Animation: Student Logo animation

[jjburton]

Here's the links:

Click Here (http://www.jjburtonstudios.com/media/video/jjbs_logo.avi)

For critique purposes. My real goal in this project was to do the bouncing balls. I've been teaching myself 2d animation with "The Animator's Survival Kit" and I was trying to apply what I've learned so far.

On a side note: Mods, sorry about the title. I read the new rules right after posting. Thanks for fixing it:)

[HADES]

the design is cool but thats not really dynamics the piece who done your logo should be more speedy and myabe choose another animation for the piece of your logo and the letters...l like the boucing ball interesting the overall look at the end l like .........keep it up

[edaddy]

i like it except for that damn line in the background, smooth it out

the balls don't bounce too realistically in my opinion, they have a definite 'cartoon' feel to the animation:thumbsup:

[jjburton]

Thanks for the feedback.

edaddy- fixed the line and have uploaded the new version. Thanks.

Hades- Thanks...I'm not wanting to put much more time into it for now, but I'll try and make it better when I'm ready to put my demo reel together.

[wedge]

hey i like that a lot! i'd ditch the "Times New Roman" or whatever that is.... i HATE times, unless I'm writing an essay.

EDIT: Actually, I started to use Garamond for essay writing, so I really don't like Times at all!

[jjburton]

Wgeddes- thanks for the feedback. I'll take that into consideration:). Hey, I checked out your site and downloaded your high school senior project. I am very impressed. I wish you all the best, I'm sure you'll go places.

[edaddy]

new version looks cleaner :thumbsup:

[insect666]

Hey, that looks good! Are you really sure it's "a start"?..

Anyways... There still are a few strange details:
1. At the end of the animation, when the green ball jumps into its place it intersects that shape (curve... whatever..) on it's way.
2. Do you have a moving spot-light in the scene? Cause I can see some kind of illumination crawling on the ground from right to left as the animation plays. I don't find it being "awesome"...

Damn... I guess the book's really good. :drool:

------------------------------------------
Maybe the moderators could move this topic to WIP?

[jjburton]

Thanks insect, Yeah I noticed teh balls going through the logo, I'll see if I can fix that easily, if not, it'll have to do for now.

Yeah I've got a light parented to the camera...seemed like a good idea at the time. I'll keep it in place and see if that looks better.

Yeah...it's an awesome book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Here's the link on Amazon:

Link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571202284/qid=1028243080/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-0744173-4791906)

[Grayson]

Looking good JJ. :thumbsup:

Is that for for CA110?

[jjburton]

Grayson, as a matter of fact it is. I've got Professor Tan. Do I know you?

[Grayson]

Cool; how do you like Tan?

lol, yea I'm a SCAD student, and you don't know me; well....kinda.

I sent you an-email a long time ago when I noticed that you went to SCAD. And me being the organized person that I am I never wrote you back after you replied. Sorry 'bout that. :D

What other classes are you taking this summer?

[kyphur]

Nice peice for your intro to computer arts class. I wish I had Tan when I had taken it two years ago. The person I had taught us Max and wasn't a great teacher. In fact they were really bad. But besides that:

In my opinion, I don't like the font all that much. It seems distracting and makes the peice to seem as if it loses cohesion when the rest of the stuff is pretty nice. Color patterns are fairly nice but I agree about the spotlight, it's kinda neat how it brings this horizon line through in the background but at the same time that kinda divides the peice.

Nice animation with the balls though they are a bit cartoony and I can't really see all that much as far as "squash and stretch". It's either that or they don't seem to slow down as they reach the apex of their arch. They need to slow down when ascend to the top of the arch and then speed up on their way down. If you've done that already you need to slow it down. Shouldn't take you but a few secs to modify that correctly.

When is this due?

Good luck btw,

Kyph

[kyphur]

Nice Dreadnaught on your site btw Grayson.

