learning animation - updated with my shortfilm jan 26! :)

[rumpenstiltzkin]

started studying classical animation at VFS this january and thought id share my animations.
these are all from term 1, term 2 just started today (28th feb) and got some exciting new animation assignments coming up


and uhm in lack of knowing other ways to upload the movie files i have them in bad quality at my blog here =/

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Great looking start. The tail swish seems a little too mechanical and seems to flick at the ends too suddenly, but only slightly. The frog is fantastic, very clear what is happening and great character. Keep it up, I'm interested to see what you do next.

[PLeon]

Agreed with Pumpkin, your best one is the frog. I have nothing but praise for that one. And the weakest would be the tail swish, it seems very, um, unnatural? it seems to be missing arcs. I hope you keep us updated on term 2 work.

[Lundkaon]

Gee, I wish I had all that content to show, since I'm learning since...september, i think?
Well done, mate! I enjoyed the flour sack as well.

[Northtouch]

That was brilliant! The frog was just.... well it was just simply brilliant. The flour sack too, but the frog! Keep that up!

Great stuff.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

thank you all! i should really go back and practice that tail again

heres one i forgot from term 1 as well, did this one between the frog and the tail one...

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

haha awesome. Although again keep an eye on your follow through. I think his hat is havign a similar problem to the tail in that it's flicking up faster than the character was moving up. If it's meant to be flicking up due to the character falling back down I think it's doing it too soon. If you gave it an extra frame or two before it reaches the highest point of the flick I think you'd get a better result. It's a lovely piece though, the squash and stretch is working really well and the follow-throughs in the nose, beard and arm are spot on.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

well, 2 other animations, we just started with effects as well and its alot of fun but i easily confuse myself hehe....
i like the flame, but its not the full animation, i will put it up in the week...
we did a flame and a blowout and smoke, wich im not liking at all, it was a bit more difficult to get that right.

were working with a water splash atm, its so fun

the head rotation was difficult, and it was more of a technical assignment than anything else, and just as i started to get the hang of the technicalties for it i ran out of time for it so not very good...its not even and do a bit of a swoooosh -swooosh thing ugh x)

but anyways, any feedback is appreciated ofc!

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

looking great man! Keep it up. Learning this kind of stuff will get you into good practice so even if it feels like it's killing your mind at times, stick with it and you'll be doing yourself a huge favor further down the line.

[xalimp]

I have looked at your first three animation. Love the sack The tails need a bit of work up, the swishing still looking too jaggy...

[rumpenstiltzkin]

here is the full candle, finishing up the water splash tomorrow so will post that then...working on a take animation too but boy is that as far out of the comfort zone i can get, such a cartoony take is difficult for me and been having a lot of problems with it -.- its finally over soon tho heh...

anywho, the candle, i kinda rushed it at the end so the smoke isnt very well planned at all...damn you deadlines!
and sorry for it being a bit dark and all, hope you can see it :<

[PLeon]

Nice. I dont actually have a problem with the smoke, but I do agree that it does disappear a bit too fast.

I really dig your stuff here. I wish I would've had more time to practice with regular pencil and paper myself, I was thrown way too quickly into digital, now I'm just frustrated with my work. Anyway, rant aside, good job, keep it up

[rumpenstiltzkin]

hey again, heres that water splash i was talking about a while ago, and its the only update atm... i did a take few weeks ago that im not feeling confident enough to show, it was just not my thing to do, i felt completely lost -.-
same with the walk cycle we do right now, im completely lost...it was so much easier in 3D dammit


anywho, here it is...im not super happy with it but it was very fun to do!

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Looking great. I think maybe it's a little bit too slow and the splash is maybe too big for a droplet that size falling from that distance. It looks a little bit like the droplet is exploading when it hits the water surface as a bit too much water splashes up. Also you could add another final ripple from the reaction droplet at the end. Beautifully drawn though.

Come on, show us the other stuff you're working on. As animators perfectionism an acupational defect we all suffer from. You should sieze every opportunity to get feed back on work, don't hide it just because you're not happy with it yet. You'll have pleanty of time in your life to do more stuff that you might one day be happy with.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

Smashed_Pumpkin: thank you always for the feedback
yeh i went a bit overboard, i just did a quick drop design then i didnt think much more about it and started on the splash itself, then when i put em together i didnt like the size of the splash compared to the drop...but ugh...deadlines x) and i dont know, i think the water feels thick somehow, i wanted it to feel more thin like water but oh well =/
and darnit you mentioned it, i was suppose to add a last ripple from the droplet but i totally forget /slapself =(

eh...okey..here is the take...i know its really bad, i gaved up halfway caus i just couldnt get myself to understand it i think, the type of "humor" isnt mine but i tried... but i think it shows to much i gaved up on it =/
be as hard or not as you want on the crit tho, i appreciate any sort of feedback ^^ but im not confident with this at all .../goes and hides



so the assignment was to have a character be surprised/scared/shocked by something offscreen, and run offscreen...

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

This looks great Rumpenstitzkin, on the second take her head does a little bit of a jitter but that looks more like a miss-shoot or something, so not to worry about. I really like the contrast of movement, in the first few seconds I thought to myself "oh dear, this isn't going to read very well" but then the reaction is so sudden and extreme that it works really well.

I think you could maybe make the second take even faster, at the moment she's seeing whatever scares her for a bit too long before having such an extreme reaction to it.

