Land of milk and honey

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Wed May 16, 2007 4:01 pm

Big eyes. Schweet. Now need to figure out whether to give one top eyelid, or both a bottom and a top eyelid. Also, whether to separate both eyes like HEAVY, or overlap them like FLOAT. Soz slowtiger, not asking you to do my work for me, just I can't figure out what works best. My gut tells me separate eyes, with slightly smaller pupils, with a top and bottom eyelid. Perhaps there's some animation formula I don't yet know yet.

Sine wave, in fact, would be a HELLUVA lot easier to animate a sea than the way I've done it. Will check that out.

My title screen thus far:

Jeronimus · Post by **Jeronimus** » Thu May 17, 2007 3:44 pm

I like, I like. The heavy character remind me a little bit of one of the Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves. I think it's the Mr. Loud one (very cute books, by the way.)

I like the big eyes better than the small beady ones, they do convey more emotion. I can't tell you whether or not it would be better to have them separate or not, they look good the way they are really.
I must also say the triangle character would look better if it was just white without the blue circles in it (like in the previous version).
I think it would be a pity if you didn't use these characters ever again. It might be a good idea to have a number of characters, let's say 6 or something (who all have a different easily separatable shape design and colour, you still have a circle and square left) that you can combine in different short, so that you do have returning characters. You catch my drift? Having 6 characters and always choosing 3 out of them for a short, something like that's what I'm trying to say. That way you can still have variation because there are 6, but the audience can still recognize some favourite characters.

sour_jax · Post by **sour_jax** » Thu May 17, 2007 4:30 pm

Jeronimus wrote:I like, I like. The heavy character remind me a little bit of one of the Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves. I think it's the Mr. Loud one (very cute books, by the way.)

Haha I read that they are making a Mr. Men Movie!!!

It might be a good idea to have a number of characters, let's say 6 or something (who all have a different easily separatable shape design and colour, you still have a circle and square left) that you can combine in different short, so that you do have returning characters. You catch my drift? Having 6 characters and always choosing 3 out of them for a short, something like that's what I'm trying to say. That way you can still have variation because there are 6, but the audience can still recognize some favourite characters.

An ensemble cast for various shorts!!! That's a great idea, mix and match to keep it fresh.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Thu May 17, 2007 5:55 pm

Shot man, nice idea! Love Mr. Men. Was reading that now his son draws the Mr. Men. The son added some contemporary one, like Mr. Cool. Awesomeness. I'm all for simple shapes.

I agree the triangle's a lot cooler without the blue circles. Had a bit of a bender.

Thanks guys

Jeronimus · Post by **Jeronimus** » Sun May 20, 2007 3:22 pm

I also just noticed that in the first wide shot, there's an obvious pattern of clouds, that are placed in a regular order, but at the edge of the screen the pattern stops and there's an empty piece of blue sky. You'll get what I mean, I think.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sun May 20, 2007 8:33 pm

Yep, I gotta fix all that. Gotta fix a lot of things...

Thanks for the comment.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Mon May 21, 2007 10:16 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl44CCVzz60

Just something to make myself laugh. Wanted to see what Heavy would look like with long legs and arms.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon May 21, 2007 6:11 pm

*still laughing*

How do you do this? It's just a simple character and a voice, but I find it incredibly funny. Very good face expression. You could use his arms for acting too: flipping them like wings at the word "fly".

He still walks too fast for being heavy. A real weighty character always makes s little pause between steps and leans more to the sides with each step. - But it is already good the way he moves now!

Your voice talents do a great job.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:04 pm

Lol. Thanks slowtiger. I agree about the weight.

Still setting up my world. Trying to find out on Google how to animate a sine wave. Not turning up much. Still trying to figure that out...Wanting to animate it so it doesn't look like a cardboard cut-out moving backwards and forward.

Thanks for props re: voice talents. It was my friend I've known since junior school. He recorded all the voices. Just sped up some and slowed down others for the various characters. Talented guy...

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:30 pm

Sine waves:
just some idea out of my head without testing.

Create a circle, duplicate it, set them aside, move one of them a bit deeper. Duplicate this setup until you have a long row of circles like this: o°o°o°o°.

Create a new layer, draw a sine line which touches the top of the top circles and the bottom of the bottom circles. Erase unnecessary points until you have the same number on each circle. Create a keyframe.

Flip the circles layer vertically.

Go to the next keyframe. Adjust the points by translating them vertically until they form the perfect sine line again, just in shifted phase.

This should give you two keyframes which you can adjust for timing and create a cycle from them.

(Alternatively: just scan in some sine wave and use it as a guide ...)

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:48 pm

Hmm. Tried that. Don't quite know if it's right.

Tried a couple of methods:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTRzs1WLPNo

I think that's kind of what you mean.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon May 21, 2007 9:54 pm

I had something like the third part in mind, yes. But it's up to your taste what you'll use in the end.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Mon May 21, 2007 9:59 pm

Had a look at it again. The third part's not too bad, in fact. Gonna use that I think.

Thanks again. I owe you like, a million credits when this thing's finished.