Animation Teasers [Archive]

LizJJury

27-01-2003, 15:23

I believe it is that the wall is slanted away from the computers and such. From the look of the things hanging on the wall it is slanted and not perpidicular to the ground like it should be. plus the plane is upside down and there are no chairs for the poor people to sit in. more when i see them.

LBK Rules

27-01-2003, 15:32

Originally posted by VanWEric
Well, team 250 has begun rendering parts of its animation. Just thought you might like to see a teaser. Gotohttp://justin.yi.org:99/~vanweric/ and tell me what you think.

Anyone else have anycool pics yet?

What are those "Evil Apps" you have on your site?

Ryan Dognaux

27-01-2003, 21:49

Here's just one shot from our animation so far...

Baden3DMAX13

27-01-2003, 23:40

ok this should resolve it.. if not then i dont know what the heck..

Baden3DMAX13

27-01-2003, 23:42

ok.. i just couldn't get it to work.. so go here: http://www.geocities.com/heero_yuy_ii/pillar3.jpg to see the pic.. then tell me what you think;)

Sunny Thaper

27-01-2003, 23:47

Originally posted by Baden3DMAX13
ok.. i just couldn't get it to work.. so go here: http://www.geocities.com/heero_yuy_ii/pillar3.jpg to see the pic.. then tell me what you think;) Ahh, lovable, huggable lathe.

Baden3DMAX13

27-01-2003, 23:49

ok.. i just couldn't get it to work.. so go here: http://www.geocities.com/heero_yuy_ii/Homepage/band.html, and click on MY 3D PIC to see the pic.. then tell me what you think;) i know the resolution sux...

VanWEric

28-01-2003, 08:08

What are those "Evil Apps" you have on your site?

2 of them toggle the caps locks key every quarter second (Better Caps is a win32 app, caps is console).

The key logger is a key logger. You need the dll for it to work correctly.

keyboard overloads the keyboard and mouse protocols and disables them.

Remote control is a winsocket app that allows you to control one computer from the other. System Server is console and visible and can send or recieve commands. Blind Server is win32, invisible (almost) and can only recieve commands.

I have another one in the works based off the keylogger. If you know a pword you don't want to be used, then it will monitor the keystrokes for said pword, and then add a letter to it. For example, if you didnt want the password "soccer4life" to be used, it would wait until someone typed in "soccer4life", and add a 't' to the end. "soccer4life"!="soccer4lifet".

One of my other projects is a "ghost writer". When it goes off, it types a message. An early prototype would type "Stop using this computer" every 5 minutes.

All of these are written in c++ by me, for windows, and no, i do not use these maliciously.

Sunny Thaper

28-01-2003, 09:15

Originally posted by Baden3DMAX13
ok.. i just couldn't get it to work.. so go here: http://www.geocities.com/heero_yuy_ii/Homepage/band.html, and click on MY 3D PIC to see the pic.. then tell me what you think;) i know the resolution sux... That is one crazy geocities page :P

Baden3DMAX13

28-01-2003, 19:28

that's not even my new site.... my new site is http://www.geocities.com/heero_yuy_ii/Homepage/bands.html, and it's way better then that one.. i do my own html coding for it too.. i've taken classes... they are nice:D, and now i'm learning how to in put flash into my site... it may take a bit but i'll get it down.. and thanks for your feed back ;)

Sunny Thaper

28-01-2003, 22:00

Originally posted by Baden3DMAX13
that's not even my new site.... my new site is http://www.geocities.com/heero_yuy_ii/Homepage/bands.html, and it's way better then that one.. i do my own html coding for it too.. i've taken classes... they are nice:D, and now i'm learning how to in put flash into my site... it may take a bit but i'll get it down.. and thanks for your feed back ;) Here's a site I designed www.pitnews.org :P

Soukup

29-01-2003, 07:32

here's a couple of teasers that we have. I'm not going to reveal any details as to what they have to do with the story board of our animation but enjoy. They are about 75% completed.

VanWEric

29-01-2003, 10:15

Can't wait to see the mars rover wanna be in action. I wish my team had creativity, but they just don't seem to have it in them...

Koko Ed

29-01-2003, 11:01

Originally posted by TEAM_74
here's a couple of teasers that we have. I'm not going to reveal any details as to what they have to do with the story board of our animation but enjoy. They are about 75% completed.

Very nice!
:D

Ryan Dognaux

29-01-2003, 16:25

That's good.. hmm it seems to almost be made of legos ?? lol is it just me, or is it? It looks really good you can tell you've spent a lot of time on it. Our animation isn't coming along as fast... hopefully we'll get it done ::crosses fingers:: :]

Specialagentjim

29-01-2003, 16:58

Koko Ed

29-01-2003, 20:55

The return of our animated Cat Xavier from last years animation in a different look.

Koko Ed

29-01-2003, 21:04

And here is a stage that Xavier will be performing on during the aniamtion...

Sunny Thaper

29-01-2003, 22:36

Originally posted by Koko Ed
And here is a stage that Xavier will be performing on during the aniamtion... Hahahaha, that's so ghetto 80s equipment, I love it. You should have a disco ball too. Ain't no party like a disco ball party.