[PLeon]

I really liked it. I do agree that as much as I'm a fan of extreme reactions, that might have been a bit too much. Specially the run at the end, the character is nowhere near as recognizable anymore.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

soooo, i havent posted in a while D:
things have not gone so well for me...have had a disastrious (sp?) couple of animation assignments that i just totally failed at and is just not worth showing...
but heres one that i didnt manage to finish, but at least it started to get a little bit better for me...




curtains...well a curtain...couldnt find a way to flip it in digicell, and didnt have the time to draw it x)





thats all for now, will try to work harder and get some more stuff up here :/
im also just in a panic mode now, were in storyboard mode right now but i just cant come up with a short animation idea...how hard can it be! =(
but i know im limiting myself, whatever im coming up with im thinking i cant do it and scraps it and dont talk about the ideas with the teachers...

[wallflower]

Hey!! just wanted to say hi to a fellow Vancouverite & animator - I'm taking animation over at Emily Carr

I think with stories, the simpler ideas always turn out the better - especially when its for something very short. I was not a big fan of my own storytelling class but in the end I found a good way for me to just get inspired quickly was to listen to a short song (like less than a minute) and then think about a story that would reflect the pacing of the song. That helped me a lot just because I am not very great with dramatic pacing, so having something else help me time it out at least got me started.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Hey Rumpenstiltzkin, that magician guy looks great. Would love to see him inbetweened. The curtain looks lovely too.

I wanna see those projects you're not happy with! Don't worry about posting stuff that you feel isn't up to scratch. The majority of my work isn't up to scratch but I try and get as many people as I can to look at it and tell me what they think is wrong. Often if I've done something that I know is pretty crappy but I'm not entirely sure why, a pair of fresh eyes will be able to point it out in no time.

[cout<mecha]

Don't know if it's too late or not but I just posted a couple of tutorials on drawing keyframes over in the motion graphics forum. If you have time look at those. They might help you to do better animation! Enjoy!

[Rhubix]

Great stuff so far!
You really have to stop kicking your own ass. If your trying your best be proud of what your accomplishing. You'll get better with time.

For the story idea I have to agree with other posts, think simply. my college film was way too long, and I paced it really poorly making it twice as long as it needed to be >.<
Something simple that you can polish is better than something extravagant that you have to rush.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

ooh hey guys, and thanks so much for your comments and feedback!
sorry i havent been in here in quite a while, final film started and its been hectic, still is D: took an early night today caus im so frickin tired haha


anyways, i guess ill just share a bunch of old stuff im not really happy with but feedback appreciated ofc!
im thinkin wich one/s i should finish/redo for a portfolio we eventually have to do by the end of the year, and all of my stuff is pretty unfinished


most of these are from term 1 and 2, but the noodle guy is from term 4, last ones before we started our film.













sorry forgot to repeat the walk, and also ignore the head i know its way off :p i focused on the legs and ran out of time to fix the head. i might wanna try fix this for the portfolio...






most stuff lack alot of inbetweening :/




i might show some roughs maybe from my final film, if anyone interested?
were in middle of the cleanup now, and its so tiring, but i must say seeing my animation cleaned up and fully inbetweened is kinda cool, and fun, and not looking so awful as it did in the rough stage hehe x)


anywho, ill share some character design and moodboards meanwhile, hope you like, would love your thought of color choices
and if anyone have ideas on what to do with the characters in the film id love to hear it!
im thinking of doing it silhouettes like the girl is in the moodboard, but i have some medium/closeups and not sure how to do that to make it all fluid and keep the style.

im also happy i managed to stay under 1 min for this film!

[Ricardo Robles]

Those animations are great, can´t get enough of them! you are evolving nicely! I specially love that last ones and the magician, very well done and keep posting please!

[Rhubix]

lovely mood boards, I think the two tone girl in the first one would look great. In close ups you could define a lot in just two tones that a complete silhouette would make a pain in the .... neck.
What program are you using for the animation?
I saw a sweet animation the other day that could serve a good story for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auR8-0MG11g
I wont spoil it for you, but it's a great concept- you can make it as long as you want and end it at any time in a satisfying way.
And it's just hella fun to watch

[cout<mecha]

I'm loving the latest animation updates! Keep it up.

[Ccs]

Those characters look great. Good luck on the finished film!

[rumpenstiltzkin]

Ricardo Robles: thank you ricardo for your kind words and support!
Rhubix:thank you! haha that was a cool animation! this film is traditionally animated and then scanned into toonboom.
were making a flash film after this one, so trying to pitch together a short story for that between my cleanup as well D:
cout thank you guys


thank you so much guys for looking and the feedback, much appreaciated!
sorry nothing to show today, but ill try get something up soon!

[rumpenstiltzkin]

hey thought i share a little animation... this is a clean scene from my film and a walk cycle test, will see if i can do something proper with that, im really struggling with walk cycles hehe, but then again, they are some of the hardest thing to do no? ^^

i think the feets work, but im hopelessly lost on the upperbody :/
but any feedback is appreciated!



and i know this isnt perfect, after looking at it now again after a while, there is lots i wanna change, i would like to slow it down a bit at the end.

[Ccs]

With that walkcycle I feel the upper arms are wobbling too much. You'd benefit from having them sink a little when the rest of the body goes up and then having them continue upwards a little past the body going down when both feet touch the ground. Right now it looks like the arm is wobbling.