Critique - Walkcycle

I like the look of the character! :)

First thing that stands out animation wise is the even up and down of his body. Try to find a more natural rhythm. The body is going to be in the up position for a bit longer, which will make the "fall" a bit faster. The down part can also be held a tiny bit longer, since it will take him a bit to get up (sounds very labored but I'm talking about only a few frames).

With that body Y translation fixed you'll have to work on your legs again, which is fine because right now they are popping into a straight position at x10 and x26 and make the heel go up, which gives it a weird bounce up. The feet also slow down as they are about the lift off the ground. The speed needs to be the same until the foot gets off the ground. Grab your overall body controller and move the guy forward as if he was walking from A to B. You'll see that the feet are not sticking to the ground, they are sliding.
If you look at x1 how the heel of the foot touched the ground, it takes 4 frames to get it completely flat on the ground, which is a bit slow. It makes the steps feel very soft.
Front view: when you make the foot plant faster, keep the timing of the hips (right now they go up a bit too early, but with an earlier plant it will look correct). But keep the right side up longer. At x14 they are almost leveled out, which should happen as the foot gets to frame x16 and 17.

There is something odd about the arms, how they get closer to the body on the forward swing and then go out on the swing back (front view/left arm: the curve gets to a halt on x18 the goes forward in a straight line).
But what will change all that is the upper body. It's swinging a lot (front view) from left to right. You should keep the upper body straight in terms of left/right movement as it curves into the c shape. Same goes with the head which moves along with upper body. Check the image on this post if it is not clear:

academyanimation.blogspot.com walkcycle

Sideview: the head could be a bit loser on the up and down, dragging a bit as it follows the upper body rotation.

And the fingers feel a bit spread out, keep them a bit closer together and rotate the pinky and ring finger a bit inwards, for a more natural pose, right now they seem a bit flat. Angus from the Spline Doctors sketched out great hand poses with dos and donts.

thoughts on hand poses

Cheers
Jean-Denis

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Contrast

The latest Spline Doctor Roundtable ends with a great note on contrast, how you need to focus on what you want to show in your shot, what emotion has to come across, and just because a joke is really funny doesn't mean that you have to cram one in into every shot. You need room to breath and sometimes a joke is funnier because there was a more quiet moment happening before. Contrast is key.

Same goes when you choose an audio clip or you prepare your "weight" assignment, decide on your acting, etc. When I ramble about contrast in class, really try to remember it and to apply it whenever you can. Try to limit your gestures (less is more) for instance. If you point at something all the time during every beat, the audience will miss the important "pointing" because it's buried, that important moment gets lost.
Or in your audio clip you have someone shouting all the time, you don't give the audience time to relax. The classic thing to do is to have something quiet at the beginning and louder at the end, maybe with a gradual build up or surprise explosion. But sometimes a subtle change in line delivery coupled with great acting can be fantastic. And again, great acting doesn't mean throwing the characters around.

There's a funny scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", during which Indy is in this crazy action scene and that sword wielding thug shows up. With everything that happened in the movie and during the sequence, you'd expect a huge fight, basically going from loud to louder (which is your typical way of contrasting action in movies). But in this case Indy just takes out his gun and ends the fight right there and then. Going from loud to quiet gives it much more contrast and by playing against the audiences' expectations it creates a much better pay off.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Art Department Roundtable

I finally had time to listen to the Spline Doctor's "Art Department Roundtable". I hope you already did, if not, grab a drink, sit back and enjoy, it's very good.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

The Bouncing Ball - The key to all animation

Here's a question that I got over the week-end:

Hey JD, I had a discussion with a friend of mine yesterday about how the bouncing ball is really the key to all animation. You had mentioned that in class as well, but I must be missing the link between the two. I get that with the ball assignment we can see the relationship of timing but it seems like a big jump between the ball and animating a human. So, how do I break the human down into its bare essentials so it looks like a bouncing ball? Do I look at the arm and see how that looks like a ball, then the torso like a ball and so on?

If you master the bouncing balls, you show that you have a good understanding of timing and weight. Everything that you will animate relies on timing and weight (great poses with horrible timing are useless).

