Work in Progress

going into spline and smoothing out
Submitted by Improvanimator on Wed, 2010-09-01 06:42- Login to post comments

....another 100 or so to go...the cylinder she is holding is meant to be a baby
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sat, 2010-08-21 14:46- Login to post comments

Progress on my dialogue shot
Submitted by Improvanimator on Mon, 2010-08-16 14:38- Login to post comments

Here it is! The beginnings of my first dialogue acting shot
Submitted by Improvanimator on Wed, 2010-08-04 03:30It is in the blocking stage. This is the first attempt at blocking it out, so there are still several more weeks to work on it. Any comments or thoughts appreciated!
The dialogue is taken from Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the film Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf?
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Finally he seems to be coming to life a bit with some mouth movements and facial expressions.
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-07-02 22:12- Login to post comments

Finally he seems to be coming to life a bit with some mouth movements and facial expressions. He is a lunatic imprisoned in an asylum trying to escape!
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-07-02 22:10- Login to post comments

Perhaps this works better?
Submitted by Improvanimator on Wed, 2010-06-30 02:31I changed the ending by putting in some overlap and I worked a bit on the head to get some more expression and take away some of the wooden-ness...
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A few more adjustments
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sun, 2010-06-27 21:26adjustments to the hips at the beginning and the feet also, adjustments to the arms when he takes off so that it looks quicker...
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Nearly ready for the facial expressions and lip synchronization
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sat, 2010-06-26 21:50- Login to post comments

Sorry, I meant this!
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-06-11 20:39I changed the arm position at the beginning so that his arms are closer to his body...
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Perhaps this instead.....
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-06-11 20:21- Login to post comments

I did a pass on the eyes
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sat, 2010-05-29 17:47- Login to post comments

I did a pass on the eyes
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sat, 2010-05-29 17:46- Login to post comments

More changes again!
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-05-28 23:08I am trying to get a bit of a rocking motion with it, which is waht my mentor suggested
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This is how its looking now!
Submitted by Improvanimator on Thu, 2010-05-27 23:28- Login to post comments

latest piece with sound
Submitted by Improvanimator on Thu, 2010-05-27 17:30with sound - the idea is to have him rocking back and forward as he speaks...
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assignment submission
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sun, 2010-05-23 11:53- Login to post comments

my latest animation piece of the door incorporating the changes
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-05-21 22:43- Login to post comments

More Feedback from Michelle
Michelle Teo, an animator from Singapore, gave me this feedback again. Thank you Michelle!
Nice, Christopher. The movement of the feet at the end really add to the animation.
- If you have time, it's probably worth another pass on the eyes as there are a couple of frames where it looks funky (eg f13, f32/33, f58)
- f15-f16 for him to raise his eyelids that high, you'll need changes in the muscles around that, similarly at c. f33 for the lids coming down
- f50-f51 - have the shoulders support the head movement (f71-f72)
- f101-f102 - left foot feels locked in place
- f105ish, as the body comes forward, support the movement of the upper torso with movements from the hips (ditto f167-f168)
- f163/164 - think about the mechanics of the small step forward, it feels weightless
- Have a look at the mechanics of the jump back. Certain body parts hit walls, and jump forward - look at the spacing as well
- I'm not sure about the stand up at the very end - there doesn't seem to be enough time for it, and it may not reflect his state of mind
Hope this helps
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more feedback
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-05-21 09:30Feedback from Hector Antunez
The neck at the end needs to come up more from the body. Do the arms in FK. Need more frames ont he anticipation. Play the era near to the door when he listens.
Feedback from Michelle Teo
- He seems very nailed to the ground throughout the course of the piece. This is because the feet don't move at all. Even after his big expression change, his feet are still in the same position. Think about moving the feet slightly, and having some weight shifts (not too many... just to have him feel more natural)
- As he nods his head during the dialogue, and his torso bends forward slightly, most of the rotates feel like they are just occurring in one axis. Try to incorporate a bit more rotates in other axes and you will have a more natural feel
- Have a look at the arms. I think you are using IK, so they look quite stiff and feel locked in position most of the time. Also the left elbow feels bent at an unnatural angle, and the right arm feels overstretched
- The other place to have a look at is the shoulders. They feel very stiff during the piece. I'm not sure if you are going for the "stiff upper lip" kind of English gentleman pose, as the rest of the pose isn't really reflective of 'good English upbringing'. So I would maybe look at trying to make the character feel a bit more consistent through the pose. Not sure if this last comment made sense, but basically the shoulders seem a bit at odds with the posing of the rest of the body
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latest
Submitted by Improvanimator on Thu, 2010-05-20 09:30Put the left foot forward when he goes in the take. Sort out his hands orientation. Go down further anticipation. Push the pose more. close eyes. Break away from the gaze only once. Lower the eyelids on Now Remember. Rock him back and forward more by moving the hips. Dont move the eyes around so much because it looks like he is either drunk or on drugs. You can break away from the gaze only once
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What I submitted for my assignment
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sun, 2010-05-16 00:07Not that many changes but I ran out of time and I think the subtle movements are hopefully going to come with practice
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This definitely working
This definitely working better. I th still think you are moving him too much for this beginning part.
When you turn him so far away from us I would rather it stay in the realm of where it is at the beginning and when you really want to emphasise that he is talking to someone through the door you could lean his head more instead of actually face the door.
His tors also has got really short and his legs very long!
Make sure also that you are not getting wierd bends. There is some sort of wierd bend at the top of his spine. Also change the lighting.
You need just smaller movements. Just basic smaller head nods. A tad of reaction to those in the body. He is also raising his hands behind his body a lot and that is a lot of work to do. They would pretty much be at rest and they would respond to hip movement but he is mot acting with them at that point.
Then at the end when he freaks out it feels a little wierd when his legs are so together and he goes down. You could use something like that as an anticipation maybe but I think that I would try to almost get a nice sweeping line of action with his chest forward and his head would probably be angled downward so he is looking up his brow at the door so that it is almost like a diagonal line from his feet up to his head.
His hands are not as stong as they could be. They need to be more claw-like. He is so angry at that point. I would really get those angles in his fingers, if you have to shoot more reference, check out hand poses, really get those hands working and make sure you are doing all you can to get some nice silhouette and not just clumping over the body like that.
Something with his hands down mught even work. You could experiemtn with that but really make it a lot more rigid and a lot more strong and just simplify the beginning even more.
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Most recent blocking attempt of the gentleman opening the door animation
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-05-14 22:27- Login to post comments

