Chimp Motion Reference

[DJ-Nicke]

Hey man, it looks like you've put a lot of work into this.

Did you want some animation feedback? I know its already been handed in, but you could always be improved for your reel...

[Tad Ghostal]

Maybe it's just the video, but it looks like right before you cut to the 2nd clip the chips head popping.

[deadfish]

hey, yeh i was hoping for some crits for improvements on my showreel. not so sure what you mean with the head popping up?

Dan.

[DJ-Nicke]

Ok man,
Well first off I'd say you're working way too hard.

It looks to me like you animated straight ahead, starting at the beginning and keying nearly every frame until the end.

This makes logical sense to most people, since you want it to match your reference video exactly.

The problem is it rarely works out that way. Even when copying reference footage exactly, planning is essential.

I find its useful to think of animation like clay sculpture. First you build the framework, then you pile on lots of clay, then you cut away at the clay to bring out the details.

Here's what I would do:

Sit down and watch your video, looking for Key Poses that the chimp strikes. Sketch them out (even in stick figure) on a piece of paper, but only the KEY poses at this stage. Below each key, write the frame number.
Now go back and sketch out the breakdown poses, or the poses that are necessary to fill in some of the details, and write the frame number under them.
Now go back and watch your video AGAIN, this time sketching out the Inbetweens, or the poses that smooth out the motion (make the limbs move in arcs etc...), writing the frame numbers beneath these as well.
Finally you're ready to get onto your computer. Set your keyframe interpolation to stepped or linear (in your curve editor, graph editor, or whatever its called in your software of choice - learn how to do this!!!), and start setting only your KEY FRAMES. Set a key for every body part on these keys.
Now you can do another pass of your animation and add in the Breakdowns, and again I suggest keying EVERY body part on every breakdown frame.
Finally go in and set your Inbetweens to fill in the arcs. At this stage I also set keys on ALL body parts, this helps me to think of every pose as a drawing.
Now you're ready to convert your keys back to bezier and tweak the motion.
Now do a few more passes to tweak the motion a bit more, offsetting keys if necessary to get the desired overlap (btw, it is in the breakdowns that a lot of overlap is planned, not in offsetting - but that's more advanced).
You should now have a much more accurate representation of your reference video with no more "pops" and with half the keyframes.

Also, all of your keys will be nicely organized in case the director (or the chimp, those dirty, dirty chimps) asks you to change the timimg or anything.

I hope this helps!

I'll be doing a video tutorial on this in MY BLOG (http://animationsalvation.com/free_tips) within the next few weeks.

I hope that helps! Please post results if you decide to re-tackle this animation. And btw, don't be afraid to throw all your keys away and start again. Even us pros with 13 years experience get tangled in our own keys sometimes. But not me of course... :p

[deadfish]

Ok man,
Well first off I'd say you're working way too hard.

It looks to me like you animated straight ahead, starting at the beginning and keying nearly every frame until the end.

This makes logical sense to most people, since you want it to match your reference video exactly.

The problem is it rarely works out that way. Even when copying reference footage exactly, planning is essential.

I find its useful to think of animation like clay sculpture. First you build the framework, then you pile on lots of clay, then you cut away at the clay to bring out the details.

Here's what I would do:

Sit down and watch your video, looking for Key Poses that the chimp strikes. Sketch them out (even in stick figure) on a piece of paper, but only the KEY poses at this stage. Below each key, write the frame number.
Now go back and sketch out the breakdown poses, or the poses that are necessary to fill in some of the details, and write the frame number under them.
Now go back and watch your video AGAIN, this time sketching out the Inbetweens, or the poses that smooth out the motion (make the limbs move in arcs etc...), writing the frame numbers beneath these as well.
Finally you're ready to get onto your computer. Set your keyframe interpolation to stepped or linear (in your curve editor, graph editor, or whatever its called in your software of choice - learn how to do this!!!), and start setting only your KEY FRAMES. Set a key for every body part on these keys.
Now you can do another pass of your animation and add in the Breakdowns, and again I suggest keying EVERY body part on every breakdown frame.
Finally go in and set your Inbetweens to fill in the arcs. At this stage I also set keys on ALL body parts, this helps me to think of every pose as a drawing.
Now you're ready to convert your keys back to bezier and tweak the motion.
Now do a few more passes to tweak the motion a bit more, offsetting keys if necessary to get the desired overlap (btw, it is in the breakdowns that a lot of overlap is planned, not in offsetting - but that's more advanced).
You should now have a much more accurate representation of your reference video with no more "pops" and with half the keyframes.

Also, all of your keys will be nicely organized in case the director (or the chimp, those dirty, dirty chimps) asks you to change the timimg or anything.

I hope this helps!

I'll be doing a video tutorial on this in MY BLOG (http://animationsalvation.com/free_tips) within the next few weeks.

I hope that helps! Please post results if you decide to re-tackle this animation. And btw, don't be afraid to throw all your keys away and start again. Even us pros with 13 years experience get tangled in our own keys sometimes. But not me of course... :p


wow, thats a whole load of information there! thanks :)

You are right in the sense that i started from the begining and working my way through the motion. I didnt key each frame as that would be far to jerky, i actually did just do the main key poses, then using the graph editor in maya, played with the curves to get the right weighting and speed of motion for each body part.

Also i have drawn out about 50 thumbnails for the whole animation so i can see the main key poses on paper. It was quite hard getting my model to be in the correct positions as the chimp i referenced, because my one was quite stylized and out of proportion! which didnt help at all....

I dont think i have much time at the moment to re work on this piece, but i will most probably during the summer when i update my showreel. Will look foward to watching your video tutorial then!

thanks again for the crits. If you're interested in seeing any other animation works ive done in the past month, check out my group project. I worked on all the mouse animation.


http://www.vimeo.com/3383698

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