Knight Stand WIP

[Geophizz]

I finally have an animation that is good enough to allow out of my computer for other people to critique. This is a WIP of an animation of the Knight trying to answer a phone. Please let me know what you think, and where I could improve. Thanks.

 

Link to File (1 Mb Quicktime)

[johnl3d]

Learn how to use compression ....the animation was good but 9 megs alot for people not on cable or at least dsl (i'm on cable )

[Geophizz]

Sorry, I had a brain fart. It's better now.

[higginsdj]

OK, heres my take.

 

1. Light stand needs a base. Looks Odd just sticking in the ground.

2. Shot 2 is too still. You might want to add some head movement to go along with any breathing/snoring, a small body shift - anything to show that the character is alive and not just a posed suit of armour.

3. Cut to shot 3 should be a fade cut not a straight cut (the cut felt too abrupt for me)

4. The camera pan/dolly is a little slow and leeds to a confused final composition. The phone is lost in the background of the knight. I'd try zooming in to make the phone far more prominant and/or spotlight the phone and/or do a rack focus - phone in focus and knight out of focus until the phone rings when you rack to knight in focus and phone out of focus.

5. The knight in the background is poorly posed. Put one or both feet flat ont he floor and at differetn angles to avoid the twinning effect you have - perhaps shift his weight slightly int he chair to put a curve in the pose - maybe put one leg up over one of the arm rests to give him a really casual pose.

6. The antic of waking up is quite good though you do have portions that are twinning. Try to offset the recovery - one arm before the other, one leg before the other (see the bounce recovery at 27 seconds with both legs and arms in the air for an example) A little stretch and squash would go nicely here as well.

7. A little anticipation on the 'look at the phone' action would be nice and should involve more than just the head (there appears to be an arm movement but this is blocked by the phone) thought he head shoudl be the most prominant move.

 

Overall it is going well.

 

Cheers

[apprentice]

Hey, that's a nice shot, Geophizz. My suggestion, agree with higginsdj about the "moving hold" in 3d if anything not moving at all looks like a dead object. So should have bit of movement like breathing, swaying and stuffs. I think the Knight reacted too quick to the ringing, a few fraction of second more would be my preference.

[Geophizz]

Thanks for the input. It pointed out a lot of things that I missed after looking at it for three weeks.

 

I do have one question however, about the twinning at 27 secs. I did a bit of real life research, watching my children jump on the bed, trampolines, and any other springy object, and one thing that I noticed was that their arms and legs were almost universally "twinned" upon landing. This is why I did it with the knight.

 

My question is, Should the animation mimic real life and allow the twinning, or should I avoid the twinning as a rule, like how squash and stretch doesn't happen in life?

[higginsdj]

Well there is twinning and there is twinning. It might appear that they are twinning but not mechanically so - ie there will always be small offsets - one foot is usually favoured; unless the body is perfectly balanced then one arm will be slightly 'off' to counteract - or the body will have a small bend or twist in it.

 

Cheers