Now let's say you do a walk. Then you have your body going up and down, which could be like a bouncing ball. Or you do a jump, that's kinda like a bouncing ball. But I wouldn't oversimplify it by trying to find an actual bouncing ball in your character. It's more about the understanding of spacing and weight to me. The momentum of a ball, how it reacts when it hits a wall or the ground, etc. all that needs to look and feel right and you have to adjust your keys and curves in order to get that look and feel. It's the same with more complex characters, the same principles apply, there is just more to think about).

If it takes you 15 weeks for the balls to look correct, then you will have a hard time animating in general. That's a harsh statement, I know, but I still think that's true. Of course you'll always have exceptions, plus with hard work you can train your eyes and sense of timing, or it might just click one day in your head and you get it.

It's not just about the technical side of adjusting keys but about your eye and if you can judge the timing of your animation correctly. And the bouncing ball assignments are great for that. Sometimes I see bouncing ball assignments and the balls just move around with complete disregard of physics and timing. And the person thinks it looks correct. That to me raises a red flag. It's not like the complex nature of a human character or creature, where you have to really think about how one body part influences everything around it, it's just a ball going up and down and side to side. So if the timing is totally off and the person thinks it looks ok, then there is hard work to be done in terms of observation, studying reference and training his/her eye. A lot of it also has to do with dedication. When I suggest that the person buys a rubber ball, films it and studies the timing of the bounce and all I get back is a chuckle, then that worries me. Yes, it's a lot of work for just a ball, but if the animation looks wrong you have to do whatever you can to understand why and to figure out how to fix it. You need to be pro-active, motivated and dedicated. But that ramble is for another post.

So if you master the bouncing balls, you're off to a good start, because like you said, the bouncing ball is the key to all animation.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Critique - Cowboy

Looking at the clip, it needs a lot of work. There is something very swimmy and awkward about it. (I wish you could draw onto the frames in quicktime and save it with like that, so you could go through it frame by frame and check out the overlaid drawings...).

First off, I need a frame counter, otherwise it's not very precise and don't include the controllers.

So here's the gist of it. When he first leans to the right, his weight is on the screen right leg. So the hips should be the opposite, right side up. Especially when he takes the step and the screen left foot is in the air. Unless you go cartoony, then have the right side of the hip go up on the lean and keep what you have now. But either way, when the foot touches the ground the hips should level out and as he goes down the left side of the hip should go up (weight is on it). Same thing when the other foot goes up. Realistically left side of hip is up, otherwise keep what you have (think about Sumo wrestlers as they take steps).













But with that second step you don't level out the hips as he touches down the foot, the right side is still up. Same with the next step.
You know, when I got up to act it out, I started walking like the guys from Galaxy Quest. I think maybe because I want to have my arm/hand go always above the gun (ready to draw), so I swing with the leg, not against it (like in a normal walk).

You can also tone down the shoulders. It's just the combination of those extreme movements of the shoulders, the hips, upper body bending that makes it look very swimmy and awkward.

Look at your reference and pick out all the extreme poses, the key ones, look at what your body is doing and especially the timing of it.

Looking for Galaxy Quest images I found this Japanese poster. Awesome.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Critique - Walkcycle

Alright, first off, don't put any controllers in the movies, it's distracting and doesn't help the critique at all. :) Keep it clean.

So, looking at the waste down only, let's start with the legs.

Side view, her left leg, track the tip of the toe and look at the spacing from x13 to x14, the spacing is a lot bigger at this point, before that it seems ok, so keep the curve linear til x15. Same goes with the other foot from x1 to x2, but it's not as big on this one. Otherwise it looks good from the side.
Front view, screen right leg. There is a wobble in the foot's rotation. Look at x10, then up to x13, the foot rotates with the tip going in, straightening the foot, but from x13to x14 you rotate it back. The other foot is fine.
The translation from left to right on the screen right foot could also need some smoothing out. It goes to the left from x16 to 17, then to the right til x19, then immediately back left til x22, but then hits a wall and doesn't move any more. You need to smooth out all those hard direction changes.
Main body up and down. The way she goes up still reads like a pop. The body goes down til x4 in a nice smooth way, but then shoots up from x4 to x5, keeps going til x7, but then doesn't move from 7 to 8, which makes it too abrupt. Then you go a tiny bit down from x8 to 9, you stick again from 9 to 10 and then finally start the descent. Have the body go up til frame 9 instead of 7, then keep it going a little bit til 11, but make that continuation smooth.
Front view. There is something off with that hip going left right, looks like it's a tad too late. But first fix the up and down to get rid of that pop.

