New to Conceptart, posting some work of mine

[Kewlbum]

Hey all, I'm glad to have finally came across this positive, inspiring website. I would like to post some of my work (animation) for critique by anyone who can give me some constructive criticism.

I recentley graduated from Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, NY (2007) and learned quite alot there. Unfortunately, its only a 2 year school and by the time were ready for the GOOD stuff were on our way to other places.

I recently applied and was accepted to SCAD in Savannah for Animation. I'm hoping to get hired into the industry working on cinematics for film and video games.

I have to take loans out for everything becuase I didnt get any scholarships from them so hopefully if anyone knows of any that I should apply for please post em, I will be very grateful

OK so heres my FINAL project for the 2 year Digital Animation program. I call this "Teddy Van Halen" (you can check more out at my website www.charliecharlesanimation.com) THANKS!

[egerie]

I GOT SHIVERS! Although a bit disapointed that the bears aren't grooving in synch with the beat though Anyhoo, what software did you use? It looks like your texture was animated but it might just be a mix of texture and codec compression that gives this feeling. The ears bug me; They're supposed to be following through the head but we really feel the rig behind it as if something invisible was holding them in space. There might be a few hierarchy problems there. Other than that, good job, I'm sure you'll kick ass when coming out of SCAD. Oh and keep posting here

[crazi_ivan]

Hey kewlbum (charles), ur teddy rock has certainly made the rounds around the ol' web. Your dedication to one whole scene shows me your pretty tough and singular in your determination about it. Here come the critiques,

GOOD:
-You made everything from scratch and set up the scene rather well with placement
-Van Halen rocks
-Camera was good and not nauseating like most people do
-managing a complex scene (lighting, modelling, multiple characters, cameras, as well as rendering)
-reminds me of guitar hero a little bit

BAD:
-It seems recycled a lot
-Why no mouth? Having a lipsynch of them all would be intense as well as some facial blendshapes on the characters so you can show emotional acting
-like what what egerie said they arent in synch too much
-it gets a little tiring after a quarter of the way through

[Zilant]

It's a good first project.
2:26-2:35 strikes me as especially well executed, in both the camera motion, the timing, and what motions you decided your 'actors' should take. The general idea, I like, the juxtaposition of teddy bears and van halen is charming.

That being said, I agree with Ivan.

Not only was this a missed golden opportunity for lipsynch, the choice of storyline almost highlights the absence of a mouth. A mouthless rig walking is one thing, a mouthless rig singing is something that's going to raise a few question marks.

[Little Miss Violent]

Good work Reminds of when my older Brother played Van Halen ALL the time.

Great camera work, I even like the detail you went into moving the bears arms down the neck of the guitar, I would have been lazy. Neat lighting scheme too

I may be nuts, but I like how the jumped around at different times, made it more interesting to me.

Great work, 3D animation is just as tedious as traditional

Great work

[QuaTronics]

Great animation! i think i cant even imagen doing something like that!
great camera movement and ligthing, for the characters: also good! but the ears annoy me a bit.

Nice!

[Kewlbum]

GUYS, thank you for your replys and critique! Lets see...starting from the top I'll address some of the comments here. I used 3D Studio Max v9 to make all of this.

Ok so, the sync could be better for sure. The difficulty of it arose from using 3D studio max's curve editor to do the syncing. I had to move keyframe to keyframe to make it all match and it never really managed to line up perfectly (hence the frequent camera changes, it helped hide some of the lengthy parts where timing was a pain). This entire project annoyed my suitemates because they'd have to hear the song easily 800 times a day lol.

The texure was not animated, the codec compression most definately did that. I used Indeo Video 5.10 compressor.

The ears do need more tending to. I made them in the first place to help give the teddys more character (dynamic head banging and such, lol ), but it obviously made for more of a workload. It was something I challenged myself to do though, because it was a great opportunity for me to work on some secondary animation.

The reason I didn't add lip sync can be boiled down to a few different reasons: 1) I really couldnt find a mouth design for the "Ted's" that I really liked, 2) I knew that the lip sync would make ALOT more work for me, and I knew that I wouldnt be able to finish the project before deadline (Final project for my A.A.S. in Digital Animation), 3) The style of my teddy bear was mainly derived from the old teddy bears that had button eyes and no mouth/nose.

A bit of trivia, too: This bear was designed for an entirely different animation project, which I put on the back burner! I had alot of fun rigging teddy up and was able to make a very simple, fun character out of him with just enough expression to give him character.

I have alot of background animation going on in the video too. If you watch the ending sequence (the breakdown), watch the drummer...he goes a little "wild" and I had the most fun animating it out of anything else in the entire project lol. Watch it and you'll see There are alot of others too, watch it over

I guess to wrap it up, I made this project entirely to challenge myself and to put my knowledge of the tools of 3D max to the test. I think something thats missing alot in beginning animator's work is attention to lighting and camera angles/movement. There really is alot of magic to behold in it! I referenced the original "You Really Got Me" video to help me attain the look of this animation and I'm really pleased with it. I also really appreciate the feedback from you guys and I'm working on some traditional stuff right now (anatomy drawing, sculpture, figure drawing, etc.) im in a "stall" period now untill january when I go back to college. I will post more and look forward to the input. Thanks again guys!

-Chuck