animation:riverdance-sort'of...

[jussing]

Heh! That's very cute!! :D :D :D

How about having the lead robot's leggs topple in the very end?

Cheers,
- Jonas

[stephen2002]

That was kinda funny. The sync on most of the steps was off but overall it worked fairly well.

It would be even more funny if the lead robot's legs fell over in the end.

[WhiteRabbitObj]

Heh, thats disturbing that you chose to even do that! Nex time you try to sync music and action like this tho, you'd do well to make a detailed beat chart so you can sync it better. But overall very funny, I think i'd like to see an updated version where the michael flatley robot is really going all crazy like the real life guy does, with his hands on his hips and dancing around like nuts.

[colt]

:D Really funny. :thumbsup: How long did you spend staring on your riverdance video collection? ;)
But you should add some motion to their arms - or leave them completely. At the moment they really look stiff and disturb the animation.

[webfox]

I agree with Colt. There needs to be secondary motions. There's also very little in/out on the up/down motion. If the skips and jumps were shorter, I could see it, but they go up and down a bit fast and there's no hang time.

I realize that the Riverdance team is renouned for being in time, but this animation looked too much like copied/pasted motion files. Maybe some dancers could be placed back a bit or forward a little... maybe have one or another one frame out of synch. It would still match up well enough to be believable with the sound.

Also, it's a potentially funny gag to have the lead robot blow up, but there's nothing plot-wise to indicate why that would happen. If this were to be the culmination of the short, then give him some character and make him stress out while trying to keep up. Make him look nervously around at the others keeping effortlessly in time with each other while he fights to hold on. Maybe show a closeup of some part about to overload while he frantically tries to dance. Then WHAM! He blows up. Show parts falling and hitting the stage along with the particle explosion. His shell shouldn't just evaporate.

This is still a cool concept for as much as I've picked at what you've done. I hope you continue at it.:wip:

[grstovell]

thanks for the comments!

I agree with the need for a beat chart... I did that for only one of the segments (towards the end)... I just wish I would've done that sooner.

As for the too synched motion... I agree... basically all the IK's are parented to the white robot... it was the lazy man's way...

I love the idea of giving the lead robot some nervous character... I thought of the explotion way too late. Then I tried changing his color to bright red as the animation progressed, adding some smoke and allowing him to overheat... but the render times were brutal!!!!!!! I overdid the number of lights, and reflections...

I may just put this one behind and try my hand at a different character...

anyway... thanks for the comments!

-g

ps- Colt.. how long did I spend looking at the videos? Believe it or not I did go to BLockbuster and rented Riverdance... after doing this I NOW HATE THE SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't stand the music anymore!!!!!!:annoyed: :annoyed: :annoyed:

[jussing]

Hi again,

I like his completely spontaneous exploding. -Has the same surprise effect as Alien Song, which is what I think these small "story-less" gag animations should be about. :shrug:

Come to think of it, in Alien Song it's only funny because he's singing "I will survive", and then BANG... hm... :curious:

Still, I think his legs should fall over! ;)

Cheers,
- Jonas

[Shaykai]

rofl, so funny. THat made me laugh out loud. hehe don't tell anyone but i'm a fan of riverdance, really damn funny animation man. Good job!

Shaykai

[webfox]

Then I tried changing his color to bright red as the animation progressed, adding some smoke and allowing him to overheat... but the render times were brutal!!!!!!!

That's why you render in passes and composite it later. Generate a smoke puff that works for you and render it and the alpha. Generate sparks and render them with the alpha. That way you can futz around with each layer in your compositing software and you don't have all the problems of getting each one perfect all at the same time.

I may just put this one behind and try my hand at a different character...

I see this happen a lot. It's quite depressing. There are a lot of good, unfinished projects out there and wasted time making demo reels only to have a bunch of not-quite-ready shorts rather than a few well done, completed ones. (I'm sitting on one, myself.)

Don't let render times bother you. You can render at night while you're sleeping or working somewhere else. You are rendering to frames, right? You're not rendering directly to an avi or mpg file, correct? By rendering to frames, you can stop and start your renders and pick up where you left off without losing more than a single frame, if that.

I think you should keep at it. What's going to happen if you don't, is that you'll get to this level of finish in your next project, you'll get stuck in the same areas, you'll get depressed because "nothing ever works right", and you'll skip to something else and start the whole vicious circle over again. You're 90% of the way there. Don't give up now.

[grstovell]

Shaykai... A fan of Riverance??????:hmm: don;t worry.. your secret is safe with me!:)


webfox: wow! Thanks for the pep-talk! I really do appreciate it.... and yes.. I agree with you. I think it's worth looking at this piece again... even if that means going back and teaking some of the steps so that they match the music a bit better.

I do have some problems with compositing... being that I am a total newbie in AE I do most of my comping in FCP (lazy man's way)... this may be a good chance to learn AE...

Thanks again!

-g

[Alice]

to quote the boondocksaints,
-Wow, I almost feel like riverdancing!

:)

[HawVer]

I like it! :thumbsup: Try something different with the arms of the robot.

[KotsVlok]

Haha that was funny :) ..Although i think you should do more with the arms of the Robot's....now they're just ehhm..hanging :shrug:

[Alice]

i want to ad that... erm... that what arms do while riverdancing...
hanging.

[Shaykai]

Well in traditional clogging the arms are held straight at the sides and you try not to move your upper body at all, but Mr. Flately the maker of riverdance was a 'rebel' of sorts and incorperated a lot more arm movements and gestures into his dance to evoke more emotion.

yeah... ehem. I feel like a geek ;)

[webfox]

All the dancers of that style look like they're smuggling broomsticks. :scream:

But, back to the topic, it would be really cool to see this main guy worry and fret and then blow up from exhaustion... and you could capture the sound of the main dancer alone and overlay the steps with the current track... he could be offbeat and trying to catch up.

It'd take a bit of work, but could be fun.

[Rawn]

very cute. :thumbsup:

definitely need some secondary in the arms, even the slightest movement will improve it greatly.

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