"Machine Masters"

[Rhoel]

I just put my Resume up online - there is a Flash video of "Machine Masters" there too - built with Anime Studio 5. Its work in progress and sound yet to be added but the animation is finally finished.

You can find the video here



Enjoy.

Rhoel

BTW, the Antics Firm reference in the credits is just an anagram of my name

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[Nephilim]

Hi, I'm new here and WOW, that was pretty cool. Was this made entirely in Anime Studio? Can you give me a brief idea of how to make your characters appear 3D. I am expierenced with creating basic characters walking and interacting side scroll and am eager to learn more. Nice work!!

[Genete]

Rhoel, I have no words... That's .. it is ...Wow!!!! It is bordering the perfection!!.
It is a pitty that I cannot hear the music. It is there? I have Firefox and Flash 9 installed and the animation works perfectly... But no sound
Are other formats available? There are no links to the menu on the left.

Only one thecnical question (*) (): How did you give different shadows to the robot's spring that the mouse is winding up? I supouse it is a 3D object, but how did you animate the mtl file?

C-o-n-g-r-a-t-u-l-a--t-i-o-n-s-!

Regards
Genete

(*)I have thousand of questions but I don't want to overwhelm you.

[Rhoel]

Can you give me a brief idea of how to make your characters appear 3D.

It's all anime studio 5 with the exception of the clockwork key in the back of the toy - that was blender. Everything else is AS: Image textures were made with photoshop.

I hasten to add this is not a funny ha ha type animation, its actually a AS test i did for the studio to see if I could break it, find bugs or things which might limit how we used it (at the time, the other guys were working with 3 Moho licences - to switch to a new version mid-series was to odangerous). Sc 6 did break the render but nothing unsolvable - just had to render it in sections: 1:30 was too much for my PC.


How it's assembled:
The machines are cubes, constructed using the z-axis. The metal work uses either image textures or graduated effects; I'll try to get some tutorials up on this later.

I worked with key drawings mostly done by manat, my long suffering partner in crime - sometimes I used a single layout drawing, other times a key drawing every 4-8 frames if the action needed it (a walk cycle, etc).

The whole thing took around two months to do part time - script writing had to come first. File sizes are huge, often greater than 45megs of just vector data. Sc 6 is a killer, it's 1:30 long. I had wanted to do the entire film as a single shot but the resources on the system were just too high.

My favourite bit is the mouse walking/winding up the key - much of that was done on the fly, the little eye glances to camera, the bobble on the hat, hands going to make a third key wind but stops when the machine starts up. etc.

There are a heap of in jokes and gags alll through the film, though you need to view it in HD to see some: The front of the machine control panel has over 18 jokes - some are aimed at Micro$oft, some about work colleagues, others stupid things like led's flashing morse code messages ... the usual signs of the animator getting bored and humoring himself with dumb stuff. I won't explain why there are two mice carrying a table but it amuses me.

The timing of the machine action (the gunge dropping, for instance) isn't 100% right but I had to stop sometime.

I also need to add a soft cut to the edit.

However, I am glad its "finished" though. The test went on far too long.

Rhoel.

[Rhoel]

Rhoel, I have no words... That's .. it is ...Wow!!!! It is bordering the perfection!!.

Too kind, but I can see too many timing errors to call it perfect.

It is a pitty that I cannot hear the music.

Sorry, no music or effects as yet - the guys in the studio were still doing that went my contract finished - I'll have to do my own M&E later.

Are other formats available?

Yes, rendered in all of those, plus a mobile phone version. I haven't linked to them because those files are commercial property of CKA (Creative Kingdom animation): They control the sales and distribution, so if anyone wants to screen it, distribute it as mobile content, etc, please contact them (or me and I'll give you the sales team data).

How did you give different shadows to the robot's spring that the mouse is winding up? I suppose it is a 3D object, but how did you animate the mtl file?

The 3D is simple - no mtl. Blender hadn't released the Render Baking version when I did this scene: Because the character is only doing left to right walk, I rendered the key through a 360 turn, then output it as a png sequence: In AS, I used the switch layer to animate it. A simple solution.

