Give some comments to 114's animation

[Brian Yip]

Hi everybody,

My name is Brian and I'm the chief animator of 114. Just like other animators, I spent a lot of time on the animation. I would like to hear some feed backs from other people.

Please give me any comments you have. I don't care if it's positive or negative. Go to http://www.lahsrobotics.org
and click on 2003 animation.


Brian
http://www.lahsrobotics.org

[xavior06]

awesome animation, i really like the reflections, textures and lighting.. wow. the robot movement seemed very realistic. awesome.

[Koko Ed]

Technically it's superior as always from you guys but there is nothing that really compels me about it. What you did last year clearly explained the bebefits of FIRST. THis just showed a robot.

[miketwalker]

Wow, amazing job with the modeling and animating, most people's box falling didn't look that good, but you guys made it look real. All of the actual animating was awesome. I agree with Koko that it didn't show as much of the meaning of FIRST. It shows the robot and advance to space exploration, but it doesn't clearly show the growth to that. The sound was a little slow too, something more upbeat would keep the attention even more. But other than those things, it was an amazingly well done animation. Great job!

[DanL]

No atmosphere on mars should mean flags don't wave in the wind.

If you guys remember the opening scenes of Independance Day, they did the same thing - as the aliens passed the moom, the deep ambiant noise of their inter-galaticary space engines many the theater speakers roar and the sand on the moon shake - meanwhile, sound and pressure have to travel through some kind of medium, and there's not a lot of that in space.

ehhe... sorry... got carried away there.

[Chris Nowak]

doesnt mars have an atmosphere? I thought it had sandstorms and such, doesnt it
?

[Chris Nowak]

wow! Extremely impressive!

[dlavery]

Originally posted by SuperDanman
No atmosphere on mars should mean flags don't wave in the wind.

If you guys remember the opening scenes of Independance Day, they did the same thing - as the aliens passed the moom, the deep ambiant noise of their inter-galaticary space engines many the theater speakers roar and the sand on the moon shake - meanwhile, sound and pressure have to travel through some kind of medium, and there's not a lot of that in space.

ehhe... sorry... got carried away there.

Mars does have an atmosphere. It is very thin (approximately 1% of the density of Earth's atmosphere at sea level), but it is there.

On the Mars Pathfinder experiment in 1997, the lander included a set of "wind socks" - little flags that were mounted on a thin post that fluttered in the wind. Their movements were measured and used to determine the wind velocity at the surface of Mars. So, yes, you can have flags fluttering in the wind on Mars.

As for the animation, it is very impressive. The only comments I would make are definitely in the realm of "tweaks." The lab setup in the beginning, as the robot is coming together, is way too clean. The walls, bench surfaces, cabinet doors, etc are all absolutely pristine. They should be smudged up a bit - add some weathering and texture and signs of a little abuse to them. In the Mars scence, as noted above, you can have flags waving in the Martian breeze. However, the flag is waving way too violently. If the flag is flapping that fast, then you would have a major sand storm blowing around it as well - one so strong that you probably wouldn't be able to see anything else. The rest of the animation is great!

-dave

[Ryan Dognaux]

I don't even have to go to your site to remember this animation! This was a great, great animation, I really enjoyed watching it @ the Pheonix Regional. Very realistic and everything. I was speechless the first time I watched it... very nice, keep up the incredible work.

[Brian Yip]

I agree that the flag is going too fast, relative to the magnitude of the sandstorm. The sad thing is we did not figure that out till the very last hour. One point that dlavery pointed out is "If the flag is flapping that fast, then you would have a major sand storm blowing around it as well - one so strong that you probably wouldn't be able to see anything else." I want to emphasize the Martian environment by adding sandstorm and a windy environment, but I put too much wind to it. Oops. It's definitely something that I can change. I'm surprise that it makes a huge difference though. I thought this is just a tiny thing that is hard to notice. Thanks for pointing that out.

I think our message did not bring out strongly to people. We were thinking that since this year's robotics game has to do with breaking the wall of crates, why don't we make our animation so it's about breaking the barriers to achieve success. We were working on it, but it was lacking of explaining. If there is someone explaining what is happening, the animation will relate to FIRST more. That's definitely something important that we are missing.

[Brian Yip]

by the way, thanks for giving me these comments. It's very hard for me to see the mistakes we have.

If you see more, feel free to post them.

[Salik Syed]

I have to say it was amazing, it received a straight 20/20 for technical and was THE best animation at the wester conference, technically speaking, all scenes were well lighted,textured ,and animation was smooth, i think i met u at the silicon valley regional ( iwas the lead animator for 701 ) , thanks for the tips on ray tracer i am now using those textures to achieve that near photrealism that u guyz have , also like they said : it doesn't have a real meaning like u know.. very clear thing about first. gunn highschool had narraration what is what we'll do next year and it won at LA as well as San Jose

[Brian Yip]

I remember you!!

Thanks for your feedback. Narrator is very important which our animation is lacking. It will definitely be better if we have a narrator.

next year's animation will be way more competitive. Time management is EXTREMELY important. I'm actually very curious to know how many teams have problems with the 6-week working time. We definitely have a great problem with time. We were thinking of adding motor sounds and crates tumbling sound. but we don't have time.

The trend is very obvious, the quality is improving exponentially. Can't wait to see more great animations.

I love to answer questions and listen to people's opinions. if you have questions, I will definitely answer you. I guess this is the spirit of FIRST.

[Soukup]

OMG THAT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!

Okay, scene by scene here's what was awesome. Textures and lighting on the robot, was amazing. Awesome raytracing and reflections on the metal. There was also a very good camera angles. They were creative and unique.

Mars, was a lot better then our mars. I liked the lighting and the futristic domes for a habitat. I had a very good ending as well. hmmm...How come you didn't win again? Yours was very good.

1 thing I didn't like. This caught my eye on the first viewing of it. In the first laboratory room, the walls on the back are very plain. There is also a poster that says eagle strike, and It kinda sticks out because It's just a little to crisp and clean, and maybe to computer-like. That;s just about the only thing that I could find in your animation that I didn't like.

Your animation was awesome!!!!

[Salik Syed]

TIME Was a big issue 4 us as well, although one kid made an x-45 and another made a desk it was all else left 2 me, guess not enough people interested or willing 2 learn , we don't have many people on the team anyways but i am still very happy that they helped me out. i actually did way 2 many camera angles and stuff liek that in the end i had 2 cut some scenes the time fram is 2 short for only a few peolple , i was compositing at like 2 days before the thing was due , next yr i will persuade some of the art class or computer class teachers 2 give flyers so more people join animation!