Character Animation!!I'm Scared!!!

[svenip]

the biggest help for a character may be to watch as many references as possible. watch cartoons and other animated films. look specificly at the movements of the character. also it may be a good idea to get some books with anatomy details of humans etc. to know the anatomy is a good start to know how they move. especially when it comes to character setup you definitly have to watch these books.

ahh forgot. get yourself a stopwatch :)

[flipnap]

get "the illusion of life" disney book .... and also "the animators survival guide" the later of the two will guide you.. you wont get good for years but at least you can start with that.. and practice practice practice.. and become a massive reference machine.. soak up all you can because animation is an art, not a skill...

good luck

[rsalonen]

I'm also in the process of learning some character animation.

When you animate, how do you make the character walk forward, do you like move one feet and leg a few feets and add, a keyframe and then translte the body a little bit so it's following, and then go on with the other leg, move body, and so on?
What is a good way for this?

[flipnap]

veq.. there are a lot of techniqes for animating.. one way for a walk is to translate the root at the deired speed. then lock the feet down step by step. then animate the feet in the ups. Then bob the root up and down.. and so on and so on.. there are a lot of tutorials on this kind of thing and the maya manual actually has one for this..

good luck

flip

[Array]

These two books are a great starting point:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1562059300/qid=1023685717/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-3444683-2021408

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735700443/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/103-3444683-2021408

[bigfatMELon]

Aside from reading all the books and staring at people in public places to the point that they might slap you with a restraining order, a good way to get going is to not start with a full humanoid character.

Start with something far less complicated like a ball or a box. Then attempt some simple exercises with these inanimate shapes and do your best to breath some life into them using what you learned from reading and observing. Starting out with these simple shapes will keep you from being overwhelmed with the controls and allow you to concentrate on the craft of animation. Focus on pose, timing, weight and staging. Once you can make a sphere or a box act with character, it's not such a giant leap to do it with a humanoid.

-jl

[ACFred]

I agree with bigfatmelonhead. Starting simply and learning the fundamentals of basic animation as well as the animation tools in Maya will help alleviate 1001 headaches caused by lack of preparation.

If the film you've been making isn't animated and you haven't done any sort of animation before, do some ball bouncing tests so you can get used to the concepts of timing, weight, anticipation, and squash & stretch (just a few of the animation principles). If you can animate those and have people able to say "Oh, that's a bowling ball" or "Hey, that's a ping-pong ball" then move on to some other things that will help accentuate ease-in and ease-out.

The two books Array mentioned are good places to start. Also, if the religious crap doesn't make you ill, check out http://www.keithlango.com/ for a nice tutorial on pose-to-pose animation theory. While I like to use a combination of pose-to-pose and straight ahead, Keith's methods are mighty fine and he gets good results and pose-to-pose is a good discipline to start off with.

Make sure you post your progress to the Animation channel for critiques.

Good luck!

[Tob]

Get yourself a mirror (fullsize if possible). Watch yourself walking and moving about. Pay attention to how different bodyparts move in relation to each other (Hips, shoulders and arms when you move your legs, just to name one).
I've found myself in situations where the mirror has really saved my day. A couple of years ago I had to do a juggling character. I ended up having to learn to juggle myself, watching myself in the mirror and nearly driving my my fellow animators half mad in the process :annoyed:

Mirror: can't beat it

[flipnap]

yeah, and remember to keep attention to why things are moving. Build the characters feelings from the inside out. move nothing without a reason and remember the principles of animation. Another site to check out is http://www.cg-char.com that is if all the secular crap doesnt make you ill.. There are a lot of amateurs up there with a lot of the same question you have.. there are a lot of professionals that have a lot of answers for you to..

flip

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