There are some serious composite tricks going on - if you look at the close-up of the machine console, it has a semi-circle graduated filter on the shot (as have many other scenes). This mimics lens edge falloff and gives the shot a better/realistic feel: It literally dims the edges of the shot. I'll try posting a before and after image to show how it works: The use of graduated filters in compositing is something I have been doing for years, ever since the Animo 1.8 days - it can really make or break a film.


BTW, I must thank Mike for his technical assistance early on - I encountered a serious error when making the machine which, for a time jeopardized, the entire project: Mike looked at my object file and within 24 hours told me how to avoid the problem. (a floating point render error, which layer grouping corrected).

So thanks Mike ... it worked in the end.

Rhoel

[Genete]

There are some serious composite tricks going on - if you look at the close-up of the machine console, it has a semi-circle graduated filter on the shot (as have many other scenes). This mimics lens edge falloff and gives the shot a better/realistic feel: It literally dims the edges of the shot. I'll try posting a before and after image to show how it works: The use of graduated filters in compositing is something I have been doing for years, ever since the Animo 1.8 days - it can really make or break a film.

I have problems to translate "semi-circle graduated filter on the shot"
Could you explain it a little more please.
Here is a close up.

Rhoel, I have no words... That's .. it is ...Wow!!!! It is bordering the perfection!!.

Too kind, but I can see too many timing errors to call it perfect.

There are, yes, but minor compared with the amount of details that comes with the animation, The shadow of the mouse over the bed... the refelection of the fire in the oven on the pearl... and without speaking about the supervisor and his head/body turn,,,

Thanks
Genete
PD: Music must be composed for this short!

[Nephilim]

I worked with key drawings mostly done by manat, my long suffering partner in crime - sometimes I used a single layout drawing, other times a key drawing every 4-8 frames if the action needed it (a walk cycle, etc).

Maybe you overestimated my comprehension with animation lingo

What is manat? Is this how you made your walking and 3D character animations? And whats a single layout drawing, and whats a key LOL. I have the blender program. But, how did you make reflections and textures on the key? When you export OBJ files how can you put reflections and textures on them in Anime Studio? Sorry for all the questions, I just want
to know what anime studio is capable of.

The animations I made are nothing prepared to this, once again, WOW!!

Also, what are these jokes you are talking about in the video, I don't think I understand it.

[Rhoel]

What is manat?

Not a what but a Who. He is a colleague at the studio usually responsible for our series storyboards: On this project, he produced my layouts, character designs and animation keys - some keys were just roughs, others inked clean-ups.

how did you make reflections and textures on the key? When you export OBJ files how can you put reflections and textures on them in Anime Studio?

I mentioned above about this - not a 3D object but a sequence of imported rendered images. I knew where the light sources were in the scene so I put one hard light at the right angle, then rendered 50(?) frames of the key as it turned 360. I imported these into a switch layer and scaled.re-positioned it on the toy. in the clockwork wind-up, I used 1-3-5 etc, skipping frame to make it fast. When the model starts up. I made a cycle of 50-49-48-47, etc

Also, what are these jokes you are talking about in the video

Series and features animators often add gags in the background, create stupid names on objects or have fun with line-up of things for just 1 frame. At this resolution, its hard to see most of the ones I added since you need to read the text on the machine. If you look in the background when the toy races across the screen, you will see two mice carrying a table through shot - that is one of the in-house gags ... it's funny to our own guys.

Here is another example - the machine had to have a warning label on the terminals - messing with the warning label made me smile ... it kept me interested and alert: Let's face it, animating can be mind numbing at times, so any little light relief is welcomed.

[Rhoel]

I have problems to translate "semi-circle graduated filter on the shot" ... Could you explain it a little more please.

A graduated filter is just like the one you put on a 35mm camera to make the sky darker and the foreground unaffected. Like sunglasses which are darker at the top, lighter at the bottom.

I use two types, linear ...


and radial ....



The radial one is used in this scene. Here is the AS screen grab of the setup.



The actual filter is 100% black to transparent ... too heavy an effect. I enlarged it and put the zero point at the lower centre of the frame: The actual % in the final image is 45%.

