My first public animation.

Snollygoster

Hello there polycount forum! I go by the name Snollygoster (my general internet handle) and I'm here to submit my introduction to the world of animation or so to speak. So far it's 70% done. It's supposed to be a silent 10 sec interaction between 2 free models from the animation mentor site. They are of course stewart and squirrels. Here's a preview of what I've been working on so far. I'm excited for the feedback you guys will give me!

https://youtu.be/P6hd9GzxGDM

Arturow

Hello Snollygoster

Welcome
At first sight of the video I noticed its really dark and a part of the human character blends with the background , I would suggest a brighter color.
Like you said , is not complete but I will point out some notes .

For the squirrel:
- Just like a reminder to overlap his tail. Here is a image that have some keys for a run of a squirrel ( it will not be the same for your bounce) http://www.viz.tamu.edu/faculty/parke/ends489f00/section6/squirrel.jpg
- Nice anticipation on it
- When it comes down it should be harder , it seems that right now your curves are smoothed in and out. It should be more linear since when he goes down from the jump it will gain speed until it hits the floor ( gravity :P )
- Try to keep it alive maybe rotating his head and ears , also the tail. Maybe look for puppies references.

For him:
- His hands are frozen before he place them in his knees , when he breathes he should be moving a bit his hands ( try to act it and see your hands)
- When he sights and comes down his shoulder feels robotic because all stopped moving.
- When he looks the squirel I suggest to use part of his torso and neck too, right now he just move his head and feels weird.
- Nice anticipation when he reacts
- He moves a little too weird , like a toy that you were posing.
- If you don't have a reference I strongly suggest you film yourself and see how the different parts react and connects with the different parts of your body. Wich move first and next. It will help you to flesh out the character

Good work! Is your first animation and you should be proud
keep practicing , studying and you will train your eyes for animation

Eric Chadwick

We added instructions here for how to embed Youtube in your posts.
http://polycount.com/discussion/150407/animation-forum-posting-tips-tricks-and-resources

PeteHawk

ARTUROW has given you a good amount to work on.
The main thing that I'd work on is the timing of you animation. There are pauses that are quite long and the body movement is very individual, you need to move things together.
To break down the workflow, focus on the squirrel first. Get working on those bounces. make sure you don't overwhelm yourself by doing everything at once. 

Good luck!

Snollygoster

I've had a really busy week but I've managed to work on some of @Arturow s suggestions. I added a slight breathing that is really subtle and changed the backrground. I intended this to be a 10 seconds animation but it turns out I'll probably extend it to a 30 seconds one to have a better and more full interaction between squirrels and Stewart. I feel like 10 seconds is not enough to get what I want to do done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWYmQ-N-2k4&feature=youtu.be

Sirdelita

Study those 12 principles until they become second nature! 

Snollygoster

I'm familiar with the 12 principles and I've applied them to my work before but that would be regarding 2d animation, I'm still trying my hand on 3d animation and it's hard to translate how I know the principles on 2d to 3d yet but I'm confident I'll be able to get it.

Snollygoster

Right now I'm changing up things a little bit for my animation. I'm replacing some poses to match better my story. Like this one for example.

Instead of the character straightening up, I'm changing the movement so it reads more as curiosity/interest on the animal in front of him. Right now I'm working on some actions or expressions in between the final shot to where the character will try to warn squirrels that the action he's about to do is dangerous to then, after the sight of squirrel's action, responds to a displeased and/or disappointed gesture. I will try to finish first with Stewart's animation before concentrating on squirrels so that way I have a guideline for the timing of squirrels

Snollygoster

So here's the polished movements I was talking about on the last post. As I said I'm concentrating in stewart's reactions first before working on squirrel so that way I can guide myself with stewart's reactions to what I need to do with squirrel. I've made a quick render to show the progress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuqtRDkYDrs&feature=youtu.be

Snollygoster

It seems that people aren't really wanting to share and/or give me ideas anymore unfortunately, but I'll still post my progress so far on this little project of mine.

SO, I've been working on a general tweaking. Given the fact that I've added a little bit of snap to the character's motion, giving it a little more personality, I figured that the movements that the character had felt a little outdated or at least slow, and because of that, I've been going around a few frames giving them little tweaks so it feels more like my most recent jab at my project. I've also been working on some new key poses I've added and polishing them so they look more natural. Since I expect to finish the full movement of the character in 2 to 3 days top, I'll hold on visual updates, so there's a more broad appreciation to what I've been working on (note that this is not by far my only project so I've been slowly working on it because of the lack of time. But this is the one I've decided to share since the other ones are more related to illustration and modeling and this is the animation section of the forum!)
EDIT: I was urged to post a video update of what I was working on. Here it is! (The squirrel movements are obviously not finished yet) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUv0omZ6cbA

AGoodFella

Hey, I think a lot of people aren't commenting because your work has quite a few issues Everything is floaty, it looks like Maya is doing a lot of the work for you. I don't see a lot of breakdowns. Your main poses are ok but could be pushed a lot more. 

I think people may be watching and moving on, I can't speak for them but I don't know. You need stronger poses and more interesting breakdowns. You said you were transitioning from 2D? I would recommend not doing full body character stuff right now and work on simpler objects to get a feel of 3D.  

EVernier

Honestly, you should work more on those principles with simple objects. I know you said you've used them for 2D animation, but it can be hard to make the transition between mediums, both from 2D to 3D and from 3D to 2D. Focus on that video sirdelta posted, nail down those principles with simple scenes and objects (you can use that squirrel rig since it'll get you familiar with the ball and the tail action).  Do different weight exercises and weight shifts, work on your anticipation and your ease-in/ease-out. It'll be easier to do some body mechanics and apply those principles to a humanoid shape after that and really get a nice animation out of this.

penOr

As others have said, you need to work on your basics before doing a shot like this. I'd start with the bouncing ball and work your way up. If you're desperate to get the shot going then I'd film yourself as reference and follow it extremely closely but that will teach you more about the software than animation 

Snollygoster

Well as I said this is in fact the first animation that I'm working on and since you're pointing out that it's floaty I will work on those details. But, I would still like to get a few pointers on specific parts even though I will most likely finish and work on those principles in a future animation since maybe endearing into fixing this one might take a little too much time that I would like to expend on it.

Snollygoster

This is going to be my last update about this thing I'm doing, I'm just going to finish up what I started and start on new projects so I can get better at this curious thing that animation is. I've learned a lot by endeavoring in doing this and that entails learning about what I lack and such. I hope that I can keep advancing after this first attempt and don't get stuck!
Here's my progress so far! It's just some more fine tuning of the movements!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Drhp30GR8&feature=youtu.be