Character animation test

[SeanC]

looks really good man, nice job.. no complaints from me

looking forward to the finished product

[JYoung]

I'm really digging the poses. Nice and strong, and the timing looks good so far. Sweet!

[pixelpickle]

the playback was bad on my machine for some reason so couldn't comment on the dialogue...might have too many progs running. But I could still see the key poses, and they looked real sweet Andrew. Very strong

[itayg]

yeah looks great so far, no crits here either .

[AndrewCoats]

Here is a smoothed version of my blocking, or at least where I have got it so far. Getting closer to being happy with it....

http://savefile.com/files/1778310 (http://www.savefile.com/files/1778310)

Crit and suggestions more than welcome!!

THANKS

[Loolarge]

It's looking quite good overall. I had a thought about the step that he does on "where you were". I was going to say it feels "stagy". These two heavy accents following each other make it feel weird to me. I would test how it looks when the hip was not stopping that abrupt on "were" but go on continously, and he was doing his last step right away, all in one motion. I know you would lose the foot stomp for the last accent, but i can imagine the flow would look more natural.

This is just a thought, it's allready looking very good and i like the character too :) The poses are strong indeed, nice stuff going on with the arms/hands. And i like how you support the dialogue with the head as well.

[The Funimator]

hey andrew, both blockings are great works. It's just great. haha.. can't wait to see the final version! :applause::applause::applause:

[dalmanna]

looking very cool, do you have any bones in the ears so that you can stop the intersecting if not you could just make a cluster or something to do it. other wise its really nice good job.

[AndrewCoats]

thanks for the comments

Loolarge: I totally agree with what you are thinking about the loss in momentum with the two accents... I was thinking it might be more of a problem with him stopping and pointing backwards on "back".... maybe if I were to take the stop out there and move forward into "WERE!!", it would not feel so staged.

Dalmanna: Yeah, the ears are rigged. I was planning on making the fixes and secondary action on the ears as my final pass once I am satisfied with the posing and acting.

I will update again soon, thanks again!

[mrflynn]

Ok here goes,

The point were he says "BACK!!!" his left knee doesnt snap as much as Id have it :) seems more subtle and subdued than youd want it.

at the point were he says greenland at the end, he seems dead. Mebe if you had him shaking profusely like were he says "..to were you were.." and have his fists flexin a little :)

But other than that I tip my hat to you sir, looks like a good blockin so far well impressed with the way he crosses over cant fault the work. :p

[thimsj]

Nice work on this. How long did this take you to do?

[AndrewCoats]

Planning and thumbnailing took a couple of days during a week to get to a stage where I was happy to start animating. The animating took about three (six hour) days or so... probably a little longer, but I was not keeping track of my hours. I will hopefully post an update by the end of this weekend...

[JYoung]

Really lookin nice. Something about the initial finger point bothers me, though. It's either too quick, or not timed with the dialogue correctly(not making sense).

Keep it up!

[Craiger]

Nice start.


I think the one thing I'd really change is all the pointing. I'm sure you could come up with better acting choices than pointing at the guy, then at send you back. It just seems a bit obvious and unispired. Its obvious you know what your doing, but perhaps going back to the intial acting is whats needed. One other thing, he's looking a bit off balance in the last pose.

Nice work.


werd.

[pixelpickle]

It's looking great Andrew, looking foward to seeing the final product

[AndrewCoats]

Finally had time to go back and refine and try some of the suggestions I have been given from everyone. I also gave it a render because I could not resist. This is where my final test stands for now:

http://www.savefile.com/files/9870185

As always, any crit is more than welcome!

Thanks!!

[Chris Bacon]

great work dude...I like....lol....looking forward to the final

edit:..but of an unusal thing to ask but what steps did you take to get to the level your at?

[joxon]

Geez! Marvelous work Andrew, I like it alot!!

[AndrewCoats]

Thanks for the kind words!

Vivec: There are much, MUCH better animators to ask this question to, but I can tell you what I did to get to where I am right now (and I still have a long way to go!). I concentrated on drawing and 2d animation for 3 years at school (at NYU Tisch) and made a challenging 2d film (which as a result, I am still working on). I learned Maya on the side taking all the classes that were offered (learned modelling and rigging and the like). This is only my second 3d character animation test, so I still have lots to learn about the technical aspects of 3d animation and translating the 2d understanding of temporal space into 3d on one's (which was more of a challenge than I would have thought). Basically I have put a lot of time and effort into A) becoming a better observer by drawing people whenever I have the chance (at parks and on the train/bus etc.) and at figure drawing (which I try to go 2 -3 times a week depending on what I am working on). B) Internalizing emotions and feelings and trying to really figure out what the character I am animating would be thinking. I plan out all my animation (2d or 3d) with diferent versions of thumbnails until I have a clear understanding of what I am going for before I sit down to draw/pose out any keys. Other than that (which I would venture to guess you have heard many times before), I try to go back to some of the best animation books out there: the Animation Survival Kit, and the Illusion of Life and the like. The more I read these books, the more I get out of them because the basics become a part of your thinking process automatically. Once you internalize all the basics your mind can start to understand more and more about the lessons you had previously read/been told. But anyway, I digress. I don't know if this helps you at all, and I as I already said, I have a long way to go myself, but this is what I have been doing and will continue to do for a long time to come!

Joxon: Thanks! It's always nice to hear positive feedback! I appreciate it!

I am curious to know if people think the ending works and if the "were" has enough strain... I struggled with those two parts!

[Sharpy3d]

Wow man, your shot is great :applause:

The character communicate a lot of emotion, I agree with you in the subject of prepare very good the shot before sit in front of the keyboard and work on the computer, its much more important than the software knowledge.
Congratulations again an really thanks for your kind words and your advices, It has been very usefull to me.

[Tezler]

WOW....watched about 12 times straight after each other!

Enough said! Amazing.

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