And can you scale down her hands? They're huuge. :)

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Critique - Run Cycle

The run is a bit too fast. The steps pop. It's also a bit out of character since he is a big and heavy guy. The run would be a bit more labored. Unless you're going for super cartoony. But I would stay within character, make it a lot slower and laboured.
Two technical things, don't have the feet go through the floor (as they are about to get off the ground) and the moment you set a foot down, it has to be locked. It will slide backwards in a linear timing, but from the front the feet should not move to the left or right. It's only your screen left foot, keep it like the right one.

Any idea what he's running from or after? Would be fun to integrate more of a reason into the cycle.
Don't forget though to present cycles in one movie the way it is on the website.

Cheers
Jean-Denis

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Walkcycle - Moving the body forward

I was checking online for a normal walkcycle which had the body go forward during the cycle, just to make sure that I wasn't full of crap by telling you not to do so. I learned it this way, but maybe in the meantime the approach of a cycle changed. But I couldn't find anything either in tutorials nor in video reference.
The only time I moved the body was for a more exaggerated walk, or sneak, something more rhythmic.
So I did this cycle to check it out for myself anyway and remembered something essential. When you take your character and move him/her/it from A to B, any cheats in the foot area obviusly won't work, because you will see if they stick to the ground or not (my right foot was sliding...). If you want to be really sure that your walk will work, grab your ALL_Body controller (or whatever controller moves your WHOLE character) and set keys so that your characters walks from A to B without sliding.

Here the character is moving its body forward during the cycle. Notice how there is a hiccuppy feel to it because of that.

This time the body just goes up and down, which eliminates that pop in the walk.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Run Cycle Tutorial

There is a great tutorial for a run cycle animation @ rodri.aniguild.com. It's very well explained, has tons of movies and images to better understand the process. Go check it out!

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Critique - Balls and Walk

Hey,

the balloon is good. The heavy ball is good as well. The normal one is technically almost there, what needs a fix is his forward translation. As the bounces get smaller, his forward momentum has to decrease. Take you dry erase marker and plot out every where where the ball hits the floor and every frame at highest point of the bounce. You'll see that the bounces decrease in height, but almost stay the same going screen left. Start cutting a third or even half of that translation forward and you'll be set. The ball will probably not reach the wall, or maybe just roll to it.

Walkcycle. Looks good! There is a big problem though, which was addressed in class. Remember not to translate the body of your character forward, stick to the up and down.
Your feet also seem to accelerate backwards once they hit the floor, but 2/3rds into it slow down again. Make sure that your z curve (or x) is completely linear with only two keys, from the moment the foot touches the floor until it lifts off. That pop you mentioned probably comes from that uneven timing.
Before you go into the leg pop details, take your main body controller and (in the front view) move your character left and right, so that around x12 the weight of the body is more over the screen right leg, and the same on the other side, around x27 or so. Don't have him sway left and right like crazy, just a little bit, just for some weight shifts, because right now the body looks fairly locked.
The walk is fairly real, not exaggerated I mean, so because of that I would lessen the nose up and down.
Your hands rotate back too much during the swing back, so x0 and x16. If they would be that swingy, they would be in that position two to three frames later (overlap and drag), but in a realistic walk, you can cut that rotation at least in half. Same goes for the rotation looking at it in the front view. Most of the time the palm is facing us, but when the arms are swinging forward, again x0 and x16, the hands rotate with the back of the hand facing us. It's a bit much and you can cut that rotation in half as well. Being that big it looks like a deliberate move of the character, not a movement that's part of the walk mechanics.
Take all your finger, hand, elbow, arm and shoulder keys and delay them for two frames. Right now you arms are swinging like the legs. Leg takes a step, arm is in front, leg goes back, arm goes back. But the arms are a tiny bit delayed compared to the leg.
Delay also the hip movement. Frontview: at x20 (and x4 for the other one), as the screen left leg is planting down, your hips can be completely leveled, then have the key linear at that point and keep the timing of when the hips are going up, with that key on spline. With that delay and broken tangent you will get a nicer up movement of the hips, showing a bit more weight.
Last but not least, a little expression in the face would help, getting rid of that default look.

After that, you're done! Looking really good, nice work.

