(I can only post two links because I’m a new user so you might have to look up some of the animations)
Over the years I’ve always wanted to find someone who has keyframe animated humans with the level of raw body weight and mechanics that motion capture creates for me. The problem is that every time I think I’ve found someone who has the realistic style of animation I want, it turns out that they use motion capture instead of keyframe animation.
Here are some examples.
The first time I got really inspired by a person’s animation style was when I watched Podel’s Zuckerborg 2099
I especially love the crawling and dancing scenes because of the animation on the Mark Zuckerberg robot. Then I looked a little further and realized that he probably gets his animation from free motion capture websites. I didn’t want to believe it at first but after finding an exact replica of one of the animations he used on Mixamo I knew that all of his work had to be motion capture.
Over time I looked up different artists and eventually found a short film called “Freight”
I really liked the weight animated on the alien dude’s body, especially when stumbles around at the beginning. I thought that there would be a slight chance of it being keyframe animation but after I looked up the artist on Artstation it turned out to be motion capture.
After many more searches that turned out to be motion capture(Red vs Blue, Lander, Half-Life: Alyx, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto, Overkill Walking Dead trailers from Goodbye Kansas Studios) I finally found something very small that looks realistic and was definitely made with keyframe animation.
On Sir Wade Neighstadt’s Animation Reel Review(Video Title: Reviewing My 3D Animation Demo Reel). He has a character in the beginning act out some dialogue and shifts around in his chair in a realistic way that exudes the same type of interesting movement that I see in Freight and Zuckerborg 2099. The problem is that the rest of his stuff is in a cartoony style and the shot is only 5 seconds long.
This is why I wanted to ask you guys on the forums if you know any artists who mimick the look of motion capture to make animation that is NOT in the cartoon style to animate humans. I’ve been looking for a long time but every time I see an animation I like it just ends up being motion capture.
To clear up any misunderstanding, I’m not saying that motion capture is bad. I understand that people need to use it to save time. I love the look of motion capture because there is something about it that adds visual interest in the movement of the bones. I just really want to find an artist that doesn’t use it and gets the same look as the characters in the short films I was talking about.
Honorable Mentions:
The Witness from Love Death and Robots (Video Title: LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS | Inside the Animation: The Witness | Netflix)
I just figured out about the witness the other day from a discord server. It’s really great and keyframe animated according to the guy on discord. You should check it out if you have the same interests as me.
Ramone Arango(animal keyframe animation)(Video Title: King Under The Mountain)
This dragon animation has absolutely stunning body mechanics and is keyframed obviously because there is no motion capture but the problem is that it ain’t a human lol.
