Initially he did spring back pretty fast but I got a crit that he should be a bit more hunched. I'll try and find a medium.
With the light on his feet thing, I don't know exactly how much faster he can run, I'll post a slow motion video of that section. Maybe I'll have to end up taking out steps on the wall so it happens more quickly but without the guy being a blur.
Hey guys, do I've done a bunch of stuff in the meantime, and now I have a new version of the reel I'd really like crits on. Baring in mind as always that the aim of this is a professional reel to apply for jobs, what do i need to change, what is weak etc,
thank you for looking (it's much shorter this time by the way!)
Lookin pretty good man, definitely more of a pleasure to watch than the first time.
A couple things that stood out:
Arthas stabbing the dwarf- When he first thrusts the sword into him, I feel like there needs to be more anticipation of the stab. He just kinda pushes it into him, and while I get that we are to understand he is an extremely powerful fighter/swordsman, it just looks lame the way he just kinda slides the sword in.
The song- I know you caught flak for your first choice of music, but I'm not sure the half life title song is your best bet. You're already using valve's models, and using their music too pushes it over the edge I think. When I hear that first note, I expect the half-life title menu to come up. Look for something non-descript you can use via fair use, or find a friend who's decent with reason and a midi controller.
Otherwise, I think it looks great. I think you did a great job of working with the criticism you received and maintaining your own work while taking into account the suggestions of others. Nice work, good luck on the job hunt
The swinging at the beginning seems a little excessive. I'd almost prefer to see him launch off the first swing and keep the momentum from flying onto the bar.
There needs to be some sort of pause or something before the first stab in the lich king bit. Its like the sword just goes through the dwarf like he isn't even there. It looks like he's wearing some pretty serious armor..maybe make the sword pause on his chest and then snap through or something.
The axe also moves kind of absurdly quick when he throws it away. The windup looks great and then it snaps over to the ground. I almost think it might be a problem with the axe's rotation rather than speed. Its almost like it snaps a half of a rotation when it should already be in the ground or something.
Yeah I got some feedback about that lich king stab previously and I definitely need to fix the stab, I'll get that out of the way first.
I agtee about the song, I really just wanted tp put any decent music that was the right length on there so I could stick it on youtube, I definitely wont use that song for the final thing.
The axe probably is a little speedy, I'll take another look at it.
As for the swing, I've tried to make it so the first swing doesn't have too much momentum and I made the platform hes aiming for pretty far away so he needs to go a good distance. The reason I'm hesitant to just have him swing off strait away is that quite a lot of people I show the reel to mention the swinging as something they particularly like. I've scrapped a lot of stuff and I'll change the swing if I think it will improve the piece but I'd need to study it a bit more.
I really like it, awesome stuff. I agree about the song.
I love the horse running/walking and the ogre is great (minus the ridiculously over the top head movement in the run). I think the swing/wall climb is perfect and the disarms are great. It's quite a leap from the first reel, nice work.
I liked the axe toss at the camera it gave it a nice touch, now I kind of dwell on the stab, the hand resting on the sword at the end and the slight pose to pose fall of the dwarf. If there is any overlap in the fall it might be happening too fast?
When the characters are climbing the chains/ropes they don't open their hands, or if they do, it doesn't seem to be very much. I think adding open hands to a few frames while they're traveling would be perfect.
I think you could push the camera in on the ogre climb a bit more it seems far away and there is a good chunk toward the bottom of the screen that doesn't have much going on in it?
The rendering is a bit glitchy at points, shadow pops here and there. It looks like you might be using Radiosity? Because the way it calculates light it makes it hard to get good results with animation and not get those pops. Mental Ray is a bit better, it gives great bounce lighting. But I don't see too much that you can't get done with scanline alone or possibly light tracer and a sky light. It might be quicker to render in straight scanline?
Man James, you work at such a fast pace buddy, so inspiring
Although I can't crit too much since everyone has already given some fantastic feedback, I would say (like others) that the Warcraft animation is your weakest in that reel. If anything, it just seems like there is too much happening all at once, specifically when he picks him up while stabing him. Maybe pick him up, slam him against the wall, then do a big stab, it could make it easier to follow.