Feedback I got
Michelle Teo, an animator and AM graduate from Singapore gave me this feedback.
"I think that the framing looks a lot better. But you still have quite a bit of dead space below his feet on on screen right. I would definitely reposition the camera so that you reduce the dead space below his feet. My personal opinion would be to zoom in to the action more, but that's your choice.
- You may have to cheat Bishop's face to camera a bit more so that we don't lose eye contact that much
- Also his eyeballs seem to be scattering all over the place. Might be worth doing a quick pass on them so that they don't distract from the main performance
- f1 - the starting pose is pretty symmetrical and could be pushed to make it interesting. Even if you keep the symmetry, try to give him more shape to his body so that you have a stronger silhouette
- f11-f33 - as he goes down in his stance, this body can change shape slightly. Right now it looks rather stiff
- f35-f36 - the head seems to move very independently of the body
- f47-f65 - watch the IK hands (seems to occur later on in the animation as well)
- f48-f49 - think about the mechanics as leans forward. You can definitely push the pose at f49
- f247 - a pretty symmetrical pose. It's interesting, so see what you can do to just push it a bit more
I hear what you are saying about working within the pose, and I think you need to push the poses that you have to make them more appealing. Also, I think you need to build up a bit more to the finale. Have his movements a lot smaller at the start and then build up. Right now, the poses in the middle all feel pretty much the same, and there isn't really that much variation in timing. Think about how you can add texture to the piece"
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Back to the drawing board!
Submitted by Improvanimator on Thu, 2010-05-13 11:24I pitched this one at the Q & A but it was thrown out! Back to the drawing board
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final submission
Submitted by Improvanimator on Tue, 2010-05-04 09:50i see the changes you are talking about in here and I would not have made those bigger changes at the last minute since you have been working in a certain direction. I do like the sleeping pose here. That silhouette is working better. It seems like you have lost some of the polish on the tiny bits of overlap on the head as he is breathing. Going into the shock pose. What I have been aiming for is that he comes up and really sticks a pose. Here It gets far away from that and he is bending backwards and never really stops moving. Its moved away from what we were working on quite a bit and as far as polish goes his shoulders are undulating, his hand comes off the chair and there is stuff moving, his hand comes off the chair. His rear is sliding as he goes to come back and look at the mosquito. It is the same thing I was talking about before. His hand is wiggling around. Rather than clean up the arc it is going from different poses to different ideas. Those problems still exist they are just different. You could certainly go with this idea. At this point there is no need for this big hand spread move coming into the arms of the chair. It is just I would be more direct about it. Get your character into the pose more cleanly, check your arcs, and then once you are in that shock pose I would stick it. Stick the pose and then he smacks himself and comes out of it.
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latest feedback
Submitted by Improvanimator on Wed, 2010-04-28 14:01The latest feedback. The hands need sorting out. Move the hands back, make the legs cross more visible.. Have the left leg go out more to keep that curve. There is too much jumble when he goes up. Break it up, dont have the elbow touch the shoulder. Move out the left leg, the left hand, so that points of interest do not conflict. Some anticipation in the opposite direction before he goes up. The head goes down and the body goes up. Also I need to get the slap to read more, have it longer and less time for the looking at it and break up the rhythm. Also need to pay attention to the silhouettes when he swats the fly...
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My assignment
Submitted by Improvanimator on Tue, 2010-04-27 17:06I got an A- for this one.....just a few changes to make and we should be good to go!
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Yes this is feeling a lot better
I dont think the sleeping is necessarily too much but I would like to see just a little bit of drag on his head because it looks like he is leading with his head. If you had that heave of the chest followed y the head that would work better.
His leg feels like it is either supposed to up against the desk. - you could put him up against the desk or you could just drop it down. It looks like he is holding that foot and his toe is up on purpose and if he is dead asleep he would not be doing that.
The pose where he is shocked. I would try and stick that a bit more and try and get a little bit more reversal on his spine so that he does not know what has happened but it hurt. Then if you want to you can get his head following that curve, but again it is working pretty well already. I would watch out for cushioning the landing as he sits back down and then watch out for - your breakdowns are being controlled by the computer a little too much....these limbs as they come off you are going to want to drag the hands and you are going to want to accentuate curves in the limbs using drag and also you want to keep that good silhouette, 201 turn the hand a bit. Go through frrame by frame, then 218 as he lifts his hand up to smack hiself, drag his hand. then 220 to 221, I dont think I would arc his hand up and then have it pop down all of a sudden for that frame there. I would probably (frame 221) be pulling it in, dragging his fingers, so that you get a nice smack. Then the same thing on frame 241 you are just hiding too much of the arm and you are not dragging the hand. It might be a littl quick also. He pulls it off, you have got this nice curve, this nice arc under there. All the beats are reading much better now. I think once you get that cleaned up you will be good to go. Its in much better shape.
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Mosquito in Spline, next update......
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-04-23 21:17- Login to post comments