Koko Ed

30-01-2003, 07:03

Originally posted by Sunny Thaper
Hahahaha, that's so ghetto 80s equipment, I love it. You should have a disco ball too. Ain't no party like a disco ball party.
Well Wilson Magnet is an inner city school...:p

Soukup

30-01-2003, 07:34

like the ghetto dj stage as well. 2 quick ideas that may really improve what you've done. The speakers could use a little better materialing, maybe adding a mix map with noise mixed into the wood material. Also you'll need to add a little but of lighting...ut otherwise...I like it alot.

Our rover still needs to be a little detailed up and possibily that's why it looks so child-like.

Daishichimaru

31-01-2003, 18:04

This year's character with the presentable parts shown. Arms are done except for some texture tweaking and a few last booleans, head is done and having the textures painted, the hands are placeholders. The rest of the thing should be done and ready to show by the end of the weekend, hopefully.

And I love the stage, you just need to give the cat a three foot 'fro.

Jeremy_Mc

31-01-2003, 22:01

Here are some teasers for our animation:

http://firstubergeeks.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album01

enjoy...and please comment!

*jeremy

Ryan Dognaux

31-01-2003, 22:23

Originally posted by Jeremy_Mc
Here are some teasers for our animation:

http://firstubergeeks.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album01

enjoy...and please comment!

*jeremy

That's some awesome stuff!! I really like your playing field, great model!! And the space scenes are cool too. Keep it up :D

Sunny Thaper

31-01-2003, 22:33

Originally posted by Jeremy_Mc
Here are some teasers for our animation:

http://firstubergeeks.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album01

enjoy...and please comment!

*jeremy Great work, I would however suggest lighting things up a lot more, your scenes are way too dark, unless your message is gothic, it doesn't do the animation justice. Good work though, I really do like it.

Jeremy_Mc

31-01-2003, 23:56

thanks a lot for the compliments! i thought people would laugh :(

i agree...the scenes are a little dark. i haven't added all the lighting and when i do i tend to go a little crazy with the attenuation :-x

*jeremy

Koko Ed

01-02-2003, 07:48

Originally posted by Jeremy_Mc
thanks a lot for the compliments! i thought people would laugh :(

i agree...the scenes are a little dark. i haven't added all the lighting and when i do i tend to go a little crazy with the attenuation :-x

*jeremy

Unless someone on one of the teams is a top line professional(in which case they would probably be too busy working on a production to be doing this) no one should be laughing at anyones work. Especially fine work like that. Don't be so hard on yourself and keep up the good work!

Soukup

01-02-2003, 14:12

about 90% finished...

GFCM

01-02-2003, 14:57

very nice animation :cool:
it would be great if everybody could make something like that in 3dmax.

Soukup

01-02-2003, 15:50

thatnks man...I appreciate the complement...Even though it took me 4 weeks to get to that point...(arrrrr........... should have only taken two....) but I really appreciate your complement.

Sunny Thaper

01-02-2003, 16:56

Originally posted by Koko Ed
Unless someone on one of the teams is a top line professional(in which case they would probably be too busy working on a production to be doing this) no one should be laughing at anyones work. Especially fine work like that. Don't be so hard on yourself and keep up the good work! So I guess I can't be a top line professional then :( Just kidding, but yeah, only a complete @ss would make fun of anyone's work here. If you encounter someone like that, you tell us, we will take care of it for you.

Robotics Mob Squad 2003 (Yes mob not mod)

Soukup

01-02-2003, 17:26

Making fun of someones work?? Only a jack@ss would do it!!

i agree...but can I join the mob squad??

And just remember professionals all started out somewhere..

Sunny Thaper

01-02-2003, 17:40

Originally posted by TEAM_74
Making fun of someones work?? Only a jack@ss would do it!!

i agree...but can I join the mob squad??

And just remember professionals all started out somewhere.. I don't know, we are pretty selective, can you breathe?

Specialagentjim

01-02-2003, 20:13

Let's see.... ::Breathes In...[Gasps]:: Ahhhhh [In raspy voice, similar to one who's been deprived of oxygen...] Can't breathe!!

Drats...

Sunny Thaper

01-02-2003, 20:17

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
Let's see.... ::Breathes In...[Gasps]:: Ahhhhh [In raspy voice, similar to one who's been deprived of oxygen...] Can't breathe!!

Drats... You are either not cool enough to be in the club or you are a nerd that just walked up a small flight of stairs. nerds tend to regard challenging activities such as moving with lots of oxygen shortness.

Specialagentjim

01-02-2003, 20:53

Nah, I was just holding my breath...

(Plz work inventor - to - max...::Inhales and holds his breath::

::turns blue and thinks to self...I dont think its gonna work::

pwinter_548

02-02-2003, 12:32

Team 548 here, this is my first year on the animation.

For now I just have tapered boxes for bins, and the robot is not modeled yet.

pwinter_548

02-02-2003, 12:33

Team 548 here, this is my first year on the animation.

For now I just have tapered boxes for bins, and the robot is not modeled yet.