Either way James, great work and dedication, I'm sure you are turning a lot of heads with this thread!
Looks like I'm going to need a decent re-evaluation of the arthas dwarf animation, which makes sense b/c it's the one with the fewest iteration by far.
A couple of people have said they liked the shot with the axe coming at the camera but I was told I was breaking a cinematography rule and stuff, so the jury is out on that.
Glad the new reel is an improvement overall.
I will take a look at the hands on the climbing, I think you're right about that.
With the camera on the ogre climb, I actually rendered a second close up version but I didnt think it showed the progress of the climb enough, but then again, that doesnt really matter since Im just showing the cycle, so I will try using the other version.
As for rendering, pretty much every scene uses light tracer+1 skylight and 1 directional light. I agree the shadows are glitchy sometimes, Ive never tried mental ray, I only actually found out how to render stuff in anything other than default max render settings about 4 weeks ago, so yeah, there's room for me to learn and experiment
Anyway, ty, great crits, I'll update with progress.
I know you're sick of it, and I know how frustrating it can be, but maybe take a few days break from this and do something fun that's not your demo reel, so you can get fresh eyes and refreshed in general.
Here are my crits for the new dwarf animation:
Before the first stab, the very first time he puts the sword in him, the sword should come back further, in anticipation. Currently, it looks like Arthas, after slamming him against the wall, pulls the sword up through the Dwarf's shoulder. It's hard to scrub it on youtube but it looks like the sword clips right through the dwarf's shoulder, never leaves his body, and then gets thrust in.
It's a difficult problem to solve, because the sort is so long, especially in comparison to the arms of the Arthas model. But now he pushes it in like butter, and then pulls it out like it's tough velcro. I don't want to imply that you should re-do the entire thing, but maybe a different arrangement of actions could help it.
Possible new sequence: Dwarf jumps off ledge and attacks, but is thwarted and ends up on his knees. Arthas then kicks him over, and then stabs him on the ground, perhaps lifting him into the air and pinning him to the wall afterwards.
(Yea just knock that out, that absurdly difficult and complex suggestion.)
Right, anyway, what I mean to say is that with a different arrangement of positions, you might be able to allow the stab to look much more forceful and real.
The motion looks better, but the sword still magically slices through the side of the dwarf when it goes from one pose to another. I think its missing a sadistic pause just before the main thrust.
It looks like you could give the sword some distance from the dwarf by stretching and rotate the shoulder of the sword arm without anyone noticing (thanks bulky armor!)
Also rotating the torso and leading with the other foot will allow you pull the sword back farther away from the dwarf. There is a little torso twist in there but it happens so fast and because he's twisting his shoulders the opposite way his hips are rotating, it reads more like a odd wiggle that's going against the lead motion coming from the hips.
The right foot is already pretty far forward and he takes another step with it, seems more natural to go with the left. If he used the left foot to lead the thrust he could pull the sword back more and have a more natural torso twist with a lot more momentum in the thrust. If you get those two things in there "smooth body mechanics and anticipation" you'll be set.
Yo, made some more polishing since the last post. I'm really glad its turned out better!
I also fixed the hands on the climbing cycles but there's no need for me to post that stuff.
As for the rule, I liked it too, the rule I broke is the '180 degree' rule. Where you're not supposed to suddenly rotate the camera 180 degrees b/c it confuses the viewer. I believe this is a sort of general rule for film directors.
I will think on it more and maybe post a comparison so ppl here can judge,
its called breaking the axis, vig. thats the rule he was breaking. it all has to do with the direction of the characters. a good example of the rule being used properly is the lord of the rings. they are ALWAYS walking from left to right on the screen. so you know they are constantly walking towards something. if they start walking from right to left, you`ll think they are going in the wrong direction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule
he could easily fix what he has by having the camera pan around the back of the king and into position of where the axe lands.
Interesting, but I think its fine to break that rule especially if it comes off better.
I don't really see the rule as being established and the characters are pretty well defined that its not even close to confusing. I think the chances of someone even saying "yea but the 180 rule" in an interview would be pretty slim and even if he brought it up they probably wouldn't care.
