New TF 2 animation
Hi, I'm making a project for team fortress 2 that will involve all the characters, but for now, I just have a WIP's of the main bulk of the short: These will get facial animation and be rendered in the tf2 style.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc9BBfkGXwY[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK-WW8PIuyc[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoyZgTfySI[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Qlz2631Ic[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMzgIHeUHE[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-G7gEHTcQ4[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY476OfuCgg[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKb38bg1L3o[/ame]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc9BBfkGXwY[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK-WW8PIuyc[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoyZgTfySI[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Qlz2631Ic[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMzgIHeUHE[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-G7gEHTcQ4[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY476OfuCgg[/ame][ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKb38bg1L3o[/ame]
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The backflip may be a bit (maybe a frame or two) too slow as well, but that could just be my preference.
Everything else looks really solid though. (so much so that that one part really stood out) Nice work.
also agree on 11 sec mark...all u need is for the feet to follow a frame later than they are now...so it looks like his shoes make traction with the ground...
The back flip is off. 90% of the flip shold happen at the Peak of the jump...so its more like Crouch, Launch, expand body, FLIP Tucked in, Untuck, EXPAND, Land.
Really fun piece! Great so far, can't wait to see more!!
I have to finish this and then do 8 more (plus all the animation that ties this stuff together in the scene, this is just the meat of the dancing, there's some intro stuff) so expect a lot of updates heh.
(I am no animator hence I cannot really give technical advice ... but I really enjoy dissecting animations, what I like about some and what I dont like about others ...)
Hope this helps somehow ?
As an example, I know this is likely mocap but still, very readable even without sound :
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I think the reason why it works so well is because, not everything moves at the same time. When the head bangs, the body is still ; when he does the sidesteps, the torso retain its orientation, and so on. I guess dancers do that too? When a ballerina spins and locks her head for every half spin, for instance...
Good luck!
It's meant to be an abstract freestyle sort of thing so I don't want him to hit every note on the beat (especially beacause that 5 beat pattern repeats endlessly and would be boring to watch him slamming into different poses constatly) but yes, I will do my very best to try and line things up nicer.
TY for the crits so far
the big jump feels really slow to me
keep up the good work
1) You lead with your hands and feet very often. You should try having the motions appear they are starting at the core of the body. Move the hips before you move the feet, and move the shoulders before you move the hands.
2) Similar to the first, you have nice arcs on the limbs, but you don't have them on the core of the body. Here's an example:
Watch your other animation and you'll see this pattern.
3) This is just specific to this animation and not an overall thing. I jotted some notes on the back flip the demo man performs.
Keep up the good work man, I can't wait to see more.
about the dancing...i have to disagree with the hitting the beats...ONLY BC...
demo man isnt a real dancer...part of the campyness' of it is that he's off beat...
kinda like that guy at a wedding who just dances...regardless of what song is playing....it can be any song and he will dance the same...
at leat thats what i got from it...i def dont want to see him hitting the beats and syncing with the music...personal pref. though...i like that hes off.
Brad, thanks for putting in a voice for not keeping things too structured, your comments definately resonate with my intentions (I wanted this dance to be pretty loose and a little amateurish). I think that essentially, I need to strike the right balance, so that the animation FEELS right and satisfying while still having that imperfection to it.
Thanks a lot for the comments so far guys, checking this thing from work is making me hungry to get home and get back into it.
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Thanks as always for all feedback
P.S. Yes this one has motion blur, the final renders will have motion blur. I prob shoudnt have left blur on for crits but I didnt think about it, and I cant be bothered re uploading right this minute
I think playing off the character's personalities and using that with the dance would help sell this even more, since the movements are cool! Just feel it falls a little shallow & short on how the TF2 characters and classes are personified.
It'll be cool to see all of these together in one short, can't wait!
Really excellent crit.
Why do I envision heavy and medic dancing DDR style :O
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not going to nitpick anything, just pure entertaining for me
huge step in the right direction from the start ! totally looking forward to more videos like that
*pressesreplay*
I love maximizing the Pyro video and having him fill my monitor with mad dance skills. (A .gif of the video for a wallpaper would be amazing, though I would never get any work done.)