Cheers
JD

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Bouncing Ball - Reference Animation

Here's another set of bouncing balls which show mastered physics.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Get Netflix

Or Blockbuster, whatever you prefer. But either way, you should be watching at least one new movie a week. I'm using the 3-at-a-time version with Netflix and I love it. I got to see "Haven", "In the Mouth of Madness" and "Zodiac" last week-end and in all of them I noticed sweet little character details that you can use in your animation.
Watch as many movies as you can. It trains your eyes in terms of acting, composition (click here and scroll down for some basic tips), editing, all that good stuff. Plus you can build your audio clip library as well.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Critique - Walkcycle

Funny thing is, I wanted to write that the overall feel to the walk is "robotic", but since the model represents a robot, isn't that a good thing? :)

Apart from that, there are a few areas that need fixing.

The one thing that gives it a very robotic feel is the head movement. If you want to go for that feel, you could still loosen up the head. Right now, the head rotates with the chest rotation, making it look very locked. Again, if you want that look, fine, but I would delay the head by two frames and lessen the degree of left/right rotation. If you're going for a more realistic movement, then keep the head steady, with minimal left/right rotation. But either way, there should be more nose up and down after each step.

Looking at the front camera, you can also tilt the head left and right with each step. Just a little bit, to add complexity and weight to the walk. This brings me to the overall body posture at x7 for instance. The left leg is up as she takes a step, but usually the other leg is straight during the passing frame, yours is bent. By adjusting the leg to being bent, it will also help you with the overall body up and down movement, which looks too linear. Also (and again, this will change as you correct the legs), the body goes up til x7 and then stops going up until x13, when it goes down again. Have the body go up in a fluid way as she takes the passing step (just like with the next step that you have) . Then, when she's about the plant the foot you can lower the body again. From x16 to 17 the body goes down and immediately up, which looks like a linear keyframe.

Looking at the front view camera, the right side of the hip is up, which is correct, since the weight is on the screen right leg. Do the same with the upper body. Tilt it towards the right, so that the screen right shoulder is down, which gives you a contrapposto pose. You can continue that offsetting with the head as well as mentioned before. Looking at the torso from the side, there is a weird rotation pause and it needs some smoothing out as well. Look at the shoulder area at x4. Up until then the torso rotates back with the arm, at x5 it rotates forward, without any smooth transition. After x5 it moves forward until around x11, then stops rotating, until it picks it up at x14 or 15. Keep the rotation going, keep the flow.

So the hip movement is correct, but the timing of it is a bit off. At x4 the screen right foot (front view again) just planted down, yet the hip is already up on the right side. The weight is not yet on that side, so keep the hips leveled out. At x4 set a key on linear and then have the hips all they way up at x7 the way you have it now, with the key on x7 on spline. This will give you a nice bump in the hips to sell the weight, without being a pop. Do the same thing at x16 and on.

The feet. They are pointing straight forward. Have them rotated outward (not too much) in order to get rid of the default look. You can also give the foot a little swing during the passing poses. Right now, when the foot gets off the ground it moves straight forward until the plant.

Legs in side view. The right leg goes back til x13 then pops forward at x14. Play around with the foot roll in order to get rid of that pop. The other leg has an even great pop. At x21 it looks ok, the completely extends at x22, bends back on x23. Looking at the knee ball, it doesn't move screen right from x23 to 24, then moves again. All this makes it look very poppy.

The arms. Side view. Her left arm needs smoother spacing towards the back part of the swing. Take your dry erase marker and plot out the spacing from x20 on. It goes back in an even manner, getting smaller from x24 to x0 (0? Where's x1?). But from x0 to x2 the spacing is bigger again, and from x2 to 3 even bigger. From 4 to 5 it suddenly goes forward. Either the keys are not laid out properly or the key is on linear at that point. The other arm is a good example, there the spacing is correct.
Front view. The same spacing problems are happening during the front part of the swing. The movement is very harsh going from left to right. Grab your marker (or whatever tool you have) and check the spacing.
You can also add a tiny bit of drag in the hands, as the arms swing back and forth. Not too much, just a little bit.

The shoulders can be looser as well. They won't lead the arms as they swing, they will move forward and back as the arms swing.

That's it! :)

It sounds like a lot, but you're doing good!

