Just cut a second version of my demo reel - I just had to add my Wolfy... Click below and watch in hi rez (42 MB):
or low rez (9MB):
Just cut a second version of my demo reel - I just had to add my Wolfy... Click below and watch in hi rez (42 MB): or low rez (9MB):
Comments
More or less finished, but the truth is that I didn't refine the animation that much and I shouldn't call it finished yet... But as unfinished as this shot is, it's better than other things I've worked on before... or so I think. I think I'm learning some stuff here, but I also hit another wall - I found myself not being able to refine my animation any further, because I really don't know if what I'm correcting is OK or if I'm only making things worse. This animation thing is really tricky business - I guess I need to understand more about it before being able to go any further. I'm not a fan of working like a locomotive... I think that people who really know what they're doing are successful, while... say... beginners... work hard and with unfortunate results. There's so much polished animation that has really been... polished a lot, I presume, and it still looks awkward, because the animator had an incomplete understanding of what s/he was.... animating... maybe from an acting point of view, or maybe incorrect mechanics (yeah, it's fun and easy to animate shapes, but without understanding the mechanics of motion the results are artificial), or just wrong planning. It's so easy to get carried away by an idea or by some graphical concept, and forget that we're in fact dealing with acting and body mechanics and things that are supposed to be functional, not just cute and graphical. After a little bit of refinement on the animation, here's the latest edit (this post here will always have the latest edit, as long as the animation remains WIP): Download the file for full rez: DOWNLOAD Today I'm posting a little bit of guesswork, or in other words: pose analysis from photos, with a focus on hips and chest. Lots of animators like to analyze lines of action, shape-stuff, and not so much anatomical stuff like chest, hips, spine, and the relationship between them. It's pretty hard to think in terms of "the real thing" and much more comfortable to just draw a fluid line of action. Not to say that lines of action are a breeze to master or maybe not even a big deal... au contraire. Lines of action are a thing to watch for in animation, and not only along the spine and limbs of the character, but also as a composition per se, the whole pose should flow naturally, and also in a group, multiple characters should have a visual flow. Notice I also added a green Center of Gravity bonus. I made it start from inside the upper-chest (I don't think it should be calculated starting with the base of the chest, because when the chest rotates, if the upper part goes left, the COG moves left as well, not right, along with the lower part. Not too sure of this, but guess I'm at least in the ballpark.) Really hard to see what the hips are doing, but I'll be using my phenomenal guessing talents... basically, let's put it logically: she is sitting, so the Z rotation (meaning in fact the X axis - in yellow) is flat, or almost flat, parallel to the ground. But because of the camera angle, it looks rotated. Relativity! Even harder to tell what's going on without having full feet, but logically, she is placing her weight on her left leg, so the hips rotate as shown... X rotation is again obscure. See how the camera angle makes things hard to read... What's the chest Z rotation? Seems flat. The Y rotation is also obscure, but for the hips, based on feet position, I've deduced the above drawing... The thing is that in subtle poses like this, you might look at it and think you understand what's going on, but be wrong, and look at it from a different angle... and again it looks like it makes sense... but you might again be wrong. But if you can see the movement in context, it's easier. One question for this pose would be - is it static? Maybe. Logically - yes. She is posing. But what if she is captured during a move? That changes things - the balance changes if the pose is dynamic, if she's during a weight shift for example. Again, we can't see the legs. The clothing also makes things hard to read. But luckily the pose is quite strong. She has her weight on her left foot, but is the right foot in front of the left? Possibly. The twist is obvious here (but do notice how the hands are working against the body twist), but the Z rotation not so much. Notice how the COG line starts inside the chest. No obvious X rotations, very subtle... maybe the chest is rotating towards the back a little. This is a cool one. The chest tries to balance the pose by going against the hips. The line of action of this pose would be round along the spine, right? The pose looks simply... round... but in fact, because the chest is rotated the other way from the hips, we have an S shape, not an inverted C. The hips Z rotation could be sort of... flat, but I think it's actually leaning a little towards her right. OK, completely obscure hips, except for the X rotation which is really clear. The chest is clearer - there may be a little forwards X rotation, and the Z rotation is not vital here, I guess... Very subtle anyway, and hard to see from this angle. Cool pose, hihi. OK, she's sitting, so that means the hips are flat against that surface. All the weight is there, although there might be a little of the chest's weight on the hands too, not sure exactly how much. The X rotation, if there is any, is subtle. The Z also, it could actually be the other way around. Oh, yeah, this is not Calista. Ooops. Ammm, too late now... hehe. OK, here's a first run through fingers animation. And high rez version (4.5 MB): DOWNLOAD Here's a first look at my Seinfeld shot. The audio is very clear, so I won't transcribe it. It's a work in progress, and I only animated the body, no fingers, no face. 1.3 MB Besides being functional, a pose should also be appealing, it should look good. Right? But... is beauty only in the pose, or is it also in the model? (Yuck! Stop smiling..... it hurts.....) |
About me
I'm a character animator, visual artist, game dev, and music composer. I like to doodle, write, experiment, and plan my next big thing. I love tech that inspires and enables art. I have a formal background in music composition. And I like to walk around the world and see things up close. Archives
February 2022
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