Climbing Animation WIP

[DigitalJenkins]

Hi:) very nice work! this is my first post on here and im a student in 3d animation right now, so im by all means not a pro lol, anyways, i think your animation is looking good. I think maybe the last part where he is pulling himself up, his legs seem a bit stiff? instead of having them sort of hang there, maybe have them pushing on the wall, like hes trying to step up the wall. Thats just my oppinion but its looking great, good work

[Nodge]

Cheers for the response. I'm a recent animation graduate myself so I also have lots to learn, and the job market's so tight I really need to sharpen up my reel, hence this animation!

I was wondering what to do with those legs there. The idea I was trying to get across was that he was kicking them out to help himself with the lift, but I think your suggestion might work better. I'll try it out!

[dbalmert]

When he vaults up the first step, he should climb knee first instead of getting his foot ALL THE WAY UP then planting it. Either that, or he should swing his entire body up with the second foot (treating it like a large stair.) You combined both, and it looks awkward.

Another really cool acting thing you can add to the second climb is to have him face the edge of the wall even when he bends down to jump. Having him bend down and look down breaks the illusion - it looks like he's a video game character who is just going thru the motions.

For the second climb, they ALWAYS ALWAYS tell fire fighters to swing one leg over as soon as you possibly can! Your arms aren't meant to carry your weight (unlike apes), so you have to use your core to swing your knee up to climb.

Unless he's doing some weird dip exercise to work out his triceps (It's not working, twig man!) he shouldn't be bobbing on his arms. Show me a person who can lift themselves up with their arms that way, and I'll be meeting a gymnast or body builder.

I won't even address the bow legged bobbing, because hopefully your next pass will have more core/leg/knee lifting going on.

The piece isn't too terrible, but it does need a lot more mechanics to it. Even if you don't tape yourself doing it, try to perform these actions and try to think about your weight and how YOU solve the issue. Animators are just ugly actors :)

[Nodge]

Cheers for the great feedback!

Here's the next version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5hbUmQza5k

First off, I've left the first jump pretty much how it was. When you said about treating it like a stair, do you mean having the character vaulting it in one solid movement, instead of the weight dropping on his hands and feet half-way? I tried it out on the kitchen table before I animated it as it is, but then I didn't film it for reference. Anyway, I figured I'd leave it for the time being and concentrate on the full climb.

So yea, I took your advice on having him swing that leg up and for me it definitely worked a lot better, since I actually had something for those feet to do! I still think things start looking iffy around when he's getting up on his knees, but I'm happier with this version so far.

Any further feedback would be much appreciated!

[Jeremydjutras]

I think your animation can benefit from pushing the posing more. Feel free to go further down in the hips on the crouching/anticipation poses before the jumps. Holding the character in these poses will increase the sense of power/building of energy if that is desired. Good start though.

[robcat2075]

I think his best moment is his second jump when he catches his fingers on the high ledge.


In most of other cases he is moving his weight too easily. Very hard to crit in just text here, but he tends to look weightless when he's transfering his weight from one ground contact point to another because he either hasn't shifted his center of gravity enough to do it or hasn't built up enough momentum to carry him thru.

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