watch “Little Mecha”: Simple 3D Animation

cinematography · Jan 6, 2005

Little Mecha is short for “The Little Mechanical Thing”. I did this piece as a kind of speed test. It took about 6 hours to model, color, light, and animate, and about an hour to do the music. Please share your thoughts.

http://tsharpfilm.websiteallies.com/littlemecha.htm
(10mb – Encoded with XVID)

Sincerely,
“Cinematography”

CommanderGoat · Jan 7, 2005

I think that looks pretty good for a quick 6 hours of work. What did you use? 3DSMax?

cinematography · Jan 7, 2005

CommanderGoat said:
I think that looks pretty good for a quick 6 hours of work. What did you use? 3DSMax?

Thank you. I used Softimage XSI 3.0.

Will Vincent · Jan 7, 2005

Nice animation.

cinematography · Jan 7, 2005

Will Vincent said:
Nice animation.

Thanks.

I need to clarify one thing, however. I was able to do the animation in 6 hours because I was already familiar with the formula for making a character with 4 legs move, and I had done a couple of animations like this before with this character.

LOGAN L Productions · Jan 7, 2005

I cannot watch the movie in any of my programs...do I have to have an XviD program?

LOGAN L Productions · Jan 7, 2005

Nevermind. Great Job! The reflective surfaces really look awesome.

King Goldfish · Jan 8, 2005

tony, I cant watch it for some bizzare reason.

BTW.. One of my best friends name is Tony Sharp... Actually William Anthony but he goes by Tony.

cinematography · Jan 8, 2005

King Goldfish said:
tony, I cant watch it for some bizzare reason.

You'll need to download the XVID Codec. It's one of the best codecs out now, and is definitely worth the download.

BTW.. One of my best friends name is Tony Sharp... Actually William Anthony but he goes by Tony.

That's strange.

And thanks for the feedback and compliments, everyone. :blush:

CootDog · Jan 8, 2005

The animation was pretty cool. Nice ending. Would have liked to see a little movement from the "red ball" It looked metal or plastic but thought it should have a little softer of a material, like hard rubber or something. That way when the end comes it would look more realistic.

But what the hell IS realistic in a 3D animation anyway... it's not real!! and neither is a 4 legged robot spider anyway... What the hell am I talking about!!?!??

sonnyboo · Jan 8, 2005

This animation rocks. What all equipment wsie did you use in your PC? What expedited the render time, or was the 6 hours just in the keyframing?

Regardless, this is a fantastic test of character animation & simple lighting.

Kudos!

cinematography · Jan 8, 2005

CootDog said:
Would have liked to see a little movement from the "red ball"

Good suggestion. I will do that for the sequel. I should add some motion blur to. Motion blur really ups the rendering time though, and that is why I avoided it for this short. Thank you much for the feedback.

sonnyboo said:
This animation rocks.

Thanks, Sonny.

What all equipment wsie did you use in your PC?

Just Softimage for the animation, Adobe Premiere for the editing and color correction, and Magix Music Maker for the music.

What expedited the render time, or was the 6 hours just in the keyframing?

I forgot what the rendering time was. I let it render over night. So yes, the 6 hours was spent on keyframing and adjusting the animation tangents.

NicklausLouis · Jan 31, 2005

Cool stuff, really enjoyed it!

Poke

cinematography · Feb 1, 2005

Woo hoo. Front page honors.

Thanks a lot, folks.