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Bunch of upcoming birthdays, it appears. I'd like to wish SSH and skuttleman, both, a nice day. Their walkcycle programs were part of the reason why I began thinking I might be able to do something with AGS. I'm obviously delusional, but it was fun for a bit.

Speeding things up is fairly simple. The kick is harder to judge:



Until I looked at Anian's YouTube link, I would never have said there were that many light sabres going off in the series.

Regarding spaghetti arms/legs: I assume Anian means that my models show no muscle definition, as in calf/thigh/biceps or six-pack abs where appropriate. I'll work on it. I have my doubts about how visible those things will be in game size walk cycles for characters in a low-rez game, but I am very likely a poor judge of such things. There are no games with my name attached. The assumption here comes from the fact that Anian's suggested tutorial link begins by pulling a boot out of a cube.

I like Anim8or, but doubt that my models would win any awards. I also have some doubts about the Anim8or ray tracer, but honestly haven't played with it, at all. The shots I'm posting are with the "default" set up from the base scene. Anim8or has features not available in the old sPatch modeler, but is missing some things that I found useful in the Hexagon modeler. Anim8or has taken me to a new level, although it might not look like it. I do thank Armageddon and Anian for their continued input. If they stop pushing, I may really be beyond help.

Edit:

Worked on the whip a bit:

I'm using an oddball browser and dial-up, so you might want to verify the problem before delving too deeply into it, but I can't seem to get to page 2 of a Game Search query. It keeps returning "Invalid Search." It looks like the name data may not be making it to the page two query? Thanks.

@ Ghost -   +1 to the starch idea!  I've come close a couple of times with bones and limiting the degrees they can move through. Then, I usually mess something up and have to start over. I'm working on it.

Nothing to write home about, but thought you might like to see this:



I have never really made a face that was worth much. Think I need to spend more time with Armageddon's Loomis Books.

Thanks, folks. I'll see what I can do with it.

Edit:

In Anim8or, Ghost's and Scavenger's suggestions were accomplished with a morph, no bones about it. Here is the revision:



Pretty easy, this way. Thanks, again, for the feedback.    Any guidance for my whip issue, in the troubling Ponch's thread?

Was digging through Ponch's 16mm film stuff, recently. Most of the stuff is... Well, I can't really say other than they all came in a plain brown wrapper. This one is hard to figure out. It might be Ponch's screen test for Indiana Cow, or it might be some shots from a fishing trip. Not sure which?



PS - It was meant to be Ponch, as Indiana Jones, cracking a whip. Whip turned out pretty lame, even for me. I'll have to play with it more, perhaps on its own. I may have to borrow Tabata's or Cat's whip, for educational purposes, only, you understand.

@ Nikolas

Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but, while doing unrelated research, I came across a poem in the New York Times. Edna St. Vincent Millay had sent it as a letter to the editor. The link has the poem.

http://www.arlindo-correia.com/060800.html

I was having problems getting this thread to load on my internet connection, too many images (mostly mine), so I selectively dropped some of the image tags and left just the links.

I found an old audition tape of Ponch's. He did a screen test for the Knotty Beard role in an earlier OSD game. He didn't get the part, but here's the tape, edited for your viewing pleasure:




Anim8or. Always wanted to do a waving flag. Merry Christmas, Ponch, and the rest of you folks as well!

Got sidetracked, again. I know there are many ways to handle this in 2D. Wanted to try turning on a 3D light saber. Here's what I've got:



I'm using two bones, in a triangle arrangement, to pull out the mesh: one to extend it, and one to keep it straight. It mostly works, but the first three frames have proven impossible to keep straight. Nor have I been able to hide the blade section in the handle, so the blue is always visible. I could kill the first three frames in the animation, but wondering if there might be a better solution. Thanks, as always, for your valuable feedback.

[so]

@Problem

Sounds interesting. I tried for Hawaiian Ponch, but wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.



Ponch has a Hula Bone. Bet he didn't even know that.

Edit:

Tried to bring Ponch into the Star Wars universe.



Had an animation in mind, but the cloak is giving me too much trouble. Obviously did something wrong.

Edit2: Name suggested by a friend: Obi Wan Cownobi.