But really its icing on the cake, he could probably do some quick renders of a few different angles and see what looks best, rules be damned I tell ya! =P
Hey, here's the latest version of the reel, clearly the axe thing is still up for debate! I haven't done the axe turn around thing in this version, at some point hopefully today ill be able to do a mock up of it and host it for final decision on that issue. I'm hoping to apply to a particular internship and some junior animation positions with pretty much the reel you're seeing here, does that seem realistic?
Hot snot I think you got it. The Arthus scene is awesome, even without the axe cut. Nice choice in music too, I cracked a big smile when the ogre was running it seemed to fit pretty well.
I think there are a few weak points in some of the older stuff, but overall its kickin a lot of ass. Good luck with the internship!
Thanks dude, hopefully I can phase the old stuff out soon enough, and im sure in a years time my reel will be all new footage probably, but I got to get my foot in the door and hopefully this is good enough to do that. I want it so bad, just got to show companies I'm dedicated and a fast learner.
first, arthas, offset him sticking the sword into the dwarf. give him some force. slam the dwarf into the wall, then pull the sword back some and thrust it into him. besides that, that scene is awsome. great job on the axe throw!
second, you have a terrible pop in the characters right leg during his no leg rope climb. the human character. horrible pop. fix it.
and third, just a personal preference, add your contact info to the end of the reel as well.
you did a great job on that reel. and did wonderfully taking everyones crits! good job, and good luck on finding a job! ill be joining the hunt in a few more months
You are making great progress with your reel. Really. But anyway, a demoreel should show your best animation, the reel is only as good as the "worst" animation which is in it. I would skip the horse animation complete to be honest, it lacks of experience. My favorite animation is the animation with the 2 humans at 1:10, good timing, fluid, interaction with 2 rigs, good stuff. Just my 2 cents
Hi thanks for the replies. I'll respond to them in order:
The problem with Arthas that you might now really be able to visualize if you're not handling the rig in max, is that the length of his sword and his proportions, combined with the fact that the dwarf needs to remain pinned to the wall by his left arm, make it impossible to have him pin him, then draw the blade back, and push it in without looking ridiculous.
If I were to go back in time I would change the animation so that he stab him with both hands on the ground, but the way it is, there is really no way for me to change the animation in the way you suggested without it looking very very bad dude to the physical constraints of his arms/the sword.
The leg on the climb doesn't pop, unless you're not referring to an IK pop. However I could see an argument for it swiveling inwards a little too quickly. It's possible I might make that take 1 or 2 frames longer.
Regarding the contact information thing, the video is embedded on my website and directly below it without scrolling is my contact details so I think it'll be ok.
Lastly, I hadn't received anything bad about the latest horses before now so it's a shame that you think they stick out. Could you give me anything a little more specific than inexperienced because I really like them and I think it adds something having a 4 legged animal. If they're bad I obviously need to change that but I'd much rather fix them than remove them.
ah, proportions. gotchya. i know that feeling, and its quite annoying. my comment was really a personal choice anyways. everyone will animate it differently.
as for the leg pop, it just looks like the knee is popping cause its moving so fast compared to everything else.
here´s a link to the horse run for example. Your poses are pretty good, but the timing isn´t right, the length of the loop is to long. It should be shorter. One thing i would try is to put the keys from the front legs 2 frames sooner. Look how the head stay´s in place in the reference video. I also got the feeling that the body is "only" rotated which looks a bit odd, you should think of it as 2 independent points, shoulder and hips, which stretch and compress, bend and straighten.
The walk has some problems too, the timing for the feet are pretty good, but again the hips and the shoulder move wrong. When one hip goes down, the shoulder goes up, when the hip goes up, the shoulder goes down. The tail is also a bit junky from a fluid-motion point of view. I hope this all make sense to you
Edit:
One thing which help me often is to really travel the rig through space. I know that sounds a bit stupid since most game animation (beneath morpheme because you want the trajectory-information) will be exported with no movement. But it helps a lot to understand your movement better
Ok whipped this up before I have to leave. This is now on 16's rather than 21. So it's a great deal faster.
