With a 10 foot pole!

[robcat2075]

Pole Climber was the topic in wednesday's four hour Animation Showdown.

 

An' it were a tough one! This is my entry re-rendered for better lighting and with a few animation tweaks suggested by other contestants, including ZachBG.

 

Download it from my Showdown page

[Rodney]

I like! A nice clean well done animation.

In otherwords... you don't stand a chance.

I'm just kidding, but kindof of serious in a way.

 

I want to provide some advise here and I'm really not qualified to do so.

Since I think you'll take it as I intend it I'm gonna give my 2 cents.

(Watch the number of votes for Rodney is a jerk climb!)

 

I expect that good character animation isn't enough to win these contests.

When I read the discription "With a 10 foot pole" and saw the lead in I imagined something from a different angle perhaps... something conveying the difficulty in overcoming gravity... something... with a humorous punchline.

 

Not sure what that might have been in the case of ... a ten foot pole.

Personally I think you did a really good job. Just not award winning...

 

It's not easy to do a self-contained story in 10 seconds but that seems to be the challenge your are faced with every month. I applaud your efforts and have been looking forward to your posts and entries. Keep on posting!

 

Question:

Why does he look off camera as he gets to the top? If the audience doesn't know and if you don't either that might be a possible flaw in your otherwise excellent efforts. There is a need to find some circular elements in the scene to reemphasize a theme or action. Squash and stretch, anticipation some of these I've seen in your past efforts. You are improving with every entry!

 

Please don't read these typed words the wrong way! You are doing MUCH better than anything I could put forth.

 

My desire for your success just overcame me.

Best,

Rodney

[SteelShark]

Regardless of your place in contests, I just looked at all your animations. The improvement over time is really visible. So just a couple more and ILM will be calling...

[ZachBG]

Nice! Still love the look down.

 

I'm curious as to the method you use. Clearly most of the pole climb was a simple repeat. Was that an action that you dropped in, or just you just cut & paste keys? And what sort of rig does your character have?

 

Zach

[ZachBG]

Oh, I remember what else I was going to say. Rodney, you're not a jerk. However, the contest actually is strictly about character animation; in the words of the showdown rules, "Hey if you've got time for GI, go for it. Texturing? Great. It won't improve your animation though, so spend time on what matters."

 

Oh, of course, rereading your post, you weren't talking about eye candy. You were talking about story. Whoops. Well, the point is that when people vote, they're voting--or at least I am--on the technical elements of the animation. This week was really tough competition, actually. There were only two (out of six) that clearly weren't getting my vote. (One of them was mine, which is why you won't see my entry in the Hash Forums this week...)

 

Zach

[JBarrett]

Nice job, Rob!

 

I'd love to do one of those 4-hour challenges one of these days, but Wednesday is the busiest day for me. Perhaps they'll let me get the clip at 9pm and turn it in a 1am the next morning....naaahh...not likely.

[ZachBG]

Actually, Justin, I believe as long as you start it by midnight on Wednesday, it's OK.

[pia12254]

Man, I loved the animation. Especially the first part where he jumps onto the pole! I thought the pose and motion were hilarious.

 

Right on. I agree with the other person as well who said you are definitely improving with each successive animation.

 

Keep it up.

[robcat2075]

Thanks for all your comments!

I expect that good character animation isn't enough to win these contests.

Zach pretty well explained the focus of the Showdown, but I understand what Rodney is getting at. There should be more to animation than just a character moving well, there should be a reason for the movement. A non-animator audience will demand that.

 

5-10 seconds screen time is enough time to tell a story, but getting all the acting done in four work hours to tell it ... hoooeee...I'm not that fast.

 

I try approach every showdown like this:

 

#1 - accomplish the stated goal. Climb a pole? Ok, if nothing else, my character is going climb that pole with the best animation I can do. Just getting that action to work took most of my time.

 

#2 - Find some way to do it that no one else will. So I didn't do a "sneak" when we had to "steal something." Not much wiggle room on "climb a pole" though.

 

#3 fit a gag/story in. With more time I might have had him skid in, look around in a panic, then climb up the pole just in time to elude the police running in.

 

That's the plan, anyway I'm lucky to just get the guy up the pole in four hours.

 

Fortunately, there are no prizes in this thing except bragging rights for a day or two.

 

Voting irregularities? Doesn't matter. No one appreciated the originality of what i did? Doesn't matter.

 

I'm not deluding myself that somehow I'll get "discovered" if I win. I'm free to try anything I want and fail. And hearing other animators explain why they didn't like mine has been useful.

[robcat2075]

Was that an action that you dropped in, or just you just cut & paste keys?

It was an action, offset each time so the beginning and end would match up. Everything was an action, really. Arranged like this:

 

(BTW has anybody noticed that no matter how far you scroll down in the PWS, you can never see the keyframes on the last item in the window.)