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Taji, I commend you on your efforts. That was RIDICULOUSLY fun to watch. Just classic really. I've already mentioned the sound effect thing to too many other people to bother this time around. Instead, I'm going to focus mostly on the lipsync. There was SOME effort, but really it looked fairly half assed. The guy at the beginnings just basically opened and closed his mouth with nearly no real conviction, and at the end it was like three phonetic positions existed and thats all. You should really invested time in observing just how people talk. You'll be fascinated to notice, that though mouth movements are just so inifintey subtle compared to what you see in most animation, that each position it 100% unique and different from the last. Also, I think teeth and the angle at which the appear (or sometimes dont appear) in a mouth are so much more important than animators make them seem. They are half the reason behind distinction in a voice and control how you project sound. So I think that warrants so investigation.

Good work though, and I enjoyed it. Just some points to think about in the future.

I doubt I'll have the time to finish it, so here's the start. At least you can see I actually did something.

Oh, and the sketchy part became even more messed up when I deleted a layer without thinking.

At 12/26/06 08:09 PM, vonDark wrote: I doubt I'll have the time to finish it, so here's the start. At least you can see I actually did something.

Lip synching looks good to me. I like the character also.

-L

i updated my link for anyone monitoring my progress.

-L

http://www.brainwashstudios.com/beta/chess.ht ml

vonDark: Looks really good! Finish it! I think yours might be my new favourite. (Our esteemed commmander excluded)

Luis: Well it looks absolutely fantastic. But because I'm an ass, I'm gunna nitpick. First off, your ears seem to needlessly change shape when you talk. It seems to me those could either change a little less, or not at all (which would be sorta boring) by being on a different layer. Also, when lil' Lu speaks, he seems to be a half-beat, maybe even a quarter, off mark for the sounds. I appreciate the smoothness and realism of mouth movement, but, your just a lil slow to the catch.

Now that I've criticised other people's submissions, here's and update to mine, which doesn't follow my own criticisms.

http://img114.imageshack.us/my.php?image=week ly2mratuv9.swf

At 12/26/06 07:22 PM, MRat wrote: Taji, I commend you on your efforts. That was RIDICULOUSLY fun to watch. Just classic really. I've already mentioned the sound effect thing to too many other people to bother this time around. Instead, I'm going to focus mostly on the lipsync. There was SOME effort, but really it looked fairly half assed. The guy at the beginnings just basically opened...

Good work though, and I enjoyed it. Just some points to think about in the future.

Thanks for the critisism, I needed it lol. Well truthly that flash took me a good half or 45 mins. The old guy at the beginning, I was going to lip sync it, but then suddenly realised how hard it is to lip sync an old guys mouth that looked like that lol. At the end I just could be arsed (arghh sorry for the language) with the guys mouth, which I could of done in 5 minutes but didn't think I should re-post with little bits each time. I totally lip synced a whole song in one flash of mine so I do have the skill lol. Thanks for the critism MRat dude (chess is like a sword fight, FARTT!!!)

Hah no problem, Taji. And I don't think too many people mind the use of the word arsed.

Now that yoe've seen mine whould you care to return the favour of some criticism. It's not done, but it's best to fix things early when it can't interfere with too much else.

I haven't had time to make or even start one of these although i have an idea but i'll comment anyway, on the last one i saw which was m rats

from your outline, i like the intro on the lighting but you could experiment with fading the shadows into black less suddenly to add a more realistic lighting effect, also consider where you think its coming from, so it remains consistant. Its a cool effect but it doesn't really seem possible to happen in life, not that that's a bad thing, just use your best judgement.

Also from the different scenes that seem to flash make sure your careful not to confuse people with to many camera changes without a familiar character, i'm not sure if that makes sense, it just seemed to confuse my eye.

WEll anyway your the author and have the final say, so take what you want (if any) from my little critism and apply it.

So far it looks good

At 12/26/06 09:14 PM, MRat wrote: vonDark: Looks really good! Finish it! I think yours might be my new favourite. (Our esteemed commmander excluded)

Luis: Well it looks absolutely fantastic. But because I'm an ass, I'm gunna nitpick. First off, your ears seem to needlessly change shape when you talk. It seems to me those could either change a little less, or not at all (which would be sorta boring) by being on a different layer. Also, when lil' Lu speaks, he seems to be a half-beat, maybe even a quarter, off mark for the sounds

Fixed it a pinch. I snipped a few frames and the first part is pretty in synch.. the second one is a pinch off still but i cant trim anymore frames off without having it look like a jumbled mess so im gonna just let it be.

In terms of the ears moving I'm trying something new out and that is that im considering the whole head when something is being spoken and the jaw bone hinges at about the earhole level and so it makes sense for the ears to be impacted.. it looks strange but to me its anatomically correct.

-L

At 12/26/06 08:55 PM, Luis wrote: http://www.brainwashstudios.com/beta/chess.ht ml

I noticed, lil Lu only has four fingers. The animation is insane though. Can i know your FPS?

