Hey guys, okay, a new clip.
I don’t plan on
refining this very much as I want to avoid what I always do…
get caught up working on one thing over and over again.
So, my idea is to just sit down when I get a chance and smoosh something together.
this took about 30 minutes yesterday and about 20 minutes today.
http://www.vrcops.com/vids/TableTossE1.mov
Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com
Nice clip,
Something that sticks out for me though is that the weight is a little off. you could do with bending him backwards a little further and sticking one of his legs out (probably his right). However, he has such small legs that he will probably have to squat down to do this. A squat could look quite good though - like when weight lifers put the bar on thier chest - they squat down so that they are putting themselves under the object as much as it onto them.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
Hey John, thanks for the email.
I can see every suggestion you offered in my head.
Here’s a side view to take a look.
I’m probably going to not come back to this, but see what you can see!
http://www.vrcops.com/vids/SideViewerA.mov
Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com
Looking at that clip, what I would do is I would have him start off with the other foot and take three steps. The third step would be with his right foot and would enable him to swing away from the direction of the throw so that he has more of a swing into the throw. It would also come much further forwards. I would also expect him to widen his stance so that he can both prepare for the throw and make sure that he doesn’t fly out of the window himself.
I think that, whilst super hearos are… super, you still need to take into account physics when you animate them.
That motion would not take a body out the window.
Push from the back foot and pivot on the front is a pretty natural motion.
However there are more than 1 ways to skin a cat, but unfortunately unless you’re gonna skin it, it’s gone forever!
I’m onto the next one:)
Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com
Cool that you are doing lots of little tests. I like that you are also trying to not get to crazy witrh the details but it’s also good to try to fix little issues here and there. I know in Animation Mentor we go through this every week as well, the balance of overdoing and doing right. It’s a little dance all animators have to go through 
The few things that jump out at me are that his balance is off and the overlap of parts of his body is not enough. We are doing lots of weight stuff in Animation Mentor right now so my thoughts are based off of our lectures and the back and forth we are all going through on our forums there.
Even though he is a superhero some physics should still apply. He too effortlesly picks up the table. It looks odd because a few frames later he seems to have to have some effort to then throw it. He immediately picks the table up rights after his left foot is on the ground. I would suggest arcing his back ( a reverse “C” shape) before he starts his lift to show what he is about to do. Then when he lifts the table he should be arched backward (this would be in a “C” shape from the side, opposite of the previous one). Make sure the back starts moving before the table. If you want to keep the poses you have you could make it look more realistic by having the rotation of the body and the table overlap a bit so the body moves first then the table. they move at the same time now which makes it look too weightless.
I like the throw, it is pretty solid. Would look in offsetting the throw just a bit with the back starting to rotate first to show him winding up plus that anticipation helps sell the throw. I realllllly like how he extends after the throw a bit. Great force there. And man I so love the design of the character. Very funny!
Sorry to have written a book for what is basically two really small fixes. They really keep on us to analyze everything in Animation Mentor. Hopefully that is cool. We are all so used to that but I’m always worried I will offend people if they aren’t used to tossin ideas back and forth.
Keep up the great work Mike, i love your stuff!
Hey MyFault!
Thanks for the reply. Don’t get me wrong here, I have not abondoned, nor am I above editing my animation, as lord knows it needs it.
However, I got myself into the idea of trying to carefully, but quickly set animation up, applying what I would have liked to have changed or doing something differently from previous work to new animations.
I feel like the merrit of that is one can quickly learn how one can best animate.
After doing a bunch of little things like this for a while, I really feel like I will be able to approach my own animation better and faster.
Even if not, I already feel like I’ve sharpend my skills a bit.
Yes, I know someone is gonna jump in and tell me why that’s not the way to do it, but blah blah blah:)
thanks for the words!
Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com
I totally dig it Mike. I really appreciate you posting this stuff for the world to see too. Woo!
u know… after a long working day… I sometimes want to do exactly the same thing…
throw out the table, just because it is satisfying to do…
Nice shot.,… Like it… I think he is a bit late, when he notices how damn heavy the table is, but otherwise: very cool!
Fuchur
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.