Also, the website says 640 x 480, but could you do a widescreen 640 x 360?

http://www.geocities.com/paulwinter2k/preview.bmp

Koko Ed

02-02-2003, 20:36

Added Xavier to the stage scence but are having the hardest time getting his bone structure to come along peacefully (it's invisible!!!:( ). THe reason the lighting looked so washed out in the first picture is because I set up an Omni light on the frontside so you could actually see what was happening. We took it down in intensity and turned it blue. We just have to attach the camera and figure out how to get XAvier to move to scratch and we can film the scene.

Sunny Thaper

02-02-2003, 20:42

Originally posted by Koko Ed
Added Xavier to the stage scence but are having the hardest time getting his bone structure to come along peacefully (it's invisible!!!:( ). THe reason the lighting looked so washed out in the first picture is because I set up an Omni light on the frontside so you could actually see what was happening. We took it down in intensity and turned it blue. We just have to attach the camera and figure out how to get XAvier to move to scratch and we can film the scene. Send me the .max file, I'll see if I can help you.

Soukup

03-02-2003, 07:33

Originally posted by pwinter_548
Team 548 here, this is my first year on the animation.

For now I just have tapered boxes for bins, and the robot is not modeled yet.

Also, the website says 640 x 480, but could you do a widescreen 640 x 360?

http://www.geocities.com/paulwinter2k/preview.bmp

to my knowledge...640x480 is what they want. Now..2 years ago blizzard (188) exported to widescreen for the animation but their credits were 640x480. It was pretty amazing. But they didn't win. I would think that you may not want to screw up your chances of winning by changing the export settings. Email autodesk to find out!!

team384_pat

03-02-2003, 12:29

Our team is hard at work at our animation..

I'm sorry I can't give you any teasers for ours yet but it'll be a good one...

Expect the Unexpected...

Specialagentjim

03-02-2003, 17:06

It's not that great, its just a small preview of something we're up to...It needs a lotta work...argg..Everything needs a lotta work.. :ahh:

http://payfoo.com/render2.jpg

Soukup

04-02-2003, 07:33

i really like the amount of detail that you have put into this model...it's awesome. I think if you tweek the materials (My monitor is making your image look fuzzy should it could be really sweetly materialed...)It will look double-awesome.

also...

Brandon made a thred somewhere's here's a link to it in the computer graphics thread under some team's animation teaser.

Anyway...post your pictures in the new animation gallery...and then make a post hinting that there is a new pic.

matt111

04-02-2003, 14:02

i dont mean to be rude, but it seems to me that every team is doing a space-moon-mars rover-reentry animation. that really seems boring to me. our animation is about hte total opposite of that.

im really tired of seeing a spaceship fly to earth, land in houston and have ur bot bash into the Wall-o-Bins. hopeful my team can make it to nats so we can win the animation award.

thats just my opinion and im a roookie so it probably doesnt count for anything anyways

Koko Ed

04-02-2003, 14:30

Originally posted by matt111
i dont mean to be rude, but it seems to me that every team is doing a space-moon-mars rover-reentry animation. that really seems boring to me. our animation is about hte total opposite of that.

im really tired of seeing a spaceship fly to earth, land in houston and have ur bot bash into the Wall-o-Bins. hopeful my team can make it to nats so we can win the animation award.

thats just my opinion and im a roookie so it probably doesnt count for anything anyways

http://www.dakine.net/humor/images/poster-conformity.jpg :p

Specialagentjim

04-02-2003, 15:25

Originally posted by Koko Ed
http://www.dakine.net/humor/images/poster-conformity.jpg :p

All I have to say to that in response is...Nice!

haha, aw well. I'd like to say that our animation involves no spaceship landing in houston. It involves a space station and a robot...That pic is the back of said robot....Muahahhha...alright, Im done ranting, off to teach the middle schooler's 3ds max. Auf weidersehen

matt111

04-02-2003, 15:58

ahh yes despair.com my favorite is the one that says it takes 24 muscles to smile, 14 to frown, but none to sit their with a stupid look on your face.

well our animation will ceraitnly stick out from the space theme.

also, wont putting that on ur robot break some copyright law or something ;)

GFCM

04-02-2003, 21:45

our animation is between USA and Brazil as we are a brazilian team, we will try to show up something about our country and make a very simple animation (far from space) :p

i'm just thinking about our time because the animation must be February's 22 or 23 (not sure) it will be hard for us send our animation earlier then other "USA teams" :rolleyes:

this is our fourth year and just our second animation so we don't have much experience or time to do it :)

Sunny Thaper

04-02-2003, 21:58

Originally posted by GFCM
our animation is between USA and Brazil as we are a brazilian team, we will try to show up something about our country and make a very simple animation (far from space) :p

i'm just thinking about our time because the animation must be February's 22 or 23 (not sure) it will be hard for us send our animation earlier then other "USA teams" :rolleyes:

this is our fourth year and just our second animation so we don't have much experience or time to do it :) Hahaha, you know what's funny? Last year's winner, team 114 I believe, had not only space in their animation but they also had microscopic life (robotic life actually) as well. You guys should learn from last years winners, the best ones didn't even include a robot in their animation (shameless plug). Oh and don't think I am being all high and mighty or anything, just trying to help out. Also, I understand that you can't change your animation now. In fact, if you are offended by my post, my name is Tyler Old, not Sunny ;)

Soukup

05-02-2003, 07:25

the fact that someone thinks that our animation is a space seqeucne...bawahahaha...You know nothing. The mars rover is part of our animation...but not in the way that anyone can make a connection to. So in about a week i'll post another teaser..and then...you'll have absolutely no idea what it's about until the finish.

