needs more flair/attitude
now he looks like 'must... do... moonwalk... right...'
when it should be 'hey look at me, i can knock you out, and just moonwalk away' ^^
I see what you're saying, maybe I'll have him strike a little pose or do the crotch thing for a sec, you know where he holds his junk and thrusts back and forth when he performed Billie Jean. As for flair in the walk itself, I can't think of anything much to give other than change the arms. At the moment I've given him 'the robot' arms, so I can either do the casual 'hands in pockets as he moonwalks' thing, which is cool and casual, or I could have him be really over the top and do like, the swimming backwards arms.
Food for thought eh? I'll post any significant update.
Hahahaha James, man looks like you're having fun dude. I really like the feel of "alt moonwalk" (the head bob and arms down is a nice touch) and "funky moonwalk baby" is nice too, since the arm movement really accentuates the moonwalk itself.
Just out of curiosity, have you gotten contacted by any company yet?
A company I just applied to for an internship said they had already filled the position. Yesterday I sent off an application to Travellers Tales, I'll see if they get back to me. I also have the head of a small indie company looking at my reel today. I was going to really go into full gear once I had changed up this stuff I'm doing now and send out to a lot of company's.
With my old old reel (which you guys have never seen) I was a complete dumbass and sent it to a bunch of companies before I had posted it on a professional forum like this (I was just posting on my 'local' art forum). I sent it out to a lot of companies and didn't get any traction apart from a handful of rejection emails/letters.
I'm really hoping I will get some traction with this new reel, it's probably twice as good even just from a 'taking out all the shit' standpoint. If I could get an interview somewhere I would flip my lid, I'm really hoping I get a chance to show somebody I'm a hard worker. Unpaid internships, whatever I am looking for ANYTHING!
Oh and quick question. I've fucked something up in max so when I hold down middle mouse and pan or rotate the view, all models disappear and I can only see bones/helpers. What the hell have I done here and how do I undo it?
Just a heads up man, I love how big the difference is between your first and last video's in this thread. Perfect example of how one should go about applying crits!
Animator had to do animate the moonwalk here at the office.
Noticed you have a few smaller elements missing, that really sell the move (notably the snap, and pushing with the tips of the toes, and the head movement):
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_FzgtLVzbI[/ame]
hey, just dropping back to say I think you're taking the right route injecting your own twist, its coming together nicely! Sorry if my comments were depressing just saying what I thought . Making steady progress, keep it up man!
Oh the spin is still there, I just didnt show stuff I hadnt changed, ive actually got a newer version ill upload in a little bit that shows the whole of where im at now
1stly Goodluck with TT, they use Maya so perhaps getting experiance in that will give you a step up.
2ndly, the chest pump feels a tad harsh (almost snapping) cant really tell much from the angle.
Also the camera movement kinda kills the subtle motion so id advise against any movement camerawise unless it adds to the narrative.
The body on the floor becomes too rigid too quick, even dead bodies carry on moving from a big movement like that ;D
Just an additional idea here, perhaps going from the spin into a little jump to get some air, snap into the moon walk pose and walk off..just an idea to add more variety.
Cant tell accurately enough but the arms feel extremely awkward and broken for much of the spin. Perhaps upload a quicktime .mov? Also the way they are at the minute it feels more like there just ragdolling rather than helping in any way with the spin. Give them some attitude have them pop to head height before he starts the moon walk.
You got the feet nice ;D but the hips feel a tad off but w/o a better camer angle cant tell really, which brings me to my last crit, crap camera angle
Its a lovely progression on the piece though, being sick of what your animating does happen but youve just gotta learn to get over that, cos there will be a time when you revisit a peice a million times just not in 1 sitting, trust me ;D
Btw, im an animator working for TT's sister company (the better 1 ;P) TT-Fusion,
Hey, thanks for the great crit. Looking back now the next day there's a lot I can get into working on. The arms at the moment kind of trail behind the body, I'll change them to give momentum to the spin instead.
