Advice and help
polycounter lvl 9
Hey guys,
So I have began a project for my demo reel, in-between doing other bits. Now since animating I have never done a scene with characters interacting. What best way to practise then a small fight? Gives me chance to practice all the key fundamentals. Now I have only recently picked up Maya and the Body mechanics pack. I am by no means good with Maya and I am far more comfortable with Max however I cannot deny that Maya just seems the best for animating so am making myself learn.
Now as mentioned this is my first time animating multiple characters interacting so I am looking for any hints and tips to make the process simpler. Time is not a factor with this project since I am in the process of finding a place to live among pulling mad overtime at work.
Is there a set way to go about starting this? Would it be simpler to animate a character fully, so blocking in a few swings until the very end, then animating the other characters actions and reactions to how the previous character is moving. Or is it simpler to block each character at each stage of an action? So animate a swing, then go to other character and animate the anticipation to said swing or the start of a dodge whatever it may be.
I am needing a bit of help with workflow with two or more characters since I am a bit overwhelmed. I think this is also due to zero professional experience. Not picking up a couple of tricks. I know this forum is full of some superb animation professionals so would love some incite! Any hints on Mayas UI to make the transition a bit simpler would also help!
[IMG][/img]
So I have began a project for my demo reel, in-between doing other bits. Now since animating I have never done a scene with characters interacting. What best way to practise then a small fight? Gives me chance to practice all the key fundamentals. Now I have only recently picked up Maya and the Body mechanics pack. I am by no means good with Maya and I am far more comfortable with Max however I cannot deny that Maya just seems the best for animating so am making myself learn.
Now as mentioned this is my first time animating multiple characters interacting so I am looking for any hints and tips to make the process simpler. Time is not a factor with this project since I am in the process of finding a place to live among pulling mad overtime at work.
Is there a set way to go about starting this? Would it be simpler to animate a character fully, so blocking in a few swings until the very end, then animating the other characters actions and reactions to how the previous character is moving. Or is it simpler to block each character at each stage of an action? So animate a swing, then go to other character and animate the anticipation to said swing or the start of a dodge whatever it may be.
I am needing a bit of help with workflow with two or more characters since I am a bit overwhelmed. I think this is also due to zero professional experience. Not picking up a couple of tricks. I know this forum is full of some superb animation professionals so would love some incite! Any hints on Mayas UI to make the transition a bit simpler would also help!
[IMG][/img]
Replies
Characters interacting is not easy, so I would advise you to start small. Don't make it a long elaborate fight, focus on one big moment in the fight and end it. Maybe just a killing blow of some kind after a block, something like that. Of course it's up do you, just some advise
Regarding workflow, reference is key!
Do LOTS of research on the kind of moves you want to include. Record yourself with your phone and use as reference. It's common to say animation is 50% planning. Reference is the biggest thing here.
Other than that, try finding the key moments in your animation and create the biggest key poses at first, get a feel for the overall flow and find the timings you want. Don't stress the small things.
If I were to do something like this, I would first plan out my shot, what moves I want them to make. Then look for reference and record some myself. I would then probably plan out the timing of things, when and where what pose should be hit. I would pose both characters. I usually start with the hips, legs comes by itself after that as the hip is sort of deciding where the feet can go. Same with arms, it comes in after the hip has done it's part.
Don't know if my wall of text helped at all, hit me with questions if you have any. And GL HF!
Any good sites dedicated to reference? I have found a couple of YouTube channels but they are mainly based around walks, runs and a couple of basic actions like sitting. If the site is worth it I don't mind paying a fee if you can frame by frame and so on.
There is also tons of free material of course, like referencereference.com and the endless reference youtube channel
You can also just youtube-search or google search and see what you can find
You and your team did an amazing job with the title!
No skills, just tons of practice ;D. Keep at it!
Off the top of my head - if you don't have "render offscreen" ticked it will disregard the resolution settings and just grab the size off the slected viewport.
http://syncsketch.com/playground/8e8e60215b6748eeab0a13366a585d02#32955
Righto had a bit of time to mess with this but I am really struggling to get the jumping knee to look right, both the execution and the landing! Any advice would be so helpful! The only reference I have is from a standing position.
http://syncsketch.com/playground/134cf9bc979f46e28e43697847f0cd71#33773
About the knee. The Left foot doesnt feel planted/weighted. So the Knee feels very floaty because its not being properly driven by the foot it should be driven by. Keeping it extended, and only hovering slightly off the ground might help out with that.
Secondly, the Right Knee is worried way too much about landing and not enough about following through to give it a pow. I'd keep it cocked on impact (like you have it) but then push it further into the enemy driving him backwards.
I'd also question your landing foot placement. Just jumping around in my apartment, I always seem to land on my driving foot, keeping my knee-ing leg in air just a little bit longer. Just from a quick ref search, it seems that people either land with their driving foot shown here or land on both feet at the same time shown here. Like i said, super quick ref search, but I'd be interested in seeing where you got your reference from.
Finally it seems less impactful due to the backwards step back to idle. Taking a step forward would help him feel more imposing/impactful on the other enemy.
(Also it doesn't help that the enemy feels very floaty/magnetic-y on his fall. Play with his curves to give him a split second of hang time before coming down like a bouncing ball. Even have him bounce just a lil' bit. Even if its just a block out, it will help to sell the kneeing action just that much more.)
Hope this helps! Just my 2cents.
http://syncsketch.com/playground/a45063e5e38f46ee866942ede305d7ff#34004