Heavy Lift Critique

[thehive]

jus seems like he dosent really have a grip on te box, also first its heavy then seems light when he drops it, also he drops it too fast, give it a couple of frames maybe step back then drop it. also act it out

hope that help

[Spinks]

Acting it out helped out alot, although I about busted my t.v. haha, but hopefully this is an improvement. I'm not going to have him drop it quite yet, atleast untill I finish the first part. Thanks alot for the help!


HeavyLifting2.mov (http://www.ericspiker.com/galleryimages/heavyBoxRev.mov) ~ 372kbs

[Animatle]

Looks alot better 2nd time... bit when he picks it up... looks like he almost tosses it up...

box shouldent have any airtime if its so heavy... and maybe u should make him use even more time getting it up...

but like the fumble part... cant wait to see the end...

Keep it up.. definate improvment from first time...!

[fusiongfx]

The second go around lokos waaay better. However for such a heavy object i think it should have taken a bit more anticipation and time to lift it. the box seems as thought its not all that heavy.

[moose2k1]

Hey, good progress...

I agree with the above. From the time he touches the box, to the time it gets to his mid waist, you should double or triple that time. Stretch your keyframes from around those and see if this helps give the box the illusion of more weight

[Spinks]

Okay, After about 20 tries of re-blocking the entire scene, Changing the size of the box, and plenty of other failures, I've come to the conclusion that planning is the most important part of the animation process (even on little things like this)

Decided to stick with the original file and tried what Moose suggested about tripling the key frames between the lift. The character still does not seem to be struggling, I'm thinking of adding a failed attempted before he lifts it, but I'm starting to get scared just opening the graph editor.. I really should have animated more bouncing balls before I jumped to a full character. :D

Anyway, I've tripled the amount of key frames between the start and mid point of the lift, but still could not think of a way to get rid of the "throw up" that NorthHill pointed out because, I have no clue how else he would reposition his hands to the bottom of the box.

Appreciate the Comments / suggestions.

HeavyLift03.mov (http://www.ericspiker.com/galleryimages/heavylift03.mov) (http://www.ericspiker.com/galleryimages/heavylift03.mov)284kbs

[moose2k1]

Are you famalier with parent constraint?

Basically, select the wrist control of the dominant hand that is controlling the box (most like the one that it pivots off of on the fall)

Then... select the box, and go to your animation menu selections and go to constrain > parent constrain (make sure you select maintain offset)

Now once you do this, however you move the wrist, the box will move.

Test this out on a dummy scene.

The general idea is to create two boxes, one that doesn't have the constraint, and one that does. Hide the one that is constrained until the char makes contact and is about to lift. Then you hide the unconstrained box.

That is how you maintain control of the box on the lift.

Reread the above and go step by step in case its confusing, but once in maya and you try the above, you should be good to go!

[robcat2075]

Here's body mechanics things that stick out to me...

-the first hop looks floaty because he jumps straight up, but moves forward. There was nothing in his jumping action to create forward motion. The in-the-air forward motion of his feet, legs and torso would actually push his hips back (action/reaction) but instead the hips move forward too. His anticipation for that hop should really be in a forward swooping arc to get some forward motion going, rather than straight up and down

-The box slides up in his hand while he's lifting it. Can't happen. Slip down, maybe.

-his grip on the sides of the box near the lower rear corner wouldn't' be sufficient to tilt a heavy box backwards like that... insufficient leverage.

-After he's lifted the box, he shifts his left foot back way too slowly, given that he has not shifted any weight off it to the other foot. His body and the box continue upwards even after this loss of support. They didn't have enough momentum before he lifts the foot to do this convincingly.

-He seems to be pulling the box up via squetch on his arms. That's very 1927.:D

-He's pulling the box up his chest (a bit of an angle off vertical), but it very suddenly changes direction and travels straight up with no apparent force having been applied to cause that direction change.

[Spinks]

After looking at robcat2075's post the mistakes were pretty clear, so I decied to start all over, and to avoid the leverage problem used a sphere. :D

Again thanks for all the help on this one hopefully this attempt is better then that last ( used a parent constraint to avoid the slip up) < -- thanks moose!

Balllift.mov (http://www.ericspiker.com/galleryimages/ball.mov)212kbs

[thehive]

the body needs to extend first so the ball it at it lowest point then he can continue to lift it
so as he starts to lift the legs extend the the back then tugs more on the ball but u have it happening all at the same time, look at your staging an spacing of time look at were things start an end not all at the same time

[moose2k1]

thehive is right. ie, when he says extended, not just the body (which is pretty good), its really the arms, should be fully extended. If its that heavy, then it shouldn't be his arms that lift, but his body, so how can he possibly keep his arms bent like that? =)

parent constraint is a must (or something like it). I did a fishing excersice where both hands where on the fishing pole, I used IK hands, and I parent constrained the IK controller of the main hand holding the rod to the rod, and parent constrained the 2nd hand IK controller, to the main hand. This way, I would only use one hand to move the rod, and the other hand would follow! Once you practice some of these things, you will find interacting with objects becomes easier.

Also, your timing has gotten better. Make sure though, its not even paced from the time he starts to lift to the time he gets up. Should be an ease out of the first pose to a quicker pace towards to the up pose, cause momentum and his fight against gravity would have paid off somewhat by that time.

Overall, much better improvement versus your first lift prior..

[Animatle]

Yepp good improvement... one think i would like to see is if he struggled to get a grip on the ball.. rather then just touching it and then lifting... if u try to lift a heavy round object, i bet you would have problems holding on to it...

just try it out your self... ur own body is a great referance...

but in the whole its a good animation and a absolute improvement!

[eagleeyeadvertising]

the box and ball both are very good try i like the was you lift the ball hope to see some more of your work.

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