Here is a before/after pic.



Without the Grad, the shot looks flat and boring. The graduation makes it look more natural - eg: the corners of rooms are darker than the middle, the ceiling of a room is darkers than the lower walls.

Most of the time, you will use a linear graduated filter, either vertically or rotated so the background is darker away from the light source. If you look at the shot of Pringle (the technician guy) looking at the faulty machine, you will see two rows of good machines in the background. They are identical clones of one machine - but to create the depth, I added a linear grad between the machine rows: That sells the effect.

An ideal use of linear grads is on a rainy sky - do a before and after on that and you will instantly see the advantage.

Just keep it subtle.

[Nephilim]

I am still confused lol. Can you explain to me SLOWLY how you made your old, professor guy at the beginning look 3D? Especially when he is walking and turning his head. That looks really cool.


Thanks.


It may just be that I am still inexperienced with moho/ Anime Studio.

[Captain Jack]

I'm both a noob and feeling a little dense this morning... how exactly is the filter implemented? I can duplicate the effect in a render with an image layer set to about 50% opacity, but I can't get an effect similar to yours in the editor.

I'm much more used to doing 3D work, and not really thinking about lighting once I get the lights set in place. This is a really useful technique, thank you for sharing.

[Genete]

I'm both a noob and feeling a little dense this morning... how exactly is the filter implemented? I can duplicate the effect in a render with an image layer set to about 50% opacity, but I can't get an effect similar to yours in the editor.

I'm much more used to doing 3D work, and not really thinking about lighting once I get the lights set in place. This is a really useful technique, thank you for sharing.

I think it is a vector layer with a shape with a fill gradient and a 30 or 40% of opacity. Perhaps he uses also some kind of composite from the layer options dialog. (multiply may be?)

But let Rhoel make the answer..

Genete

[Rhoel]

Can you explain to me SLOWLY how you made your old, professor guy at the beginning look 3D? Especially when he is walking and turning his head.
.
.
It may just be that I am still inexperienced with moho/ Anime Studio.

Okay, the setup is pretty extreme. This is the 3D view of where everything is.



Lost Marble made a tutorial on how to build the cube shapes - the machine is just a slightly more complex version of that. If I have to explain how its made, I'll be here for weeks.

The guy is animated walking on the spot. I used the z axis to position him in the distance, then with a bit of trial and error, positioned him at the end position, finding the right speed and distance to make him look as though he is walking down the space between the machine. The animation isn't difficult, it's a straight head-on walk. The ground shadow locks him into the scene - it's a visual effect, when the brain sees the 3D ground plane, the "2D walk" is interpreted as moving in 3D space. Planning the walk cycle with the final perspective in mind was very important .. the disappearing points must agree or it will never work.

Oh, and the file size for this scene is 47megs. The scene has er, ... a small degree of complexity.

[Rhoel]

I'm both a noob and feeling a little dense this morning... how exactly is the filter implemented? I can duplicate the effect in a render with an image layer set to about 50% opacity, but I can't get an effect similar to yours in the editor.

I'm much more used to doing 3D work, and not really thinking about lighting once I get the lights set in place. This is a really useful technique, thank you for sharing.

I think it is a vector layer with a shape with a fill gradient and a 30 or 40% of opacity. Perhaps he uses also some kind of composite from the layer options dialog. (multiply may be?)

But let Rhoel make the answer..

Genete

I could be mean and let you go on guessing. I tried vectoring a grad but found the 0% opacity a problem.

So I built the graduated filter in Photoshop/AI, and imported it a hi-res png image. It's opacity is 100% solid down to zero transparency. Where it's positioned in the scene depends on what I want to hold back. Usually its between the character and the background.

I set the opacity low, and set the layer setting s to hide in editing view - you only need to see it in the final render.

In the editor view I had the image 100%, to show where is goes. Normally, its just hidden. In Animo, we used to vector these grad - its a composite technique I have been using for over ten years.

Maybe, I need to make a more detailed Tips and Technics on this sometime.

Tonight I have to do the day job.

Rhoel

[Draw_Girl]

I'm inspired!! ,Learned alot from this theard.