10 second club animation

[Nat]

Hi everybody,

 

here's a link to an animation I've been at the last couple days. Just something to go on my reel. Still need to do more with facial expression, comments welcome.

 

http://media.putfile.com/June-entry-51

 

Thanks!

[martin]

That looks pretty nice: it's very exaggerated which I like in animation. The backward back arching near the end is VERY exaggerated, maybe too much so but I wouldn't change it - I simply mention it for your reference.

 

You need to do some TWO animation. Sequence 1_05 starts Monday.

[Nat]

Thanks for the comments! I was getting involved in TWO, but got a bit confused about who were doing which scenes and all that. I'll help out if I can, but I guess I'd like to know exactly what part of which scene to start on. I was sorry that I missed Hash Bash, as I live in Portland, but a family emergency, of sorts, came up.

[KenH]

Excellent. Great model too. From the dialogue, it makes it seem like he's talking at someone.....but your character is looking in several places.

 

PS Nat, the TWO animation is up in the air abit at the moment. I'm also waiting to be assigned to a scene.

[NancyGormezano]

Looking very good - Love how it starts out - up to and including when he says "have a point' - after that I am distracted by the sorta twinning of the arm/hand motion - it's of course not exact twinning - but the general movement is too similar -

 

Personally, would also like to see more exaggerated facial expression - but perhaps that's a matter of the lighting, and a lot of head movement making it difficult to read.

 

love the character as well

[robcat2075]

Just a quick note... I think you could keep the effect of the lean backwards by adjusting his posture to a more balanced pose. Then the viewer will be able to stay with intention to accent the character's delivery and not be distracted by his feet appearing to be glued to the floor.

 

[attachmentid=17681]

 

I'd agree with Nancy about the mirrored posing. Although people in real life do extremely symmetrical stuff rather often, it seems not work in animation. Not that what you have here is hideous; it's working pretty well. But i think a solution for a clip like this would be to put the character in a situation where he realistically can't move both arms in the same fashion. Like he's leaning on a table or carrying something (a briefcase?) in one arm.

 

But I wouldn't ditch what you have here. Polish it off and definitely join in on TWO when your circumstances settle down.

[Viper GTX2.0]

Very nice work. Keep up the good animation.

[trajcedrv]

Looks great so far. I would agree with robcat about the posture, however this looks pretty good as it is! Keep us posted!

[Stuart Rogers]

From the dialogue, it makes it seem like he's talking at someone.....but your character is looking in several places.

The impression I get is that he's actually trying to avoid eye contact, which obviously doesn't suit the delivery of the dialogue. A more straight-ahead, open eyed stare would come across better.

 

I get the impression the feet are inflating/deflating too, which is quite distracting.

 

Otherwise, bravo! There are some nice gestures there.

 

I disagree with Nancy about the twinning - I would say there's enough difference between the arm movements in both timing and reach to say they're not twinned. Te gesture looks quite natural to me.

[ddustin]

Being completely out of my element criticising character animation, I'll give you my impressions as an observer of humans and our traits and idiosyncracies.

 

1. The feet seeming to grow is a slight distraction but I wouldn't have noticed it if it were not pointed out.

2. The lack of eye contact is ingenious (if it was intended). It immediately reminded me of those individuals that don't maintain eye contact. You know, when they talk to you they look to the left or right of you.

Another cool thing would be to have him look directly at the camera but keep his eyes closed. It is the same annoying trait.

3. Perhaps a voice over asking the actor why he can't look someone in the eye? He could respond with "what are you talking about?" and break eye contact immediatly.

 

 

More than likely this is not what you intended but it is what came to mind for me.

 

Nice work.

David

[Stuart Rogers]

2. The lack of eye contact is ingenious (if it was intended). It immediately reminded me of those individuals that don't maintain eye contact. You know, when they talk to you they look to the left or right of you.

Yes, but this dialogue - the words and the delivery - is very much tell-it-like-it-is, in-your-face in its nature, not some humming and hahing by some demure little mouse of a character.

 

Maybe I think that way because I recognise the sound clip (Steve Martin in Trains Planes & Automobiles(?)) and feel the visuals need SM's delivery - which I think this anim mostly has.

[ddustin]

2. The lack of eye contact is ingenious (if it was intended). It immediately reminded me of those individuals that don't maintain eye contact. You know, when they talk to you they look to the left or right of you.

Yes, but this dialogue - the words and the delivery - is very much tell-it-like-it-is, in-your-face in its nature, not some humming and hahing by some demure little mouse of a character.

 

Maybe I think that way because I recognise the sound clip (Steve Martin in Trains Planes & Automobiles(?)) and feel the visuals need SM's delivery - which I think this anim mostly has.

 

Stuart,

I interviewed a PHD from the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation). The guy was a Forensic Pathologist, an expert in his field and extremely intelligent, yet he would not look you in the eye for more than a a second.

 

There was nothing mousey about him.

 

I don't remember that line from TP&A, so I didn't have that Paradigm.

 

It comes down to (for me) the impression I got while viewing it. It made me remember that phd guy.

David

[Dhar]

Nice job. Now you got me interested in joining this animation contest.

[Nat]

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the great comments! Just to address a couple of things that came up:

 

The eye contact, oddly enough, is actually an illusion of sorts. You see, the character's eyes were locked onto a null object with an "aim at" contraint the whole time, save the first few seconds and when he throws his head back. So, they were actually looking at the same place throughout the entire animation, but his excessive head movement made it look as if he was looking else where. Funny, huh? Anyway, I reduced some of the head movement, raised the eye level, and opened the lids a bit. A little bit easier to read now. I also added some more facial expression, though the rig still needs to be modified to have more options.

 

Second issue - posture. I added some foot work to keep his center of balance a little more conservative. Instead of a lean back with feet nailed to the floor, he steps back to support himself, and doesn't lean back quite as far. I also realized that I'd paid more attention to the view that I was animating from and when I went to a side view to view the whole thing, noticed that his body needed to be moved forward in several places to center his gravity better.

 

Third issue - "chronic foot throb." This happened because I was having problems making the rig squash down without screwing up some other proportions, so I just scaled the model in the choreography window, resulting in the feet squashing and stretching as well. I took that off and may make a second pass with the rig later.

 

Fourth issue - twinning. At first I disagreed with the comment that his hands were to "twinny" especially after viewing the trailer for Pixar's new movie Ratatouille (spelling?). There's a scene where the rat is talking and doing quite a bit of twinning and it still looks great. But for kicks and giggles, I changed the end of the animation to see what it would look like without the twinning motion. I'll let you guys be the judges of which looks better. So, here's the updated animation:

 

http://media.putfile.com/June-Entry-Update

 

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I wanted to address everything and let you all know how very pleased I was to log on and see that you'd all taken the time to help me out with critiques! Thank you all so much and keep them coming, I should have a new clip to post in the next few days as I am trying to get a solid reel together to send out this month. Thanks again!

[KenH]

Perhaps the problem with the eye target direction is that it's very low. I think people are expecting to see his eyes point head high at another person. It's hard when you don't have a run in shot to set up things.....that's the challenge of the contest I guess.

But by no means should it require you to reduce the head movement. I'd alter the eyes before that.

 

The second clip is very nice. I hope you consider doing some TWO animation for your reel.

[NancyGormezano]

I like very much how you refined the second clip but ...but... - since I might have led you astray with respect to twinning (she says sheepishly)... I actually prefer the final ending pose in the first clip. In the second, the left arm ends too wimpishly - needs more tension in it (which is what you had in the first clip) ... not sure how to fix.

 

It's really done quite well. I wish I were able to do as well, then I might be more likely to come up with a suggestion...