My latest animation WIP - updated with final

Artwork Animations
#1

UPDATE: Well I’ve taken this as far as I’m going to now - here is my final version, for a given value of final ;), with interpolation. This month I’ll try to start more than 4 days before the entries are due :smiley:
Feel free to offer comments and critiques still, as they are always appreciated and will help me grow.
@Bender007 Thanks again for your comments earlier, and your others in this forum - very helpful and thoughful.

https://youtu.be/R24m01UrMsw

This is the original blocking pass:

https://youtu.be/JHL5snEJmTg

This is my potential entry for February 11second club. Only decided to pull my finger out a couple of days ago, so have just done basic lipsync and pop through blocking so far.

Interested in any feedback/suggestions related to the animation. Trying a new rig too, this is Elaine from the cartoon character pack on Blendswap by VMcomix. Nice character, though if I had some time I’d tweak the arm and foot controls a bit more to my liking.

Whatcha think so far?

#2

I like the eye movement and the head positioning, it works well with the dialogue.

The big thing for me is the body posing for the first half of the clip… There are no clear lines of action, so it looks very stiff and quite awkard. I’d also like to see some of the poses pushed more, especially where there is a transition between different movements.

Good start, I like the staging.

#3

Thanks Bender. Yeah I can see what you mean as far as the posing in the first bit. I’ll see what I can do to loosen up that spine :slight_smile:

#4

EDIT: this was the second pop-through pass - feel free to watch but my final is at the top of the thread :slight_smile:

Here’s a slight update - a few pose tweaks and with a few more breakdowns/in-betweens. Probably going to turn on curves now and wrap this baby up - will update again when I do :slight_smile:

#5

Haha, great! I really like your animating style (the model is nice but I mean movement). I wanted to say that walking animation is a bit off, but then I put my headphones on and realized why she is walking in a bit strange manner. Really good!

#6

Cool animation, I like it. I am also using this rig but having problems with it. I am trying to teach myself animation and I working on mastering the walk but the problem is fk on the arms don’t seem to get mirrored. All I want to do is a simple looped walkcycle.

#7

Thanks kirstenw! Yeah your walk cycle looks pretty good - keep it up. I haven’t used any cycles with this rig yet, and though they’re good learning tools I don’t know if they’re too useful in a short piece like this… so I haven’t tried any mirroring of poses. (Not saying my run is much good though!)

Do you mean the FK/IK setting doesn’t get mirrored? Or is it just not mirroring the pose at all? I’ll have to give it a go to see what you mean, and if there’s a solution I can find.

It’s a pretty expressive rig I think, though I did struggle a bit with the feet and arms sometimes. I’m thinking of revisiting ol’ Mancandy and maybe using some of those ideas to touch up this rig.

#8

Hammers, thanks. Will do. The problem is with the FK on the right arm doesn’t get mirrored and that is very frustrating as I really like the rig. Look forward to seeing some more your animations. Maybe, you can see the problem with the Elaine rig but it seems to be with the other rigs in that pack which is a pity.

#9

Thx krstenw. Cartoonguy is another one on blendswap that you might want to check out. His body rig is very much based on the rigify template, so might give more predictable control. Finding just the right combination in a rig is tricky, hey!