I pushed the front legs back 2 frames, the tail now acts as if the horse is travelling much faster, and the head stays put pretty much now.
Obviously I have just whipped this up in ten mins so I mainly need to know if the gist is better rather than saying this is new finished animation.
Oh and one problem I have is that the rig for the horse is extremely restrictive, and it's impossible for me to squash or stretch the mesh, if I could I would do this for the body, but the best I can do is bend it up or down.
it looks much better, huge difference. But maybe the 2 frames for the front legs was one frame to much. I think at this point most things you can do are done, it´s a bit hard to judge with motionblur, but maybe the foots are a bit fast, i´m not sure that they´ve got enough contact with the floor, maybe you want to check that.
Sometimes its a pain in the ass when the rig is not capable of things or joints are placed wrong, i know that for sure. One thing i would try is to push the pose much more, when the backfeet contact the floor, push the feet further.
Was the rig from an game? Did you rigged it yourself in which software? I mean the horse.
It's pretty much not a rig, it's just bones, no controllers etc. I slapped some IK constraints on for the feet but that's about it.
The bones/skinning is decompiled from a game, it's the last thing in the reel now that hasn't been skinned and rigged new, but I didn't feel confident enough at the time to rig a horse.
I'm glad it's better, I'll tune the feet back 1 frame and take a look at their contact time. It defiantely needs tuning b/c I just rushed it out before I had to leave the house (I wont be back for a few more hours but then I can fix it up)
Great improvement from the first video you posted.
Your animations that involve to two humans are my favorite, the interaction between the two rigs is executed very well.
The first animation on that reel, when he's swinging on the pole could use some tweaking I think. On his second swing there's a really distracting pop/jitter at his elbows and neck, the rest of that animation looks fine.
Really good work.
i think they look great! though, ive never tried to animate a 4 legged animal yet, nore have i spent hours looking at reference. but they do look good to me
hi man, I'm not sure about the mirrors edge loading screen animations.. I look at them and basically think 'copied loading screen anim' rather than 'cool implementation of the anims in 3d'. It would be different if they were 'inspired by' but they're just the exact animation, or appear to be..
Not sure thats a thought you want bouncing around the prospective employer's heads?
I get where you're coming from with the mirrors edge loading screen stuff.
I'm not 100% what the alternative is though, b/c like, the reality is I should be using reference for everything I'm doing, and I don't know if it's better for me to reference some crap footage off youtube just b/c it's not as well known.
Do you know what I mean? Like, it is a bit like 'well he's just done the mirrors edge animation' but what's so much better about 'well I'm glad he's referenced some martial arts instructor off youtube, working in the exact same manner but with footage I've not seen before'
The 2 mirrors edge animations were the easiest to do, because the reference is so clear and so it wouldn't kill me to change them, but it feels like a psychological issue rather than an issue with my animation skill (in regards to an employers perspective).
Can I have some other opinions on this? Would it be more 'honest' to reference some footage ripped out of a martial arts movie?
yeah but if you use footage, you're taking from 'life' but if you use another animators poses and timing.. that's another animators posing and timing, right? the animation is kind of stylised, which is right there in your version
I see where you're coming from. Not sure what to do. A bit depressing to be honest, since I was planning on sending off the reel tomorrow to a position I want, and now potentially I'm scrapping 2 of the best scenes in the reel.
I mean, I could change those 2 animations significantly, but it seems pretty pointless, I may as well start something from scratch.
Not really sure what to do now, you're implication is that if I don't get rid of those animations, employers are going to think I'm a hack, or a thief. Which isn't really much of a choice.
I wouldn't mind if anybody else want to wade on in this issue, its pretty depressing, especially since I only used the mirrors edge references b/c they were linked in this thread specifically as animations to 'emulate'.
you could always change a few things about it, like, where she drops the gun, just have her throw it down, then kick the body and run away. lol. changes it up a bit.
but considering its only now you`ve had a comment about it, maybe you should just try with it as is, if you get a comment about it, change it. it really doesnt change the fact you can animate. its still referencing which they could quite possibly be happy you are doing.
