Spider/Fly Animations

(I'm just copying+pasting this from my cgtalk thread so I don't have to re-type it )

Hey everyone,

Well...this is the first project I've completed while working for .

The idea was to create a quick 8-second shot combining a spider, a fly and a jetpack. Personally I would have liked to extend the shot's length and therefore give the viewer a bit more to see....but having to work within such tight shot-length constraints was a good challenge.

Everything was created in 3dsmax 7, was rendered with the default scanline renderer, and was composited in AfterEffects. The DOF was achieved using the Frischluft plugins for AfterEffects.

Credit goes to Danny Robashkin for DOF effects and some of the compositing (and the long hours he put in getting the renderfarm working! ).

my god man, i don't know how you keep doin it, trully awesome man!!!

care to share the secret behind the spiderweb

Wow Tyson, this is really amazing. Your boss have to be proud of you!
Tell us how is your new job, location, etc.

Wholy crap that turned out great.

That's one of the best rockets I have ever seen and the spider freaks me out. Super real mate, good work!

that fly pwned that spider, damn. seriously how do u work so fast??? this stuff is great.

Wow Tyson, this is trully the best have seen you do

Heh - that was well worth the wait!

Again, a very solid piece - great in all departments (lighting, texturing, animation etc)

I do agree that the shot could be just a touch longer, even an extra two seconds just to allow the viewer to really grasp what's going on and maybe add a little more suspense. (I'm curious as to why you were given such a tight constraint from the powers that be)

Just a couple of crits from me would be that I think the fly moves just a little too much, too quickly. Don't get me wrong, what you have is very nice and very natural but you'll often see a fly buzz around madly and then stop, buzz madly... then stop - kinda gives a nice contrast. I think I noticed this on the DOF shot as the spider looms over the fly (Very nice DOF btw) where, although it looks natural, the fly moves around too much and draws attention away from the spider.

I think the only other crit (and it's not really a crit) is the camera movement. The way you handle a virtual camera is wonderful and is one of the telltale signiatures of a Tyson animation, the hand held feel, the subtle zooms and slight focus shifts are fantastic.... But I think it was just a little too much for this shot (dang I feel bad saying that - almost like I'm telling you you've spelled you own name wrong! hehe) I also feel bad saying that because I can't quite put my finger on why or where it's too much... But overall it looks too frantic (and I know it's meant to be a little frantic!) Meh - maybe it's just because you were limited to the 8 seconds but it's like there is no time for your eyes to 'settle'

Anyhoo I've rambled too much now - it is an amazing anim bud, and does rank up there with your best. The details are great, the movement on the spider web, the motes of dust etc. And the revealing of the rocket just blew be away! The way the skin folds back and the mechanics come out and latch into place is awesome!

And I love the way you managed to add a little character to the spider! I can just imagine his dissapointment in that flop at the end when the fly shoots off. If spiders could sigh... this is how they would do it! hehe

Hey Global...thanks for the in-depth critique!

You make some good points for sure ...let me address them:

1) As for the fly movement, after watching some of the flies around here (live ones) I saw that they are extremely fast moving and jerky. If you can find a place where flies are all over and flying around etc, it's hard to see them stop at all because they are so fast (btw...the fly in my shot is an imaginary fly whose species doesn't exist in real life....it's a mix between a fruit fly and a housefly so I tried to take elements of both and combine them for the shot). That being said, I tried to mimic that (the fastness and jerkiness)...because usually in real life flies move really fast then stop, move really fast then stop etc etc. Now....for the purpose of this animation I agree with you...maybe I should have taken my "artistic license" and used it to tone the movements down a bit

2) The camera shake was also something that has really bugged me. There was actually more to the shot than what you see here, but a lot of it was taken out because I thought the camera work was too jerky etc. I would have like to re-render the scene to my liking, but the problem with this shot was that we were also on a deadline to create it and time simply didn't permit. On that note, I think it's at a point now where it's bearable....but in the future at least I know where I can improve

Once again, thanks for the critique man!