The camera is horrible, in my reel I've tried to use a static camera in pretty much every instance. I had the Camera moving here b/c it ends up being a long shot but I will have to find a better way of shooting it b/c you're right and it's really not good.
I will have a play around with inbetween of the spin and walk, and with the arms, I'm still not fully comfortable with any of the 5 or 6 variations I've tried. I'm really not even sure the pump thing I have at the moment is the best one to polish, but I'll give it a less sever snap and see if that looks good.
To be honost i havent read everything, but here are some thing that came to mind
longer videos, 4 seconds is really short, so maybe loop it, slowmotion, other perspectives, maybe show the bones too instead of the mesh, giving some more insight for indepth crits.
I'll upload a quicktime file to download now, I'm afraid I don't have any idea how to make it slow mo or include frame count atm (although quicktime has one built in).
Sorry but i havent read through the whole thread, though im enjoying those clips , but did you rig those characters?
Yo, the base rig is by a guy called Brad Noble, I bought the scripts that you can use to resize the rig with, so all the humanoid characters are rigged on that set up with me resizing it and skinning the particular character.
from the looks of it, there is quite the swing in his motion,
but it feels like his torso does not keep up with the amount of swing the limbs have.
maybe his lower torso doesnt move with as much as should?
or maybe his head is bobn a bit too much
longer vid sir, longer vid because i tend to go arggg when the motion is too short to actualy analyse
on a side note, i dont know if you are familiar with a program like after fx, maybe its time to look into that too, specialy if you are into animation and editing your reel
or when it comes to setting up some vids to crit wich contain more shots and loops ect (or counters)
i would say cut out the motion blur out when you want feedback
It looks like a combination of running and sneaking imo. Your feet are not hitting the extremes, more like jogging and with the high freq. of this cycle it looks "forced". Also the spine is bending to much and to early. In the front view you need to stick the feet closer together for balance-reason. But when you wanted a more goofy run, that a good job. otherwise you need to put more work on this.
Just a quick 1, dont bother spending long on rendering, your being hired to animate it will actually count against you unless your animation is already amazing ;D
ofc if your applying for a general position it will help like for say tv work, but for a game animator position it tends to raise questions.
Ok crit time still havent gone through your other aniamtion yet but on the run already i can see heres no movement at all on the hips. The upper body is going a little too crazy you need to study stuff like bbc motion gallery for runs walks etc, read up on the animators survival kit also, this book is worth its weight in gold!
Also the feet arent doing nice arcs, always check your arcs the best way i can explain is they are quite flat, they never move up far from the ground, they should be doin like a deformed figure of 8 almost, were as what you have is too flat.
Keep at it, runs jumps hittakes are good additions for a games reel..
Hey, maybe I should have waited a bit on posting that animation. I kinda just stuck it up there without thinking. I won't post with motion blur and stuff and I'm sorry it was just 4 seconds.
The animation itself is really old, it's actually a modification of the first run cycle I did I may just make another from scratch.
Btw, anybody who hasn't seen the current reel I'd love for you to take a look and comment. And I wouldn't want people to think that run was a good indication of where I'm at right now!
don´t get me wrong, but most animators in the game industry are able to rig imo, the bigger the studio, the less you may be rig. Mostly you start in a small or medium company where you need to rig characters. I will track the hips, it looks a bit weird, i mean the traveling in space. I would like a bit more of "hang-time" in the air.
Hey, with the rigging, yes I can rig characters, but the rig I'm using is something by a professional rigger and is the product of constant iteration and new releases over the course of many years.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think an employer would rather see a vastly improved set of animations than have a tag at the start saying 'All characters rigged by myself''.
With the pose exaggerating, he's already at the extremes of his movement, so I'd have to put in a massive arm swing and have him come really far off the ground, I'm kind of going for a 'determined forward run' rather than a cartoony bounce run, but I'll play with it and see how it looks.
Here's the up and down on the hips. To be honest I think that is plenty of up and down considering I don't want a cartoon run, but if you disagree once you see this picture then fair enough.
