The first part of shot 6. He turns around and walks towards the door after this clip cuts. Had trouble making his arms do something convincing, when you consider the size of them you think the most likely thing to do would be to drag them along the floor, but this makes him look sad, which we don't want. Will post an update as soon as I figure out the best way to go about it.
Cheers,
Mike.
A swagger is suggesting itself to me, big swinging arm moves and plenty of left and right movement in his shoulders.
ReplyDeletePlus, I'd have his foot tapping gently maybe, at the start, he looks a bit of a dick to me, a tapping foot and swagger should help sell that attitude.
A bit of a dick?...that's an interesting portrayal?! lol.
ReplyDeleteAll the characters are meant to convey a quirky, innocent, and an over enthusiastic attitude. Whilst baring that in mind, will take into consideration your comments and see if it results in some nice animation.
Maybe a little more explanation would help here, as we haven't got round to animating the 2D eyes yet. He is sleeping at the start, so wont be doing anything until he wakes up.
I totally didn't read the sleeping at all, I assumed he was chillin' maybe day dreaming, thinking about things that are blue. Does he need to be definitely asleep, an idle doze might work quite well? I like John's foot tapping idea (that could also work if he was asleep, might read like a dreamy twitch) and the foot tapping also works with my suggestion for his arms, which would be to have them dragging behind, but maybe just tapping a little beat or drumming his fingers as he drags them. That would suggest it was just a relaxed thing for him to drag his arms, and not that he's sad. Maybe he's a little drowzy from just having woken up. (it could also feed in from tapping a beat with his foot while he's asleep, still has the same song in his head, perhaps a little humming on the audio?).
ReplyDeleteI can also see exactly what John is saying about him coming across as a dick. There's just a combination of a few stereotypes that instantly give an impression of the character. The messy room, the beaten up chair, the belly scratch. Even if/when he is asleep and his eyes are closed, his sitting pose just screams arrogance. Is this the first time we see the blue guy? If it is, it's probably really important to work on this and give the right first impression.
It could be as easy as just tweaking that first pose, if you turn his head to his right side and point it down a little, straight away it'll look like a more vulnerable, innocent position. You could also have him scratch his collar bone (right hand, right collarbone) instead of his belly, again this should read as a more innocent, timid gesture.
Don't get me wrong, I actually really like what you have at the moment, but it does give a very strong impression on the who the character is, and it would seem it's not the one you want.
In terms of the animation you have, it's working well at the moment. If he is asleep, you need a bigger jump when he wakes up though, his foot flicking works well, but it could be a little punchier on the way out. Wakes up and flicks out to the extreme pose and then he kinda comes to and has more control as they move back down slowly? You could also twitch his right hand in a similar way.
To help the sleeping thing again, you could perhaps have a little head shake/shiver like people do to wake themselves up. There's probably time to put that in after the head turn and before the yawn.
I like the yawn, and that it overlaps with his standing up, though you could push the extreme pose on the mouth a bit more. Think about when people have a proper yawn, your whole face pretty much opens up. This is a good chance to make use of the cartoony world and really open his mouth wide, maybe tipping his head back (as far as the couch will allow) will help exaggerate that.
Keep it up fool! Looking forward to an update on this.
I just watched this 5 times in a row. He's looking adorable (loving the little hair bouncing) and most importantly, exceedingly believable, so you've won the first major battle.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I thought - and I only thought this when I read your 'I don't know what to do with him arms' comment - was to speed up his rise slightly, if that's the case. As in, a yawn, stretch, and (he's an innocent, childlike character after all) then a sudden flip-reversal into more of an (haha) 'animated bounce' out of his chair.
Complete different interpretation to what is effectively a simple action, and I know how annoying those can be :) But just my two cents, sir.