Replies
With the light on his feet thing, I don't know exactly how much faster he can run, I'll post a slow motion video of that section. Maybe I'll have to end up taking out steps on the wall so it happens more quickly but without the guy being a blur.
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That video is a great ref Ill tr to use it
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thank you for looking (it's much shorter this time by the way!)
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A couple things that stood out:
Arthas stabbing the dwarf- When he first thrusts the sword into him, I feel like there needs to be more anticipation of the stab. He just kinda pushes it into him, and while I get that we are to understand he is an extremely powerful fighter/swordsman, it just looks lame the way he just kinda slides the sword in.
The song- I know you caught flak for your first choice of music, but I'm not sure the half life title song is your best bet. You're already using valve's models, and using their music too pushes it over the edge I think. When I hear that first note, I expect the half-life title menu to come up. Look for something non-descript you can use via fair use, or find a friend who's decent with reason and a midi controller.
Otherwise, I think it looks great. I think you did a great job of working with the criticism you received and maintaining your own work while taking into account the suggestions of others. Nice work, good luck on the job hunt
There needs to be some sort of pause or something before the first stab in the lich king bit. Its like the sword just goes through the dwarf like he isn't even there. It looks like he's wearing some pretty serious armor..maybe make the sword pause on his chest and then snap through or something.
The axe also moves kind of absurdly quick when he throws it away. The windup looks great and then it snaps over to the ground. I almost think it might be a problem with the axe's rotation rather than speed. Its almost like it snaps a half of a rotation when it should already be in the ground or something.
Sorry for rambling I'm pretty tired...midterms
Big improvement overall
I agtee about the song, I really just wanted tp put any decent music that was the right length on there so I could stick it on youtube, I definitely wont use that song for the final thing.
The axe probably is a little speedy, I'll take another look at it.
As for the swing, I've tried to make it so the first swing doesn't have too much momentum and I made the platform hes aiming for pretty far away so he needs to go a good distance. The reason I'm hesitant to just have him swing off strait away is that quite a lot of people I show the reel to mention the swinging as something they particularly like. I've scrapped a lot of stuff and I'll change the swing if I think it will improve the piece but I'd need to study it a bit more.
ty for crits so far
I love the horse running/walking and the ogre is great (minus the ridiculously over the top head movement in the run). I think the swing/wall climb is perfect and the disarms are great. It's quite a leap from the first reel, nice work.
I liked the axe toss at the camera it gave it a nice touch, now I kind of dwell on the stab, the hand resting on the sword at the end and the slight pose to pose fall of the dwarf. If there is any overlap in the fall it might be happening too fast?
When the characters are climbing the chains/ropes they don't open their hands, or if they do, it doesn't seem to be very much. I think adding open hands to a few frames while they're traveling would be perfect.
I think you could push the camera in on the ogre climb a bit more it seems far away and there is a good chunk toward the bottom of the screen that doesn't have much going on in it?
The rendering is a bit glitchy at points, shadow pops here and there. It looks like you might be using Radiosity? Because the way it calculates light it makes it hard to get good results with animation and not get those pops. Mental Ray is a bit better, it gives great bounce lighting. But I don't see too much that you can't get done with scanline alone or possibly light tracer and a sky light. It might be quicker to render in straight scanline?
Although I can't crit too much since everyone has already given some fantastic feedback, I would say (like others) that the Warcraft animation is your weakest in that reel. If anything, it just seems like there is too much happening all at once, specifically when he picks him up while stabing him. Maybe pick him up, slam him against the wall, then do a big stab, it could make it easier to follow.
Either way James, great work and dedication, I'm sure you are turning a lot of heads with this thread!
A couple of people have said they liked the shot with the axe coming at the camera but I was told I was breaking a cinematography rule and stuff, so the jury is out on that.
Glad the new reel is an improvement overall.
I will take a look at the hands on the climbing, I think you're right about that.
With the camera on the ogre climb, I actually rendered a second close up version but I didnt think it showed the progress of the climb enough, but then again, that doesnt really matter since Im just showing the cycle, so I will try using the other version.