I made this hint earlier and I think i'll make it again:

take 1 stadium
+1 robot
+10,000 sreaming fans
+not that much time to render
+a mars rover sequence??
= pure genius (maybe)

Koko Ed

05-02-2003, 07:37

There is no outer space sequence in ours. We just dropped in the space background behind the stage picture so we don't have to look at absolute black all the time.

team384_pat

05-02-2003, 08:49

our animation is completely opposite of space , it should be very interesting...

TheSwazz

06-02-2003, 18:53

This is our animation after two hours of intense work. Give us some feedback.

Tyler Olds

06-02-2003, 19:35

looks good, keep up the good work

Chris Nowak

06-02-2003, 22:27

Originally posted by TheSwazz
This is our animation after two hours of intense work. Give us some feedback.

Note: The stuff I circled I though could use some more materialing work

Hmmm....It seems that your walls are tiled and it could use some work. I would use photoshop to blur the edges somewhat or use a different material instead of a bitmap type thing, which is what it looks like. Same thing for the floor. I would add some more details as well, such as other stuff you might find in a room, like a lightswitch. It really does look good, but I think that this camera angle and perhaps the lighting does not do it justice, maybe add ,more lights at less intensity. Try not to get as much open space where you dont have any models when you do your final renders. Also, it seems that the materialing on the second cupboard(the one with the door open) seems to be less realistic than the other one. Other than this, I think it looks good. What kind of a room are you going for, if you dont mind me asking?

Sunny Thaper

06-02-2003, 22:30

Originally posted by Chris Nowak
Note: The stuff I circled I though could use some more materialing work

Hmmm....It seems that your walls are tiled and it could use some work. I would use photoshop to blur the edges somewhat or use a different material instead of a bitmap type thing, which is what it looks like. Same thing for the floor. I would add some more details as well, such as other stuff you might find in a room, like a lightswitch. It really does look good, but I think that this camera angle and perhaps the lighting does not do it justice, maybe add ,more lights at less intensity. Try not to get as much open space where you dont have any models when you do your final renders. Also, it seems that the materialing on the second cupboard(the one with the door open) seems to be less realistic than the other one. Other than this, I think it looks good. What kind of a room are you going for, if you dont mind me asking? Nicely done.

Chris Nowak

06-02-2003, 22:51

thanks. Had to do something while the animatrix was downloading.

Soukup

07-02-2003, 07:23

i seem to like your work...but follow chris's advice (it would take only a couple of hours)...and that scene will rock.

ALSO!!!! Brandon made is pretty clear that he wanted the teasers to be posted in the animation gallery..not in the original thread.

reisser

07-02-2003, 17:56

Last year's winner had a robot in it complete with a goal and ball action sequence. I'd be happy to upload it some time if your memories are failing you. Haha... yeah it was a sweet looking piece of work last year. Can't wait too see what is out there for 2003. Good luck everyone. Of course, if you're the winner you probably won't need any luck.

Lev

08-02-2003, 23:37

Here are some of our team's frames:

http://www.eccentrix.com/members/z80180/index.htm

Any comments are welcome.

Specialagentjim

08-02-2003, 23:43

Originally posted by Lev
Here are some of our team's frames:

http://www.eccentrix.com/members/z80180/index.htm

Any comments are welcome.

Nice robot shots! Did you do all that in 3ds or did you import it from a more engineering based Program?

Lev

08-02-2003, 23:48

Most of the geometry was done in Inventor - some additions and texturning were made in Max.

Specialagentjim

08-02-2003, 23:53

ahhh, gotcha. Whatever it was, its looking good! Are you using a multi-pass DOF?

Lev

08-02-2003, 23:58

Thanks.

Are you using a multi-pass DOF?
No, the render times would kill us if we did... we only have two machines to work and render.

We are using Light Tracer with tuned-down settings and lots of motion blur.

Specialagentjim

09-02-2003, 00:13

Originally posted by Lev
Thanks.

No, the render times would kill us if we did... we only have two machines to work and render.

We are using Light Tracer with tuned-down settings and lots of motion blur.
Oooo, thats what I saw. I wasnt sure if it was DOF or motion blur. I got it now. looks good!

SteveC116

09-02-2003, 11:59

Lev - Most of the geometry was done in Max. The box was in inventor and thats about it. :-P

Mayberry

09-02-2003, 13:24

Steve, shut up! Lev's been working hard and we would've done more with Inventor if we had more of that mysterious thing called "time" and "training"

~Mayberry Pancakes
Animation never killed anyone, but only because they didn't have enough energy to die

SteveC116

09-02-2003, 14:00

Your only sticking up for him cause your going out w/ him. :-P Go make some music or something.

