Animation Challenge #26 Entries CLOSED

Contests Weekend Challenge
#1

The theme of this Animation Challenge is:

An Ornithopter (Flapping flight)
Def: Ornithopter (noun). Heavier-than-air craft that is propelled by the flapping of wings

Looks like a good opportunity to develop those mechanical animation skills!

The rules are here. Keep an eye on the file size and time limit! The rules have changed recently, with a now larger 6MB file limit and as many frames as can fit therein up to 1 minute in length. Of course, 10 seconds or so is the norm, so no worries.

Contest ends Monday, January 16th, 2006, at 9 p.m. Eastern U.S. time (January 17th, 2 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time):

You can find stock models here:
http://blender.futurex-graphics.com
http://www.clubinfo.bdeb.qc.ca/~theeth/images/pikmin.blend
http://home.att.net/~yorik/SomeGuyExp1.zip
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31839
http://blenderchar.weirdhat.com/models/
http://www.freewebs.com/apollux/Legacy.html
http://mitglied.lycos.de/skatenzock/webob1/other_zeus.html

You can find free music (Creative Commons cc-by-sa-nc) at magnatune:

And you can find free sound effects (CC Sampling Plus license) at the freesound project:
http://iua-freesound.upf.es/

If you need server space to post animations, try these hosts:
http://www.ourmedia.org/
http://www.archive.org/movies/opensource_movies.php
http://gallery.mudpuddle.co.nz/

Remember, Keep It Simple! If it flaps, it’ll fly…in this contest, anyway.

Also please post a frame grab for your animation. This will help keep voting straight and make sure all the votes go to the right place.

#2

Wow! GREAT topic.

…I don’t think I can participate though cause I have so much work. Can’t wait to see the entries!

#3

yes, the topic is just great!

I have modeled my orni already , but I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time (and abilities :wink: to prepare animation good enough to be here. I hope so.

#4

I agree, this topic fits me perfectly.

#5

Non Participating Entry.

Hi ornithopterists,

Mikejedw suggested that if we had any spare parts left hanging about

that somebody could make use of, to post them here.

Well the only thing I could find was an old MK XIIIc drive unit.

Download the .Blend file (2.40) here if you wish to bolt one on to your flight frame.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/smiffy42/files/ORNI.blend

Mk XIIIc in action on test rig.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/smiffy42/files/ornismall.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/smiffy42/files/orni1.avi

As you can see the Mk XIII was the first in the line to have a movable drive head system.
This allows for hovering and the all important and impressive backwards flying.

I should point out though that this system never actually got off the ground,
I think the engine was under powered, but I sure somebody could install a bigger one.
The wing shape leaves a lot to be desired, it has very little
leading edge suction but again I’m sure again with a bit of tweaking it could soar.

If only the thing wasn’t quite so damn heavy.

Maybe if it was made with Blenderinium (stronger than steel, only slightly heavier than air,
most expensive material in the universe) but I couldn’t afford any at the time…

But maybe you have some!

Anyway good luck to you all.

#6

Awesome! Thanks, McSmiffy!

Reminder to folks out there: since this an animation challenge rather than a modelling challenge, please feel free to use this or any other pre-existing model in your entry–it is absolutely not required that you start from scratch! Clever animating and good stories are the keys to winning the prestigious Animation Challenge!

Also, if anybody else comes up with any other good ornithopter models and feels the urge to share, please do post them up here.

#7

i’m in! i’ve been busy animating a bit, and something (of couse) went wrong. instead of making an instant Ctrl-O / Enter movement, I saved this little anim because it’s kinda cute in a way, and of course i wanted to share this with my fellow blenderheads.
here’s my non-participating orni-gone-wild :smiley:

orni gone wild (1.35 mb)

i’ll be back on monday with a participating entry, that is - if i can figure out what’s wrong :stuck_out_tongue: good blending to you all!

#8

Here’s mine, you can view it in 3 different formats
the sound is very much part of this, so turn your speakers ON :smiley: . . .

http://www.fileupyours.com/files/8588/clipda.jpg

flash: http://www.fileupyours.com/files/8588/DeathAngel.swf

Avi: http://www.fileupyours.com/files/8588/DA.avi

Quictime movie: http://www.fileupyours.com/files/8588/Deathangel.mov

#9

fried brain needs to use particals :stuck_out_tongue:

and fried brain made me jump :o

#10

i’m still rendering :expressionless:

#11

No worries. I am, too, and it looks like there should be a few more coming in late. I’ll hold off until midnight unless anyone has an objection.

#12

wooh! No objection, your honour! 8)

#13

Sooo…we have entries? I’m getting sleepy here :smiley:

Here’s mine:

http://workingweek.org/anim/026/ornithopter.jpg
http://workingweek.org/anim/026/ornithopter.avi

#14

Ok, folks, I left it open all last night, but it’s closing up in 1 hour.

#15

HAHAAH! Great one, mike!

#16

oh no! I thought you meant midnight at GMT :expressionless: sorry for keeping you up :frowning: !
and i pressed the osa button because of that … rendering is now halfway there, but i have a old render that’s basically the same animation, so i’ll post that so you can view what it’s about :smiley:
but it’s quite lowres and crappy rendered. Plus it’s not the final render, so it’s a little different from the actual animation. I’ll just keep my computer rendering (it’s been 10 hours so far and it’s halfway there) and post it when it’s done, but i have to warn you, you can’t give me votes for higher res or osa, it’s an anim challenge ok :wink:

The story:
Long before we had our working realsize planes, many men perished trying to persue their wish to be able to fly. One model that never actually seemed to work is the ornithopter. But noone knows that once there was a working ornithoper, in the late 1500’s. This is what happened.

http://orion.luon.net/~roderik/documents/blender/pictures/orni.v11.avi.jpg

p.s. yes, there are some things missing, like a pilot, but hey, this is a reconstruction from something that happened ages ago, and I couldn’t find the guys bones. :Z

hahaha penguins can fly :smiley: nice one mikejedw.

#17

New topic up here:
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59489&highlight=&sid=5f31654ba795d8a1c237bdd64c90df13
The theme is “Kicking An Object”