Lenny The Cat (animation)

# 1 12-12-2006 , 12:01 AM

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Hello folks,

I've just finished this animation for one of my university modules, it's the first time I've concentrated on animation rather than modelling.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Click

THIS to download from my domain, I have very limited bandwith so if it doesn't work try THIS which will take you to YouTube where the bandwith is all but unlimited but the quality is a bit naff.

Feedback is always good, enjoy,

Mat.

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# 2 12-12-2006 , 01:53 AM

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i like it

its a bit short though

the music works well and the animations looks sweet

i like the overall style with the 2d trees and the 3d 'clay' cat

the butter fly is a nice tough

would be nice if there was more too it though

Now at SMU doing BSc 3D Computer Animation so its hard to get on here
My wire render tut https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...threadid=20973

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# 3 12-12-2006 , 02:18 AM

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Cheers pbman,

you're right, it is short, the brief was to make a 15 second animation. Even so, my original storyboard was about 1 minute but I felt that I would be better off getting a portion of it perfect (or as good as I could) than rushing through the whole lot and producing something that was sub standard.

THIS LINK will take you to a rough animatic of most of the original story board. Maybe I'll finish it one day!!

Cheers,

Mat.

Last edited by happymat27; 12-12-2006 at 02:34 AM.

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# 4 12-12-2006 , 02:36 AM

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i just had a gander at the vid

i think that the first part was much better and the second part was not in tune with the first part of it

the first part felt like a childrens story and then it drifted off

Now at SMU doing BSc 3D Computer Animation so its hard to get on here
My wire render tut https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...threadid=20973

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# 5 12-12-2006 , 04:47 AM

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Thanks for the input pbman,

in retrospect, perhaps I should rethink the second part if I were to contuine the animation. To be quite honest with you, I'll be happy if I don't have to look at Lenny from an animators point of view for quite a while!! I'm definately looking forward to starting something new in the next few days.

As I said, your thoughts are much appreciated,

Mat.

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# 6 12-12-2006 , 06:44 AM

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Hey Matt, Just looked at your first vid post, the animations looks pretty good to me man.

My crit would be that its a bit long in the run up, and quite predicatble (since you see the rake quite a bit before hand) Sort of like a ladder and two guy's, al a Laurel and Hardey, ya knnow what's gonna happen, but still funny none the less.

Maybe have him get whacked, fall over get up and then the scene with the rake on the floor, so you know what happened??

Jsut a thought though, gladd to see your back , Might have to get in touch with you about animation as Im getting into the rigging and animation of models and characters.

Cheers

Steve

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 7 12-12-2006 , 03:32 PM

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Thanks Steve,

a friend commented on the fact that the rake was visible before Lenny stepped onto it, I considered a few options that I had to distract Lennys attention or to hide the rake but I decided instead to focus on the walk, hit and landing rather than worrying about plot.

Feel free to contact me about help, this is my first attempt at animating anything so I'm far from expert but I'm always willing to pass on what I know.

Take it easy,

Mat.

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# 8 12-12-2006 , 07:17 PM

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Hey Mat,

Just saw your anim, and I like it. I agree with the points above, theres no anticipation before the rake. Why not use the butteryfly as his distraction so he doesnt see the rake. Put it in a position that is out of his current path , he walks off his path to follow the fluttyerby and then stands on the rake. Still obvious, but htis kind of comedy always is. Its only really missing the anticipation. Lastly I think hes on the floor for too long, but that might just be me

On the playblast I think the 2nd part really doesnt fit in, I like the unconsious dream sequence idea... But where to go with it its the question.

Great Work m8. Well Done and keep it up.

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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# 9 12-12-2006 , 09:55 PM

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That was great! I thought the sound went great with it. It was really funny when he hit his face on the rake user added image

. I like the clay-ish video the most. Also the butterfly makes it more fun. I think the text you did at the beginning was great. I like the font and how it looks like real movies not like just plain text. The only thing you could work on is..... Maybee making it a little longer? It was short and nice but I guess you could add a little more. But that doesnt matter you did a great job.

https://zoharblur.deviantart.com/

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# 10 12-12-2006 , 10:43 PM

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Cheers for your thoughts,

I can certainly use the crit and will definately put it towards any future animations that I make.

R@nSiD: One of the ideas that I had was to have him distracted by the butterfly but the deadline was looming and I still wasn't perfectly happy with the fall so I decided to work on that rather than the reason for him walking into the rake, hopefully it won't detract from the marks too much. Also having watched the playblast a couple more times, I'm inclined to agree that it doesn't really work, I'm glad I decided to concentrate on the first part now!

ZoharO: Nice words about the music and the titles, I worked hard to get the soundtrack to fit the animation, musicians out there will probably notice that the bass before the piano kicks in plays one too many bars, I had to do that to make it all work together!! The titles were thrown together in Flash, they only took an hour but I'm very pleased with the way that they turned out.

Thanks again,

Mat.

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# 11 13-12-2006 , 12:04 AM

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Just a shame the deadline killed that idea, but its always the way...

The anim still works tho and you have done a gr8 job, as I said before. If you aer going to continue to work on this character and do more shorts for it, maybe you could redo the dream sequence user added image

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix

Winner SM VFX Challenge 1

3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

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# 12 13-12-2006 , 12:55 AM

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You could have beged one of us to do it for some cold hard cash like that other guy!

Only joking mate!

Think I might take you up on that offer of help.

Cheers

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 13 13-12-2006 , 07:30 AM

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Hey matt - excellent work mate - I really liked the way you bent the rake before it hit him and the timing on the music was perfect, even if you did have to extend the bass. :bow:

I wasn't able to watch the animatic as I think you had taken down.

Glad to see you're still around mate - still waiting on that $400, eh? user added image

arran3D

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# 14 20-12-2006 , 05:12 PM

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Hey Mat, soo this was the animation you were working on when you had to pull out, out of the challenge.. i really love the animation. the models, music etc.. especially when the rack bent while it wacked him in the head instead of it just being straight, great idea mate ... only thing wrong with it was that it was abit too short, well keep up the good work mat.. cheers, marlon

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# 15 20-12-2006 , 06:29 PM

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Yeah,

this is what I had to get done instead of the challenge, I'm happy to say that it was handed in on time and I didn't have to pay anyone to do it for me!! Who was that person trying to kid apart from themselves?!?

I need to practice animating stuff so I may well pick up the story at a later date. I need more practice at modelling and rigging in the mean time so I've started a new thread in the WIP FORUM hopefully that will turn into a new animation over the Christmas break.

Cheers again,

Mat.

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Lenny The Cat (animation)

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