And Lev does have training :-P I made the robot but he made the arm. The arms harder.

Mayberry

09-02-2003, 14:05

All animators, please disregard the previous message. Making the body parts has been pretty hard for both of you, I understand.

I'd like to see some more of what other teams have to offer! Y'all look great so far!

~Mayberry Pancakes
"It doesn't matter what race, gender or age you are. I'd still hate you."

Specialagentjim

09-02-2003, 14:15

Nice to know we're not the only team that ends up starting a mini-flame war on a thread!

Anywayz, here's another shot of our animation...

Once again...when you have 1 person working on it, and another person who came in for a few days and did a lil modeling...this is what you end up with.. HEY! there's no crying smiley! oh well.... ::cries::

http://payfoo.com/frame20.jpg

Being that I'm running out of time, I'm going to try and add extra details later. Being im using targas to render (hint hint, use them!), I can use the alpha layers to add things over the images, without having to rerender. For example: I want to add later some streams of air coming out of the robot thrusters. However, I dont have time to render that right now. If I get time later, I'll go into 3ds, put in the patricle streams, then hide EVERYTHING else, render it with targas, go into premiere, and juss drop the targas back in on top. We did this with last years animaiton also when we wanted to add flying cars to our city after we had already rendered. Heh, can't wait to see how everyone else's is coming along! Good luck to all!

SteveC116

09-02-2003, 14:34

Thats pretty nice! Its not every day that you see a floating pill in space. :p

Thanks for the suggestion.

SteveC116

09-02-2003, 14:51

My team has informed me that my pill statement was offensive. I appologize.

That is a great render.

If you are rendering a pill.

SteveC116

09-02-2003, 14:57

Seriously its good....

Just thought you might like to take a glance at this render posted by team 912

Specialagentjim

09-02-2003, 15:58

HAHAHA! It's okay, dun worry. Nice pills by the way.

But anyway, if I had more time (like another month) or more people on my team helping, then it would NOT look like a pill...but for now...thats a good observation. lol, My orginal plans in my head had all sorts of panels and differet wires and modules hanging off and flexing rubber groments conencting everything together...Oh where did the time go.

Ryan Dognaux

09-02-2003, 18:40

that looks excellent, I'll try to get a few more pics of our animation up once we have more of it done.. which should be soon ::crosses fingers:: :);)

Specialagentjim

09-02-2003, 20:40

alrighty, ive got some of the final frames rendered (Hey, why bother rendering the first frames when ya can render that last ones first, right? heh..) well, anywayz, its up on my web server (which is comin off my DSL, so its nothing amazingly fast).

http://payfoo.com/FinalScenes.avi

[EDIT] Btw, It's DivX 5.02 and I'd recommand that you do a right click save as... simply because windows media player dosent always like hyperlinks, heh[\EDIT]

gimme some recommendations!

Soukup

10-02-2003, 07:33

hey kinda wanted some feedback on our little 'robot' in the animation gallery...just lemme know what you think...

Koko Ed

10-02-2003, 07:56

Originally posted by TEAM_74
hey kinda wanted some feedback on our little 'robot' in the animation gallery...just lemme know what you think...
That's why I don't like posting animation images in the gallery. It doesn't encourage debate like posting the images here do.
It's very impressive, of course. Solid design and textures. I'm very interested to see what direction your animation is taking in the story context.

Soukup

10-02-2003, 08:12

our storyline is a mystery...but once you see the final animation..it will seem like pure genius...maybe. Anyways we're a litle behnd and preparing for a bunch of overnighters...2 at least. I appreciate your comments...and yes I hate posting in the gallery but because our web team hasn't allowed us to post pics on the website...that's my only option...

And for the team that has got the mini-war going on..i could understand if you were from different schools...but you've been making complete a complete @ss of yourself arguing with each other. This was a thread about animation teasers and everyone appreciates positive feedback but whoever this stevec116 is... what's the point? Unless you are an awesome porfessional and are godlike..what gives you the right to insult others work..even if it is only sarcasm. Just keep in mind the whole gracious professionalism thing...thanks.

Koko Ed

10-02-2003, 08:33

Originally posted by TEAM_74
our storyline is a mystery...but once you see the final animation..it will seem like pure genius...maybe. Anyways we're a litle behnd and preparing for a bunch of overnighters...2 at least. I appreciate your comments...and yes I hate posting in the gallery but because our web team hasn't allowed us to post pics on the website...that's my only option...

Yeah looks like allnighters this weekend for me as well.:rolleyes:
If I don't make the deadline I'm still going to finish this animation by God! I worked too hard to just up and quit!

Specialagentjim

10-02-2003, 10:08

True to all of ya! All nighters indeed. Just outta curiosity, what's all of your deadlines? I've got mine set for Feb. 17. What's yours?

I figure the 17 because this year (due to a mishap last year with some disgruntled team members) we are required to have the animation presented and approved before shipping. That'll give them the 17th (one of our last meetings) to approve, then I'll go ahead and ship on the 18th, and it'll be there by the 21.