Edit 3: More with Obi-Wan Cownobi - Mature content -



Dialogue to accompany-

Obi-Wan Cownobi: These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Smaller Trooper: These aren't the droids we're looking for.

Bigger Trooper: These so aren't the droids we're looking for.

I was discussing Problem's Ponch with a Chinese friend of mine. He hooked me up with some folks that made a quick knock off, done with Anim8or, or some such. They even made it dance, but not quite as nicely as Problem's.



We then began discussing some possible marketing, and it seems immense. A Ponch Bobble Head was no problem at all.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/ponchBobble1_zps4b95a888.gif

I can easily envision a Hawaiian Ponch, with lei and oscillating grass skirt, on the dashboard of every car in America. Or a pastoral Ponch, with the commandments and his shepherd's staff. Or, for those so inclined, a red colored devil Ponch complete with pitch fork standing above the ash tray. Or, consider Tickle Me Elmo... Ponch speaking his favorite sayings. And since his favorite sayings are often, shall we say, down and dirty, the likelihood of being sued for naughty words is practically nonexistent.

Problem, you should have pursued this a bit more.

Edit: The Devil made me do it:

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/ponchFire1_zps720b45f8.gif

Pssst... that's not an animation, it's Ponch filmed in front of a blue screen.

I suspected it all along... Neat job! Makes me reluctant to post anything else. Still, I wanted to give Ponch more stuff to look at...

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/femCowBig1_zps42aa942c.gif

Supposed to be female, and a walk cycle, but turned out more Baywatch Run Cycle.   Anim8or.

Ponch, dusting off his Shakespeare:



Alas, poor Yorick, Ponch knew you well...

Edit: Quick suggestion from a friend offering a better caption: "Alas, poor Yorick, I moo him well..."

So, after a couple more cigs, Super Dude decides that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[imgzoom]http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/superAd_zps453b4cf6.png[/imgzoom]

It is, after all, the 'Merican way.

The Public, Snarky, has spoken. Pinback wins and has the honor of hosting the next Background Blitz.

Thanks for two very nice entries! Also thanks for the sketches, which I was tempted to include in the competition, but decided, in the end, to exclude.

Pinback's:



And Lupo4u2's:



Criteria:

How well will the image work as a background?
Does the image show technical merit?

Voting will close at the end of December 13, 2013. Sorry, folks, no trophies. They would have been lame ones, anyway.

One day remaining. Anyone want/need an extension?

@Scavenger Thanks for the feedback. That crease has been bothering me for a while. I'll see what I can do. I'm about ready to start over, anyway, since I've made numerous mistakes along the way, usually involving the subdivisions becoming permanent. I need to think about how to billow out the pouch beneath the beak, which I doubt I can do with what I've got going on here. Of course, I might get distracted by something else. I have a bad habit of chasing after shiny things.

Edit: Did a do-over on the bird. Got a better mouth. Began playing with a sequence, which led to this:



Mesh is pulling in different places, but still seemed pretty funny, to me.

@Selmiak

May be cute, but he's also being a pain in the butt. I made an error in Anim8or involving subdividing the mesh, lost the weight painting for the flight portion, and got to do it again.  Did get it back up in the air (see my avatar), but it was rougher the second time around, for some reason.



I'm working on the beak, which has generated a couple of questions.

Question the first: Anim8or key frames run the beak animation to 31 frames. Since the non-tweened walkcycles, at 8-9 frames, look okay, I'm guessing I could drop three out of four frames, adjust the timing, and still have a reasonable looking animation. Is this correct? Or, would I be better to leave it alone?

Question the second: I've figured out how to get an image out of Gimp with an alpha channel (transpartent background), but generating the gif with an alpha channel is proving harder. The output I get looks like ghosting, and is sequentially displaying all the images without deleting them. I'd guess I'm missing something in the process. Suggestions?

The beak is hard to weight paint because of the closeness of the two parts. I did get it done, close to my satisfaction, but you can disagree if you care too. And I did find out what "massaging the mesh means," another term that showed up in that Hexagon tutorial.

This is an Anim8or model.

You guys have no idea how relieved I am to see an entry and some interest in the competition. I was beginning to think I'd be forever known as the guy who killed the Blitz. Whew!