Practice Character

[flashawd]

Hello - I created another character for my site - basically for modeling and animating practice. Also, wanted to play around w/ using a decal to control the "hair" color. Anyway, how it turned into a boxing Meerkat, I'm not sure, but it did. He is the 3rd character over from the left on the bottom row. Thanks - Eric

 

www.3dcharacteranimation.biz

[MasterFunk]

are u talking about the teddy bear? I didn't see any meercat.

[flashawd]

He is in the second row 3 one from the left...

 

[Gerry]

Hi Eric- That's a nice start but it needs more weight throughout, and the way the bag swings it seems to slow down a little stiffly at the low point of the swing. But great modeling and textures, and a nice sight gag!

[robcat2075]

Good looking character, is the hair color decal doing the fade around the eyes? Lots of good looking texturing all around.

 

The walk up has a very halting quality to it that I don't think is helping the character's performance.

 

Serendipitously, I made some notes on walks for TWO animators a while ago that address some of those issues. I dug those links up a few days ago for someone else so I'll dig them up for you...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=258588 (post 180)

[MasterFunk]

It isn't showing up when I look there.

[flashawd]

Gerry - thanks for the comments. I have really been concentrating more on the modelling part of 3D, as you can see my animating is a little rough. I'll have to play around some more w/ the heavy bag. Rob - thanks for the walking tutorials - it's tough to not get a "blocky/ robot" feel when I make a character walk... hopefully this will help.

 

Masterfunk - the site must be cached in your browser - open up your browser, go to any other site than mine - go to

 

- Tools

-- Delete Browsing History

--- Temporary internet files (Delete)

 

That will clear out your browsers cache. If you "refresh" all that will do for flash files is to replay them, so you have to clear them completely out. - hope that helps.

 

Thanks again, for all the comments.

[Rodney]

Very nice animation. Nice touch with the ending.

 

Take the following with a large dose of 'only suggestion... do whatya wanna do with em'.

 

Find ways to get the character to focus... putting attention on and into the act he is performing.

Sometimes this is best accomplished by having the character lean into or toward the object of his attention.

Have the character look at the object of interest... then look away if necessary.

This helps the viewer see what the character is seeing.

Subconsciously, the audience can then say 'Ah, I see' even though they really don't.

 

Where this might apply to your meercat animation...

 

If he could crouch down a bit that'd put tension in his body.

A slight lean forward would let us know he expects to feel a little resistance from the bag.

A slight reaction after he hits the bag might let us know he felt the impact.

 

When Meerkat punches the bag from the side that's a good opportunity to have him look... then turn away.

This telegraphs the upcoming punch for us. (Something you don't want to have real actors do in live action but something you really want to do in animation)

We look at the bag with Meerkat. When he looks away... we look with him.

When the punch goes to the bag... the circle of interest for us is completed.

 

Now at the end Meerkat can lose his leaning toward the bag and this subconsiously sets both him and us up for the gag.

The focus is no longer on the bag... we've lost interest in it... so we get hit with it too.

 

This enhances the final shot even more as we almost feel as if we might have thrown the boot.

Meerkat isn't there so... in a way... we did.

 

Hopefully this makes sense to you.

If it seems a bit touchy feely thats because it is.

You want the audience to see and feel and react along with the characters.

A little added emphasis in the look and the lean and the body tension of the character would do this.

 

You've got wonderful work on view at your site... great interface/presentation too.

[flashawd]

Hi Rodney - I really appreciate you taking your time to post your comments and advice - it all makes a lot of sense. Thank you - Eric

[Gerry]

Hey Flash - Click over to Victor Navone's blog. His current post is EXTREMELY RELEVANT to your animation and he goes into great detail about a lot of the points Rodney is making.

 

http://www.navone.org/blogger/

 

And while you're at it, click on his link to the Wikipedia entry on the 12 principles of animation, and think about how to incorporate as many of them into your animation as possible.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_prin...es_of_animation

[flashawd]

Cool - thank you Gerry.