Kyph

[jjburton]

I think everything is fixed except for the fonts (I like them:))

.Link (http://www.jjburtonstudios.com/media/video/jjbs_logo.avi)

Grayson- I could of sworn I remembered your name from somewhere. Thanks for the reminder. I like Tan a lot. He's a great professor and he's given me a lot of help. I'm taking Art History 1, Drawing 2, and Advanced Intro (CMPA 110). What are you taking this summer?

Kyphur- Thanks for the feedback, positive and negative. I'm going stick with the font for now though. Thanks for the kick in the tail to fix a couple of minor things. It's due next week but I'm really busy with some other stuff right now. What year are you?

[Frinsklen]

Hey, JJ. My critiques:

The main flaw is the bouncing balls. The animation still needs a lot of work there. Squash and stretch, weight, curves... you know what I mean... :)
Search for any basic animation tutorials, the bouncing ball is always there. Anyway, if that book you're using, "The Animator's Survival Kit", is as awesome as I've heard, you won't need tutorials...
I'm not sure, but I think those balls are not spheres, they look like m&m's and this makes its animation more difficult. I suggest you to animate bouncing spheres and then squash them until they have the shape you want.

The "J. J. Burton" font doesn't look smoothed. Check the large image at the beginning of your thread.

About the background, it makes everything look too green, and (this is more important) it makes the logo be part of a "scene", like a room or something, and that generally doesn't work well with logos. I hope you know what I'm trying to say.

Anyway, hard to believe it's just a start... great job. :thumbsup:

[jjburton]

Thanks for the honesty.

Yeah...the balls still bother me. About the only thing I do like is the path they follow. I understand the principles I need to in order to do it, I'm just having trouble figuring out how to apply it in Lightwave. Currently the deformation on them is an inertia modifier but it's not giving me the look I really want. I think the best way to do it is to do what you said and have them be more ball like until the end and use a morph target to control the squash and stretch. But if you have any better ideas I'm all ears. My handdrawn bouncing ball animation is much better:) I'm still wading through the principles of animation in the book and this project has kinda caught me in the beginning of my goal to, hopefully, become a good animator.

About the font-Do you mean faceted? It's not supposed to be a really smooth look, but maybe that's what you mean.

Background- I've been playing with that. Initially it was all a lot lighter. If I've got time, I'll play with it. Any recommendations?

I follow your work when I see it in the threads and I really like it, are you a student or a bit more further along?

Thanks again.

[Frinsklen]

Those balls... I don't like the path they follow. They move from left to right and they should not. They should move along 2 axis and you've made them move along the 3 axis.
(did you get that?? Damn, my English still sucks)

The background, well, I don't know what it is, but it's about what I said before about "the room" where your logo seems to be placed. To be honest I don't know how you could fix that, cause if you delete the background (and choose a 2D soft blue for example) the bouncing balls wouldn't have a ground to bounce on, and you would have to make them (this is just an idea) come from the left or the right in order to see the trajectory more clearly. Something like the Pixar logo. (and again, I hope you know what all those words mean)

And the fonts, yes, I mean the edges are not smoothed, I think it's a problem of the font itself, so, If you like it, it's ok.


About my work, I'm just someone who has a 3dmax copy and is being playing around with it for quite a while, and now wants to take it seriously. I've never attended classes of 3D / animation / whatever.
Not yet. I just want to become a great animator one day...

Glad you like it.


Cheers

[kyphur]

Kyphur- Thanks for the feedback, positive and negative. I'm going stick with the font for now though. Thanks for the kick in the tail to fix a couple of minor things. It's due next week but I'm really busy with some other stuff right now. What year are you?

No problem with the C&C on your project. I'm a senior btw and this is my last year though I'll be graduating next summer quarter.

Good luck on your project.

Kyph

[Adam]

hey I think a complementary bg color would really give your logo a kick. Complementary enhance eachother so they seem natural to use in such a case. maybe a red orange Bg and green logo or just the opposite. You should post a pic please so I can see what that would look like. Sorry can't crit on animation cause it won't play for me.

