gazzamataz

Well here's a start and as you can see I ain't mastered fur yet but give it time

Rodney I am flattered by your comments and indeed I do find them uplifting and pertinent. The idea of Bella Bear interacting with live characters has crossed my mind, I was going to do some live footage of the grandchildren (one is 5 the other 7) and mix them with BB just for fun (I know Parlo - Sam Bruntock - has a DVD with Anzovin Studios on this subject). Again, I never got around to it. I am glad that you found it potentially commercially viable, and don't think I haven't tried flogging it - BBC, Channel 4, Nickelodeon etc. I have also started work on a book using my three stories but the market in the UK seems to be so saturated. Nevertheless I perceiver. I cannot let it go since I have a vision (or is it a curse?) in my head which I cannot let go. It drives the missus mad but that's tough Thing is all the time I spend enhancing the characters is less time spent animating. I have decided the route to go down is the film festival one. I have entered the IFCT with my latest effort just to test the water. In the meantime I decided to sod the book and finish more of this current animated story. I just gotta keep at it and not get distracted with flying and diving and how fast is my computer. As for working on TWO, I keep thinking shall I or shouldn't I. But again, if I did I would never finish my first episode. (Twitches wildly and naws at his fingers wondering). I heard a good dialogue the other day. A chap was saying he had been trying for five years to become a national DJ sand still hadn't got there. The person he was talking to said there is no time span. You just keep on trying and you will achieve. Mind you if you work is crap then you never will, but I don't think my stuff is crap So thank you for your encouragement it is most appreciated, now back to the computer... Now where's the Wacom tablet I think Bella needs a face lift and some eyelashes - everyone thinks she is a boy

OMG! Where do you find the time man? You must live and eat this stuff… Makes my efforts seem limp… Apart from that this is pretty gripping stuff, I will be keeping an eye on your great work m8.

Two months later… I am tempted to improve the image quality of my work but I think I prefer the relative simplicity of the characters and I am more interested in what they do than look like. I mean I could use hair on Bella Bear but what bothers me is the render times and I think people will be looking at my inability to use hair rather that what the character is doing. I dunno. I am in a quandary like many others who have limited time. Although I feel now that I want to drop all other interests and hobbies and go at these stories and nothing but before I end up looking too much like Gandalf… But I am sure I will get side-tracked buy something new and shiney. I guess that is why I am galled 'Gazza' since it is Italian for 'Magpie'.

Since I am still recoiling from missing the venue last year and have been avoiding Paul Forwoods Daleks ever since I am definately, definately, definately going to be there at this year's Mac Expo at the end of October to pay homage to Ken Baer and whoever else will be there from Hash Inc. - I have even promised to help So anyone else from the UK or the GLAM, LAMUG or whatever it's now called going? I am really looking forward to it and to drive Ken mad with all my questions

Well all of this sort of stuff is making me itch to get 3DPainter! I have always wanted a tool like this (never did like laying out UV maps). Nice work John, although I am very intrigued by the render quality - did you do this with radiosity or HDRI? Or did you use a batch of low strength lights? I haven't been using AM13 much so it is still pretty new to me…

Ken, have you smelt that flower? Why else would she cut the head off it!

Old 'little' project that I never finished and since I was itching to do some animating again after a bit of a break (holidays, fixing things and such) I thought I would start finishing it off. Here's the flick: Flower Sniffin I still have a problem with the feet skidding (I have never fully worked out how to avoid this, or if I did I have forgotten how to do it) and a few other glitches. I have basically put Bella in her Igloo nad changed camera angles on her - not sure if I have done too many though... It's great to be doing some AM again!

Nice model there m8, but as others have said he needs some transparency and refraction on him... He looks a little too metalic at the moment and it will interesting seeing him animated since being made of ice, I cannot imagine he will bend too well...

Well I am flattered and very pleased by the responses - thank you all. I will indeed continue the work to produce the next bit, but I don't think it will be Peg actually rescuing Bannah and Bella - I have got another section in mind which hopefully won't take quite so long... I have taken some of the points people have made and thought them over and I might get around to incorporating them but at the moment I have had enough of this little flick and want to move on to the next one. Although I will add, Rodney, that Peg doesn't actually kick the door off it's hinges - she just kicks it open. The main thing in all the suggestions was me animating Peg getting onto her broomstick but my patience was running out and I cheated and decided to skip it. Lazy bugger eh? P.S. Please note the file size has been drastically reduced using the Apple H263 codec (QuickTime 6.5 required), so instead of being 23mb it is now just over 10mb. P.P.S. On the nose! That will indeed be a trademark of the series - along with a few other points of style generated mostly by my inability to animate really smoothly

Well after a little bit here, a little bit there and over four months later I have more or less finished my latest flick from the Bella Bear Project I have been working on... It still needs some refinement and I have banged my head against the wall a fair few times, especially with particles and volumetric lights but this is as far as I have got - please be kind I couldn't resist showing you what I have been up too... Peg to the rescue Be warned it is 10.6mb big - broadband connection recommended!

