Practise animation, Feedback welcome :)

Mathew O

Hey guys, I just finished up a short animation for a deadline at Uni but I would still like any constructive criticism as I plan on including it in my portfolio when I start building it.

Thanks guys

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93T9EvFoNM0[/ame]

(Couldn't figure out how to embed..)
Oh it just auto embeds... Thanks Gilesruscoe

gilesruscoe

your link didnt work. Just copy and paste the URL, not the embedded link!

Bad Spleen

You need more movement in the torso, it stays quite still and doesn't flex much.

The initial shoulder shrugs are too jerky, and don't flow very well.

Overall, it's good. The end with the floppy legs is very well done. I just feel it needs more punchyness, and the key poses need exaggerating more.

Mezz

Looking good!!

I think what stands out to me most is when he moves from action to action, it seems like he just kinda glides into the next pose (basically when he moves towards and away from the bucket). Just give him a more direct movement to where he's going, and I think it'll look good. I also agree with Bad Spleen that some more exaggerated key poses could also benefit the anim overall.

The acting looks well done though, so good job!

Mathew O

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Nice useful feedback

dogzer

you need to work on your lip sync a lot

Mathew O

dogzer wrote: »

you need to work on your lip sync a lot

Thanks dude, any chance of some tips? This is my first lip sync..

Mezz

When it comes to lip sync, first of all, have a mouth faces chart to work from. (Something with exaggerated faces making "mm", "ee", "ahh", "oo" faces, etc.) I'm sure a google image search should come up with some good ones. That way, for each mouth sound, you'll have a good reference to work from.

Next, take your audio into some sort of editing program, where you can slowly scrub though the audio frame by frame. Have paper or a note taking program ready, so you can take down each mouth sound for every other frame, or few frames, or one frame, depending on the sound. If the program you're animating with can import audio, do that too to stay on track. From there, I find it's quite simple to just slot in the mouth position for each sound along the timeline.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. Good luck!

Mathew O

Thanks alot Mezz, that really helps actually. Is this pretty much the same as a dope sheet?

Stinger88

Look at Animation Phonemes.

http://animation.about.com/od/flashanimationtutorials/a/animationphonem.htm

generally I create blend shapes of each phoneme mouth shape and you can blend between the mouth shapes to sync with sound. It depends on your workflow and type of rigging of course.

Hito

the first line is very crammed with movement. You want to pick out a word and emphasize that.

"Okay so my leg or my left arm occasionally go to sleep", the emphasis is on "occasionally" so put your emphasis on that.

The second line you did better. "And you wanna make it a health problem", the emphasis is on "You", and you put the big gesture on that time.

then he falls and says "no I can get up it's well" you made the emphasis on "No", but you can push it more.

then he says "no thank you I don't need your help." you want to make the action stronger there. You have him emoting since his hand is busy arranging his legs, but it's a bit understated.

Lip sync timing seems spoty, sometimes it seems on time while other times it seems not. again same thing here, emphasis the words you picked for the gestures, make those phonemes noticeble. the other syllables are less strict and often times you can slide through multiple sounds with one or two mouth shapes. If you put a mouth shape in for every syllable things will feel mechanical. And if you haven't done it, put the phonemes just before you hear the syllable, 1 or 2 frames if you work at 24FPS; 2 or 3 if 30FPS; not when you see the waveform on the timeline.

The red guy at the beginning seems like he's in a different world and not hearing the what's being said at all. I'd put something in to indicate he heard what's being said. He could be sympathetic, or exacerbated, or something else. but right now it seems like he's completely indifferent. When he gets up to help he's shuffling his feet, which feels weird. He could be jumping up to help, then he would be closer; or he could be reluctant to help, then he would be further away. Don't be afraid to intrude on the 1st character's personal space.

Mezz

Mathew O wrote: »

Thanks alot Mezz, that really helps actually. Is this pretty much the same as a dope sheet?

lol Actually, a dope sheet is exactly what I had in mind for ideally working on. I just wasn't sure your level of (classic?) animation training, and didn't wanna start throwing terms at you like 'dope sheet', in case you thought I was calling you a dope or the like.

Anyway, yes, if you have that, that's the perfect place to slot in the mouth sounds as they hit each frame in the timeline. I like to embellish on how I write each mouth sound, so I know what to play up with the mouth when I animate it (eg, if it's a really stressed "Oooo" sound, I might write a bigger 'O' and then write them smaller as they trail off). Whatever works out best for your own mind, though!