Animation Diagnosis exercise

[robcat2075]

For all of you embarking on character animation (That's why you got A:M) here's an opportunity to develop your eye.

 

A Heavy Lift that doesn't look very heavy:

 

 

Lifting things is something everyone should be able to do convincingly with their characters. But some basics have been forgotten.

 

What do you see going wrong here?

 

You can rip this one because it's not by anyone here, and it's always easier to see the log that is in someone else's animation, which makes it even more useful.

[danf]

One thing I notice is I don't think the motion is eased in, meaning he seems to move the ball instantly in two jerk motions.

 

Also, there's no sign of straining. If I had to name what muscle was doing all the lifting, I'd say the butt, because he hinges his waist without anything else moving during the lift. He may be taking the old adage "Lift with your waist, not with your back" too literally.

 

While lifting with the back might just reflect an ill-informed lifter, when I lift something heavy, I try to get above it, and gradually apply more strength to the object until I have applied the right amount to raise it. This lift includes no muscle-evaluative period, no trying before the success, which makes it look like the ball is so light that his first amount of effort was sufficient.

[Luuk Steitner]

The first thing I notice is that the ball accelerates and decelerates very fast, making it look very light.

[Paul Forwood]

Weight, balance, anticipation and exaggeration.

[robcat2075]

Those are all good comments, particularly about how the ball moves. It immediately leaves the ground when he pulls on it then stops instantly underneath him as if the momentum of it moving backwards suddenly disappeared. You couldn't even do that with a weightless ball because your arms would at least have some momentum themselves to be accounted for.

 

The arms could be pulled straight to show the weight they are carrying, but they never really change from the slight bend they have when he addresses the ball at the start.

 

He does have some anticipations at the right places but the motion of the ball is undoing the appearance of effort.

 

The basic posing is usable, but I think a more convincing heavy lift would have him squatting his butt much farther down, grasping the ball and then carrying it with him as he stood back up. (I always heard the phrase was "lift with your legs, not with your back")

 

But the back lift could be improved with some bending of the back to show the weight of the ball pulling the shoulders down.

 

Also he only grasps the ball on the sides as if it were a cube, which would require a lot of squeezing force from the arms and hands (not exhibited here). Better to slide the hands as far under the ball as possible to cradle it, a more natural way to control a heavy object.

 

A heavy box presents a problem in this regard since you can't get your fingers under it initially. To do it right you'd need to tilt it to get one hand under it, then the other or quickly jerk it up and reposition the hands underneath it.

 

Basic rule of Body Mechanics... bodies try to do things in a a manner that requires the least effort. This will look different than what is the least effort for the animator. You have to be careful that the solution you found for a motion wasn't what was easiest for you to keyframe but was what most likely for the character to do.

 

 

And... the weightless foot sliding at the beginning isn't helping.

 

This one is not nearly as weak as some other heavy lifts you can find on Youtube but it's not "heavy" yet.