Quick (incomplete) stand-up animation test

[mouseman]

I tried a bit of an animation test with one of Shelton's characters, rigged with the A:M 2008 rig, to get in some practice with it (the rig) before the forum project gets started into high gear. This is just what I've come up with this weekend, between other non-animation things. There is no face rig on this character, so the animation is only body mechanics. I'm only mostly done up until frame 8:03 or so. I'm rather satisfied with most of the movement for him getting up, although there are probably a couple of small things I'd clean up after fleshing out the walk off of screen (listed below). After 8:03, there is just gross body movements that approximate walking that I will be cleaning up hopefully tomorrow (Monday) night, but unfortunately it almost ruins the look of the first 8:03 by association.

 

If you have any comments or suggestions on the first 8:03, let me have them. The things I see are:

1. 0:00 - 3:00: The left hand laying on the left leg moves slightly. I animated that before I really understood the "lock IK hand" pose slider.

2. 0:00 - 3:00: The right hand could have some movement during this time.

3. 6:08 - 7:15: The left hand doesn't make good contact with the knee. Also I might make his upper body bend more over the left arm to give more feeling of weight.

astandup8.mov

[Wildsided]

It's still a great start dude, very naturally flowing, him getting up doesn't feel forced for the sake of it

[HomeSlice]

That's a great start Chris. Getting from a position sitting on the floor like that to a standing position is difficult to do.

When I sit in that position and try to get up:

I place my hand on the floor

I rotate my hips toward the hand

I continue rotating my hips until I am on my hands and knees

I walk my hands back toward my body while standing until I can get my center of gravity over my hips.

Then I stand up.

 

Of course there are endless variations...

[Gerry]

Nice start! I can see where it might be helpful to put just a little more "push" in just before he starts the final rise up off the floor, with a bit more lean-forward in his upper body. But I think you're on the right track and I also think you can probably see where the problem areas are. Just keep going. Have you video'd yourself getting up like that?

[robcat2075]

that's not a bad start. i can see you are thinking about the problem of showing weight and mass in motion.

 

I agree that he's not getting his weight over his feet soon enough to stand up. When he's pushing off with his right hand he can be leaning farther forward and over his knees.

 

When he's standing up his whole spine can bend to lag behind his hips.

 

A core challenge of all 3D animation is trying to make it not look like a set of parts flying in rigid formation. We look for opportunities to overlap motion so things are not leaving and arriving all at the same time and to not move them in straight lines.

 

For example when he moves his right hand from his knees to the floor, the hand could lag behind the wrist initially. The wrist is moving down in two straight line paths (with a lurch in the middle), an arc that lifts off the knee then around down to the floor would look nicer.

 

When the hand lands it shouldn't all stop at once. You could have the fingers contact first, then spread as the palm pushes down, or have the heel of the palm land first and the fingers flop down a moment later.

 

There's something about that guy's upper arm that bothers me. It has an natural forward bend to it. I'd go into the model and fix that.

 

When he glances to the side at the start, dont' just pivot the head, the shoulders should contribute to that gesture. In Hanna-Barbera animation they can get away with moving a head and leaving everything else locked in place but it looks odd with more realistic characters.

 

If the face isn't rigged yet, at least rig the eyeballs so you can pose them other than straight forward, which is almost always too neutral.

 

Something I'd experiment with is the way his feet react when he's standing. They look a bit too static for all the weight that's being thrown around on top of them. I'd think about having them nudge forward and down when he's shoving his weight against them from behind, like they are getting pushed into the soft carpet.

[mouseman]

Awesome feedback, thanks! I'm just getting into it.

 

One thing ... occasionally, when I move a bone from within a choreography action, it only moves on the ground plane. So if I try to move it up, it ends up moving very far into the background. Why is that? Is there some mode it's in that I'm not aware of?

[robcat2075]

One thing ... occasionally, when I move a bone from within a choreography action, it only moves on the ground plane. So if I try to move it up, it ends up moving very far into the background. Why is that? Is there some mode it's in that I'm not aware of?

 

That is normal behavior for model bones when looking from the camera view (use the translate manipulator to move normally) but the other bones, the ones you see in Skeletal mode, should not do that.