At nucking fast! I get to see the beastie - and now I wish I hadn't... It's a bit too realistic and very scary! Excellent work m8, thanks for getting the QT version done. One thing I would suggest though, is the lack of specular in the mouth it looks a bit too lamberty if you know what I mean. I also am inclined to agree with what others have said by adding some dribble/saliva too. One teeny other thing is the lack of eyes. I am not sure if this is a good thing since it makes the creature more disconcerting, or that it needs something to draw the observer in to make the beast look more compelling and scary by drawing you into it clutches if you know what I mean. Pretty gripping stuff

Well it looks like I won't be able to view it on me Intel Mac cos the codec don't work on Intel Macs… That'll teach me to get the latest and greatest!

Grrr!!! Cory what version of DivX are you using? I have downloaded the codec and it still won't play on my iMac any chance of a normal QuickTime movie for the rest of us?

Thanks for the help Hashers - much appreciated. I have experienced the single frame taking ages to render before, but in this case it was several frames so just dropping that frame workaround is out of the window... I have also experienced the rogue light scenario and have already replaced the volumetric lights in this project, so it wasn't that phenonmenon causing the problem either. I then re-rendered this section without sprites and particles and it worked perfect so that seems to be the problem. However I am loathe to replace the sprites with particles since I would have to rerender other sections and probably develop more problems... Banging my head off the wall I just want ot get this rendered why does it have to go errant on me!!! It really is annoying that it does this since, as I originally said, the previous few frames worked fine. It might be that specular highlight on the bell in the background that has sparked it off.

This little problem is proving to be a right headache... Have a look at the frame below and notice the rendering time for the anti-aliasing. Over one hour for pass1 and over two hours for pass2 - this seems rediculous considering the frame before only took 8 minutes! The scene is using particles and volumetric lights but why the sudden jump in render times from one frame to the other???

Cory I get no joy trying to play that flick m8, any chance of a *.mov version of it or letting me know what 3rd party codec you are using - I would love to see it.

Na! That's easy! Your creature has only go six legs - try doing a spider with eight! Very nice action there m8, I like it. But I would remove that dynamic constraint, it looks the keyframe on the head is different from at the start of the cycle to the one at the end hence the rapid reflex. Not sure about the animation on the tail though, don't look quite right. Apart from that very nice and how long did it take you to animate that cyce?

Cory That is one ugly bugger! Or should I say bug Nice work and I like the dance floor lighting. I am inclined to agree with luckbat about the tail though, it looks like it isn't finished, kinda like a bent tube. If it is meant to look like that then fine but it doesn't suit the rest of the model which is quite detailed. Looking forward to seeing you make this critter move. I remember animating a spider walk cycle years ago and it drove me mad, have fun…

That seems highly likely KNBits! The camera is indeed pointing in the same direction as the volumetric light. If that is the case then I am stuffed!!! I will have to think of a work-a-round... Why is it that you almost think you are getting to the end of a project and all these little thing suddenly just pop up c-wheeler, nah the camera is passing through nothing like glasses or bottles - Witchy Peg doesn't keep em in her broom room! Thanks for the help boys.

I am stumped. Take a look at this image and see if you can figure it out. I have a camera moving through a scene but suddenly a few frames in I suddenly get this... I have checked all the lights, all the cameras and cannot see what is causing it. I am using two volumetric klieg lights, one shining directly down and the other through the doorway. Even when I turn the one pointing directly down off, I get the same problem. When it is on and the camera is out of the lights cone I still get the same problem. Is it just an anomaly? Or have I got a bug? Anyone with any ideas about it would be most helpful

Well spotted! I was hoping nobody would notice this and I would get away with it When I originally modeled Alf way back in 2001 I used a material for the eyes rather than model them. Since they are such an awkward shape modeling and animating unusually shaped pupils was gonna be a pain in the arse. But! I have just realised how to work around it - animate the material, it should work. Thanks Paul. More snippets later today I think

Well, thanks for the comments guys - I never quite expected such an indepth reply about camera movement though… The thing to remember here is that this is just a section from a section, so if you saw the whole in context you might not think the camera angles and character at the start of this clip look ambiguous or a 'vanilla composition'. Personally it's just how I want it so I am happy with it. It is a smack-bang in your face introduuction to 'Alf' Robcat As far as the head movement is concerned, I normally (I am learning a little) rotate the neck then the head and possibly the shoulders when turning a characters head. In this instance since the turn is so rapid (he is responding to an alarm) his head and next doesn't turn at all, he spins his whole body around. I have watched this many times and feel that rotating his neck then head wouldn't really add to the movement. Anyway thanks for the tips and comments now back to refining everything…

Hi Hashers Well I thought I would post a little segment from my latest 'Bella Bear' extravaganza. The finished flick itself is only a small segment from one of my stories and will only be just over a minute long when finished... When done I will post the whole thing (hopefully by the end of next month) - enjoy! Alf's Appearance

Dale Nice to see you posting again! I like your character, is she destined for the haunted house project that you have been working on? Nicely modelled, nicely textured - do you have any cycles we could look at to see her in action? I see you are use Fur/Hair as well, I really must start using this feature myself I am feeling way behind