Animation critique - old man

[pigwater]

neo noodle ... i checked this out earlier ... it was o.k. .. nothing terribly wrong and i he felt old .. i didn't understand the original pose that he starts off with ...but i hope something happened before that explains it... the eye movement bothered me some though, to slow and not crisp .. kinda floating and could use some work

bring on the clothes though before this old dude gets a cold

[Animator305]

Hey dude... i saw you posted on my demo.. so i would like to post on your work... i think the animation looks very cool and flowing.. he never seems to die.. what i would do is maybe make him blink before he goes to get his tools.. and when he reaches for them, maybe bend his back a little more and thrust him forward, it will look like hes reaching a little more for the tools as opposed to standing... Thats my opinion man, but the movement is really cool.. good job

[posetopose]

Hi,

Nice start.

My 2 cents:

1. He seems to stare almost directly into the camera at the beginning. I would offset his glance so he appears to be looking elsewhere. It distracts me as a viewer and tends to weaken the suspension of disbelief that is essential to good character animation.

2. When he enters opens the closet, and looks in, you have him looking upwards at a certain point. Almost simultanously, he takes a step in and reaches upwards. I would suggest that you break these actions up a bit. Perhaps you could...

a. Have him look up....and hold this for a beat.
b. Have him drop his right arm off the wall, as if he is about to reach, but have him hesitate before he does so.
c. THEN have him walk in and reach upwards.

3. After his initial reach upwards, why does he float back down? Did he not find what he was looking for on the top shelf? That motion seems unmotivated and floaty. If he indeed didn't find anything up there, you might have him step down, while keeping his gaze up there.


I'd also like so see him ease into that closet-bound step a bit more. Seems a bit jumpy, but that could be because of the tangents you are using.

Aside from that, it's looking nice.

Greg

[neonoodle]

Thanks for your critiques everyone.

I fixed up the eye movement in the beginning hopefully and made it faster. I also put in some more thinking time in that area. The new one can be found up here (http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dbokse20/INT3_2.mov)

posetopose: Hey! Awesome to hear from you, Greg. I'm a student at SCAD but unfortunately wasn't able to take your class before you left. About the critique, I displaced his eyes a little so he's not looking directly at the camera. I had mixed feelings from people whether it was a good move for him to do that or not. About the reach up, what's happening there is that he opens the door, looks into the closet, doesn't really see anything because it's dark so he reaches up for the light switch (it's one of those on a string that you pull down). That's why he floats back down, since he's not looking for anything up there, he heads directly for the switch. I hope that makes more sense when looking at it.

About the last comment, which closet bound step are you talking about? The one he takes when he reaches up toward the switch?

[pearson]

I don't have a clue what's going on. Why does he look at me at all? It seems like you're trying to make him look like he is searching for something to do, then sees me and suddenly knows what he wants to do....

If I'm not involved, then he shouldn't look at me at all. He should stare at the ceiling...toy with something on his workbench in an absent minded way...put a hand on his chin and tap his finger with his head cocked to one side...something to communicate that he is thinking and what/why he is thinking.

Also, when he gets the idea of what to do, take more time to show us. He could hold one finger aloft with look of "aha! I've got it!", then rub his hands together while smiling to show us how much he is sure this is going to be great. Something to give us some anticipation.

If this isn't the first scene, perhaps telling us a bit of what's been going on will help understand the character/scene.

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