Beer bottle animation

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hello Blender heads,

well am new to this elite community of blending if I may say. For the past 4 months I have been taking my time to learn this impressive piece of software called Blender and am finaly convinced that I have acquired enough knowledge on blender to try and design something… well I would call my self an amature in blender coz I only have the basic concepts in modelling - I donot know that much though I can find my way round.(I have looked at materials and texturing, lighting, simple animations though at a minimal level)…

Well at this level i feel I would like to try out a small project. I would love to creat an animation of a beer bottle covered in ice and suddenly something causes the ground the bottle is seated on to shake and all the ice falls off revealling the true identity of the beer.

I have the modle of the bottle but I have no idea on how to cover it ice and do the animation keyframes… Any guys out there with some tips and suggestions can help…

thanx Blender heads…

blender = blender + 1

2

There are some good tutorials on animation, I recommend BSoD/Introduction to Character Animation

You’ll have to model the ice covering. Model it in the pieces you want it to break into when the earth quakes.

Start with a simpler model when you start animating, maybe just three or four pieces. Get them looking right before you try dozens of pieces.

3

This does not sound trivial, but possible. It would take a lot of work. For the ice, you’ll need a good understanding of materials and textures. It would be easiest if the ice wouldn’t have to break apart into smaller pieces. Create all the pieces before animating. You might want study the game engine and consider using Record Game Physics to IPO under the Game menu.

4

I dont think the game engine will do what he wants in this case A_N. I’d agree with Orinoco, this is going to need to be hand animated all the way. Although… Maybe model one interlockable cube and dupliver it, then shoot it out along a particle path? Na. I couldnt do that so why the hoeck am I suggesting someone else try it. Maybe the big O could do it, but he’s the only one who might be able to, and if he’s thinking individual models and paths, thats probobly the simplest way

5

Thanx alot for the refference. I am going to check it out and get back if I collapse on the way.

6

@chano, another_noob is right, it really isn’t a trivial project.

The game engine might work, although I’ve heard that sometimes it’s animations aren’t completely realistic, but I didn’t recommend it because you can accomplish your project with just a bit more knowledge (IPOs and keyframes) than you’ve got right now. Otherwise, you’d not only have to learn animation, but also the game engine.

IMO, you can achieve your goal the quickest by working through one fairly straightforward tutorial and then plugging away at the beer bottle animation until it’s done. Way too many would be animators get caught up in learning more and more about Blender and never actually get any animations done.

7

Orinoco I really appreciate what you suggest but I guess i have to go through the tutorials first and think of these more complex features later. what do you say?

8

You can do a lot of good looking animation with just the basic stuff.

Animation is time consuming and takes a lot of experimenting to see what looks good. You never really become an expert animator, because there’s always more to learn. If someone is paying you to animate, and you’re working with a team, you’ll spend the time, but when you’re working on your own, the tough part is to stay motivated.

I think the thing that carries you through to the finish is knowing you can do it, and that knowledge comes from experience of having finished other animations. So start with the stuff you know and do an animation start to finish. Save the fancy stuff for the next one. Or the one after that.

If you wait until you know everything, you’ll never begin. So begin, plug away at it, and finish it.

Here’s an analogy: when cg started, companies making animated films found it took around an hour to render one frame. They built huge render farms so they could get long animations out to market in a reasonable time. They looked forward to the improvements in technology that would cut down the render time.

Fast forward a decade or two: the improvements in technology have arrived, computers are faster, multiprocessors are commonplace, dedicated graphics chips handle much of the workload and guess what? Render times are still an hour per frame.

So you might as well start early getting used to spending a month to make a minute or two of animation. Because, when you know all the tricks and shortcuts and fakes the pros use, when the software has embedded ragdoll armatures and physically realistic motion at the touch of a button, you’ll still be spending a month to get that minute or two of animation. There’ll just be so much more in it.

Well, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Welcome to BlenderArtists. :smiley:

9

Orinocco should I say am inspired or what? welll thanx for your words of encouragement and truthfully speaking I guess you never get anywhere unless you practice and practice and practice so am going to stick to your advice and get right on with it… have faith I can do it so when I get it done ill post you the .blend file and an avi animation of it. Thanx alot.