Another great example of mastered physics
To play double click on movie
The physics are there, good presentation.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Great Balls of Fire!
To play double click on movie
Excellent examples of mastered physics, as well as more complicated mechanics and basic squash & stretch and overlap.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Be Original - more tips by Mark Kennedy
A Little More Advice for Students
Okay, just one more thing for you students out there and then I'll move on. At the risk of repeating myself ad naseum I would like to encourage students to do their best to be original when creating their films. When you're a student it can seem like a scary idea to be original. Being original can seem risky and frightening if you feel like you don't have any idea what you're doing. It can seem tempting to use something you've seen before - something that you know works already - to hedge against falling completely on your face with an untested original idea that people may not like. It might seem safer to just copy a character design or try a variation on an idea that we've all seen before.
Read the rest @ the Temple of the seven golden camels
Animation Town Hall Meeting
I got this email and was asked to let my students know. So here it is:
Greetings!
The Fall 2007 Animation Town Hall Meeting will take place on Thursday, September 20, in Room 400A. 3pm to 4pm. If you are able to attend, please do. This is where the students get a chance to ask their questions, air their concerns, and float new ideas.
Also, please tell your classes about this. We can never have enough students turn out.
Cheers,
Brian
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Critique - Bouncing Ball
Heavy & Light Ball
Hey,
they both look fantastic. The only thing would be the trajectory of the little heavy guy. The speed as it enters screen left is pretty fast, yet it falls down in a very flat curve. But I can tell that you have the spacing down and the weight really comes across. Nice job!! Move on!
Cheers
Jean-Denis
The Graph Editor
A lot of people are asking about the magic of the graph editor. Some people live and breathe it, others use it for clean up. I'm more of a clean-up guy. If pops show up in my animation, then I check the graph, if the rig is light enough for real time playback, I adjust the curves to tweak the timing, etc. but I'm not the person who breaks the tangents and weighs/unweighs them and all that jazz. I know a few who do and others who don't.
But I believe one thing, the graph editor is not a magic tool. You won't get super polished animation just by using it. You need to know why of course. It's just another tool that lets you tweak your keys and curves.
Victor Navone has written a great tutorial on Splines, I highly recommend both Part 1 and Part 2.
Team Fortress 2 Animation
Here's the latest clip from Valve's "Team Fortress 2". Below is another one, which has absolutely fantastic animation in it. The last one is my favorite though. There is awesome subtle stuff in it. I love the style and really hope that they will do either small episodes or a longer story either online or on tv.
Critique - Website & Animation
I was asked to take a look at the website and the animation clips.
The site pages are easily accessible and you can access the movies individually, all good there.
About the anim clips. Here are my thoughts:
Meditatingthefox.mov - ideas seem clear, rough stage, not much to critique animation wise obviously
meat.mov - same here, although more refined, I like the timing of it
bully.mov - the color choices are not my thing, but I guess that' subjective. The entrance of the first ball is hugging the bottom frame a lot, the staging could be clearer. The weight on both balls is okay but a bit off. Especially the smaller ball as it tries to run away after the first "attack". Same with the squash of the big guy as it jumps onto the little one. The following super fast string movements by the little guy are a bit weird. I get the point, but the execution could be different. It's too frenetic. It's cool ninja type wise, but doesn't quite work as it is now. And look at the last frame of the clip. The staging could be better as well here, the little guy is too cut off in the lower right part of the frame.
boredomConsequence: it's tricky to comment on the animation without knowing more about it. Looking at it right now, it needs a lot of polish. The ideas are there, but the stage is currently in layout/blocking phase. The movements are very linear, with arm extensions and facial shape pops and distortions throughout the clip.
It would be interesting to know where that box came from, why it's there, who put it there, is it to tempt the guy, to help him, torture him, etc. The box doesn't look like it's been put there casually or left/forgotten. The way it is positioned on the bench looks very calculated, leaving you with the impression that someone put it there on purpose. So you set your audience up for something, which doesn't get resolved at the end of the short.
