Hi Guys,
My name is Claire, I've been hanging around here for over a year now, but haven't contributed that much yet, so I thought it was about time that I introduced myself.
I am an exhibiting artist (mainly paintings and prints) who has just completed an MA in Computer Animation. I have just updated my website which presents my adventures in animation. These adventures are from my MA and some were also done in my spare time. I only have one adventure to present so far and it is the classic bouncing ball. It's there in drawn and cg versions and there is a bit of 'how-to' as well. There will be more to come in the future.
So if you'd be kind enough to take a look, I'd welcome your crits on the animation, the website and the 'how-to' section.
Also, does anyone have any advice on how to embed avis and quicktime movies into a page without prompting internet explorer's active x warning?
Here's the link and if you visit my art site, I have committed the cardinal sin of webdesign and uploaded an incomplete site!!!
Hope you can all see it.
Cheers,
Claire :)
nice job.
Its cool to see a 3d animator do the hand drawn ball first before they do it in cgi.I also liked seeing that you attached a how to. :D
i would love to see more of your animations.
the only crit i have is that your cg ball doesnt squash or stretch.
Hi Claire and welcome to the AWN Forums.
I'll start with your CG ball first. It's looking good so far. There are only a few things that you could work on in addition to adding some of the Squash and Stretch that Thunderobot mentioned. To me it seems like the ball should bounce slightly higher after the third and fourth bounces. Either that or lessen the hight of the first two bounces. A good way to check your hights is to draw a straight line through the center of the ball, between the starting drop point to where it stops bouncing. The center of the ball should on each of the bounces should reach this line.
Also at the end when the ball is rolling, it is spinning more than it is rolling. The only way this would happen is if the ball in on ice or something slippery. I kinda like the distance it rolls, mabe add 4 to 6 frames more, so I'd tone down the ball rotation. You can calculate it with the circumfurance of the ball and Pi and all that crap, or you can just eye ball it. I'd go with the eyeball. :)
Now for the traditional ball. I think you can add a bunch more frames on every bounce. The first couple bounces can use more hang time with more drawings at the top of the arc. The last bounce can also use more drawings as well. As it is now, it looks like it's in a hurry to get to the ground and stop. I think you should have it continue to bounce off screen. It looks too forced to stay on screen.
Also I think you are squashing and stretching for too long. I think you can have the ball go back to round half way up the bounce. As it is now, it's streched almost to the top then it's round of one drawing then it stretches down again. This is making it look like a bouncing egg or bean rather than a ball. I also think you can loose the stretch by the third bounce. It's not going high enough to warrant the ball to stretch. You can have a little squash to it on the contact, but not as much as you have it there. After that bounce the ball should stay round the whole time. Squash and Stretch is tricky. You don't want to do it too much so it stands out, you have to find that perfect balance so that it is FELT more than seen.
I hope that helps you out and doesn't scare you away.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
cool. welcome.
i kinda like the cgi one better. what program did you use? I think it works a bit better. I think the traditional is a bit to fast paced for just a ball bounce exercise. spend the time to really work the principles of animation. all 12 of em!
"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo
Thanks for the thoughtful crits, I was hoping no one would notice the "bouncing egg" of the hand-drawn, squash and stretch ball.
I used Softimage XSI for the CG version, and as this was my first ever CG animation I never got round to adding the squash and stretch as it took me so long to do, I should attempt it now though. I'm going to try that line trick you mentioned too, Animated Ape,
Thanks again,
Claire.
Visit my website:
Claire O'Brien.com