Can't really critique the animation, i suck at it :P
That's some fine work you've got there:D
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A blood elf dance from a TF2 Sniper!
F- YEAH : D
I know its not really in the rules but i could see valve implementing awesome animations
this video I found is prob one of the worst examples of animation but it gets the idea of movin to the music across that I'm trying to convey:
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start them slow then drop them in at the same time.
Hope that helps, animations are great though
To NathanA, in all honesty I don't really understand what you would have me do, because at the moment there is already a dance beat corresponding to every single musical beat. I can definitely see how you might want the dancing to start off slower, but I don't think that would actually look any better, in fact, given that I have around 20 seconds of dancing for each character, I don't want to waste any of that time (and in the video they will be bursting into dance spontaneously, not ramping up to it).
If the animation you linked is doing something I'm not seeing (I.E. more than just lining up dance moves to the song beats) then please tell me.
Ty again everyone.
the character does NOT MEED TO BE syncipated....thats when a dancer hits a move on exact beats of a song rather than dancing on the 8 count...ALL MUSIC is on an 8 count...i know all of this bc my wife is a pretty famous salsa dancer from NY.
this is her dancing with her partner/friend. and yes that really is my wife...
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What i see with these:
the idea is that these characters are dancing, but to their own rythm in their head...MUCH LIKE 90% of people who go clubbing...most people have no clue how to find the beat or to dance....they just move with the natural rythm in their mind...
Ive been a pro salsa dancer, hip hop, break and pop locker for a LONG time on the side of being an animator....
Thes animations are awesome...why? bc they are basically characters just dancing...they remind of the guy at a wedding that is out there moving...regardless of the song, they do the same thing. MOST people are actually like this.
Youre hitting big poses on certain hard beats...usually on the 1 beat or the 8. wich makes these funny and cool.
If you guys are wanting full on choreography with this stuff, thats just silly.
this is a very good friend of mine dancing freestyle, he is sycipating here...dancing on the notes instead of the 1-8 beat counts....in some areas he goes back to hitting the beat rather than the instruments.
NOTICE that nothing about this looks silly or funny...why? bc hes "Dancing" correctly ....these TF2 guys should NOT be dancing correctly IMO. The sillier, and more off beat/ off balance the better with these!
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I might actually use some of your friends moves as reference though if any more of them do hip hop stuff
Ty for ALL comments though, I'm making this for the internet population to enjoy more than for myself (the finished thing isn't really aimed as a reel piece) so any comments give me a wider view of how people react to what is, essentially, a product that is designed to appeal to them.
Editing the 4th reference video now, enjoying checking the thread every so often
As far as your animation goes James, watch your silhouettes and hold your poses longer, you missed some good opportunities with the sniper in this regards. Like when he first throws his arms to the side, hold that pose (moving hold of course) for a few more frames before he lifts his arms up. Also he loses balance at the pose at frame 8. Also the all the arms and legs seem to arrive at their destination at the same time, you should delay some of them.
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For each video I cut a reference in Sony Vegas out of random clips from youtube or whatnot. It's usually quite rough but hits the beats I want to hit etc. Then I just animate the whole thing strait ahead. To be honest I don't block things out, I just go wham bam thank you mam cause its more dynamic, and follow the ref reasonably closely, but then change a bunch of stuff to fit the character etc.
At the moment, I really like the quality of the animations themselves (I see way too many over-animated, badly balanced stuff around forums and released games, your stuff is much better and I like it!) but still it really looks like you took a bunch of dance moves, queued them together THEN added the music on top at the very end hoping it would look funny. It feels very random ...
I know you will say that random is the goal you re trying to achieve - but I dont think its good enough a justification hehe. Also, real 'not so good' dancers never have such a variety of moves, they usually do the same thing over and over, wich in itself can be very funny. Maybe thats something to explore too.
So I think my gut feeling is ... such characters, knowing so many moves, seem like eperienced dancers, hence they should move to the beat! (maybe its youtube de-synching the video but I doubt it ... They should hold poses on the beat longer instead of rushing to the next pose... especially on such a famous song that everybody knows the beat of!)
Hope this helps!