Animation Crits

#1

I, for some reason have never been game enough to start posting work that I have been doing. So here it is, some of the work that I have done over a couple of years of animation. Any crits are more than welcome, hopefully I can improve my work through fresh eyes. :slight_smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_V8pR5Uys&feature=youtu.be - run cycle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHJHTeN0ynw - Lipsync animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Sa_iaXweA&feature=endscreen&NR=1 - walk cycle
For some reason there is a little popping. I think there is an extra fram somehwere in the play blast so I will be hunting it down and fixing it soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV9l6ZTdN_Y - side step
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D25XTLWSJu4 - run cycle (rendered at a different angle)

Thanks to all in advance

#2

Hey there,
Just wanted to let you know that I’m looking over your clips and I’ll give you a detailed critique
within the next day. It’s a little late here and I’ve got to be up early.

#3

Hello Anthony,

I’m glad you decided to share your work, thank you very much for taking the plunge.

“Side run cycle”
The posture of the character feels a little unnatural with a straight back, when running I tend to lean forward to help with momentum and show drive toward that direction. I like how the fingers “flick” out as they reach extremes in the movement. The thumb stands out as being stationary though the movement is quick. Overall some great poses and timing used as far as I am concerned.

“lipsync animation”
I enjoyed this one, the animation and expressions are interesting and the sync feels right. There is some polish left on it with keyframes standing out on eyebrows and probably playing with overall curves between key poses so the transaction feels a bit more natural (0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:06, 0:07, etc.)

“walk cycle”
Very nice idea showing the silhouettes! I like the heel-toe movement with each step how the toe almost flicks downward into the ground. The little bit of squash-stretch (unless my eyes are making that up) on the torso does great at showing weight with each step. I like the triangular-esque form from the feet stepping more internally though their placement still feels like a natural walk.

“side step”
I like the “U” movement of the torso as it slides and nice subtle anticipation before starting the shift right. Watch the placement of the right foot (on figure, left as viewed) the placement as far as rotation is concerned seems like it is merely shifted right or on the x axis, I would add a rotation even if just barely to distinguish it a bit more and feel a little more random and organic.

Nice work overall, keep up the progress and sharing.

#4

Hey there,
Sorry to get back a bit late. I checked out your animations and I think you got alot of potential. There are a few things I’d like to point out. For all the animations, the thing that sticks out most is that all the movements hit at the same time. I would build some overlap into
the animations and vary the timing. For example, during the run cycle have the waist hit its peak, then have the arms, then the legs hit their peak a frame or two later. For the lipsync, I think there are some great poses in there, but I think there are too many of them. It seems like there’s a pose for every accent(or beat) in the dialogue. The walk cycle isn’t bad. During the side step, the ball should rotate a bit in the opposite direction of the step. This will balance the center of gravity and make the transfer of weight believable. If you haven’t already, I would suggest studying the principles of animation and see how you can apply them to your animations. Overall I think you have potential. Good Luck.

#5

hi I just seen your lip sync, hm I think my only critique is to learn this thing called movingholds it used full for some parts of animation tat maybe are still or long pause, other than that you are learning, keep it up ^^

#6

Hey,

Thanks Andrewty07 for the detailed critique of my work. Taking another look at what ive done its back to maya to tweak it and see how far I can push the animation.

Hey toolrush, your absolutely right with the timing issues in the work. Im working on increasing my poses and working in overlap and beats through my blocking fase more before I head into spline. I agree with again with the lipsync, there is too much going on.

Chien, moving holds is something that I will definately be looking into to clean up and hold some of the poses for longer.

Thanks again people for commenting on the work as it is much apreciated. Hopefully there will be more coming soon that hit the mark a little better. :slight_smile:
Cheers

#7

Figured I would add another run cycle ive just started as a test. This is based a little more off a cartoony style (road runner and wile e coyote) run. I wanted to see if i could work a little quicker with the process and change into a different style of animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQrfV8dkw24&feature=youtu.be
Side version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l25WU7uxX_0&feature=youtu.be
Front Version

any more crits would be awesom, they only serve to help and progress. Thanks to all in advance.

PS odd thing with youtube as i upload, it seems to squeeze the video. Hopefully should be fixed soon.

#8

By the way, these are early keyframe poses, with all poses on the same keys. Overlap and delayed keys will be added as I progress through the blocking faze. :slight_smile:

#9

Much better! There’s a better sense of timing, weight, and center of gravity. You’re definitely getting better. The one thing that pops out to me is I think there can be some eases built into the run. I would recommend, if you haven’t already, an in-depth study of a bouncing ball. This will really help big time. Here is a link that really helped me.
Congrats

http://bouncingballlecture.blogspot.com/

:cool:

#10

Hey thanks for that Toolrush, the site is really helpful.

:smiley:

#11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO-BXWvlr7I&feature=plcp

Decided to go ahead and show some of the progress of the cycle. This one has timing adjusted, the up and down movment of the hips has changed including the hip rotationa and timing as well. Still in blocking phase with some adjustments to come and then linear phase next.

Comments are more than welcome.

Thanks to all in advance

#12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkoZJCjUs1Y&feature=youtu.be

Here is another upload of progress. I have come across a few complications in regards to this run cycle, most noteably the knee pops and overal leg movement. With this type of run cycle there was a lot of knee popping as the foot moved above the body and round to the front in a large arc. To combat this I compressed the leg using its stretch atrribute to bring the leg in as the foot reached the upper part of the body. I think it looks ok, but seeing what other people would do would be helpful.

There are other changes made including timing and changes made to some poses, however still needs more work.

I am going to progress through another way of tweaking the leg as well to learn a little more and that upload shold be up soon.

Any comments are more than welcome.
Thanks in advance, cheers :slight_smile:

#13

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