Side note: Keep in mind...Weekend overnight shipping is BAD. Last year it cost us 300 dollars to ship it :ahh: That'll never happen again!

Koko Ed

10-02-2003, 10:11

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
True to all of ya! All nighters indeed. Just outta curiosity, what's all of your deadlines? I've got mine set for Feb. 17. What's yours?

I figure the 17 because this year (due to a mishap last year with some disgruntled team members) we are required to have the animation presented and approved before shipping. That'll give them the 17th (one of our last meetings) to approve, then I'll go ahead and ship on the 18th, and it'll be there by the 21.

Side note: Keep in mind...Weekend overnight shipping is BAD. Last year it cost us 300 dollars to ship it :ahh: That'll never happen again!

The 19th at the latest. And if we have no chioce it may have to be overnight but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

Specialagentjim

10-02-2003, 10:13

Ahh, sounds good. I'm thinking of asking our team to overnight it regardless, just so I can watch the confirmation that it gets there.

(btw koko ed, working during da school time too, eh? heh)

Koko Ed

10-02-2003, 10:26

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
Ahh, sounds good. I'm thinking of asking our team to overnight it regardless, just so I can watch the confirmation that it gets there.

(btw koko ed, working during da school time too, eh? heh)

I don't go to school til the night time but I don't have a computer on the dock that could handle 3DS so I'm wandering in after class. 8 o' clock most likely.
We lost a whole scene last weekend (the stage scene that was posted in this thread ) and may have to remake it but our tech may have backed it up and we can recover it.
I hope. :(

Specialagentjim

10-02-2003, 11:46

Oh man, I feel for ya with the backups. I've already had 2-3 files go corrupt and on file "magically" balooned up to 176 megs....it was a very simple scene which consisted of no animation, juss modeling my robot. I knew something was wrong and being I didn't have time to figure it out, I jus went back and rebuilt that scene :-\ REMEBER KIDS! BACKUPS ARE YOUR FRIEND (...so are targas :D )

Chris Nowak

10-02-2003, 12:20

Thats the way max is a lot of the time. Any software that uses that much ram and such is bound to have problems. Its best to make as many duplicates as you can, maybe make one after you have the models, make one after you have materialed, and then make a duplicate for every animation sequence you do. Basically, lots of duplicates are necessary cuz the autobackup feature doesnt always work.

Also, for the guys with experience in other programs, does it seem that MAX is more unstable than the others on the market right now?

Soukup

10-02-2003, 14:08

in response to the backups thing..it works and is neccesary. I just bought my computer and it is a dual processor (1.7 ghz) w/ 512 mb ddr ram. IT even has problems handling some scenes...I know it's not my computers fault...it's max's fault. To cover up for this I use an autoback function every 5 minutes and I allow a max of nine files to be autobacked...it works miracles...Also everything that everyone makes goes onto my computer jst as a last resort. In response to the overnighters, were planning on overnighting on friday, going to a team meetting saturday, working until 8-9 on saturday, going to bed, coming back on sunday around noon and working until it gets done on monday..

ahhhhh...animation competition..ya gotta love the feeling.

hopefully it ships on tuesday...(that would be throwing up a prayer). And then I'll take a long break. In response to specialagentjim...300 bucks? What company did you ship with..we did fedex and it cost 20 dollars..and we shipped on the last minute on saturday.

And your space scene is really sweet..Some people may have overlooked some small details. I like the motion blur of the stars in the background:) . I also like some of the lighting...but it seems as if the'pill' is a little bit to shiny...but I can't make that judgement because I don't kno here the sun is your scene..but you did a really good job...I am quite impressed.

Koko Ed

10-02-2003, 14:14

Originally posted by TEAM_74
in response to the backups thing..it works and is neccesary. I just bought my computer and it is a dual processor (1.7 ghz) w/ 512 mb ddr ram. IT even has problems handling some scenes...I know it's not my computers fault...it's max's fault. To cover up for this I use an autoback function every 5 minutes and I allow a max of nine files to be autobacked...it works miracles...Also everything that everyone makes goes onto my computer jst as a last resort. In response to the overnighters, were planning on overnighting on friday, going to a team meetting saturday, working until 8-9 on saturday, going to bed, coming back on sunday around noon and working until it gets done on monday..

ahhhhh...animation competition..ya gotta love the feeling.

hopefully it ships on tuesday...(that would be throwing up a prayer). And then I'll take a long break. In response to specialagentjim...300 bucks? What company did you ship with..we did fedex and it cost 20 dollars..and we shipped on the last minute on saturday.

I handle shipping through my dock all the time and the only companies that charge that kind of dough are either crooks or incompetent. That kind of money is charge for shipping large items (like the robot). Deal with major players like Fed Ex, UPS, Airborn Express or DHL. They have reputations to uphold and fear having angry customers telling other customers that they are a pack of vile theives.

Specialagentjim

10-02-2003, 17:16

Yeah, unfortunelty, we ran into major problems. We were three students working by ourselves, no mentors. We are a florida team, and had to get it to CA. Fedex and UPS wouldn't take it because it, apparently, either had to be cleared with FAA (Yeah..still trying to figure that one out...) or be shipped with an account that had logged a certain number of airborne hours prior to the sep. 11 stuff. Again, I have NO FREAGGIN CLUE why....but nonetheless, be prepared for anything.

