jack macaw

Artwork Works in Progress
#1

Hello,

I want to show a test of an animation I’m making. I hope I get your opinions and critics of it.
thanks.

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#2

I like it. you have some nice weight put in to the bird and it looks like it moves about right too.

#3

thanks for the comment,
here is the test with no rig :slight_smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfm616lQo9Y

#4

I wish I had a box of crackers too. :slight_smile:

#5

Looking great! Try to avoid moments when the bird is standing almost motionless - remember, it can always stratch itself with its leg or something… Keep on working - it’s worth it!

#6

That’s amazing!

May I ask how long it took for the modelling, how long it took to animate and how long it took to render?

Thanks

#7

Amazing rig setup mate (and model)! The animation looks like its coming along absolutely fantastic, I hope you enter your finished animation to the Blender Conference animation festival when its done.

I realize this was a test, but just had a couple of pieces of feedback on your animation…

Squash and stretch is amazing on the land, and you’ve the rig well in the eyes etc. As he flies in at the start though the arc is very straight and slow, I would suggest either a swoop in and up, then drop a little to land, or you could also arc his flightpath downward (which he seems to do a bit now?) and have him stretch out his legs and land into the squash a little quicker than you have it.

The checking of the wing is great, and the walk too is very smooth, i love how his leg comes up for a moment before he walks, you could really push that for comedy effect, or even just hold for a bit with his leg up.

Next part is the checking out the box (food in there is it?). You’ve got the idea for the acting down which is great, you’ll be able to make some very memorable shots for your animation! One thing i can suggest in this part of the test is to include more moving holds (areas as if he holds still, but with a very small amount of movement to keep the bird looking alive) and a little snappier movement between each main change in pose. What i usually do from there is take some parts of the body in action editor and make them move couple of frames before other parts (head before torso etc).

A skill most of animators dont know is that having a few different speeds of movement in a shot/sequence can make it all the more awesome, for this animation a way to add that extra hit to the interest…

  • Make the first scan of the box after he reaches it very slow and deliberate, you have it 80% there, as his head rises before he bends down and scans along it (sniffing or getting a good close look at it), you could really have him hold his head high and then swoop down and along like some kind of judge looking at quality of it.

  • Second pose where he moves to his left and cocks his head to his right. You could use this as an opportunity to really snap to it in a quick motion, but dont make it as big as the final realization. Maybe more of a curious ‘eh? is it!?’, and hold him still for a moment glaring at the box so the audience can take in his brain is ticking away. He also cocks his head to the left after this pose but i think this one pose could replace it and take its time on screen as its a very similar pose and a bit floaty.

  • As he looks again close at it before realization, you could go from the previous pose (head cocked right) to this at a natural speed (all 3 speeds woo!), it fits this moment well as he makes sure what it is before he is so happy, he doesnt rush it in that last moment.

  • Last bit, and I love the take its fantastic, but watch out for the intersection!). I like the build up speed though you could speed up the snap of the high point of the take some more. As he dives in to eat it, you could make the high point of the take (hold it a moment first though) part of the motion and just have him go from that and dive into the food, head again dragging behind tilted up a bit (make it slightly different to the sniff/look one from earlier though to avoid it being same/boring :wink: ).

Sorry for the huge amount of rambling there, this stuff is really small details, its just looking so good I had to critique it! If anything I said didnt make sense let me know I can elaborate.

Good luck with the short and I can’t wait to see more!

Lee

#8

Hello, everyone. Sorry I haven’t answered in almost a week, I have been busy and sick. And well, I hadn’t touched my computer to much this past week.

to Mazui: Sorry man, they are supposed to be greeting cards. But thanks to your comment I realized that part of the animation was more a bird eating crackers than a bird picking a card, so I worked to change that. :yes:

to rozmiarek: I’ll pay attention to that. To be honest, is really hard to me to enter in a pose part of the animation because it just doesn’t feel natural.

to Jaynesh: Well, the modeling took me like 2 days. about animation, until now I think I have spent 2 and a half weeks, and counting:yes:. For the rendering part well, I don’t know yet, because I haven’t reach that part. But I estimate it will take like a day, maybe 2.
There’s actually a little story about the modeling part, well I didn’t draw this character first. I had the idea in my mind but nothing drawn. But, a night I was almost completely slept when it came to me (yeah it sounds like a cliche of a revelation). Then I knew exactly how to model the character and how the character was going to be, so I jumped out of my bed, turned on the computer and started to work in it.

to Lohns: Thanks for the comments. I hope I can enter to the festival. wow, that’s a big amount of advice:yes: but every advice seems great!:wink: I think I will write every advice you gave me (because is a lot:yes:) and use them. Thank you very much!:yes:.

As I said above they are supposed to be greeting cards. This animation is a gift video :yes:. The idea is taken from a local mexican tradition, in which a bird (canary normally) takes a card, and this card has written a fortune to the person who paid (like a fortune cookie). Well, the idea is instead of tell the fortune the card says congratulations (“felicidades”) in spanish:yes: at the end the macaw flies straight to the camera to show it and stays there for sometime :yes:.

Well, after this long argument, I give you the link to my third test of my animation.
And I must say I made this test before I have read all your comments:yes:

As always all your comments, advices, suggestions, critics are appreciated :yes:

#9

Well, here i am posting (at last) the newest test animation, the 4th one, with major changes.

I have followed a lot of your suggestions, they were great. Thank you
I haven’t ended it yet, but it has improved a lot.
I hope I get more suggestions, advices, and comments from you

here’s the link:

Salvador

#10

hello! well I have finished the last section of the animation. there are still some stuff to add/correct of the whole animation, but I think is becoming really great. Here are the links to the fifth tests, the flight :slight_smile:

These are two test, one from the camera point of view, and the other from another perspective.


Greetings!
Salvador

#11

Hey, guys! at last after three months of working on it I finally came with the final render of this animation :-). I have improved a lot of stuff to came to this. So here is the final render of this.
Thanks for all the tips and ideas, they helped me a lot!

Enjoy

Salvador

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