Climbing and Lifting Animation WIP, Splined Feedback

After showing the clip to my class I have gotten some good feedback on the clip.
At the end, they didn't like the BIG double head tilt. It is supposed to be a sigh but I guess I went a bit over the top with that one so I have to make it more subtle. Also they didn't like the hat falling down in front of the camera so I have to fix that.

Next to that I just have to keep on working with all the things I already know needs tweaking as well as adding the extra animation to the secondary character.

Climbing and Lifting Animation WIP, Splined

After being up all night I will now rest for about 2 hours before showing this to my class.

I have now implemented the new idea to the scene and added most of the breakdowns for the main character. The secondary character is still just floating across the screen as he still only has the storytelling poses applied to him.



You might now have noticed there's a fall here. I think this really spiced up the scene. It was a tricky one to do though as I did not have any reference for this and pretty much just had to go with a feel to it, but I think I have managed to create something quite convincing based on not having the reference for it.

The animation still needs more work on the timing in some areas I feel. Especially as the paint bucket gets stolen I should work on the timing for the main character as well as creating a better follow through action.

Climbing and Lifting Animation WIP, Block with extremes

I have now added more extremes to the main character and also did send this clip to Penny and did get some feedback from her:

"

Hi Remi

It is looking good, nice touch with the hat.

You might want to add add a couple of story telling poses as your characters leave the scene.

"




I did also show this clip to my fellow student, Daniel Natland and he did give me some pointers as well as he was commenting the part where the character runs down the stairs to catch up with the thief.

The comments I got was that the character might be going a bit too slow if he wants to catch up and this has given me some pretty interesting ideas on how to make the whole scene interesting as well as finishing it.

Final Animation tasks for Animation Practice 1

The final animation task for AP1 is 2 tasks to choose from. Either it should be a character lifting an object or a character climbing up and down from an object.

Earlier we had been in the green screen studio to shoot reference footage for these tasks and Penny made them all available on Vimeo.

Even though I had made some ideas in the green screen studio, I did fall for the idea of 2 other classmates as I think both their acting was good as the idea combines both tasks in one which is why I have chosen to make my animation based on their reference:




I am also behind on my walk cycle task at this point but I can't wait longer to get started with the last task either so I just have to get this running as well.

Climbing and Lifting Storytelling poses block

So here I've gotten started with my last animation task with the storytelling poses in block version:

3D Poses Feedback

After showing the poses to Penny she also agrees with me that the new poses work much better so now I'm putting those to the side to get started with our final task.

3D Poses Update

So based on the feedback I have gotten from Penny I have made some new poses that I will show, which I think works a LOT better:


The class has also been lucky to receive some good news about our deadline. Luckily it has been extended until the 5th of December which couldn't fit me better as I am now way behind on several tasks for spending so much time on posing.

Feedback on 3D Poses

Later today I received Penny's feedback on my poses and I here quote her response:

"
Hi Remi

Poses Feedback.

Now how am I going to do this ..

The pose is not strong, you are relying on the staging. I suggest you try a different idea.

What's in there ..

works OK

Waiting for news

works OK

Angry poses

I agree, that both need more work.

when angry the body is tense .. shoulders up and hands in fists or pointed finger.

Angry with you implies that the character is looking at someone/thing.

the fancy staging with the bathroom is rather OTT.

Your pose with the computer is sort of the action (acting) pose after the angry pose. .. Try showing him to be angry with it pre baseball bat.

Dancing

Again too much reliance on the staging. The pose needs more swagger and attitude.

I'm free

Again too much reliance on the staging. Without the headstone .. would the character look free?

"

She is so right!

I guess I have just gotten too carried away with staging and telling a character's story and it has completely taken away my focus from making GOOD poses.

Also I suppose I have been trying too hard to do something that's really original and avoid the "textbook pose"

But of course, one can't invent the wheel over again so I have decided to put the whole story concept aside and work on POSES.

I still can't believe I have been so blind to not see this myself though.

Poses in 3D

It took me quite some time and what's really bad now is that I'm kind of tangled up with the posing task and haven't gotten started on the climbing/lifting task as well as I'm still working on the walk cycle with stop task. Despite that, hese are the poses I have now emailed to Penny Holton for feedback:

Posing task

For the posing task we have gotten the following scenarios to create from:

1. Waiting for news
2. Pleased at the result.
3. Now how am I going to do this?
4. What’s in there?
5. I’m very angry with you
6. I’m free
7. Dancing to impress
8. Er .. excuse me

We are to choose only 6 of them.

The poses should also be staged in a way that helps to tell my character's story.
Starting off sketching a 2d pose which later on will be made in 3D.

To be honest, I thought this would be one of the easier tasks to do and I did kind of delay it too long and unfortunately I still haven't started in 3D but I only have 2D sketches to show my class for tomorrow. I think this could be a good way to help me decide which one to go for in 3D as well.



I guess my biggest problem is my drawing skills (as I haven't been drawing for quite some time) and a lot of frustration with perspective and proportions.

We were to fill out an entire page with lots and lots of different poses for each sentence and as embarrassing as it is to admit, I did struggle with good ideas as there is always one pose that comes to mind instantly for each sentence, it seemed difficult for me to come up with new ideas.

But this is what I have to show for my class so far

Personality Walk with start and stop Feedback

The feedback I got from my class is that I need to work more on the pulling. Make it more believable in terms of weight and I totally agree. It is something I've been trying to do better up to this show and tell but didn't get that far.

Other things to improve would be to make the character pull himself up slower so it looks like he has to use more force.

All of these things I will try and tweak and will show more later on.

Personality Walk with start and stop WIP Splined

I have been working further on with the animation, continuing adding extremes and breakdowns and I have now reached the point to where I am using splined keys.

This is the version I will be showing my class for further feedback:

Personality Walk with start and stop

So the next task is about making a character walk where the character either:

1. Walks into shot, stops for a moment and then starts walking again.
2. The character starts walking from stationary position, walks a few steps and then stops.

Also adding on one of the following themes:

A. Walking carrying an object: such as a bag or a pile of dishes
B. Walking pushing/pulling an object: such as a trolley or a lawnmower.


Also it is encouraged to add additional animation in keeping with the personality of my character and his/her reason for walking and stopping.




With this in mind I started thinking about some ideas and decided to go for a combination of 1+B

I also made a simple storyboard for the basic idea of the scene:

As I started animating I decided to make some changes. Instead of making the character carry his bag over his shoulder, I would make the bag so heavy he would have to drag it with him along the floor. This was to give myself a bigger challenge and some more interesting animation.

As most people know, animating without reference is difficult so I made a reference with the help of Jo Christian Figenschou:



With that, I have started animating and blocking out the storytelling poses with some extremes: