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

[Rhubix]

with your first post, I think the upper body is just a little stiff, with the hands in the pockets I would expect the character to be a little more slouchy.
If you were trying to give it a bit of motion you could squeeze in a little secondary action- where the torso would come down or forward a little after the foot plant. But for a simple walk cycle stuff like that isn't really nessecary- I find watching live action walks that a lot less moves then I imagine in my brain- walks are pretty simple in real life.
I think the hardest thing about walk cycles is you really want it to look spectacular- but they're actually very strait forward. There's always that nagging voice in your mind saying - it needs to be more *insert adjective here* Best to think simply.

In the second one I can only see one little blip with the under arms right at the end (our left not the characters) where the negative space grows and shrinks a little awkward- I think it's a single frame that grows when it should shring or vice-versa.

The idea is really neat- and your clean up is very uniform. My clean up looks like I drink massive amounts of coffee... and I mean I do drink too much coffee, but still >.<

[Alice Herring]

with your first post, I think the upper body is just a little stiff, with the hands in the pockets I would expect the character to be a little more slouchy.
If you were trying to give it a bit of motion you could squeeze in a little secondary action- where the torso would come down or forward a little after the foot plant. But for a simple walk cycle stuff like that isn't really nessecary- I find watching live action walks that a lot less moves then I imagine in my brain- walks are pretty simple in real life.

That would be overlap and follow through (secondary motion), not secondary action. http://www.synchrolux.com/?p=273

Rumpen: Looking good man! a few things on the walk:

Be careful about the spacing of the foot swing, it's a little inconsistent. If you've done a pendulum test this a great extension of that. First think about the forces and how they work - walking is a process of falling and catching oneself while moving forward.

Then look at the push off of the heel - the spacing gap gets big pretty fast, then for a frame gets small again. Then I'm looking at the knee (since the lower leg is just following the upper part at this point) again the spacing is getting bigger, then there's suddenly a smaller spacing, and smaller - the leg that's going into the pass position is slowing down. Then there's a slightly larger spacing before the bottom portion of the leg catches up again. The next frame after that as the bottom of the leg swings forward, the knee actually pops backwards. (and the spacing of the foot itself is really big.) So what's happening is it feels like the character is thrusting the leg forward suddenly before planting the foot. Are you trying to express a certain emotional/character state of mind at the moment? Or just try and do a 'vanilla' walk?

The arms: most individuals don't hold their arms at a 90 degree angle - requires tension to be held in the muscles. Best suggestion I can give is to do the pose yourself and look at the mechanics involved.

Does that make sense?

[zou]

great thread thanks for sharing your assignements

i'll follow

[rumpenstiltzkin]

thanks guys for stopping by here! and the helpful crits too, i did do a second try at that walkcycle, but seems i didnt get it with me when i was saving my stuff from school so its gone... gonna keep struggling with walkcycles tho, someday i have to manage to do one

until then, here is my shortfilm... finally got the guts to post it... have to admit im really embarrased about showing it.
im not very proud it of it itself, but im proud of myself for finishing the film and finishing school, as i have been quite the quitter in the past

its actually not much animation in it, as during the whole time in school i just didnt feel i was very good at animating so i avoided it when i probably should have tried to do more ... but ill learn from my mistakes, i will keep practicing animation but not with pencil and paper so much, it will be flash in the future i guess x)




and in case its not showing for some reason here is the direct vimeo link

[Lewis]

Very nice Having checked out your sketchy animations before, it's good to see one finished!

Congrats on finishing your school, must be a great feeling! What are you gonna do now?

About your animation:

- The intro carries a lot of atmosphere with it, like it.
- Frickin' love the part where she gets shot. You animated that very well
- Ending could have been stronger. Maybe the positioning of your shot could have been better there.. Or atleast swap around a few times in position to build up tension
- Music is good. Maybe could have been more chilled out in the beginning. But that is probably a matter of taste

[FightingSeraph]

Very nice short film, and what's the difference between ToomBoom's Harmony and Animate? (Just curious)

[Rhubix]

Congratulations on finishing your film!! it's got some really interesting pieces to it- I agree with the shooting scene working well- it's got a really great snap to it.
I wont' nitpick anything- because we all know that finishing a student film is about cramming everything in - with not enough time or know-how. I don't bring mine out of it's dusty hovel lol.

That would be overlap and follow through (secondary motion), not secondary action. http://www.synchrolux.com/?p=273

huh, never knew. We call pretty much everything that isn't primary action- secondary action in the studio - thanks for the link /read

Very nice short film, and what's the difference between ToomBoom's Harmony and Animate? (Just curious)

Just because I'm a toonboom geek I wanted to hop in on this question.
Harmony is the biggest baddest 2D vector animation program in existence. It has particle effects, and cool warpy things- lots of crazy addons and filters and stuff. This is what studio's use. Mercury, Bardel, Nelvana, 9 Story, and Yowza are a few studios that use Harmony.

Animate pro is 90% of harmony - most of the FX modules, network view, and multi-plane features - no particle stuff (yet - maybe when Animate pro 3 comes out ) If your doing high-end independent projects I'd recommend this. It's a steep investment but it's ideal for independent freelance work. Usually if you get a few people to go in on a purchase you can get a good deal- I got my copy for 60 % of the asking price.

Animate (without the pro) is the home version. It's missing some key features like the network view - which I think is the best part of the toonboom software.

Animate is very similar to Flash. Animate pro makes flash look like MS paint. and Harmony is even better (but way too expensive to make it a practical purchase in my case.)


Anyways- just totally highjacked your thread for a second there- gratz again on getting the film done- now's where the real fun starts- go forth and join the work force

[Max Amol]

Hey! I very like animation and any things connected with it. And I should say it looks really nice!
May you tell me you created this animation only frame by frame?

[cout<mecha]

Thanks for showing us this. It's gotten mighty quiet around here.

[iven]

Hi there thanks for posting on my SB that means I will never lose you out of
sight. It means a lot to me that I can see what you do in school because I never
went to school, but I work as an Animator and there is still so much to learn.

I had a huge LOL with the Magician beeing eaten up by the Carnivore plant.
And your student film was fun to watch, but I would love to see the storyboards.

I am sure you would learn a lot about storytelling, besides geting feedback about
composition for each panel.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

Hey there! Been a bit dead here and not sure if these archived threads will live on? Should i just keep posting here or make a new one in the new forum part? :o
For now i just keep posting here i guess

Just wanted to share some animation finally! I got a job a while back and the first thing i was hired to do was to animate for an Adventure Time game! How wicked isnt that!
I had alot of fun doing it, and also was very limited to how many frames i was allowed to use, so theyre very simple x)

I sketched the animations in flash but I cleaned and finished them with photoshop!



There will be more animations in the future as I did get hired as animator, and is working on a bigger game atm, doing a sort of 2D/3D, lots and lots of animations that i cant show yet but maybe a little bit soon enough

Oh and iven mentioned seeing my storyboards for my final film, I could dig them up, luckily i think i kept the storyboards, out of the whole project i had to throw away as it was to much and heavy to take with me in my bags from canada to sweden it was hard throwing all that work in the garbage, but i saved a few drawings here and there hehe