Sketchfab got removed so first post is up for grabs ^ ^
After it says “loading 3D Model” I don’t see anything.
Thanks , nicely done.
Fun, well done. While this is an animation, two elements are noted by me, your call if they need attention, since it is a matter of context and intent. One, in the prep for the backflip, I would expect that the hands and arms would dip lower, then propel themselves up to initiate the motion as the legs then engage. Second, some fine tuning of the FCurves just after the top of the arc, the character accelerates unusually, again without the necessary throwing of the arms as the counter weight to cause such an acceleration of the rotation. Like I said, well done, fun.
I like the animation. But there was one thing that I noticed it. When the character is on its way down, it goes forward and land on the same position as it started on. As the backflip makes so that he goes backward, he must also land further back.
What seems really weird to me is that he seems to land pretty much where he takes off.
The hands look like you animated them with IK on the seem to move in straight lines with on arcs to them. The stay by the side of his body through the whole thing I looked at some refs of people doing back flips and the arms and hands where swing through some arcs. I think you should animate the arms with fk so that you get those nice arcs in there.
I also think he could start tacking in the legs a bit sooner before he reaches the peak of his jump.
@paulhart2
That twitch at its zenith needs adjustment yeah. I’ll try to explore the hands dipping during take-off.
@Cg Dolux
The NLA Editor can mix actions. Him landing elsewhere would happen then. For strict functionality predictable movement is easier to work with. I could be wrong but that’s theory.
@tyrant monkey
It was done without reference. The rig does not have FK. Going to try tweaking legs as per suggestion. rig – > http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/67315
am a beginner at animating. Trying to pick up projects consistently atm.
thanks
I thought it was the mac rig, I am also a beginner at animating, I am currently using him to do a walk cycle, definitely swap out the default rig I would suggest replacing it with the rigify rig.
You should definitely be using reference when animating. you either record video of yourself or use video reference of someone else doing back flips and supplement that by doing some thumbnail sketches.
Personally I am finding thumbnail sketching to be really helpful because it helps me think through all the key frames and breakdowns before I do any blocking.
Lots of hang time like he is hooked to a bungee or got caught by a gust of wind. Looks good.
Dance
I think you are making it really hard for people who might want to offer crits to help you out. Some advice I was given when I first started posting here. Put your video on YouTube so that people can view it and slow it down or go through it frame by frame (there are lots of awesome brower add-ons that allow you to do this), put a title for you work in the video and also include a clear and easy to read frame counter.
I thought about that. Fact of the matter is I lack the technical skill to make changes.
Fixing things often means having to start from the beginning. So I figure make things for fun. Learn things in the process.
The animation thread is slow like beeswax. Couldn’t hurt to fool around.
I think you are making it really hard for people who might want to offer crits to help you out. Some advice I was given when I first started posting here. Put your video on YouTube so that people can view it and slow it down or go through it frame by frame (there are lots of awesome brower add-ons that allow you to do this), put a title for you work in the video and also include a clear and easy to read frame counter.
Totally agree on this one. Either upload it to youtube, dropbox, vimeo or maybe even to syncsketch (http://syncsketch.com/) so that you could get frame by frame constructive critiques or maybe even paintovers =) it would make it easier for us offering constructive critiques on your work and you will get more constructive and better feedback.
I thought about that. Fact of the matter is I lack the technical skill to make changes. Fixing things often means having to start from the beginning. So I figure make things for fun. Learn things in the process.
The animation thread is slow like beeswax. Couldn’t hurt to fool around.
Unfortunately yes, the animation process is kinda slow. But you have a couple of things that you could decide what you do with your animation. Try to filter out the most useful comments for your and then try to bring it into your work by either
a) trying to work it “simply” into your animation or
b) deleting that specific part in your animation and do only this one new. Mostly this is the “easier” way to do unless you really have smaller critiques that you want to work in. For example if you have a node like - shift the hips a bit more to the left here or more to the right at frame x.
So back to your work. I really like how much effort you put into it. I do appreciate it that you don’t go totally nuts on your (well i assume) first steps in animation. Keep it simple. That’s good! Also i like the fact that not the whole body is moving at once and you got an offset movement on the hands. Really cool.
Still a dance is quite a heavy and difficult task to do. I’d love to know how your process was on this piece. Did you use any reference or did you go into it straight? Did you think about the weight before? Did you try to find the line of actions in your reference ? 
Another good idea is to make little thumbnails before you start into your animation. Those doesn’t need to be perfect drawings but only something that you can orientate on and plan your animation ahead a bit. Or you could try to break down your animation into really simple simple objects. For example for your backflip you could try to animate a cube only that’s representing the hips, so that you could try getting the timing/spacing right. If you’re then satisfied with it you could transfer it to your character itself.
Currently i feel like the bodyparts aren’t really connected and are moving on it’s own. Make sure that you got your poses, balance and weight right to do convincing animations. For example you’re rotating the top part of your body the most without rotating the body itself that much. Your body wouldn’t move that way. Also you’re moving his feet when all the weight of the body is on it. That’s unfortunately simply not possible to do. Try to think about how your body does work - where’s your weight at which moment? What part of the body is leading the motion? Is something dragging behind? Where can you actually exaggerate your poses?
I don’t know if you’d like to go back to this piece again or simply move on with the next one. But if you do so make sure you got a plan on what you wanna change. I usually try to write down all the notes that need to be addressed and then work my way through it. That way you can make sure that you’re not drifting into something different while you “just wanted to do a tiny fix on the hips”. After you went through your list do another playblast of your animation and see if it’s working better or not =) If your satisfied, great, now you can move on to your next challenge and show it to us if you like!
Again i’d love to hear about your workflow when doing your animations. Also i’d like to know if you’re trying to do game animations where the animation needs to work in all different angles or if you’Re trying to animate towards a fixed camera? Because if you work towards a camera you can cheat and push your poses sometimes a little easier because nobody will see it from a different angle, hehe.
Keep up the good work and let us know if you got something new!
Cheers,
Poly.
It is the first steps in animation although not without ulterior motive. The premise was to try out many rigs and see what functionality is set in stone.
So far it’s been promising and people have been far more interested than anticipated.
In regards to process. I did videotape myself and yes it was embarassing. Did not think about weight or lines of action. <-- something to do in the future.
step-by-step it’s something like
- idea, timeframe, aquiring assets.
- setup scene (proxy etc), physics simulations if possible.
- keyframe - first move root till animation is roughly complete
- after usually start with center of gravity, linear progression key pose by key pose. Interpolated in bezier to see which rotations are incorrect.
- adjusting frequency curves for xyz locations and some rotations if possible.
If movement is mirrored then animating only half a cycle works. Finalizing it with Flip Animation add-on which is used on the dance.
Thumbnails have not been vital yet. I have botched projects before though…so their value is appreciated.
The animations are not for video games. They’re simply intended for exploration & getting perspective at rigging.
I personally upload .gifs because it’s nicer to see animations without having to click anything.
Plus it’s impossible to render out Quad View from blender directly.
Unofficial Goon Rig CC-BY-NC-SA
Freak accident of a walk cycles…guess who
A few more if of interest
Floor Crack
Universal Joint
Breakdance
Pixelart
Fire1
Fire2
Fire3
This was the 11secondClub for August. It got 78th out of 104 ^ ^