WIP: Firing Range

JoeinNC

Hey gang, this is a final project I did for my class. Its a soldier, on a firing range, performing actions to chear a misfire. For all you former and current military personal, the only decent M16 I was able to find is the Vietnam Era M16, without the foward assist. The Rig and weapon arent mine, the soldier is Mike Kesseling's Enemy Soldier (www.mk3d.com) and Tim Laydecker's M16 rifle (http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPrevi...x.cfm/ID/246059)
I want to get into doing military simulation, and I know it still needs work. I tried to show recoil, and had to exxagerate it, even tho the weapon doesnt have much of a recoil, and also tried to animate the bolt sliding back with each fire.
I know I can improve it by adding spent shells spinning from the chamber, but what else can I do to improve my work?

Please be gentle

http://media.putfile.com/Firing-Range-32

FearMe

I'm very much-so learning, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Since you said the models themselves aren't yours, I don't see a reason to critique them. What I observe in your animation however are few things:

1) As the weapon fires, his arms recoil. There is no visible impact amongst the rest of his body. When firing a rifle, the upper torso tends to absorb most of the impact. Arms are just a neat aiming control device. I'm also a crappy shot though, so I could be wrong.

2) I'm not really sure why he "cups" the clip. If it's to force the jam, he should probably be striking the clip base with more perceived force. A quicker, sharper hit to the base.

3) His trigger finger never actually pulls the trigger, it just sits there.

Lastly, based on the angle its hard to determine if he's in a prone position or a standing position. If prone, he needs weight shift as he transfers to remove the clip, then pull the slide for clearing the chamber.

t4paN

I don't know if you guys where supposed to use sound in that, but adding a couple of sounds would add a lot to it. Along with some swearing when the weapon jams. Also, when your weapon jams, standard procedure is to remove the clip, reload replace the clip. If I remember correctly from my army days anyway -_-

BassAckwards

body recoil definatly, maybe put a morpher to have his eyes squint a bit, or something to make the model look alive...it looks like a manaquin shooting a m16

PolyPutty

Problems

-your poses could be stronger
-I can't see any anticipation or reaction
-It seems your animtion is at a constant timing(This is usually very unintresting)

In animtion you are either are accelerating, deccelerating, or moving constant between poses.

JoeinNC

Thank you for the crits
Fear me: the hands didnt have a skeleton and i didnt have time to make one, the next time I use him, I'll try to make the finger pull the trigger
he's slapping up on the magazine to reseat it, t4pan, if you remember SPORTS, its Slap the magazine, PULL the charging handle, Observe round ejecting from the chamber, Release the charging handle Tp the foward assist (thats on the M16a1 and A2 models, this is a vietnam era weapon, couldnt find a free m16a1 model) then Squeeze the trigger
Honestly, after watching my own basic training tape and watching the figing range segment, there wasnt much recoil with the weapon, so I exaggerated the recoil to show whats going on
Also he's in the foxhole firing position, so how would I fix that to make him seem more alive? is there a way to show him taking a breath, like raising the shoulders a little?
One more thing: where can I find a FREE modern soldier rig for class animation purposes only?
Thank you everyone, I'm going to correct what was stated and repost