Latest Mosquito in Spline looking smoother, still a few frames to go....
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-04-23 17:04- Login to post comments

Latest Blocking Pass for Mosquito Man
Submitted by Improvanimator on Thu, 2010-04-22 16:08- Login to post comments

Mosquito Shot 2nd blocking pass
Submitted by Improvanimator on Tue, 2010-04-20 10:10I posted this for my assignment. I got a B for it which I was quite pleased about. So the next stage, week 4 is to get it looking more smooth by putting it into spline mode and to address the notes I have been given on it.
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Your shot is looking good
I do think I would tone down some of the sleeping stuff a lot more. Some of it his arms start going straight and it feels like he is pushing rather than just breathing easily. I would not have his hands change every time he breathes. Very often there is a hand or finger moving and I think I would just get rid of that for the most part and you see the shallow heaving of his chest and thats it. His head will react just a little bit and certainly you can cut out anything in the foot.
Then as far as getting your beats to read I think that I would send more time in the pose where he is up because you only spend like a frame there and we dont enjoy that. He is now alert. Let us see that for a beat. You are spending more time in your anticipation to smack the thing than when he first pops up awake, so I would get those a little more clearly defined. then when he swipes the bug off his neck I dont think I would come off that way. I think you can peel it down and under probably because its feeling a little like on a hinge. He smacks and then his hand draws pretty much the same arc off his neck. Great. You handled the notes really well. Keep going. Great work this week. Thanks
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Latest Feedback on the Mosquito Shot
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-04-16 15:17The feet should be forward and the spine should not be compressed. Get up with the chest forward and stay there. Dont have him grab the chair in so many moves. The body drop at 120 needs to be toned down a bit. The silhouetee on the swat needs to get the elbow out to the side and bend the body to one side...
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Another variation...
Submitted by Improvanimator on Tue, 2010-04-13 11:28This was something I submitted after submitting the actual assignment as Public Review, but it turns out the first part of the shot needs to be cut and a whole bunch of other stuff too, to use the Americanism!
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The latest critique
Submitted by Improvanimator on Tue, 2010-04-13 10:09This is what I submitted. It got a C+ because there is still a lot that needs doing on it. changes to the pose in the chair, Cut out the beginning bit. Less movement in the sleep. Changes to the the part where he swats the mosquito. How it ends, etc....
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I did not mean him actually
I did not mean him actually completing an action. I just meant he is not just randomly sleeping in a chair so that he was just watching TV and falling asleep. You could start the shot with him already fallen asleep. This scenario would be fine if he is just asleep in the chair because people sleep at their desks all the time.
I think with your sleeping pose I would try to get it so that he is a little bit more relaxed like if you turn the chair towards the computer screen and we see the spine more kind of like if he is slouched in the chair and maybe his arms are kind of folded and his legs maybe even crossed and I think while he is sleeping there would not be as much movement as you have in his body. Certainly not tapping his toe. It feels like he has hurt his neck this way laying in the chair for too long. It feels like he is listening to music because he is tapping his toe and he has got his shoulders going so if you can scale the chest and spine I would just have a heave of breathing there and maybe a slight reaction in his head to the breathing but it would be very subtle there.
The mosquito is probably too big. It does not have to be totally identifiable as a mosquito to us. We dont need to put it on a microscope. Even if it is a dot zipping around we know it is something that is going to get on him and hurt him and his reaction is going to be all the clarity we need. So I would make that a lot smaller and almost like a dot coming around and then when you go to break this down - it is flashing. Just make sure you have got the separate actions. Right now you have got him coming up and his hand coming up at the same time and the way it is coming up almost flashes like he is waving at the bug already so I probably would have him come up at least for a quick beat and then smack his neck quickly. If something was happening you would find the quickest path to it and not anticipate it that much. I dont think you need to have him drop his hand and then slump back down. Its ok that the mosquito comes off but once you make it that small....like right now he is looking him like taunting him because he missed killing him but once its that small you are not going to be able to see that kind of thing so we are assuming he is dead the mosquito and he could almost stay in that position or we could just look at his hand but not as big a change we are like changing into a whole different beat and I dont think I would do that. I would just concentrate on making the ones that are pertinent to the shot really work.
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Setting the scene for the shot
Submitted by Improvanimator on Wed, 2010-04-07 16:29- Login to post comments

