Beat Police - My First Carrara Animation - Polyloop

Jaeger · 13th March 2006, 05:27

http://www.jaegercat.com/cgi-bin/son...eat.jpg:Videos

This is my fourth-ever animation, my first in Carrara, so I'm still very much a beginner in this.
I started in November, using Poser, but switched to Carrara in late December. The character animation is still in Poser.
Post-work, including the karaoke text, was done in Vegas.
My husband wrote the song a few years ago.

JuST · 13th March 2006, 22:31

Nice video... although it's not my music^^
I have not animated many things, so I cannot give tips or tricks. But I think it is well done.

DudeDudely222 · 14th March 2006, 03:18

Very nicely animated, walking is done nicely, doesn't look like he's walking in place etc. The people do look a little plastic though because of the textures used on them, and it would add some realism for the character faces to change a bit more. Interesting song though... Also typically when you're doing lyrics to a song on the screen like that, you wait untill all the lyrics are sung before replacing it with new ones. In a few instances you have the bottom line still being sung, while the top line comes in with the next line. Overall though a very nice animation, and very well thought out. I like it.

Jaeger · 14th March 2006, 04:55

Thanks for your comments. I totally agree with you on the facial animation - this is something I need to improve for the next attempt. I'm also still weak on character animation generally, and a lot of the timings are unrealistic (it looks like they're in slow motion). I'm busy reading animation books at the moment to try to get this better.

The walks are all done in Poser, using the walk path and walk designer. It's not perfect (there's a hint of a limp), but it does seem to get round the "walk in place" syndrome.

I think the problem with the textures is the rendering quality I opted for. Again, I think I should do better next time.

You're wrong on the text timings though. As a singer, I expect and need to see the text as soon as possible, and most professional karaoke videos do the overlap. It's only amateur ones, where there are limitations on the software being used, that don't have the overlap. We use Vegas, which meant a lot of work (by my husband, not me!) to set up the original templates, but we like the result.

DudeDudely222 · 14th March 2006, 05:33

All right, I'm sorry for the misconception. I have never done any karaoke and was basing the text comment mostly on the sing along videos I've seen in the past. It would make more sense to have it available right away if you were singing along to it.

mon_stdnt · 14th March 2006, 06:02

Wow! 5 mins, How long did it took to render it? Very imprssive, I did,'t really pay I attention on the mistakes that much. The only thing that caught my eye was the police men doing the robot

.

The last few seconds of the video(Give it to me...) the mouth mimic for the chorus wasn't very pronounced. Other than that is great.

Jaeger · 14th March 2006, 06:20

I used the fastest settings I could get away with, and the Carrara render was at 25fps for PAL output (the conversion to 12.5 fps for the web version was done in Vegas)
Total clip length is probably around 7 or 8 minutes, because of the transitions. Average of probably around 45 seconds per frame, so I guess around 130-150 hours? I don't use network rendering, but my poor computer was busy every night. I also found every batch rendering bug in Carrara 5 during this exercise

The test renders were either done directly in Poser (to check an animation), or at 3fps (to check everything else, and to give me a test clip for Vegas). Since all the scenes were using Poser imports, I found Poser's draft mode rendering to be a lot faster than doing it in Carrara.

The lipsynching was all done in Mimic. I was getting lazy near the end and started using synchs produced for one model on different models.

Aunty Betty · 16th March 2006, 03:23

damn Windows Media Video - I can't see on my Mac.

Jaeger · 16th March 2006, 07:16

Always happens - I originally uploaded as a Quicktime format, and all of my friends complained as they didn't want to install Quicktime.

Check again in about 24 hours, if you're still interested!

Jolran · 16th March 2006, 11:40

Wow impresive! Very funny and entertaining indeed. Storytelling is exellent. In fact as "mon stdnt" mentioned after a minute I did not pay attention to details, just followed the story. And THAT is a compliment.

Frenchy Pilou · 16th March 2006, 12:37

...clip!

Jaeger · 17th March 2006, 00:25

There's now an MP4 version available, for anyone who doesn't have Windows Media Player, but would still like to see it.

Thanks, Jolran - that's the best thing anyone can say about it!

13th March 2006, 05:27	#1 (permalink)
Jaeger Cube Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 62	Beat Police - My First Carrara Animation http://www.jaegercat.com/cgi-bin/son...eat.jpg:Videos This is my fourth-ever animation, my first in Carrara, so I'm still very much a beginner in this. I started in November, using Poser, but switched to Carrara in late December. The character animation is still in Poser. Post-work, including the karaoke text, was done in Vegas. My husband wrote the song a few years ago.

