Mad Scramble Animation with “Monty”: 21 Jan 2025

Cartoony run and smear frame exit with Monty

In this new animation tutorial we show how to animate a cartoony 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
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. If you can’t find a copy, email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you one.
Sound Effect
The sound effect used is “leaving the Frame (cartoon). You can find it here.
Cartoony Run and Exit with Monty – With Sound Effect

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.

Cartoonland set at Turbosquid

Monty’s Hat

To attach and un-attach the 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

Locomotion Resources

Animating “ZigZag Walk” on “The Thief & The Cobbler” 

There are many resources on runs (and locomotion generally) at Animation Apprentice. Follow the links below to find out more about walks and character walks.

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