my next shot
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-04-02 14:50A mosquito bite
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The idea will work
The idea will work but you need to think about where this guy is when he fell asleep. But if he was sitting in a chair watching TV then maybe he would not be sitting so upright like that so think about that in your pose before you start blocking that out. Then the relaxed pose is working but the frantic is not coming across. I think that the alarm of him being stung by something all of a sudden is reading but you dont need to have him come to his feet like that. Its not reading off the bat like something hit his neck. You could have him back and he has his arms and his legs crossed while he is sleeping and then all of a sudden his eyes open and he scrambles quick and then he slaps his neck. He uncrosses his feet his legs. He is back sleeping and then hits his neck. You also dont need to overdo this swiping down or anything. Just bam and then checking out whatever did that to him. I think they will be a little bit quicker reads and a lot of it is going to be sold in the facial. If you can get the mosquito or fly or whatever you are going to use, that would be good too. Your sketches are really thorough. I think those poses I would probably change and just make sure you really sell the facial. However you do the start of being stung all of a sudden. I dont think you need to play it as long as you are when you stand up and then go. I think even if you dont scramble just go to the hit. I would not take so long because that impulse to your brain, there is something causing pain to my neck, boom I am going to find out what it is. It just would not take that long. Its looking good.
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Clean-up of monkey frame animation
Submitted by Improvanimator on Fri, 2010-04-02 13:17- Login to post comments

I think this is the last revision of this baggage handler shot.
Submitted by Improvanimator on Thu, 2010-04-01 13:53- Login to post comments

Gymnast Animation
Submitted by Improvanimator on Wed, 2010-03-31 23:26- Login to post comments
Glen Miller Dance updated
Submitted by Nancy on Tue, 2009-12-08 01:02object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-1
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Glen Miller Sting of Pearls Dance Animation
Submitted by Alex on Thu, 2009-12-03 04:05- Login to post comments
Dancing to String of Pearls by Glen Miller
Submitted by Nancy on Sat, 2009-11-28 01:16- Login to post comments
Blocking for the latest Robot factory prototype - its a West Coast Swing Dance without the timing...
Submitted by Jarvis on Sun, 2009-11-22 02:36- Login to post comments
A member of the Elite Troopers does a hop!
Submitted by Jarvis on Sun, 2009-11-01 21:37- Login to post comments

mech2mov revision of week 2
Submitted by Improvanimator on Sun, 2009-10-18 20:01- Login to post comments
Bouncing Ball Revision (week3) animationmentor.com
Submitted by Steven on Sun, 2009-09-27 16:31Animation Mentor Bouncing Ball
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Looking good...
You are having him buckle at the knees here and there and what we need is to have him rocking on the toes and heels and if anything straightening his legs out more and pivoting at the hip. Like at frame 80 he seems a little pinned at the hip and his knees are just moving around.
Angle his head toward the door. Curve the spine the other way.
Close his fingers up a little bit more. There is something about the way his hands are there. He should be holding one hand in the other and it just drops naturally. It still feels like they are help up a little bit and the fingers are splayed a little bit wierd and it seems like.
What we were talking about before was him coming down in this anticipation and then coming more forward. Keep his eyes up and keep his focus almost like he is speaking to someone back there because he is.
Avoid him slipping off model with his jaws. It looks like his entire jaw is hanging down a bit. He slips off model.
Again your hands are very palm up. It look like the thumbs are broken out a little bit and they are very palm up and I would get them three quarters facing into him and maybe even angled a little bit more are him at the wrist.