Btw, thanks on space station! yeah..lighting is a bit off, i know. I wanted to spend about a week on lighting/rendering texturing, maybe even 2....Gee, where'd that time go. The scene was lit and materialed in about an hour. :-\ (really need that added as a smiley!).

Heh, and the stars was a cool little trick I just realized I could do sitting here. In order for raytracing to work right, I need a white backround. So, I rendered that camera twice, once with geometry and a white background. The second time was with no geomtry and a video post starfield. Used premiere, dropped the alpha out on the geometry render, and dropped the stars back behind. The blur was juss right because the same camera movement was used. :D

Any more feedback / suggestions I'm open to! Thanks again!

Soukup

11-02-2003, 07:44

hope that a couple of you guys saw the stadium that we made (feedback?). If the plans for that work out like what we want...(which it looks like they will) look out!!!

mixmasta321

11-02-2003, 19:44

This is a part of a scene of our animation...
*Imagine the White FIRST Logo spreading across the earth*

Chris Nowak

11-02-2003, 22:58

yeeha, number 100

Hey, check out my bins. I was just screwing around with the one on the left but the right one will probably be in our animation once I change the colors to be more accurate.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/1045006842teaserbin.jpg

I might as well put the stadium up for those people who dont look in the gallery (I'm linking to the gallery not attaching these)

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/1044915618teaser.jpg

LBK Rules

12-02-2003, 11:23

Nice

Sachiel7 and I wanted to compete in the AVA comp this year, but I don't think that will happen. I think we need to work on our skills over the summer so we won't have to learn-as-we-go next year. If we did do it this year, we would probably do all the 3d stuff in Anim8or (http://www.anim8or.com).

Yahrim

12-02-2003, 22:10

This is a frame from the GRT 2003 Animation...we're almost done except for the white splotches.

Koko Ed

13-02-2003, 07:20

Originally posted by Yahrim
This is a frame from the GRT 2003 Animation...we're almost done except for the white splotches. http://www.thetick.ws/images/light.jpg

AIEEEEEEE!!!!

You might want to turn the intensity down. Just a little. Yeah. That would be good.

Soukup

13-02-2003, 15:23

I thought of this idea for the teaser with the spreading logo. Allthough I cannot see how you did it..here's a thought. To make your 'spread" seem more realistic.. add a gradient map to the opacity slot. Adjust the levels of this gradient to get a "blur" on your edges that will make it see so much ore realistic...It will rocK!

Also a little note on our animation...our stadiu that we posted earlier/with playing field and people has a total polygon count of around 40,000,000:yikes: !!!! And to save some of you the mathimatical calculations...it takes about 30 minutes a frame:ahh: !! We are doing an alpha mask so we render the background and foreground seperately. But even that is still around 20 minutes a frame.:( SO just a little in for all of you...high polygon counts=end of good times!!

and yes I really do like using smilies:D

mixmasta321

13-02-2003, 18:39

Yeah it was a bit of a trick tryin to make this spreading effect work right.... i used Macromedia Flash 5 with a masked layer of the first symbol on the different countries.... then animated it spreading across the map...and exported the map as an .avi. Then i applied this map to a geosphere and added some effects and a cloud layer. And it worked AWESOME!!!:D I really like your opacity map idea but i would have to make a separate animated opacity map in flash again... and with deadline coming up i dont know if it will be feasable. Thanks David... and good luck with ur extremely large polygon count problem... yikes...

--------------------------------------------------------------------
5 days before ship.... ummm guys where are the controls gonna go....
who needs a robot when you have a cool animation instead....
I'm Serious about the controls thing too....
Team 537

Specialagentjim

13-02-2003, 19:37

Uhh..i dont mean to bring you down...but...this is an AUTODESK award for visualization...they kinda encourage the use of 3ds max...

mixmasta321

13-02-2003, 20:37

Sorry... that i found a different way to accomplish my task... thats kinda what first is about... i found a way to make my ideas work through brainstorming ideas with my team... excuse me but max is not a standalone software package and some of these effects would be impossible without such things as adobe photoshop and other post production editing software... like premier or final cut pro (for you mac fans)... besides i have read threads in which teams are using completely different software packages like lightwave 3d or Maya... Autodesks asks you to put all the software titles you used to produce your animation... they do not restrict the software you use nor DQ you for using it.

Good luck to everyone with your animations!!!:D

Derek
Team 537
Animation Lackey

Specialagentjim

13-02-2003, 21:22

OOooooookkkkkaaaaaayyyyyyy. I'm not going to get into a flame war here, So i'm juss gonna drop it.

(Remember everybody! render to targas! heh)

mixmasta321

13-02-2003, 22:36

sorry man just releasing some tension cuz its the last week and many many problems are occuring with our final renders... i.e. our machines are randomly overheating and shuting down in the middle of a render and corrupting files... I am extremely sorry ...didnt mean to start a fire ... just a little hot headed in the last coming days... please excuse my comments....
:(

I Cant wait to see other peoples work at regionals!! and Nats!!...

