W.I.P - Weight Lifter

[arijitg]

Hi Steven,:)

Great work here! I can feel the weight of the barbel. Few this that I could say:

- As he fully lifts the weight, if you notice the hips around 0.09 feels as if it's hitting an invisible wall. Have some amount of ease out as his body muscles are trying hard to counter the heavy object

-Also as he stands up with the weight his hands tend to pop. I can understand you wanted to have a bit of shivering in his hands. make it very slight, so that it does not appear like it's popping.

I like the end part! Overall the shot looks great!
Keep up.

ARi

[MillerGenuine]

Hey Ari,

Thanks for your thoughts on my weight lift animation. I know what you mean about the arms popping, I felt that it was a little overboard, and for the hips, I made some adjustments and hope that its better

Thanks again for your comments, they were really helpful. And I hope to have the lift done and polished very soon

Steven Miller

[dbalmert]

One big problem with it is that this exercise is physically impossible with heavy weight. There's a reason that actual weight lifters divide this motion between Clean and Press. He's doing it all in one motion, which is only possible with very light weights.

The lifting motion needs to transfer: Toes->Heel->Thighs->Back->Shoulders->Arm. Your animation has Foot->Arm. The arm can't bend until it's doing the lifting, and you have it bending almost immediately.

He lifts the bar WAY WAY WAY too high on the initial lift. It's almost comical; like he thinks the bar is really heavy so he jerks up only to find out it's hollow aluminum. For an actual clean & press, have him pull the bar just to his neck and rest it on his upper chest. Then the LEGS push up and the arms carry the momentum to lift the bar off the chest into the air.

Just a quick thing to always remember: lifting any weight above your center of gravity and ABOVE your shoulders always requires a significant amount of work, and heavy weights will usually require a 2 stage animation (lift to chest, adjust and continue lift)


Youtube Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4wx1m_UtPQ&feature=related

EDIT: Heavy weights bounce lower than light weights. The whole animation makes me think he's lifting a rubber coated foam bar. In animation, heavy weights can fall faster than light weights (although not in reality), but it's universally agreed that heavy weights bounce lower.

[MillerGenuine]

hey Dan,

Thanks for you critique, it got me thinking a lot about my animation.
This is the reference I was using. It's called a Snatch Lift, and the guy in the video was lifting a 160kg weight

Weight Lift (http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/Customer/SearchDetails.aspx?searchText=weight+lift&type=Simple&footage=AllClipsExceptEntertainment&page=2&itemId=c469aaec-1c2e-42d2-a6c2-db86efd8b5f6)

I was thinking about making a 2 stage lift before I found this reference. I though it would have been more interesting to see a different kind a weight lift.

I'm still new to animation and body mechanics, would you be able to explain a little more about you sentence.
"The lifting motion needs to transfer: Toes->Heel->Thighs->Back->Shoulders->Arm. Your animation has Foot->Arm. The arm can't bend until it's doing the lifting, and you have it bending almost immediately."

I find it to be very useful information, and I want to make sure I understand it completely. I noticed that my arms twitch quite a bit, but I've been working on that, keeping the arms straight mostly through-out.

As for the bouncing of the bar, I know what you mean. I'm going to tone it down a bit.

Thanks again for your critique, and I hope you will have some more when I render off my up-date.

Steven Miller

[dbalmert]

Dear lord! If it's a snatch lift, your guy's grip needs to be 50% wider at least, he needs to get lower, and the bar still never gets that high. What the lifter does is move his body BELOW the bar quickly. He's under the bar before it starts to come down. Your animation has him coming down at the same time as the bar so they both "settle" in the down position. In animation, this is called "Overlap," or the order in which animations happen in a single figure.

The grip is wide because it reduces the distance he needs to lift the bar. It's simple body mechanics used intelligently by body builders for ages.

For the weight shifting sentence, you need to consider how the "tension" moves up the body. It goes from toes to heel: does he rock back? If he's on his toes, does his heel bounce down and shake?

Likewise for the transfer from heel to thigh: will his leg straighten a lot? Or will it cause his knees to buckle out slightly? All of these things show the weight passing through the body sequentially. They don't all happen at once - in a fast motion they can be offset by a frame or so. It lets the eye read where the tension is going.

Your animation showed it all at once with no flow.

Unless he's an amateur, all the power he is generating comes from the hips, so try moving hips first, but then show the tension sequentially: first feet, then legs, the back, then arms etc.

Also, the posing is not converying the amount of posture needed to lift. Here's a fade of your guy over the other guy, just before lifting:

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae270/dannyMHealth/pic01.jpg

[MillerGenuine]

hey dan,

Thanks for taking the time to review my animation. You gave me a lot of good information about some of the problems I am having with my weight lift.

Im still working on showing the tension moving up the body as you said, and overlapping them correctly to show the flow. I just wanted to get out another W.I.P to see if I am going in the right direction.

Any other comments and critiques would be very helpful

Weight Lift_2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzUqaTU5nHw)

[MillerGenuine]

Here is the same up-date but with the side view as well

Front + Side View (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7-3_qE6cIA)

Steven Miller

[MillerGenuine]

Here is an update for my weight lifter animation. Added some secondary movements and the walk away at the end of the lift. Any and all comments are welcome

Weight Lifter_update (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW7yLE57FfU)

Thanks for taking the time to watch my animation.

Steven Miller

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