Tuesday 8 March 2011

Animation Test

Shot23.

5 comments:

  1. Looks good! I like that you just let weetwo skim the edge of the frame, you haven't forced the shot to make both characters front and centre.
    Now for the nit-picking;

    The first poses for each character could do to be a little stronger, the grey guy is very upright, you could try having him sideways and mid-step when the shot starts. I do really like his side-to-side motion but you could push his extremes a little further, specifically the up and down motion. He stays fairly level for the whole shot, a little more Y animation would help him feel bouncey and excitable (which I assume they are?). You could also exaggerate his side to side motion by having a little delayed offset in his head, at the moment his body makes two straight lines which animate from the mouth. If you pushed him into more of a C shape, you could have the very top of the head lag behind the rest of the motion, and he would feel much more organic. (this is much easier to see in the post-it I just scribbled at my desk)
    It's a very small niggle, but his feet feel quite snappy, almost like a duck stamping it's feet as it walks :-) they might work a little better if you have them roll a little more, ease in and out slightly.

    Weetwo's secondaries (glasses and ears) are working really well, I very much enjoy when his glasses are right up and you see his tiny eyes. As mentioned, I think his first pose could use a little tweaking. If you look at the point of the walk cycle he's in, his left hand should be further back, probably just behind his hips. At the moment, he lifts it a little bit and then just holds it out infront of him for the rest of the shot. Having that hand start behind him and then swinging forward and out of frame would help sell his motion and direct his whole body off-screen.
    Having said that, his right arm is nice. It feels a little awkward with the bend in the elbow for the first pose but it comes down with the right speed and weight and his whole body seems to bounce on it and then from it. You might try making his hand a little more organic, have him plant it wrist first then follow with the fingers, perhaps even have the leading edge contact the ground ever so slightly before the rest of the palm.

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  2. Great to see these guys in action finally. The only thing I'd add to the above comment is that Weetwo's walk seems a little floaty, like he's coming off the step down too quick.
    I really like that he casually uses his arms to support himself though.

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  3. Good spot John! Now that's all I can see when I watch it, seems like all the weight emphasis is on the arm, and the legs need some of it back.

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  4. Hey guys,

    Cheers for the feedback!

    First of all I think the comment about the feet is the one that sticks out for me. Its something ive been working on fixing even before I posted this. I will be pushing his rotates and y translate more, its a shame about the stretchy spine, this is the perfect shot for it.

    I see what your saying about the initial pose, but most shots still have there handles when were animating so we intend on trimming slightly which will help. Despite this, I think its good practice to make sure all the poses are tight in case we need to extend the beginning of the shot!

    When his right arm leaves the ground needs to be slowed down a touch as it snaps of the ground at the moment.

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  5. I think his right hand snapping looks good, it suggests it's weighty and that he's moving away from it quite quickly, so it needs to ping to catch up with him. The grey guy's initial pose would be fixed by cutting to your handles, but weetwo's arm just hanging about in front of him will still be there...
    For his feet you could try never letting his foot go flat on the ground, always keep his foot curved like he has little boats for shoes. So as his foot comes down, the heel contacts and then as the toes come down, the heel lifts at the same moment. So you have a midpoint, where he's basically on the ball of his foot, with his foot in a U shape, rolling forward; toes coming down and heel going up. It would probably look weird in most cases, but for this fast excitable walk it could/should work.

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