And with the hips traveling space, I have them going a tiny bit forward and back again during the cycle, I've found when animated characters in games it gives the movement a bit more push and I like it, but it's a stylistic choice and perhaps a bad one. As for air time, I'll give it a go, but I don't really want a 'bound', more like a race run, but not quite a sprint.
Here's a newer version with keg adjustments based off your drawover, and some timing adjustments and other general stuff.
Oh and I've been animating this while my girlfriend plays team fortress 2 on a massive screen next to me so I guess I adopted that style without thinking heh, and no i'm not going for a super realistic style.
Hey James. I've recently began the transition from 3D art to Animation and I'd just like to say that I admire your ability to take criticism on board. A good example is that the arthas stab into the dwarf. You finally made it feel like he wasn't cutting thru butter : ) I grinned when I saw that because I've been watching this thread.
Do you use Maya or Max? What would you say is better? (if you use both or whatever)
I'm having a hard time applying wait and timing with normal animation so I tried to use the curve editor in Max but I just can't see what adjusments to make for the effect I want on a bunch of curves and keys.
I don't want to steal the thread but do you think we could get in touch or something mate?
Replies
now he looks like 'must... do... moonwalk... right...'
when it should be 'hey look at me, i can knock you out, and just moonwalk away' ^^
Food for thought eh? I'll post any significant update.
Here's 2 other arm types I tried out, I'm also going to do a bit inbetween throw and walk, but not done that yet.
[ame]
[ame]
[ame]
Just out of curiosity, have you gotten contacted by any company yet?
With my old old reel (which you guys have never seen) I was a complete dumbass and sent it to a bunch of companies before I had posted it on a professional forum like this (I was just posting on my 'local' art forum). I sent it out to a lot of companies and didn't get any traction apart from a handful of rejection emails/letters.
I'm really hoping I will get some traction with this new reel, it's probably twice as good even just from a 'taking out all the shit' standpoint. If I could get an interview somewhere I would flip my lid, I'm really hoping I get a chance to show somebody I'm a hard worker. Unpaid internships, whatever I am looking for ANYTHING!
Keep your fingers crossed for me!
[ame]
Oh and quick question. I've fucked something up in max so when I hold down middle mouse and pan or rotate the view, all models disappear and I can only see bones/helpers. What the hell have I done here and how do I undo it?
Noticed you have a few smaller elements missing, that really sell the move (notably the snap, and pushing with the tips of the toes, and the head movement):
[ame]
Fantastic progress on your reel!
I changed the snap, feet positions and stuff, way they moves as it slides, and head bob.
Getting little sick of this now so I hope I don't have to do much more with it
EDIT: I am thinking maybe I should swap out the arms for something more simple
[ame]
2ndly, the chest pump feels a tad harsh (almost snapping) cant really tell much from the angle.
Also the camera movement kinda kills the subtle motion so id advise against any movement camerawise unless it adds to the narrative.
The body on the floor becomes too rigid too quick, even dead bodies carry on moving from a big movement like that ;D
Just an additional idea here, perhaps going from the spin into a little jump to get some air, snap into the moon walk pose and walk off..just an idea to add more variety.
Cant tell accurately enough but the arms feel extremely awkward and broken for much of the spin. Perhaps upload a quicktime .mov? Also the way they are at the minute it feels more like there just ragdolling rather than helping in any way with the spin. Give them some attitude have them pop to head height before he starts the moon walk.
You got the feet nice ;D but the hips feel a tad off but w/o a better camer angle cant tell really, which brings me to my last crit, crap camera angle
Its a lovely progression on the piece though, being sick of what your animating does happen but youve just gotta learn to get over that, cos there will be a time when you revisit a peice a million times just not in 1 sitting, trust me ;D
Btw, im an animator working for TT's sister company (the better 1 ;P) TT-Fusion,
The camera is horrible, in my reel I've tried to use a static camera in pretty much every instance. I had the Camera moving here b/c it ends up being a long shot but I will have to find a better way of shooting it b/c you're right and it's really not good.
