the boomerang throw

[rossk]

Hey, this is a short animation I put together this afternoon. I was having some problems with making the boomerang spin properly (see the New User forum for more info), but I am relatively pleased with this animation. A few areas need stronger poses, longer pauses, better anticipation, and the regular like of course... and I'm hoping you all can help me out with spoting them.

 

Suggestions greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

--Ross

boomerangsmall.mov

[cuboos]

nice the animation was great but after he throws the boomerang the arm kinda snapped abit there but either then that the animation was great btw ware did you get the yellow dude?

[robcat2075]

That's a cute shot!

 

The first thing I notice is the two hops he takes to rearrange his feet after he throws the boomerrang. He seems to move up in the air without having actually jumped.

 

I like the idea of the hops. Keep them, but give them weight.

 

I like the head bounce when he hits the ground. you could probably extend that to the whole body (not all onthe same frame though.)

[ddustin]

Very nice action!

I really like the material on the yellow dude.

 

I agree with Robcat on the hops.

It also looks like the Bommerang cuts into his body then passes through his left arm.

The cut into the body might be a nice effect as would the pass through the arm if you wanted to sever it (dang I need to stop doing accident cases!!).

 

Keep up the great work.

David

[luckbat]

Sounds like someone needs to rent The Road Warrior this weekend...

[rossk]

Thanks for the advice! I'll have some time to work on it in a few hours.

 

The model I used came from Jeff Lew's site

I edited it very minorly for my uses since I didn't want to mess around with the character's antennaes.

[Paul Forwood]

Excellent! I loved it, apart from the boomerang cutting through the character.

 

Good work, Ross!

[John Bigboote]

COOL!

I have several 'boomers' and love to go out and 'rang' them...they truly ARE a weapon. You throw it out and often when it returns to you it can be going 3 times faster than you threw it! Big fun!

 

COOL ANIMATION!

[rossk]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and compliments.

 

My revision of the animation is being rendered right now... so I'll post it in about 10-15 minutes.

 

John Bigboote-- Yeah, boomerangs can be really fun. I have two boomerangs that I purchased which I really like. One is a short range boomerang and the other is a long range one. I like the long-range one the best. Mine goes out about 65 yards, though I've seen some that supposedly go out around like 110+ yards... and I have a couple of boomerangs that I've made myself. One of them is *extremely* dangerous... when you throw it, the boomerang basically goes straight up and then dives straight down right back at you... it has the nickname "bomber" for apparent reasons

[rossk]

suggestions appreciated

 

Thanks again everyone,

--Ross

boomerangsmall2ed.mov

[rossk]

I minorly adjusted the throw motion and tried out motion blur... I think I overshot the motion blur percentage... but this is my first time using motion blur so its hard to restrain myself

 

The first animation is a far away shot of the boomerang's entire path.

 

The second animation is a closer shot showing the improved throw.

boomerangsmall2edfarbb.mov

boomerangsmallclosebb.mov

[rossk]

In the previous animation he seemed to get thrown back a frame too early, so thats fixed now.

boomerangclosethrowfix.mov

[steves]

Thats great!,

 

I really like the animation, and this is just a wee point, but is the boomarang the wrong way round. That is, in your animation the character should be holding the other end of the boomerang. (End forward as oppose to the middle bend part forward).

 

I'm not sure, as I only have one boomerang and have only recently moved to Australia, so I'm probably wrong on the assumption that all boomerangs are thrown in the same manner.

 

The character's excited jump and clapping for joy show a wonderful amount of emotion.

 

Yours

 

Steve

[Fishman]

Excellent animation. I definitely agree that the highlight is the joyfull clapping and jumping on the middle. My only criticism would be that when he ends up on the ground he looks unnaturally stiff. Maybe a bent leg and different position for the arm on the camera side.

 

Looks great otherwise!

Scott

[rossk]

I really like the animation, and this is just a wee point, but is the boomarang the wrong way round. That is, in your animation the character should be holding the other end of the boomerang. (End forward as oppose to the middle bend part forward).

Either end of the boomerang can be held when throwing. I think the way of holding that you suggest looks more cool than the one I currently use in the animation, but I'm absolutely horrendous at throwing a boomerang when held like that... so I kinda forget about it

Thanks for the comments

 

 

 

My only criticism would be that when he ends up on the ground he looks unnaturally stiff. Maybe a bent leg and different position for the arm on the camera side.

Excellent point, I'll definately work on that later today. Are there any reference images anywhere for this sort of thing?

Thanks also for the comments

 

--Ross

[Viper GTX2.0]

Nice keep up the good work.

[rossk]

^Thanks!

 

Here the newest version with fixing the fall into something less stiff

boomerangfallfix.mov

[Zaryin]

Haha, yeah that is way better. It's looking good..