Cheers
JD

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Using an image sequence as a background in Maya

Alright, let's say you shot some beautiful reference or you found a clip online (or elsewhere) that you really like, how can you use that movie as reference? One way is to have it open on your computer or whatever device you're using, studying the movements and the timing of your character or whatever reference you're looking at.
I like having a quicktime movie open as I work in Maya, so I can step frame through the movie and analyze what's going on.

There is another way which will save you a lot of time (if the reference clip you're using is long) and that is using an image sequence as a background in Maya. That way you can pose out your character right next to the reference movie and step frame through your animation and the movie at the same time.

So let's start with a movie. For this example I chose a clip from "Eastern Promises":

If you have Quicktime Pro (which I recommend, it's cheap), then open up your movie, go to:

File>Export...



















- Choose a destination for your image files.






















- Under "Export:" (which is probably set to "Movie to QuickTime Movie") choose "Movie to Image Sequence".

- Click on "Options...", then keep the JPEG format (no need for hires images, the lower res, the faster the playback in Maya).






















- Under "Frames per second", choose the same as your movie. If you don't know what it is, then open the movie, go to Window>Movie Info. You'll see the frame rate next to "Movie FPS". In my case it's 23.98. So in my export window, I'll choose 24 (because that's the closest one that Quicktime gives me).

- Leave the "Insert space before number" box un-checked.

- Under "Options", I keep it at "Best Depth" and medium quality setting.

- Now you have to name it correctly, otherwise Maya won't be able to read it as an image sequence. I will name it: EPref00 (with two zeros). Why two zeros? Hah, good question. Technically, you should just be able to name it whatever you want to and the export will add a numbered sequence, which Maya reads. But unfortunately, that's not always the case. In my case, the numbered sequence needs to have 4 numbers. And since my movie is 45 frames long, I added two zeros, which gives me EPref0001.jpg, EPref0002.jgp, etc. ending with EPref0045.jpg It won't work with 3 numbers(at least with me). Confused? Get this. If I just name it EPref, I get EPref01, EPref02, etc. Once in Maya, when I select my image sequence (more about that later), with a click on EPref01, it's not working. But if I select EPref10, it works. Anything below 10 won't do. I have no idea why. And since I don't want to spend hours trying to figure that stuff out, I just stick with my 4 numbers and enjoy the day. In case it doesn't work for you, experiment with a different amount of numbers. Or have your animation start with frame 10 (you'll just loose the first 9 frames of your reference movie). Please leave a comment and let me know what works for you!

- Click "Save" and wait until the export is done.

Ok, part one is done. Now open Maya.

Look through your render camera. Then, click on View>Select Camera (or select the camera in your outliner).















With your camera select click "Ctrl+A" in order to bring up the camera's Attribute Editor.
























Go to the "Environment" tab and open it if it is closed. Click on "Create", which will change your window to the Image Plane Editor.
























Under Image Plane Attributes> Display, choose "looking through camera" and not "in all views". Otherwise you will have your image sequence playing in all cameras, which can slow down your computer.
Next to "Image Name" click on the Folder Icon. Navigate to the folder which contains your image sequence and click on your first image, in my case EPref0001.jpg and then Open.
























You will notice a thumbnail of your movie next to "Image Plane Sample". Now, underneath "Image Name" check the box next to "Use Image Sequence". This will change the color of the box next to "Image Number" to purple, activating the Image Sequence Expression. Click Close.

























Now you can scrub through the timeline and you'll see how the images update. Voilà!

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Animation Portfolio Reference

[UPDATED March 10th '08]

- Check out the weight lift animation by Raphael Suter made during his Pixar Internship.

--------------------

- The February Winner of the 11secondclub competition did a really great job. Check it out!

--------------------

- These two posts show a very relaxed and smooth walkcycle. One here, and the other one here, which has great visual aids in order to see which body parts are moving.

--------------------

- Check out Cameron Fielding's "Turok" Animation. Absolutely beautiful. Great reference for more realistic animation.

--------------------

Here are portfolios I recommend studying.

First, go to Cameron Miyasaki's site. I like his site, because besides showing awesome animation, it also shows a progression from bouncing balls to character work.