Derek
Team 537....

-------------------------------------------------------------------
ALL HAIL THE 486!!!

ummmm yeah...

Specialagentjim

13-02-2003, 22:52

Heh, don't worry about it, its cool, we're all getting this way. What's up with your machines? You might wanna juss open 'em up, take a look inside, see how dusty they are. If they're covered in dust, get some compressed air and spray out the fans. I've found thats the case with a lotta school machines. Lemme know, I'll see what I can do to help (Im an A+ certified hardware tech..::shrugs:: not that that means much, juss saying I can help troubleshoot if ya need it). And yeah, final week, I know..My team want's the animation done by monday. :ahh: .

Good luck everyone!

Soukup

14-02-2003, 07:26

hey... (mixmasta321) instead of rendering to avis...render to TARGAS or tiffs. That way when they do crash you have a couple of frames finishe and then you can reboot and start where you left off...then stitch it together in premiere or something.

mixmasta321

14-02-2003, 19:47

Yeah our machines are about 3 years old but were purchased by our team... there isn't much dust... but on tuesday i got so pissed at one of our machines (nickname: Screamer... yeah it doesn't "scream" athalon xp 1600, 512mb ddr2100) it shut down right as we were about to save our scene and corrupted the max file we were working on, for some reason. Anyway... we all pretty much chucked the box to the floor, kicked it a couple of times and then took out most of the parts from the inside and then put them back... and voila! no problems since.... hmmmm nothing works quite as well as a little percussive maintenence...

and yeah David i dunno about the targa idea as of now... we've already made many high quality ... 1280 x 720 avi's that we're gonna put into final cut pro 3 and letterbox it up... and eventually output the animation at 640 x 480... YAY hi-quality letterboxed widescreen for the new age of TV's!!

Its kinda funny because our animation was supposed to be done rendering on thursday but we had to wait 28 hours to render 6 seconds.... ouch.... oh well the animation team is farther than the the actual rest of the robotics team... our robot isnt even moving yet...I am scared because the robot build and test is soooo far behind.... the robot only moves on our computer screen....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 days before ship.... ummm guys where are the controls gonna go....
who needs a robot when you have a cool animation instead....
I'm Serious about the controls thing too....
Team 537

Specialagentjim

14-02-2003, 22:30

We gotta find a render farm somwehre that will give us some free credits on teh render farm to use (ya know..put us at a lower priority than the ppl paying, but have us run whenever tehy can have us running..)

Alexander McGee

14-02-2003, 22:40

Here's a little sneak peek of what we got here in Michigan. Good Luck to all.

Eismann

14-02-2003, 22:48

Ya we've been working long and hard on that aniamtion. Just wait til its done and all of you see it. I promise that this will be Truck Towns best animation ever. Good Luck to everyone else.

Specialagentjim

14-02-2003, 22:49

Nicely modeled truck!!

Soukup

15-02-2003, 08:48

real quick suggestion...

i can't tell if your scene has shadows..but if it does...make them more obvious it will really help make your animation much better.

VanWEric

15-02-2003, 18:48

our terrain is i think 32k polys, and then the trees are another 8k each... We need to use a few optimizes... W/ advanced lighting, we get a frame every 1/0 seconds. But oh well, it looks kinda groovy, and that is all i ask for. BTW -- our nut mage kicks $@#$@#$@#, and our swarms are groovilicious.

Since when did these forums censor themselves?

clambers

15-02-2003, 20:04

Here is the start of our character ... let us know what you think

Lev

15-02-2003, 20:30

Very Nice! The geometry is great, although some texturing would make it look much more real. Is the character's face going to be animated?

Baden3DMAX13

16-02-2003, 21:04

Here is the playing field that we just finished. It didn't take very long to do, but with the dedline coming up here soon, we need to bust majorly.... but good luck to all, and tell me what you think if you wonna.

Chris Nowak

16-02-2003, 21:25

what about the wire mesh? maybe I cant see it, but It seems like you didnt do that. Its really easy, just put a box w/ a wireframe material on it over that area

VanWEric

17-02-2003, 13:21

Well, ours is fully maxed now, and is rendering, and rendering, and rendering... On an eleven computer render farm! itll look decent ;)

Baden3DMAX13

17-02-2003, 16:00

what about the wire mesh? maybe I cant see it, but It seems like you didnt do that. Its really easy, just put a box w/ a wireframe material on it over that area

there is the wire mesh on it.. .it's the gold shiny stuff over the ramp ends.. i know the material might need a bit of editing, but it is there.. i made sure of that when i was making it...

SGK

18-02-2003, 07:55

Here is a frame from our last 8 second scene. As we had a three PC farm (2 DELL 620s and 1 8250), we went all the way with ray tracing -- still took 5hr40min to render the scene with field interlacing (for TV viewing). My students were into modeling detail so the ramp grid is individual cylinders - notice the shadows on the floor. Stadium light bar is made from Inventor imports of the kit's light sensors linked to 3DSMAX lights which are in turn linked to moving objects in the rest of the frame.

It's been a long 6 weeks, but we had a lot of fun.

Good luck to all!