do agree that for people not in this line of business, it may be hard to get what’s happening!

I asume the “gizmo” is the lifting tool? It was not modeled by me. It was made in Solidworks, I only remade some parts in blender!

It is lifting the object from one table to the other. It’s pretty self explanatory from my point of view, but I also worked on it for so long I might be blinded by it. If you have basic short term memory you should be able to remember that the object is on the left table in the beginning and on the right in the end.

The gizmo is controlled with your hands on the two plastic handles. It is connected to an industrial manipulator that lets you lift objects that is very heavy without any strain on your body.

The object that gets lifted in the animation is just a dummy. The gizmo is not handling any toxics, just heavy or fragile objects.

But I get that it’s hard to understand what’s really happening in the video. I now know that whatever someone says to me the next time I do something similar, I will add explanations troughout the animation.

So, I took another look at it, to see what happened, and found it: you crossed the line.

“The Line” in cinematography, is a line running from one character to another in a two person shot, but can apply to any visual situation where you want your audience to remain oriented. Basically, the rule is: keep the camera on one side of the line or the other, but don’t ‘cross the line.’ It’s also known as the 180 degree rule.

I think it’s around the 00:38 mark, during a close up where you can’t see either table, that the camera crosses the line. So the bucket appears to be picked up from the left table at the beginning (with the wood grain top) and set back down on the left table at the end (only the table now has a composite top). Since the audience’s attention is directed to the gizmo and not the background props, you shouldn’t rely on people to note and recall the table tops to understand the action.

Probably anyone in your target audience would understand what it was doing than a naive outsider, but you might want to consider putting in some specifications: how heavy a thing it can handle, how wide the grabber can open.

Now I understand what you mean!

I have no education in anything regarding 3d so I had no idea of things like the “180 degree rule”.
Thanks for pointing out things like that! It will help me make better animations in the future!

Btw, is there any lists of things to avoid doing when making animations like this so I can prepare shots better for later?

I will be putting in some additional information like that the gizmo is lifting the object from a table to another etc.
It’s not important in this scenario of how heavy it can lift or how wide the grabber can open because it was only designed for a single object.

The Line isn’t a 3D rule, it’s a film and television rule. It applies to 3D because we are mimicing film.

Lists of things to avoid… hoo boy! film making is full of rules, but I would recommend heading to your nearest art supply store, and checking out their selection of books on filmmaking or animation. You’ll want one that has an overview from concept to finished product.

Short list?

Start with a story board

Don’t model anything the camera won’t see

Don’t add details the camera won’t pick up

Remember computer graphics deals in an illusion of reality, not a model of reality: if it looks good, it is good.

Always try to get feedback

Cheers,
Orinoco

Well, what I ment was 3d or cinematography :slight_smile:

I will read some books about this but I guess I wanted some list of general things to avoid. Something that you could always look at when you are unsure of some specific thing you want to do in an animation or movie etc.

I watched the video as well, here some feedback:

You did a really good job with the logo. But I didn’t understand what this machine does, before I read the posts above. I’d suggest that you should use something that looks heavier than this little box to demonstrate the actual job of that lifting tool. Except that you shouldn’t have used so much camera movement (it was confusing to me).

Useful list for scene compositing, which can partly be used for animations as well:

Yes, the camera orbited the model, simulating a turnaround, which is a common camera technique for showing off models in demo reels. Unfortunately, the model moved during the animation, establishing a line (one table to the other) which the camera crossed, creating that confusion. Nice reference.

My personal short list for animations?

  1. always use references (photos or concept art)

  2. don’t model anything the camera can’t see

Both these ‘rules’ imply making a storyboard as the beginning step to any project (I’m assuming the idea and story are in place) so you know what you intend the camera to see. Then you can collect your references and build your models accordingly.

Maybe you could separate the Animation into two parts: First fly around the model and then start the actual part of the demonstration, in which the machine lifts the box and the camera stays static. So you wouldn’t be confused anymore.

Good animation. But the scene was dull. There is enough lighting but somehow the realism is missing. I thing you just wanted to create the working of a machine. Not how and what it does. It was good. but looks like a CAD animation than a Blender animation. Don’t take it otherwise

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

That is probably what I should’ve done! At least I know what to do in the future!

@Salamander

Would you care to elaborate on what you have said? I know the scene is not that interesting, but I don’t want to draw any attention from the actual tool so that was the best I could come up with!

What do you mean that it looks like a CAD animation?

I think it is a good start, but overall I feel it is too realistic to communicate real well, and not realistic enough to be interesting. That is, you could explain the purpose of this lifting device in a stylised 2D animation, or you could make this more realistic, for rendering, texturing and animation. You, or your client, obviously had a reason to go for a realistic approach, so I will have to respect that. Animation-wise, I am missing a sense of weight, it looks like your device picks up barrels like a feather, while I would love to feel the weight of that barrel, how hard it is to pick up, and how easily it swings through when the device stops. Did you study the real thing?

See the modelling is really good. I admit that I cannot do such modelling. And the material choice and camera angles are good as well but the tables need good texturing. and add other things to the environment like a control panel, a supply box, a ceiling etc. And try depth of field to set the focus to the desired point. Add more contrast to the scene like more dark and light areas. by CAD I meant to day it looks like animation generated with AutoCAD or google sketch. The modelling is very good but u must take care of other objects in the scene too.

So you mean I should do more texturing to make it more realistic? I’ve already gone over that it wasn’t the best animation to understand how the tool works etc!

Well, in the real world, it does pick up barrels and other things as if they were feathers!

I did study the real thing a bit before it was all put together. However, I never saw it when it was completed or when picking up the object.

@Salamander

See the modelling is really good. I admit that I cannot do such modelling. And the material choice and camera angles are good as well but the tables need good texturing. and add other things to the environment like a control panel, a supply box, a ceiling etc. And try depth of field to set the focus to the desired point. Add more contrast to the scene like more dark and light areas. by CAD I meant to day it looks like animation generated with AutoCAD or google sketch. The modelling is very good but u must take care of other objects in the scene too.

Well, most of the tool wasn’t modeled by me (modeled in IronCad), only a few selected parts.

I did try to make a warehouse looking scene but I couldn’t get relatively noise free frames without needing like 2000 samples. And that would’ve taken too much time and money!

I don’t really get how different I could’ve animated the object. It doesn’t do anything more than move approximately like that! Could you maybe explain in more detail how I should’ve done?

Yep, I think texturing would make it better.

You will have to convice your audience these barrels are heavy barrels, instead of feathers, by using slow ins and slow outs, and some overshoots. You may want to study a crane or forklift to see how this feels: heavy things don’t just start to move, or come to a halt.

I did try to make a warehouse looking scene but I couldn’t get relatively noise free frames without needing like 2000 samples. And that would’ve taken too much time and money!

There is nothing wrong with your ‘lab setup’, just make it less video-game like…

Well the thing is, if a barrel would way 10kg or 100kg it would still look the same. The manipulator that’s connected to the lifting tool (not in the animation), is designed to make people lift things that are heavy without any problems at all.

With this manipulator you will be able to move the barrel like you see in the animation, although maybe more irregularities in the movement.

Video-game like? Do you mean the animation or shaders/textures etc?

You can use the compositor to put together a Blender Internal render of the background “warehouse” or “laboratory” setting, combined with a Cycles rendering of the equipment and tables to get around that “2000 samples with complex scene” rendering problem.