As for rendering, pretty much every scene uses light tracer+1 skylight and 1 directional light. I agree the shadows are glitchy sometimes, Ive never tried mental ray, I only actually found out how to render stuff in anything other than default max render settings about 4 weeks ago, so yeah, there's room for me to learn and experiment
Anyway, ty, great crits, I'll update with progress.
Heres my current re-do of the stabbing, tell me if this is the right direction and isn't lame and buttery anymore.
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EDIT: looks like youtube chopped off the last second but I think youll get the gist regardless.
Here are my crits for the new dwarf animation:
Before the first stab, the very first time he puts the sword in him, the sword should come back further, in anticipation. Currently, it looks like Arthas, after slamming him against the wall, pulls the sword up through the Dwarf's shoulder. It's hard to scrub it on youtube but it looks like the sword clips right through the dwarf's shoulder, never leaves his body, and then gets thrust in.
It's a difficult problem to solve, because the sort is so long, especially in comparison to the arms of the Arthas model. But now he pushes it in like butter, and then pulls it out like it's tough velcro. I don't want to imply that you should re-do the entire thing, but maybe a different arrangement of actions could help it.
Possible new sequence: Dwarf jumps off ledge and attacks, but is thwarted and ends up on his knees. Arthas then kicks him over, and then stabs him on the ground, perhaps lifting him into the air and pinning him to the wall afterwards.
(Yea just knock that out, that absurdly difficult and complex suggestion.)
Right, anyway, what I mean to say is that with a different arrangement of positions, you might be able to allow the stab to look much more forceful and real.
It looks like you could give the sword some distance from the dwarf by stretching and rotate the shoulder of the sword arm without anyone noticing (thanks bulky armor!)
Also rotating the torso and leading with the other foot will allow you pull the sword back farther away from the dwarf. There is a little torso twist in there but it happens so fast and because he's twisting his shoulders the opposite way his hips are rotating, it reads more like a odd wiggle that's going against the lead motion coming from the hips.
The right foot is already pretty far forward and he takes another step with it, seems more natural to go with the left. If he used the left foot to lead the thrust he could pull the sword back more and have a more natural torso twist with a lot more momentum in the thrust. If you get those two things in there "smooth body mechanics and anticipation" you'll be set.
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I also fixed the hands on the climbing cycles but there's no need for me to post that stuff.
As for the rule, I liked it too, the rule I broke is the '180 degree' rule. Where you're not supposed to suddenly rotate the camera 180 degrees b/c it confuses the viewer. I believe this is a sort of general rule for film directors.
I will think on it more and maybe post a comparison so ppl here can judge,
anyway, expect more from me soon enough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule
he could easily fix what he has by having the camera pan around the back of the king and into position of where the axe lands.
I don't really see the rule as being established and the characters are pretty well defined that its not even close to confusing. I think the chances of someone even saying "yea but the 180 rule" in an interview would be pretty slim and even if he brought it up they probably wouldn't care.
But really its icing on the cake, he could probably do some quick renders of a few different angles and see what looks best, rules be damned I tell ya! =P
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I think there are a few weak points in some of the older stuff, but overall its kickin a lot of ass. Good luck with the internship!
first, arthas, offset him sticking the sword into the dwarf. give him some force. slam the dwarf into the wall, then pull the sword back some and thrust it into him. besides that, that scene is awsome. great job on the axe throw!
second, you have a terrible pop in the characters right leg during his no leg rope climb. the human character. horrible pop. fix it.
and third, just a personal preference, add your contact info to the end of the reel as well.
you did a great job on that reel. and did wonderfully taking everyones crits! good job, and good luck on finding a job! ill be joining the hunt in a few more months
The problem with Arthas that you might now really be able to visualize if you're not handling the rig in max, is that the length of his sword and his proportions, combined with the fact that the dwarf needs to remain pinned to the wall by his left arm, make it impossible to have him pin him, then draw the blade back, and push it in without looking ridiculous.
If I were to go back in time I would change the animation so that he stab him with both hands on the ground, but the way it is, there is really no way for me to change the animation in the way you suggested without it looking very very bad dude to the physical constraints of his arms/the sword.
