October Challenge

Animation!

Specifically, character animation.

Rules as follows:

1) Contestants must provide their own models and rigging. Now, this IS an animation challenge, so it is not against the rules if you want to download a freebie model from somewhere, along with a freebie rig. It would be my personal preference that you actually model a simple character and rig it yourself! The rigging should not take longer than a week, giving, I believe, ample time for the actual animation.


2) Two sound clips will be provided tomorrow. You MUST choose one of them. It'll be easier to judge if everyone is animating off of the same small selection of clips. 1 will be rather short, while the other a little longer.

3) Animation must be 10 seconds OR the maximum length of your sound clip. If you choose the longer sound clip, I believe it is 15 seconds. The shorter clip's animation should be 10 seconds, even though the sound clip itself is just a couple seconds long.

FYI, for video: 30(ntsc)/25(pal) frames per second. That means, a 10 second animation would be 300/250 frames. For simplicity's sake, perhaps 1 chosen rate would be best? I'll leave that up to your thoughts.

4) Finals can be rendered or simply playblasts, just so long as we can clearly see what's going on. Keep animations and playblasts no larger than 640x480, smaller if need be.

5) You will have to provide your own means of hosting if your video is too large to attach to a thread (the attaching limit being 2 mb). Perhaps someone would be willing to volunteer hosting during the duration of the challenge?

6) Texturing, lighting, etc is NOT required, but is NOT forbidden. Make sure you don't spend too much time on non-animation related aspects of your entry.

7) Make sure you post links to any video/audio codecs you are using to make sure that as many people as possible are able to view your entries!

8) Post progress clips! Playblasts are probably best.

9) You can animate both sound clips if you feel you have time, but only 1 can be chosen as your final entry.

10) As always, name your entries:

October Challenge - Your Name - Your Class

Your class distinction is soley up to you! Choose Noobie or Normal. Keep in mind that if your quality of work is HUGELY blatantly the opposite of what you chose as your class, you may be asked to reverse it. That's not happend before, though, so I wouldn't worry about it.

11) For the short clip, you CAN incorporate other sounds WITH the provided short clip, but ensure that the provided short clip is clearly heard as it is the primary sound that should be in your entry.

12) You CAN and probably should use some simple props (such as the door squeaking in the Spooky clip). You won't be penalized if you do not.

13) You CAN use models and props that you have made previously!

14) Toward the end of the month, 2 sticky threads will be created for people to post their finals. Entries that do NOT post in the "Final" threads will NOT be considered! Also, keep those threads to entries only. If you'd like to comment on them, do so in the original threads the entries started.

15) You cannot shorten or lengthen the provided clips. You can, if you'd like, change their pitch.

Some thoughts:

We're not going to limit you on the kind of animation you do, but please nothing that would be considered overly offensive to gender, nationality, ethnic group, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs.

Keep in mind that facial animation can be quite a daunting task. It could be a fun challenge to convey emotion and such purely through the eyes and body movement. Either way is welcome.

You are NOT limited to one character! If you'd like to have multiple characters interacting with each other in relation to the provided sound clips, please feel free.

If a little hazy on how to do all this, feel free to ask! And don't forget, we have rigging and walk cycle tutorials available here. If you're worried about costs, just remember, the winners recieve VIP points! It'd be like getting double the points for your money.

You might want to storyboard your thoughts, first! The more planning, the better.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions about the rules or anything else regarding this challenge, feel free to post here. I'll post the sound clips tomorrow!

Looking forward to it!
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SOUND CLIPS!

Long Clip (mirror 1)

Spooky! 15 seconds. 229 KB. If using this clip, it will pretty much play for the entire length of your entry. It'd be best if no other sounds were added. Perfect for October!

Short Clip (mirror 1)

A lion roar. 2 seconds. 14.6 KB. Remember, your animation must be 10 seconds, with this sound clip incorporated into it.

EDIT: See Attachment in my post futher down for another "mirror" for downloads!

Chris_H has provided a mirror for both sounds HERE.