Some of the camera moves and angle feel a bit staged and confusing or too computery. For instance once he grabs the box and the camera dollies to the left, it starts and ends in a very linear way, too typical of a CG camera. Be careful about fade ins and outs and transitions. After he grabs the box it transitions to another angle using fades, which usually tell the audience that a lot of time has passed, yet the movements of the character are seamless across the cut, which means no time passed. Make sure to not confuse the audience with cuts like that.
After the first bite, you get a shot which has the night lamp as the main focus point, taking up the whole right half of the screen, yet nothing happens to it, with it or in relationship with it, so you're again setting your audience up with no pay off.
I like the editing after that, how he goes into an eating frenzy. His end reaction could be a bit more complex though. The idea is there, but the animation is a bit rough. It would have been funny as well to have the top of the box worn out, after all the grabbing and poking and maybe some crumbs around the bench and on his mouth, etc.
humStraya.mov - unfortunately I can't loop clips here at work (stupid Linux machines...). But it looks good, maybe a bit bouncy and "spliney" (the curves must be all smooth and round in the graph editor).
FoxWalk.mov - that one feels a bit too squash and stretchy. Be careful how you manipulate the overall geometry, it needs to retain its form.
Pound.mov - I like the look of the character and the walk has character. The overall animation is too spliney and linear though. The reaction after he opens the box is good, make sure that you cut a few frames before the character stops moving. Right now the character freezes and the clip stays on that for too long.
whushu.mov - I've gotten a few clips now with the title whushu, is that a common exercise I guess? I'm not a big fan of those because most of the times it ends up being a character swinging and twirling around, without any story or purpose. Your timing arnd arcs seem ok (except the last jump/2nd jump), but the legs and arms are very chaotic. But even if that was all done and polished, you still got at the end: "Ok, and why did he do that?". I discourage people to have that on their reel, because even though it shows mechanics, it's nothing more than that. Unless you pack it in with a neat story. It's more fitting for a video game reel, less for a character reel.
The light, medium and heavy balls:
- it might be the player that we use here (I'll confirm at home tonight just to be sure), but all these clips have the ball hugging the bottom frame. The first two seem to be the same, with the medium just sped up. The heavy one feels heavier (camera shake always helps), but the last few bounces are too character infused.
What I would need is a clear staging (just take a "side" or "front" camera in maya) and a pure physics approach. Look at the examples on the class site for a light, medium and heavy ball. No squash and stretch (maybe a tiny bit on the light one, if you go for a balloon), no camera tricks.
If anyboyd has questions, just let me know!
Cheers
Jean-Denis
Monday, September 10, 2007
Your ID and email is needed
A few people have sent me a scan or a photo of their ID and it'd be cool if everybody else could do the same. That way I have everything on the computer. Same goes for your email, just email me quickly so that I have your email on file as well.
Tata
Jean-Denis
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Critique: Bouncing Ball
Ball bounce
Looking good, with a few kinks that need to get ironed out. :)
1st light ball:
- fix the arc as he first falls down. Once the ball gets passed the edge it drops immediatly (x17). Keep the forward momentum and curve the arc. Take a dry erase marker and plot the path, you'll see that it has a sharp down movement right now. The spacing also feels a bit even until the first impact. After that it looks ok, although I feel like he could bounce further screen right. It's mainly the first fall.
2nd medium ball:
- the speed at which the "balloon" rolls in is pretty slow, yet once off the edge it accelerates. Pull the ball a bit more screen right or make its entrance faster (which is probably easier to do). Overall it feels like a mix between a balloon and a ball. The hits feel too hard for a balloon, but it travels too slow for a ball. Once the ball hits the ground, take x119, then x120 should have the ball much higher (as high as the light ball at this frame, at least). This goes for all the bounces. Check out the "balloon" at this post, that feels right.
3rd heavy ball:
- there's something poppy about the ball being off screen at x181 and then fully in at x182. Nothing major, but still. The main is if you take a dry erase and mark out the spacing of the ball, you'll see that it's very even, there is no acceleration of the ball.
It also falls straight down, but then rolls pretty far screen right, which doesn't look very heavy. The bounces are too high, if you are going for a bowling ball. Especially the first bounce is too high and too slow, the spacing is also uneven on the way up. The fall feels too fast, is if the ball is being sucked down.
Almost there!
Cheers
JD
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