The leg on the climb doesn't pop, unless you're not referring to an IK pop. However I could see an argument for it swiveling inwards a little too quickly. It's possible I might make that take 1 or 2 frames longer.
Regarding the contact information thing, the video is embedded on my website and directly below it without scrolling is my contact details so I think it'll be ok.
Lastly, I hadn't received anything bad about the latest horses before now so it's a shame that you think they stick out. Could you give me anything a little more specific than inexperienced because I really like them and I think it adds something having a 4 legged animal. If they're bad I obviously need to change that but I'd much rather fix them than remove them.
as for the leg pop, it just looks like the knee is popping cause its moving so fast compared to everything else.
here´s a link to the horse run for example. Your poses are pretty good, but the timing isn´t right, the length of the loop is to long. It should be shorter. One thing i would try is to put the keys from the front legs 2 frames sooner. Look how the head stay´s in place in the reference video. I also got the feeling that the body is "only" rotated which looks a bit odd, you should think of it as 2 independent points, shoulder and hips, which stretch and compress, bend and straighten.
The walk has some problems too, the timing for the feet are pretty good, but again the hips and the shoulder move wrong. When one hip goes down, the shoulder goes up, when the hip goes up, the shoulder goes down. The tail is also a bit junky from a fluid-motion point of view. I hope this all make sense to you
Edit:
One thing which help me often is to really travel the rig through space. I know that sounds a bit stupid since most game animation (beneath morpheme because you want the trajectory-information) will be exported with no movement. But it helps a lot to understand your movement better
Thanks.
I pushed the front legs back 2 frames, the tail now acts as if the horse is travelling much faster, and the head stays put pretty much now.
Obviously I have just whipped this up in ten mins so I mainly need to know if the gist is better rather than saying this is new finished animation.
Oh and one problem I have is that the rig for the horse is extremely restrictive, and it's impossible for me to squash or stretch the mesh, if I could I would do this for the body, but the best I can do is bend it up or down.
ty, tell me if this is better
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Sometimes its a pain in the ass when the rig is not capable of things or joints are placed wrong, i know that for sure. One thing i would try is to push the pose much more, when the backfeet contact the floor, push the feet further.
Was the rig from an game? Did you rigged it yourself in which software? I mean the horse.
The bones/skinning is decompiled from a game, it's the last thing in the reel now that hasn't been skinned and rigged new, but I didn't feel confident enough at the time to rig a horse.
I'm glad it's better, I'll tune the feet back 1 frame and take a look at their contact time. It defiantely needs tuning b/c I just rushed it out before I had to leave the house (I wont be back for a few more hours but then I can fix it up)
Your animations that involve to two humans are my favorite, the interaction between the two rigs is executed very well.
The first animation on that reel, when he's swinging on the pole could use some tweaking I think. On his second swing there's a really distracting pop/jitter at his elbows and neck, the rest of that animation looks fine.
Really good work.
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Going to work on popping swing and then tackle the horse walk
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Not sure thats a thought you want bouncing around the prospective employer's heads?
I'm not 100% what the alternative is though, b/c like, the reality is I should be using reference for everything I'm doing, and I don't know if it's better for me to reference some crap footage off youtube just b/c it's not as well known.
Do you know what I mean? Like, it is a bit like 'well he's just done the mirrors edge animation' but what's so much better about 'well I'm glad he's referenced some martial arts instructor off youtube, working in the exact same manner but with footage I've not seen before'
The 2 mirrors edge animations were the easiest to do, because the reference is so clear and so it wouldn't kill me to change them, but it feels like a psychological issue rather than an issue with my animation skill (in regards to an employers perspective).
Can I have some other opinions on this? Would it be more 'honest' to reference some footage ripped out of a martial arts movie?
I mean, I could change those 2 animations significantly, but it seems pretty pointless, I may as well start something from scratch.
Not really sure what to do now, you're implication is that if I don't get rid of those animations, employers are going to think I'm a hack, or a thief. Which isn't really much of a choice.
but considering its only now you`ve had a comment about it, maybe you should just try with it as is, if you get a comment about it, change it. it really doesnt change the fact you can animate. its still referencing which they could quite possibly be happy you are doing.
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