[Adam]

oh and I think you should get rid of the horizone line. It is a little distracting

[jjburton]

Here's the latest fix...

Here (http://www.jjburtonstudios.com/media/video/jjbs_logo.avi)

Frinsklin- Revisted the bounch path, fixed rotation of balls and added squash to them.

Sorry mods, this wasn't supposed to be a WIP, so if you wanna move me, go ahead.

Adam- I'm also gonna attach a still for you. By the way, I've used Divx 5 as my compressor if that helps. I also changed the background for you. Sorry, compliments isn't the look I'm going for right now.

Thanks for the interest:).

[kyphur]

That looks a lot better. Nice contrast and new angle on the ball bounce with a new little exageration on the ball's form make it a lot better. :thumbsup:

Hope you get a good grade!

Kyph

[slime]

Hi. I just saw your logo animation.

My advice:

The typographic part is very weak. The jjburton letters are thin and dark, and the font is not a regular one and "handdraw" type. So the effect is unclean. Also the studios font is so serious (serif) and the color makes it fade with the background.
That kind of fonts and the effects you are aiming works better in 2D and composited.

I don't think the bounces or movements are bad. Not very original, thougth ;)

Try taking a look at as much animated logos as you can (movies,tv) and try to redesign the logo with another fonts. I'm sure you will improve a lot!

Good luck!

[doppelganger]

:bounce:
nice work Josh. Ignore anything Kyphur says I spent hours last wekend showing him how to use after effects and he still keeps asking how to write HTML in it.
<<smirk>> j/k

Really cool stuff but I do agree with Kyph that the animation on the balls seems to be a little flat. A minor tweak and it will be right on. As for the moving spot I kinda like it, it adds depth to the scene for me but I would like to see it without just to compare.

Scott

[Frinsklen]

Much better.
The bouncing balls animation still need some work, though.


Cheers

[hypercube]

Hey, just catching up with this one, looked at the update..

I actually don't mind the font, I think it works both with and as contrast to the logo form. Seems a bit sterile environment though..green, grey, and black, don't get a very lifelike feeling..maybe some warm lighting? Other colors?

The ball animation could use a bit more weight, like a frame more on the ground, or a little tension, just a little off somewhere in there.

One thing I'm not sure if it was mentioned, but with the forms of the logo being so organic, and the liveliness of the bouncing balls, why not animate their shape too? It seems like they fly in sort of stiff in comparison..if they zipped in and moved like snakes, then spun around each other into place, that might add something.

Just some thoughts..

[jjburton]

Thanks for the feedback all...

Hypercube- yeah...I like the font for now. The colors are really great for me either. I've been spending more time on the balls. I completely agree with you about the organic shapes, that was one of my original ideas. I just don't have the skill set yet in place to do all that I want. It's due tomorrow and I'm swamped with client work and studying for an art history test, so I don't know how much more time I can put into it. Great ideas though...

Frinsklen- Yeah...still learning. I did notice that my squash is messed up. I lose mass in the bounce when I only squash on one axis, it does spread the mass out to the sides. I'll try and fix that. I also noticed that one of the ball bounces doesn't quite touch the ground.

Scott- thanks man. You know Jason? I just met him on the forums. I tried to call the guy to get the book back for you, but he hasn't called back yet. Drop me an email or give me a call so I can know when and where for tomorrow for lunch.

Last tidbit...got to play with After Effect for the first time yesterday in class, played with some filters and I made a quick time, so here it is:

Click Here (http://www.jjburtonstudios.com/media/video/jjbs_logo.mov)

[kyphur]

You know that you can export that as a shockwave file in After Effects and post it on your site right? I wouldn't do it in AE 5 though since when I did a few in there it bogged down all the computer's resources just to play a really simple peice. I think they fixed the problem with AE 5.5 but I'm not sure since I haven't felt the need to do anything with it.

Good luck on your class.

Jason
a.k.a Kyph

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