Mad Scramble Run Animation Tutorial with "Monty"

Cartoony run and smear frame exit with Monty

In this new animation tutorial we show how to animate a cartoony "mad scramble" run and smear frame exit with Monty, the green pea.  

It's a simple tutorial aimed at animation beginners, and covers runs, jumps and smear frames.  We'll also need to do some attaches and parenting (for Monty's hat) basic lighting in Arnold and learn how to add motion blur to the final render.

Locomotion - The Run

Cartoony run and smear frame exit with Monty

We've already covered a basic run with Monty, and also a basic biped run with the Heavy rig.  Beginner animators should start with a basic run.  

Assets - Monty

You'll need a copy of the free "Monty" rig, a green pea with legs, which you can read about here, and download for free from Highend3d.com. 

Assets - UG Shares

You can also find Monty (as well as 100s of other rigs) in UG Shares. 

Assets - Sound Effect

The sound effect used is "leaving the Frame (cartoon)". You can find it here at YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7bOU7xphHA.

Cartoony Run and Exit with Monty - With Sound Effect

Assets - Cartoonland Set

You'll want to download a copy of the Cartoonland set (or another cartoony set) from Turbosquid, copy that to your scenes folder, and import that into your shot.  You can also find a free hat at Turbosquid; just search for hats and look under "Lower Prices" to get the free stuff.  You can also find Cartoonland  in UG Shares in the Sets folder.

Cartoonland set at Turbosquid

Assets - Monty's Hat

To attach and un-attach Monty's hat, you will want to install the free Parent Master plugin. The Parent Master makes attaching and un-attaching objects in Maya much easier. 

Lighting & Rendering

To see how to do a simple lighting setup in Arnold, read this blog post. Once you have lit the scene, you will need to Export a Render Sequence - here's how.  Make sure to turn on Motion Blur in Arnold when you render. 

Thumbnails

To get started, use the thumbnails above to plan your animation. Start at frame 1, then do the extreme positions at frame 3, 13, 15, 19, 25, 41, 43 and 45. 

Monty Mad Scramble Run & Exit Tutorial

Part 1: https://vimeo.com/video/1017098569

Part 2: https://vimeo.com/video/1017098690

Part 3: https://vimeo.com/video/1017098775

Most (though not all) of our video tutorials are password protected. If you don't know the password, email me at alex.williams@escapestudios.com

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. 

To apply for one of our courses, follow this link.