So first you have bouncing balls. But it's not just physics, there is great personality in each ball and it's a neat little story.
Then you move on to bipeds. Milt is a simple rig without any mouth shapes and it's perfect for pantomime. The clip shows off great body mechanics and weight, plus a little acting.
Then you move on to a dialogue exercise. Still Milt (I don't know if Hogan was available at that time), no facial work, but it's not needed because his body performance is great. Timing and acting works very well.
Then a full on short, further showcasing Cameron's great sense of acting and pantomime. It's by now 5 years old but the animation is still superb.
He then got an internship at Pixar and there you can see the same progression, just at an even higher level.
First, Luxo Jr. You get bouncing balls and the lamp showing off cute acting. No fancy rig, no fancy facial stuff, still great animation, clear and entertaining.
Then two walkcycles with Mike Wazowski and Sulley. Walks are hard to do and force you to think about a lot of elements, body mechanics wise, and on top of that you need to give it character, which he does.
Once you master all that you should be well equipped to tackle a performance shot and Buzz's slide in and delivery still cracks me up. The timing and acting is awesome.
Unfortunately you won't get to see his feature work at Pixar, just a text description. But there is enough on his page to get your animation juices flowing.

-------------------

Another portfolio, which I showed in class already, is Guilherme Jacinto's. It's immediately visible that he's a very talented guy. Beautiful drawings and awesome animation work. My favorites being the three person dialogue piece from "Creampuff" for its great acting choices and polish and the Mr. Incredible Physical Test for the weight and poses (beautiful line of acting after he throws the bomb, right down to the fingers).
The rest of his clips are great too of course, check them out again.

Don't forget to check out all the Student Showcases from Animation Mentor. Here's a link to their Fall 2007 Edition, which has some fantastic clips in it.

I think I will add portfolio's and clips to this post as time goes by, stay tuned.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Don't let the computer do the work for you!

I got an email with very interesting questions and I think the answers would be helpful to the class as well (in case you have the same questions or thoughts).

> On a somewhat different matter, I've got a question regarding animating itself. I'm still having a hard time doing the convertion from 2D to 3D. In 2D it seems to be a lot easier because I control the animation by use of drawing each frame. In 3D the user is supposed to let the application do the inbetweens for you,

Nooooooooo! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! :) You can still "draw" every frame. It just takes long because posing out a character is not as fast as drawing a character. But at the end you are in control over every frame, don't let the computer do the thinking for you.

> so the thing thats racking my brain is the placement of keys and how many is too much/too little. As you mentioned, I can place keys about every 5 frames, which makes the whole 2D to 3D a little easier to convert but seems to defeat the purpose of letting the application do the in-betweens for you,

again, don't let it do anything for you. There are moments where I have keys on every frame, sometimes every now and then, it depends on the move and the controller. Some parts of your body will move more than others, necessitating more keyframes. There is no rule as to how many you have to use, as long as it looks good. If you have 5 main poses and then you do everything in the graph editor in terms of timing, go ahead. If you want to key out all the detail stuff, that's fine too.

> plus seems like an easier way to mess up with pops and such. The other way is how I've been taught thus far; main Poses, then break downs, then polish. When doing this timing of the main poses is good but I kinda lose it as I smooth the stuff out. Although I prefer this, I haven't had a whole lot off success with the end result.

The polish stuff is the hardest thing to do and it takes practice. Also, watch other people's clips to see what type of detail they put into their work. If you think that it looks like a good polished clip, try to find out why.

> As I was looking at you animations I started looking at your soccer performance frame by frame just as he hits the pole. If I am correct it looks as if you animated every pose from the hit till the final bounce onto the ground.

Yes I did, I wanted maximum control. But I don't know if that clip is good reference. :) That was Maya 1 and me using Maya for the first time. I think the "Ze Chair" clip is better, because I was actually aware of the animation principles.

> So, is it suffice to say that on slower actions use minimal amount of keys to let Maya do the inbetweens for you and with fast motion, do it your self?

That's kinda right, depending on the style. For realistic animation you have to add a lot of dirt to your animation if he/she/it is just standing there for instance, to add more subtle complexity to it. But with fast motion I end up keying every frame because since it is so fast (whatever you're doing), it needs to be clear in terms of silhouette, staging, timing, etc. and that's something you need to be in control of, not the computer.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

email problems

Hey guys,

my mail was down yesterday and this morning I was able to send off one email. I'm looking into it and apologize for the delay.

"I'm working on it!"

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

Another great example of mastered physics

To play double click on movie

The physics are there, good presentation.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

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.

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.

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

>>Click here to read the rest of the post...

>>Minimize the post by clicking here.