At 12/26/06 08:55 PM, Luis wrote: i updated my link for anyone monitoring my progress.

Its really cool. I'm glad you're spending more than an hour on it.

At 12/26/06 11:01 PM, Zac-Donald wrote: Damn, its hard comming up with something not done so far in the thread...
Where was this sound clip taken from?

Sound clip is from a Wu-Tang song..

I was bored so i made a tutorial of the background of that second scene. Watch it if you want. Its the first one there.
http://www.brainwashstudios.com/tutorials.htm l

At 12/26/06 11:05 PM, Zac-Donald wrote:

At 12/26/06 08:55 PM, Luis wrote: i updated my link for anyone monitoring my progress.

-L

http://www.brainwashstudios.com/beta/chess.ht ml

It looks a bit odd in the second scene just having the castle in front of the charaters, Shouldnt other pieces be shown?

yep. havent gotten to that yet. ill probably have one knocked down as he leans over. i also need to use some black pieces for the dad.

Luis, your guy has four fingers. :D Why?

sorry for the repost but it seems you ignored it

Also, if i may know, what's your FPS preference?

At 12/25/06 06:53 AM, LazyMuffin wrote: Heres my thingy for the Challenge.
Very bored lately.

Click on this silly link

(Yes, I'm aware this is an early post, but I saw this and had to reply)

Woa, you actually visit these forums? lol

thought you spent all your time on deviantart :D

Actually, Luis, I did research on the audio clip before you posted the source, just because it sounded neat, turns out it's from the movie "Shao Lin yu Wu Dang"

Turns out Wu Tang's song sampled it from that movie. Movie has a nice score on IMDB, too, I might check it out :) The guy who played the old guy in kill bill 2 is in it. Master Pei, or something?

1.4 secs done, Game of chess lip synched

All i got so far...

every ones shorts are looking great,
luis i wanted to add to your tut about photoshop backgrounds.

instead of print screening and then going into photoshop to past it.
you can simply make the bg a symbol(wich it will turn to anyways, even more so if a image is going in its place.
go inside the symbal and then export the image.
that way you can actully export the image background bigger and better quilty then a simple print screen, also it elemates the time in hiding layers or any interferance from frames above. (like the hand)

i am a big fan of no dark outline backgrounds, and using PS to do backgrounds seems to work great with big projects movie
like itscartoon "Broken Summer"
*sites down, alt link Broken summer

this is one of the best swf/pic mix i have seen.
altho im sure it was produced in ToonBoom. the method is the same.

Here my one from LAST WEEK only started today lol haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVE-maIT0PE

3.2 secs done, lip sync "a game of chess is like a sword fight"

Wow, somebody actually took my advice. Yay for Luis.

At 12/27/06 04:29 AM, Ani-x wrote: every ones shorts are looking great,
luis i wanted to add to your tut about photoshop backgrounds.

instead of print screening and then going into photoshop to past it.

Well this is a quick and easy method, i dont really mind other crap being in the way. I just need a quick render of the scene for placement purposes. Anything captured in the print screen wont ever be seen in the actual background in the end. Print screen just does the job quickly and painlessly without adding an extra symbol to my library or having to go through the whole export thing.

Updated mine a bit. One sentence down, wooo.

At 12/27/06 10:51 AM, vonDark wrote: Updated mine a bit. One sentence down, wooo.

Looks really good so far, love the character design :)

At 12/26/06 03:06 PM, Luis wrote: keep going its still too sketchy to really give feedback on it.. get some more definition in there. and the whole point of the excersize is to try your hand at lip synching theres no point in trying if youre not going to follow the challenge.

http://denvish.net/ulf/1167237596_blarg.php
added lip sync :D
the characters are ment to be sketchy like that :P
i may fill them in so they stad out a bit more < i did that for a few frames..>

oh well, onwards tot he next challenge, and may i suggest something :)

put a short peom or sentence and see what people animate for it, thats it.. :D

next time i'll acutlly do a full colour character :D!

UUUUUUUUUPDATE ladies, its totally update time.

http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=week ly2mratrb1.swf

At 12/27/06 11:44 AM, Lord-Sonx wrote: http://denvish.net/ulf/1167237596_blarg.php
added lip sync :D

'The game of chess..' this part is okay, its lagging a pinch on the middle part of the verse but not too bad.

The second verse is lagging badly. 'You must think first...'

'before you move' looks fine.

At 12/27/06 11:56 AM, MRat wrote: UUUUUUUUUPDATE ladies, its totally update time.

http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=week ly2mratrb1.swf

make sure the final part of the first verse ends with a ssss mouth movement. If you listen to the audio it is very prominent and you should make it your mission to ensure that visually.

Some people better hurry up. We only have 3 days left.

At 12/27/06 02:13 PM, Masterswordman wrote: Some people better hurry up. We only have 3 days left.

4 kthx.

And *what ST said*