I've been working on a complete rewrite of my inverse kinematics system. To
test it, I've redone the animation where AL talks. The last version looked
rather awkward because of some extreme poses. I've tried to make the poses a
little less extreme, but it still looks a bit odd. I'm only just learning
the classic animation principles...

I've also improved AL's look by adjusting the textures on his clothes,
adding a few details and so on. Furthermore this version is anti-aliased so
it looks much better and it is much smaller in filesize.

Still much work to do, I'm just testing out things. I'm also working on
another animation with AL.

BTW I would like to find a new name for AL. "AL the Alien" is too
unoriginal - a quick web search revealed that it was used by many others...
Any ideas for a new name? It should be catchy and fit to him. I don't really
have any ideas myself right now.

Rune
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Attachments:
Download 'al_talk2.mpg' (199 KB)

"Rune" <run### [at] mobilixnetdk> wrote :
>
> BTW I would like to find a new name for AL. "AL the Alien" is too
> unoriginal - a quick web search revealed that it was used by many
others...
> Any ideas for a new name? It should be catchy and fit to him. I don't
really
> have any ideas myself right now.

    I repeated this animation about 200 times and tried to get some sort of
feel for his personality, and I have some ideas.

    He is incongruous. He seems almost Nordic in his voice but seems like an
NY'er in his attitude. I suspect he is not too bright, but overconfident.
Not quite a Homer Simpson but certainly no Sean Connery. I think he is like
a mid-western Swede or Norwegian trying to fit into the big city.

    His name should be equally incongruous. Making it sound alien would be a
mistake I think. I think the more "normal" the name the more remarkable and
unusual it would seem.

    I might choose "Mark" or "David" (not "Dave") or something like that.

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"Bill DeWitt" wrote:
>     I repeated this animation about 200 times

Whoa! 8)

>     He is incongruous. He seems almost Nordic in his voice

Well, from where was I supposed to get his voice? ;)
It's my voice and I *am* Nordic but I didn't intentionally make his voice
Nordic.

The voice really is a problem because my English pronunciation is terrible
and I then I also don't have proper recording equipment.

*sigh*

BTW, of course my own voice isn't really like that - I changed my voice and
afterwards I changed it digitally too.

> but seems like an NY'er in his attitude.

My knowledge about local American stereotypic attitudes is not too good, but
you're probably right.

> I suspect he is not too bright, but overconfident.

Exactly.

> I think he is like a mid-western Swede or Norwegian trying
> to fit into the big city.

Well, I was more thinking of an intergalactic hero or something like that.
But of course that would be difficult to tell when I haven't provided any
context yet.

>     His name should be equally incongruous. Making it sound
> alien would be a mistake I think. I think the more "normal"
> the name the more remarkable and unusual it would seem.

Hmm, maybe. But I also want the name to be unique.

>     I might choose "Mark" or "David" (not "Dave") or something like that.

To make it unique I would then say something like "Mark the Alien" or "David
the Alien". Hmm, those two don't sound very good, but I'm sure it would work
with another "normal" name.

Thanks for the feedback!

Rune
--
3D images and anims, include files, tutorials and more:
Rune's World:    http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk (updated May 10)
POV-Ray Users:   http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk/povrayusers/
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For the voice you could try using Virtual Singer from www.myriad-online.com . It
reads your words and makes a computer generated voice plus you can change the
tone and just about everything.

Nekar

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I saw this animation about 10 times... Um... he swings a little too much and
gestures a little too much... I hate to tell you this, but he would set off
the "gay-dar" here in Panama. I would make him smile, and do the wink and
the gun (with his hand, you know, with his index finger and thumb, etc.) at
the camera. I would put more shoulder action into it and less hip action.

About the names, you might want to have a look at this
(http://www.inf.upol.cz/~mullerr/theresa/names.html) fascinating list of
Earthish names and their Tolkienite equivalents and also this
(http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/elfnam.htm) shorter one. I found this on one
of the above: "MARTIN (m.) - Latin 'of Mars'; [?] *carnilin(a) "of Mars",
thus maybe Carnilino". Sounds kinda ugly... You could always go with
"Ozgornak" or some other caucophonous name. You pick. :)

PS: For your name, I found a Sindarin (grey-elven:
http://www.geocities.com/almacq.geo/sindar/index.html) "Certh" which means
"rune" and Quenya (high-elven: http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/qlist.htm)
"Certa", also meaning "rune". To make it masculine in Quenya would be to
drop the -a and add -o, -on, or -ion... so you could be "Certo" (Kehr-toh),
"Certon" (Kehr-tohn) or "Certion" (Kehr-tee-ohn). If you were wondering, I

(black-haired - based on "Glorfindel": golden-haired) to be my Quenya name,
should I ever need it. :)

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"Morfindel" wrote:
> I saw this animation about 10 times... Um... he swings a
> little too much and gestures a little too much...

I know! In this, my first study of the classic animation principles, I tried
to work on strong poses and to add personality - and I may have achieved
that, but it just looks wrong! But that is what to expect - animation is an
art that takes a long time to learn...

> I would make him smile, and do the wink and the gun (with
> his hand, you know, with his index finger and thumb, etc.)
> at the camera.

Ah, that is so much his personality - thanks!

I'm not sure it would fit into this animation, but I'll remember it for some
other time.

> I would put more shoulder action into it and less hip action.

I'll see what I can do.

> About the names, you might want to have a look at this

<big snip>

Very interesting links there!

According to what I've read my name in Sindarin would actually be Thurin.

AL's name might be Calen Menelcallon (Sindarin) or maybe Ezel Elendil
(Quenya) - just kidding ;)

Well, those elven names probably doesn't fit so well into AL's universe. But
they can be used for inspiration anyway...

Thanks for the feedback!

Rune

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> Ah, that is so much his personality - thanks!

You're welcome!

> According to what I've read my name in Sindarin would actually be Thurin.

Dost thou feel "hidden"?

> AL's name might be Calen Menelcallon (Sindarin) or maybe Ezel Elendil
> (Quenya) - just kidding ;)

I'm having trouble finding these names... I don't get it... Oh, wait, I just
found them... Hehe... I was going to suggest the "green" part, but it
sounded ugly to me... :)

> Thanks for the feedback!

No problem.

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in news:3b1d7afb@news.povray.org Rune wrote:

> AL's name might be Calen Menelcallon (Sindarin) or maybe Ezel Elendil
> (Quenya) - just kidding ;)

Ezel is dutch for donkey

Ingo

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> Ezel is dutch for donkey.

Quenya for green.

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"Tony[B]" <ben### [at] catholicorg> wrote in message
news:3b1e267b@news.povray.org...
> > Ezel is dutch for donkey.
>
> Quenya for green.

    Wasn't there a movie about a green donkey recently?

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