School project: The Sword in the Stone

[iczer]

Greetings, Programs!!

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. This semester my courses were: ANI 160 (character animation) and Web Animation II; I was handicapped in the Flash class, the last time I ever used Flash was Flash MX 2004, so I had to crash course learn AC3 as I went. :)

Well in ANI 160, we had to do either a char lifting a light object or heavy. I went for neither LOL I want with, as the title suggests, trying to pull the sword from the stone.

Attached is my animation; enjoy. any crits are welcome.

http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/art/2010/05/232-03-952494_tn.jpg (http://www.foundation3d.com/uploads/art/2010/05/232-03-952494.jpg)

[iczer]

No one likes? :waa::waa:

any feedback is appreciated. ;) thank you for your time

[Adam]

I liked it. I think the only thing I would like to see is some bending in the torso, it's really stiff.

[Rigel]

Initially, the character is to stationary. When he's moving his head around there should be secondary movement occurring in the shoulders, torso and arms.

The fingers look unnatural just sitting in the default position; look at people who are just standing somewhere. Their fingers are normally curled somewhat; this is from the natural tension on the tendons. We have to consciously straighten our fingers and hold them that way to have them straight out.

I don't know how much of a cartoon look you are going for here. If you want it to be classic animated 'toon, don't forget the whole squash and stretch technique. When he's pulling on the sword, arch the back and get some stretch happening in the entire character.

You've got a good foundation here; build some structure on it and you'll have a great animation.

[Meurig]

Yeah, as a basic block out this is fine, but you aren't demonstating the fundamentals of animation here. There's no real sense of weight, no dynamic motion and it's very drifty and unrealistic as a whole. This doesn't apply to any section in particular so much as all of it.

Sorry to sound harsh, but I would start fresh and try something more simple and - crucially - shorter. Don't give yourself more work than you need to when the basics aren't there yet, and instead concentrate on a single action rather than a scene.

[CAClark]

I'd say the basics are there, but it's too rigid. His feet are glued solid and never move til he steps up for example, which ties in with what Rhys was saying..... Interestingly, if you play it at 3 or 4 times normal speed, it works much better imo.

Cheers!

[iczer]

I thank you all for your comments.

I was initially going to have him lift do a Clean and Jerk..... can't really figure it out for 2 reasons, 1) its IK Joe, 2) having to parent the barbell to his hand... ;)

I will, go back and fix him; it was just an exercise in "how would you lift something"; It was a beginners Char animation class. ;)

I have all Summer to try and try again.

At the moment I'm rendering out a project, from Fall '09 Semester, of a fly-through and I'm using Mental Ray. But it's taking forever, started it last Wednesday night; it's 809 frames and it's on frame 363 (as of 5/510 11:08AM <EST>). Some frames are rendering at 25-30 minutes and some 7-15 minutes <shrug>

Was going to be a funny video of Kokeshi dolls, Ninjas VS Pirates. So everything was built from ground up. I'll start a thread on it ;)

[tommywright]

I couldn't watch more than a few frames because right away I see no arcs. Look up arcs for basic animation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation