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Animation Mentor assignment

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Animation Mentor assignment

Some of my rough animation for my week 6 animation mentor assignment. The assignment was to make a ball with a tail, bounce in side view across the screen. This was for us to learn about overlapping action, successive breaking of joints and drag, on top of fine tuning our previouse lessons in timing and spacing, anticipation, and squash and stretch. I hope the video works other wise I just typed this whole thing for nothing. Comments and critiques always welcome.

Mahalo,
the Ape

Animated Ape's picture

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Thanks for the complement Bossmonkey. Miyasaki has been interviewed for a few of our class lectures, and I'm sure he know's Bobby from when he worked there too. I'm not sure if Miyasaki helped to develop the Tailor model for Animation Mentor or what, but it was a great little movie clip to watch.

Mahalo,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Ok so here is my Maya version of the overlapping action assignment for Animation Mentor.

Mahalo,
the Ape

Attachment 

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Nice consistency between the two. I also like the little touch of perspective you used 1/4 way through in having him flip back. I know "like" isn't constructive but it lets you know what works in terms of -appeal- right? :D

Thanks Scattered, I'll take any complements I can get :D I didn't turn him a full 180 degrees because I thought it would be more interesting if he just made it around 130 or so. I'm glad you liked it.

Mahalo,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

The timing, in my opinion, is very solid. I like that he sits and waits to break it up, and I like that you've got his tail "living" even while he himself is not in motion. I fly through the blogs of the AM people on a near-daily basis and most people aren't giving this assignment as much thought. I'm actually doing this one too (based off the prompt, of course, I can't watch those classes -- yet) and my biggest concentration was on the tail, and I made the mistake of blindly making it a slave to physics -- well, that's what dead things do! Bottom line good choices made, can't wait to see it finished.

It's just more realistic than the full profile stuff, and REALLY breaks the monotony. I've seen about 30 of them thanks to the blogs, I can't imagine what it's like seeing essentially 200 more copies of the same thing.

My 3D one looked like HELL! So I'm going to redo it, and hopefully make it better. We had a Q&A with Bobby Beck last night and he quickly animated one bounce with the tail, and it made SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more sence after watching him do it.

I want to make a page on my website for my AM assignments and like a journal, but any spare time I have after work is spent doing the assignments. No time to make a page. :( Oh well.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

I've been wondering who's gotten with the "starting three" mentors. I wonder if the existing professionals get assigned to those guys.

One of the nice things about AM is getting to -watch- other people animate; nowadays that's almost a nonexistent opportunity...unfortunately it's also how many people learn...

q-ute:)

It's as cute as can be:)
I just wonder what kind of animal the tail is from?
Don't even know if that's important for me to know.

I wanta say Squirrel....but I'm not sure.

I don't watch enough squirrels:)

Nice:)

Yeah, I was thinking squirl like. But cartoon squirl and not a real one. If you watch a real squirl run, the top curve of thier tail barely moves. It's almost like they push off from that point, then the top of the curve quickly catches up to the body with very little vertical dip to it. Very strange. My ball looks more like a muppet head with a pony tail thats alive.

Bobby isn't my full time mentor. He's actually filling in because our regular mentor is having problems with this internet service provider or something. The three founders aren't full time mentors, they're too busy running the school and doing all the class videos and stuff. They do come around and check out your work and offer some great advice. A lot of fun, but a lot of work.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

cart-oon squirrel?

What is a cartoon squirrel?
One thing that I've always thought about when I look at other people's work is BUYING the idea of the character they are trying to convey. I could be explained the perfect physics and kinetics of a 6 eyed wilderbeast, but in the end, I need to buy that the wilderbeast is moving like that animal.

As squirrels go,
like I said
I don't look at enough of them, so it's hard for me to tell if everything you're doing is right. I always thought squirrels almost LOCKED when they stopped moving. They DO settle, and that includes high speed runs and Rocky the Flying Squirrel. It's good that you're thinking about it in terms of a real-life animal though, because if THAT is what you are aiming for, THAT is what is going to sell an audience on what kind of animal you're aiming for..I think. It was hard for me to tell whether it was a squirrel or not because of this. I almost wanted to say FOX, but it was too small cute and poofy to for me to think that, so I'll say...just be careful. Even "cartoon" animals need a reference point to jump off of, and if all you're giving us is a ball with a tail....you better make sure others feel the same way, eh?

A year ago
My advanced animation teacher made me and my class do simple bouncing balls (basketball, ping pong, etc). We were all grumpy and said "hey, we did this stuff 2 years ago", but he did it to show us how much even the simple things can get lost when being SIMPLE is what we were supposed to be doing. Every student in my class failed to meet the believablity level of real-life ball equivalents bouncing across the screen. Just stuff to think about.

Totally cute animation though:)
And stop me if I'm wrong...cause who the hell am I?:)

l8r

Can you elaborate on failing to meet the believability? How did it go, exactly?

believability...hmmm

How to elaborate...hmmm
well,
I can't remember precisely what my teacher said about the bouncing balls. I just know that a simple circle bouncing across the screen speaks volumes about what kind of ball the ball actually is.

The bounce of bowling ball will be pretty clear
but what about a tennis ball versus a baseball? Both are the same size, but both bounce very differently. If you were to take the neon yellow out of the tennis ball and the white out of the baseball, could we tell which is which (never mind the seams)?

I can't really elaborate or spell it out. I don't know precisely. You JUST know....and what's more, I think the average person looking at something will know the same.

The squirrel factor...
We all have images in our heads of squirrels. We don't study them, but I think many of us (especially the animator community) try very hard to make believable characters. With a little color here and some hair there, almost anyone can believe the animal or vegetable we're creating, so getting meticulous about every little detail is silly.

Since we're just talking about a bouncing ball with a squirrel tail,
I think it's fair to be a little more harsh on critique because you're limiting yourself to understand how that particular animal works.

For me
It is simply a close-close call.
I DO buy that this is a squirrel. Really:)
Enough of the sub-conscious puzzle pieces fit to tell me that this is a squirrel-ball.
that I know precisely what is wrong? I dunno. Maybe it's a little too quick...but that's nit-picky.
I just have this memory of squirrels that is slightly different. But, I could be TOTALLY wrong. I gotta get out there and look at more squirrels:)

I'm getting my squirrel huntin' hat now

l8r,

cool
looks a lot like cameron miyasaki's bouncing ball animation
http://www.cameronmiyasaki.com/Animation/animation_frameset.htm at the bottom of the page
he graduated from SCAD, where I'm studying, and is working for pixar now

I think it's good stuff Ape, but what I see is a Persian cat's tail, not a squirrel. Just saw the 3d version that one is much more like a squirrel, but they are both good.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.