Hammer swing animation - critique please

#1

Hi everyone, I recently joined CGTalk, and was looking for some constructive criticism on some of my older 2d animation.
Thank you!

http://vimeo.com/27033240

#2

Not bad. I would love to see more twist to his pose as he goes back. More exagerration.

#3

Doesn’t look very realistic. The problem is in the pose and your transition from one to another. Look at some reference materials to get better results. Don’t get me wrong, I am only suggesting it because I know you are capable of doing better

#4

Two things you could work on are the timing of the swing and the overlap of the hammer.

The hammer head looks fairly heavy, but the torso, arms, and hammer are all moving at the same speed. The first thing is to offset the head of the hammer so it lags behind the body and arms. It’s heavy so it should take the guy some effort to lift it up over is head then stop it’s backward movement and then swing back down.

That leads into the timing, it should take the guy a little more time and effort to be able to lift up the hammer (you also need a pose to anticipate this action). So the hammer is slow to start moving (because it’s heavy) then once it gets going it will start moving fast and be hard to stop moving.

That leads into the swing down, it should take a bigger effort to stop the hammer’s upward swing and to change it’s direction (so it would move a bit slower during this time). But then as the hammer begins it’s down swing it will pick up speed (exaggerator the timing and the spacing).

Hope this helps a bit.

#5

My first recommendation is always to try and act out the animation yourself with the corresponding props. (A broomstick with a wide head should do for this specific animation.) This will make you more aware of how the motion flows, as you can consciously feel which of your muscles move during what part of the action. That would also help with interpreting critiques, as there’s always a chance of getting lost in all the animation terms.

Lifting a hammer that large at rest takes a bit of effort, especially considering how far it is from him. So it’s expected that the person will have to lift it with his whole body, not just his upper torso and arms. Pushing up with his legs, torso coiling backwards to help the arms pull the hammer upwards.
Once the hammer picks up speed, it’ll eventually overtake the the arms as you reach the peak of this wind-up.

After that, your body moves in the opposite direction, to keep the hammer from going over the head, and to force it back down onto the pile. This would be the point where the guy will have the most effort in the whole action. Signs would often be increased tension in the corresponding muscles, including those on the face. Imagine there’s a rope in front of you tied to the ceiling. Then quickly pull down on it. The body’s reaction would be somewhat similar.

The issues with timing, I think that can be discussed in another time.

#6

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