Mook's first assignment of the year

[Mook]

Well, here it be; my first attempt at animating in Maya! The basic brief was choose an inanimate object from any of the three environments provided, and then animate it to tell a simple story, showing as many of the 12 animation principles where appropriate.
It's currently only at a Playblast stage (that's preview to all you LW users out there); if you really like I'll be happy to render it and post that up.
I figured you'd all get a wee giggle out of this, plus you can tell me how to improve for my next assignment... ;)
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Cheers lads!
Chris
PS: Sorry about the quality; I had to lower it to drop the file size to be able to upload it.

[BillS]

Hmm the link got fubar'd somewhere along the line. Could you re-upload it and I'll attach it back to your post.

[Mook]

o.O Hmm... Will do.

[Mook]

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[BillS]

Thats a pretty cool play on the pixar lamp. Some things. It looks like there is some slipping when its hopping towards things also if you sped it up some it would give it a sense of excitement. The it could droop when the cat doesn't move. Again quick hops to the lamp. When the lamp falls you could make it reel back in horror and look sad again. Then excitement again. You could (if your allowed) put some bones in the shade and use it to help the expressions to.

[Mook]

Hey Bill
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate you taking the time to watch this! Concerning the speed, I think you're right. A couple of people have pointed out that it's just far too slow.
I can't find any slipping, scrolling through the timeline in Maya at the moment... Does it happen more than once? It could just be the way I've animated it. I think I know what it is; for some reason the 'foot' of the lamp distorts depending on the rotation of the leg bone above it. Ideally I would have liked to put a correction bone in but we were told to keep the rig as simple as possible. To solve it I had to move the foot joint around into as flat a position as I could manage everytime the foot landed, which could well have given the impression of the foot not being still.
When the lamp nudges the cat, he's not trying to get it to move anywhere so much as he is being inquisitive, just sort of sniffing around. I probably should have submitted my storyboard or something so it was easier to pick up on the lamp's character. Unfortunately I don't currently have them, I've handed them in for marking...
I did put some bones into the shade, but the only thing was when I started moving them around it distorted it too much; it didn't especially help with anything having them move or rotate at all, so in the end I just left it out.
Thanks for the feedback mate, I always appreciate it!
I'm just in Maya with the file open at the moment fixing stuff, so I'll post an updated version as soon as I've completed it.

[BillS]

Looking at it again I don't think that slipping was the right way to put it. More along the lines that the (look) of the effort of the hop didn't equate to the same amount of motion forward. So it looks like it should have gone further with each hop. Thats what my caffeine deprived mind took as slipping.

[BillS]

sits down to wait. :)

[ALp]

Mook, to me the speed looks ok , and the jumps at the start are just stylized like "sortof in place" but after the first lamp breaks , it looks too slow. Also the shot immediate after the first lamp break... I do not understand what is happening with the picture frame , but maybe it is just me.

And about the horror , you could make the second lamp be horrified while the main character lamp is looking at it and the main character to smile :) muahahahaha , if you know what I mean

[DELTA]

First stop Foundation3D, next stop PIXAR... Good Start, I agree with Bills... I will also be waiting for your next update... Take your time... No hurry... It's okay I have nothing to do today.... Tic tic tic... LOL Again, good start :)

[Mook]

Thanks for watching guys! :)
Ah, that makes sense Bill. I'll have a nut out and try fix it up a little.
@ALp: I'm not entirely sure what you mean; I just checked to spot what you mentioned, I can't see anything about the picture frame?
Lol he's not an evil lamp! :p
@Delta: Thanks for the comment mate! Haha alright, alright, hint taken...
Here's the work I did last night. Fixed timing a bit and edited the 'depressed' walk cycle so the foot doesn't come up so high off the ground.
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