I will have a play around with inbetween of the spin and walk, and with the arms, I'm still not fully comfortable with any of the 5 or 6 variations I've tried. I'm really not even sure the pump thing I have at the moment is the best one to polish, but I'll give it a less sever snap and see if that looks good.
[ame]
To be honost i havent read everything, but here are some thing that came to mind
longer videos, 4 seconds is really short, so maybe loop it, slowmotion, other perspectives, maybe show the bones too instead of the mesh, giving some more insight for indepth crits.
[ame]
http://www.bensonanimations.com/moonwalk.zip
http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=156
more horse-motion goodness
Yo, the base rig is by a guy called Brad Noble, I bought the scripts that you can use to resize the rig with, so all the humanoid characters are rigged on that set up with me resizing it and skinning the particular character.
[ame]
from the looks of it, there is quite the swing in his motion,
but it feels like his torso does not keep up with the amount of swing the limbs have.
maybe his lower torso doesnt move with as much as should?
or maybe his head is bobn a bit too much
longer vid sir, longer vid because i tend to go arggg when the motion is too short to actualy analyse
on a side note, i dont know if you are familiar with a program like after fx, maybe its time to look into that too, specialy if you are into animation and editing your reel
or when it comes to setting up some vids to crit wich contain more shots and loops ect (or counters)
go go go! \o/
It looks like a combination of running and sneaking imo. Your feet are not hitting the extremes, more like jogging and with the high freq. of this cycle it looks "forced". Also the spine is bending to much and to early. In the front view you need to stick the feet closer together for balance-reason. But when you wanted a more goofy run, that a good job. otherwise you need to put more work on this.
www.dietrichmagnus.com/jogging.rar
here´s a relative relaxed jogging kind of "run" i made.
ofc if your applying for a general position it will help like for say tv work, but for a game animator position it tends to raise questions.
Ok crit time still havent gone through your other aniamtion yet but on the run already i can see heres no movement at all on the hips. The upper body is going a little too crazy you need to study stuff like bbc motion gallery for runs walks etc, read up on the animators survival kit also, this book is worth its weight in gold!
Also the feet arent doing nice arcs, always check your arcs the best way i can explain is they are quite flat, they never move up far from the ground, they should be doin like a deformed figure of 8 almost, were as what you have is too flat.
Keep at it, runs jumps hittakes are good additions for a games reel..
Keep at it
The animation itself is really old, it's actually a modification of the first run cycle I did
Btw, anybody who hasn't seen the current reel I'd love for you to take a look and comment. And I wouldn't want people to think that run was a good indication of where I'm at right now!
[ame]
I'll do another run now and post it in a little bit.
[ame]
and here is a downloadable .mov
http://www.bensonanimations.com/RunningMan.rar
Wouldnt being able to rig a BIG positive if your going for an animators position? Have you thought of learning how to rig?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think an employer would rather see a vastly improved set of animations than have a tag at the start saying 'All characters rigged by myself''.
With the pose exaggerating, he's already at the extremes of his movement, so I'd have to put in a massive arm swing and have him come really far off the ground, I'm kind of going for a 'determined forward run' rather than a cartoony bounce run, but I'll play with it and see how it looks.
Here's the up and down on the hips. To be honest I think that is plenty of up and down considering I don't want a cartoon run, but if you disagree once you see this picture then fair enough.
And with the hips traveling space, I have them going a tiny bit forward and back again during the cycle, I've found when animated characters in games it gives the movement a bit more push and I like it, but it's a stylistic choice and perhaps a bad one. As for air time, I'll give it a go, but I don't really want a 'bound', more like a race run, but not quite a sprint.
sorry for imageshack btw
Oh and I've been animating this while my girlfriend plays team fortress 2 on a massive screen next to me so I guess I adopted that style without thinking heh, and no i'm not going for a super realistic style.
[ame]
Do you use Maya or Max? What would you say is better? (if you use both or whatever)
I'm having a hard time applying wait and timing with normal animation so I tried to use the curve editor in Max but I just can't see what adjusments to make for the effect I want on a bunch of curves and keys.
I don't want to steal the thread but do you think we could get in touch or something mate?