Ok, HOW do they do this?

[Perknose]

Squirrel showing soccer moves.

I know it's not real, but, damn, it looks good! Anybody know the CGI nuts and bolts behind this?

 

[Atif]

Impressive. How'd they do this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s3ZSARvHRuE

Boggles my mind

 

[Jeff7]

Some of the movement may be captured, like what they did with LOTR. I think they have these reflective tags they put on the person to track movements - or who knows, maybe solid-state gyroscopic motion sensors. But then the movements are mapped into the CGI character.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Some of the movement may be captured, like what they did with LOTR. I think they have these reflective tags they put on the person to track movements - or who knows, maybe solid-state gyroscopic motion sensors. But then the movements are mapped into the CGI character.

Yeah, but then hanging the correct coloration and texture of a squirrel, cel by cel, on those resultant frames! I dunno, but the end result in that clip is totally impressive to me.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Some of the movement may be captured, like what they did with LOTR. I think they have these reflective tags they put on the person to track movements - or who knows, maybe solid-state gyroscopic motion sensors. But then the movements are mapped into the CGI character.

Yeah, but then hanging the correct coloration and texture of a squirrel, cel by cel, on those resultant frames! I dunno, but the end result in that clip is totally impressive to me.

mapping the textures is a one shot deal usually. once its modeled and mapped, the bones are what make it move. the dynamics and the motion scripting built into it is where the quality comes from. get all that done, do a composite over your video and voila! you have that video. im more impressed with the crappy video zooming matching the animation than anything else tho, had to take a while to match that up.

or its a real squirrel that knows how to bend it like beckham

 

[darkxshade]

with magic

 

[pontifex]

those are soccer moves, not football...

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: pontifex
those are soccer moves, not football...

As properly posted in my OP!

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Some of the movement may be captured, like what they did with LOTR. I think they have these reflective tags they put on the person to track movements - or who knows, maybe solid-state gyroscopic motion sensors. But then the movements are mapped into the CGI character.

Yeah, but then hanging the correct coloration and texture of a squirrel, cel by cel, on those resultant frames! I dunno, but the end result in that clip is totally impressive to me.

mapping the textures is a one shot deal usually. once its modeled and mapped, the bones are what make it move. the dynamics and the motion scripting built into it is where the quality comes from. get all that done, do a composite over your video and voila! you have that video. im more impressed with the crappy video zooming matching the animation than anything else tho, had to take a while to match that up.

or its a real squirrel that knows how to bend it like beckham

What if they first rendered the whole scene zoomed out at high resolution assuming the camera didn't move or zoom or anything. Then after that the post processed and zoomed in and out and applied blur filters here and there. That'll get rid of the problem of having the animation align with the camera movement.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Perknose

As properly posted in my OP!

i swear it said football moves...glad it's friday.

 

[Perknose]

Has anyone seen this done BETTER? I haven't. If you have, please post the link.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist
mapping the textures is a one shot deal usually. once its modeled and mapped, the bones are what make it move. the dynamics and the motion scripting built into it is where the quality comes from. get all that done, do a composite over your video and voila! you have that video. im more impressed with the crappy video zooming matching the animation than anything else tho, had to take a while to match that up.

or its a real squirrel that knows how to bend it like beckham

And I'm sure if they just go to the right studio, the technology is already in place. LOTR again - they had completely computer-rendered models of all of the main characters. Or you've got movies like Shrek that incorporate realistic character movements. Then there are furry creatures, like Sully in Monsters Inc. or Over The Hedge. All the technology is easily available - they just need an artist or team of artists to create a squirrel model, and then make him move properly.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: hanoverphist
mapping the textures is a one shot deal usually. once its modeled and mapped, the bones are what make it move. the dynamics and the motion scripting built into it is where the quality comes from. get all that done, do a composite over your video and voila! you have that video. im more impressed with the crappy video zooming matching the animation than anything else tho, had to take a while to match that up.

or its a real squirrel that knows how to bend it like beckham

And I'm sure if they just go to the right studio, the technology is already in place. LOTR again - they had completely computer-rendered models of all of the main characters. Or you've got movies like Shrek that incorporate realistic character movements. Then there are furry creatures, like Sully in Monsters Inc. or Over The Hedge. All the technology is easily available - they just need an artist or team of artists to create a squirrel model, and then make him move properly.

it would only be in place if you already made the model and the bones script. that sequence could have been used previously for a game, animated short or any other model already made, and could be used again with any other model easily. the hardest part would be the squirrel model (and even thats not that hard to get done) and the fur. but with plugins that make fur/ hair automatically, even that becomes easy. i had to learn the hard way back in 1999 to make hair on a model. it sucked. when the plugins for hair and fur (not to mention arrayed models like asteroids or trees) started coming out, i was very happy.

btw, i learned lightwave, 3dstudiomax, softimage and maya for modeling and animation. i still use lightwave for personal stuff, which is my fave. theres another package i learned a little on but i cant remember the name of it anymore... too long out of that field.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Perknose

As properly posted in my OP!

i swear it said football moves...glad it's friday.

Thats because it says Football in the youtube vid, and because that is the name the whole world uses except for the US... But since you are american, you have the right not to use it

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Perknose
Has anyone seen this done BETTER? I haven't. If you have, please post the link.

How about the "cell phones are evil" youtube one?

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: Perknose
Has anyone seen this done BETTER? I haven't. If you have, please post the link.

How about the "cell phones are evil" youtube one?

First of all, thanks, that was well worth seeing.

To my mind, the squirrel, its color and texture and naturalistic movement presented a far more complex challenge.

Not to slight that cell phone one at all! But when you invent your own environment -- A cell phone releasing its inner spirits -- you get, for instance, to make your entire CGI universe just two colors, in this case black and silver. And there is no specific, pre-existing "reality" against which you could be minutely judged, as there most definitely IS with "grass and squirrel."

I'm mainly remarking on the technical excellance of execution which I, imho, see in this vid. This expertise went far beyond anything I can remember seeing. OF COURSE, I could be wrong.

I simply think they did a magnificent job, and would LOVE to hear from someone who could say, "and this is why."