[Peter Murphy]

Originally posted by KrisYoung1980 Yeah Pete, you're going to fail... very good! BTW John was wondering if you'd be interested in doing the Dare To Be Digital competition this year, apparently theres some really good games programmers in the CGD coure this year... P.S. You should start a thread, if anything it forces you to keep working on stuff or you end up looking like a slacker (especially compared to the man machine that is Fraser Davie!!!)

John is gonna be the death of me. He keeps suggesting work and I find it impossible to say no. lol. Depends on the terms and conditions, when it is for, what's the prize, expected duration, yadda yadda yadda.

[KrisYoung1980]

Will speak to you about it on Monday, not sure if I want to commit to it or not, I'd rather get a job to be honest!! (that said, taking part in something like this would help on that front).
If it helps, I could send you a .wav of "No! Go Away!!" and you could just play it if you're having difficulty with saying it

[Peter Murphy]

Sounds like it's an entirely seperate project take on. Speak to you about it tomorrow as you said. Don't want to spam your thread with the matter.

I think I'll take you up on that Wav idea however.:attn:

[KrisYoung1980]

Got the initial rigging of wee Suzie done now, still got to set up all the controls for IK, dynamics etc, but she's getting there. I need 3 different versions of her for the animation, one as she is, one with her in her pyjamas with her hair down and one with her head shaved and in a straight-jacket, should be pretty straight forward with the possible exception of the straight-jacket, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it - Think I might take a break from her now and start modelling the mother....

[davie563]

looks cool, ur fairley gettin throu these characters.

Keep it comin

Are we goin to see more detail in the clothes ect... ?

Seems a bit bland and stuff ?

:beer:

[KrisYoung1980]

bland and stuff? Like I've said, haven't done textures yet, however, too much detail wouldn't suit the style of the animation. We'll see...

[davie563]

i was just meaning the textures m8 :p the models look great, loving the wee devil in that pose.

Are u thinking of putting like a pony or a big flower on her dress ? or somthin like that, kind of like a woven effect, no just a straight picture.

[Peter Murphy]

I don't think textures would make the models necessarily better. The fact that it looks so smooth it looks orginal and cartoony. As Kris said it doesn't suit they style of animation. I'd rather see it with radiosity on it than textures anyday. The fact you can suddenly spot Kris's style a mile away means it is unique, in my opinion textures would over power the mesh and it could lose that.

[davie563]

the textures id like to see on it are some eye-lashes and some roses cheeks, she needs some of these aspects to give her some personality.

[davie563]

this is very rough, but im sure with work, she would come alive

Keep it comin :beer:

[Peter Murphy]

Flower on dress, yeah. The blush and eyelashes arent a good idea. Instead of innocent she's been whored up. :shakehead

[davie563]

lol, i knew some1 would reply with that, but its just an example, kris would need to work on it, u should look at the we girl in Monsters inc for an example of what i mean, and also the wee girl from toy-story. They have that eye-catching charm, you instatly like them, their cute and really friendly, thats what u need in a character more than anythin, the model could be slightly ruff, but if u catch that essence then ur onto a winner, thats what kris's needs, if not the lashes and rosey cheeks, then u will need to think of somthin

:beer:

[KrisYoung1980]

so essentially what you're saying is my models are rough, unlikable, and devoid of any life, should I drop out now or wait to be humiliated at the end of year show??

P.S. Im going to attempt to give her some personality by animating her, not by giving her eyelashes :p
Check out www.pocoyo.com my absolute favourite kids animation at the moment, the modelling and texturing is rediculously basic, but the characters are bursting with life - if I end up with anything a 10th as good as this I'll be happy!

[davie563]

no no no..... when i said the model could be slightly rough i wasnt talking about urs, i was talking about how important personality is as a whole. I was just saying that if some1 made a model that wasnt very complicated and very rough aroud the edges, but still managed to capture that we twinkle then it can drag a faily average design into somthin really good as a total package.

Ive said in many other posts that ur models are constructed well and look good ect... ect.... but i just think ur character needs that we sparkcle to make her complete.

I dont know how ur goin to do it, and i know thinking of somthin takes time and also requires more work, but i may aswell post what i feel could make ur work better, u know whats good about it all ready and i dont see the point in just sayin "yeah, great" dosent really get anybody anywhere. There is no such thing as bad critisism, its just up 2 u what u take from all the options :p


**By the way, i just checked out that site, the baby rocks and the character designs are great. After looking at it very closly i feel the main prob im having with you model is really just the eyes, they might be to big.... I dont know. Lookin forward to updates

:beer:

[Peter Murphy]

The puppy is my fav, also the sleepy bird comes a close second. I love those characters. Just shows however that character design doesn't have to be the most complicated thing on the planet in 3d to make it appeal to everyone.

*Looks at his own characters...

"Shit..."

I think you could come up with something the same as their work, its pretty smooth animation and it really does sell the characters personality throught it. I think you could pull it off Kris, so to heck with this "10th of that good business"!

Actually after reading some info on the site I thought it would be significant to this thread to actually state the sex's of the characters in pocoyo. Pocoyo is obviously a boy and so is pato (the duck) because of the hat. The elephant, Elly would be straight away assumed to be female as its bright pink even by the movement you would think that. So yeah, we assumed right. Elly is female.

What about the orange puppy? If you didnt know the puppies name then I'd guarantee more than half the majority would think it's male. Jumping up and down really full of energy in a male behaviour in my opinion. However the dog is female. But the only reason this is apparent is its name and it states that Loula is a she. The last character, Sleepy Bird? Male or female, well its a strong dominant green, and a bit chubby, with a look of emptyness and disregard on it's face. This is a steriotypical older male appearance. The animation shows that Sleepy bird is rather heavy too, with a large thud than the other characters give off when it lands. Not a really ellegant way for a female to move. So does this mean that the birds male? No. it's not. The bird is actually female! (ooo big surprise with the extensive amount of text I wrote). But you cant tell this by appearance, or by name, you have to actually check the character stats. I dunno about everyone else who looked at it, but It's a prime example that a sex of the character isn't always completely defined or significant through animation.

My point is that Kris's girl is easily straight away seen that she is female. The blonde hair, the big blue eyes and the dress. It's more than blatent to me. Where as these guys have gotten away with characters that have no real defined sex, it doesn't matter if she is not the most female character on the planet, as long as she is defined female, nothing else is important. Also the more you put into a character the less cuddly it will look. This is more than blatent with the amount of work we have seen in class. Girls going 'awww' at characters who have very little work on them. However by the grades we've seen its apparent that it doesn't go by quality, it will go by quantity. Meaning if you made Suzie more basic, she would be more cute but you could be marked down for it. Not only that, you really want consistancy throughout your project. Having something with super cuteness may not fit into the scene. A more realistic approach to a girl is definetly needed. The way Suzie looks is fine taking away from the character isn't a good idea.

...and in the space of time I blabbed I'm sure I could of created the texture, specular and bump maps for my character. lol