14th March 2006, 03:18	#3 (permalink)
DudeDudely222 NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 108	Very nicely animated, walking is done nicely, doesn't look like he's walking in place etc. The people do look a little plastic though because of the textures used on them, and it would add some realism for the character faces to change a bit more. Interesting song though... Also typically when you're doing lyrics to a song on the screen like that, you wait untill all the lyrics are sung before replacing it with new ones. In a few instances you have the bottom line still being sung, while the top line comes in with the next line. Overall though a very nice animation, and very well thought out. I like it. __________________ ·÷±‡±Lucious Ash±‡±÷·

14th March 2006, 05:33	#5 (permalink)
DudeDudely222 NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 108	All right, I'm sorry for the misconception. I have never done any karaoke and was basing the text comment mostly on the sing along videos I've seen in the past. It would make more sense to have it available right away if you were singing along to it. __________________ ·÷±‡±Lucious Ash±‡±÷·

14th March 2006, 06:02	#6 (permalink)
mon_stdnt Always learning Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: New York Posts: 446	Wow! 5 mins, How long did it took to render it? Very imprssive, I did,'t really pay I attention on the mistakes that much. The only thing that caught my eye was the police men doing the robot . The last few seconds of the video(Give it to me...) the mouth mimic for the chorus wasn't very pronounced. Other than that is great. __________________ www.rgamarra.com

16th March 2006, 03:23	#8 (permalink)
Aunty Betty In the blooming heather Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Little Happening Posts: 569	damn Windows Media Video - I can't see on my Mac. __________________ aka Boozy Floozie

13th March 2006, 22:31	#2 (permalink)
JuST Pixar want to hire me! Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Braunschweig, Germany Posts: 500	Nice video... although it's not my music^^ I have not animated many things, so I cannot give tips or tricks. But I think it is well done.

14th March 2006, 04:55	#4 (permalink)
Jaeger Cube Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 62	Thanks for your comments. I totally agree with you on the facial animation - this is something I need to improve for the next attempt. I'm also still weak on character animation generally, and a lot of the timings are unrealistic (it looks like they're in slow motion). I'm busy reading animation books at the moment to try to get this better. The walks are all done in Poser, using the walk path and walk designer. It's not perfect (there's a hint of a limp), but it does seem to get round the "walk in place" syndrome. I think the problem with the textures is the rendering quality I opted for. Again, I think I should do better next time. You're wrong on the text timings though. As a singer, I expect and need to see the text as soon as possible, and most professional karaoke videos do the overlap. It's only amateur ones, where there are limitations on the software being used, that don't have the overlap. We use Vegas, which meant a lot of work (by my husband, not me!) to set up the original templates, but we like the result.

14th March 2006, 06:20	#7 (permalink)
Jaeger Cube Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 62	I used the fastest settings I could get away with, and the Carrara render was at 25fps for PAL output (the conversion to 12.5 fps for the web version was done in Vegas) Total clip length is probably around 7 or 8 minutes, because of the transitions. Average of probably around 45 seconds per frame, so I guess around 130-150 hours? I don't use network rendering, but my poor computer was busy every night. I also found every batch rendering bug in Carrara 5 during this exercise The test renders were either done directly in Poser (to check an animation), or at 3fps (to check everything else, and to give me a test clip for Vegas). Since all the scenes were using Poser imports, I found Poser's draft mode rendering to be a lot faster than doing it in Carrara. The lipsynching was all done in Mimic. I was getting lazy near the end and started using synchs produced for one model on different models.

16th March 2006, 07:16	#9 (permalink)
Jaeger Cube Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 62	Always happens - I originally uploaded as a Quicktime format, and all of my friends complained as they didn't want to install Quicktime. Check again in about 24 hours, if you're still interested!

16th March 2006, 11:40	#10 (permalink)
Jolran NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sweden Posts: 120	Wow impresive! Very funny and entertaining indeed. Storytelling is exellent. In fact as "mon stdnt" mentioned after a minute I did not pay attention to details, just followed the story. And THAT is a compliment.

16th March 2006, 12:37	#11 (permalink)
Frenchy Pilou What do you want me to create? Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: nébuleuse :) Posts: 5,526	Funny... ...clip! __________________ "Est beau ce qui plaît sans concept" Speedy Galerie

17th March 2006, 00:25	#12 (permalink)
Jaeger Cube Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 62	There's now an MP4 version available, for anyone who doesn't have Windows Media Player, but would still like to see it. Thanks, Jolran - that's the best thing anyone can say about it!

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