Kramer "Bus Driver"

[Maplewood54]

Dude, good luck with that. About the only thing harder would be Shakespeare (experience talking on that one...lol). One suggestion. You gotta really push the movement. Anything that feels the littlest bit flat is going to be amplified because of the audio. In fact, it would almost be impossible to push it too far. Looking for updates...

+ Christian

[Robert Diaz]

Dude, good luck with that. About the only thing harder would be Shakespeare (experience talking on that one...lol). One suggestion. You gotta really push the movement. Anything that feels the littlest bit flat is going to be amplified because of the audio. In fact, it would almost be impossible to push it too far. Looking for updates...

+ Christian

So do you have any comments about specific parts? Was there anything that caught your eye specifically that you thought should be changed? I'm hoping that when this is done it will actually be something worth showing people.

[Winner]

be careful you dont mimick exactly what is happening in the audio with your motions.... like when he rings the bell and grabs his own neck ... would the driver really grab his own neck when telling that bit of the story ?

[Robert Diaz]

be careful you dont mimick exactly what is happening in the audio with your motions.... like when he rings the bell and grabs his own neck ... would the driver really grab his own neck when telling that bit of the story ?

Normally I would agree with you. The average person when saying that line would stick there hands in front of them like they were choking a invisable person. But, with the character of Kramer and all of his excintricities I think he might act it out by choking himself. I don't know, it could go either way. If anything I would stick with the character choking himself to add more character to the animation. I didn't see the actual episode that this line happend in so I'm not sure how he actually acted it out.

But your right. Now that I look at it again I am mimicing pretty much everything he is saying. So what do you think should stay and what should go?

[pollywoggles]

This is really great. I'm looking forward to seeing it completely animated. A few suggestions, the gesture toward his foot (when he says "foot") feels a few frames late. It probably has to do more with the camera angle, but a lot of the poses aren't reading as well in silhouette, I'm thinking it's mainly because of the right hand being so much in the torso space for many of the poses. It feels like the shoulders, hips and back could be animated a little more. -- particularly with respect to rotation. And finally, in reference to your lines of action -- because the body is so straight, for a lot of the poses, I'm not getting as much variance and contrast in your lines of action, perhaps a few more "S" and "C" shapes flowing through the body would help (a lot of this is related to my prior comment about rotation of hips, shoulders and back)

[Robert Diaz]

This is really great. I'm looking forward to seeing it completely animated. A few suggestions, the gesture toward his foot (when he says "foot") feels a few frames late. It probably has to do more with the camera angle, but a lot of the poses aren't reading as well in silhouette, I'm thinking it's mainly because of the right hand being so much in the torso space for many of the poses. It feels like the shoulders, hips and back could be animated a little more. -- particularly with respect to rotation. And finally, in reference to your lines of action -- because the body is so straight, for a lot of the poses, I'm not getting as much variance and contrast in your lines of action, perhaps a few more "S" and "C" shapes flowing through the body would help (a lot of this is related to my prior comment about rotation of hips, shoulders and back)


Your right about the spine! In my initial blocking pass I focused on the limbs (I don't think I changed the spine at all). So when I do that it should add a lot. Your also right about the camera/silhouette. I haven't thought about where I want to place the camera so if I want to really get some good silhouettes I should decide this.

Thanks for the comments guys! I'm going to be busy this weekend with work, but I'll try to post a revised blocking incorporating your guy's comments for you to look and comment on. Thanks again and keep the crits coming. Later.

[Robert Diaz]

I finally got a chance to sit down and work on this. This isn't a big revision. I just added some slight movements to the spine and changed the kick. People have said the kick would look better and make more sense if it was sideways and I agree. Something I noticed though is that the kick looks too extreme given the tone of voice. So I'm thinking of changing the kick to something more befiting the tone of voice. A kick like he was kicking a soccer ball right in front of him. I don' know. Watch the playblast and let me know what you think.

Another thing you'll find in the .zip is a alternative "...ringing the bell!" blocking. Some people thought it didn't look right so I tried something slightly different. Tell me which you prefer or if you have another idea please let me know. Again, the blocking is nowhere near done. I'm just banging away on this clip with any free time I have.

Thanks for any crits and comments!

-Robert

File size: 4.95 MB
Bus Driver Blocking 2 (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erobertdiaz45/Vids/Refined_Blocking_2.zip)

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