pls give ur feedback

[ameeesha]

hey all,


wall climb from amisha on Vimeo.

pls watch this shot an give ur feedback to improve it further.

thanx
amisha

[animax2005]

it's a private video...cant see it..

[ameeesha]

hey animax....thnx

i hv changed d settings

[Amrit Derhgawen]

Hey there,

The idea you are going for is interesting, and well tried. However, your animation does feel weightless and robotic.
In the first jump, it just goes up and down without enough hang time, which feels like spring. You have to hold the character up in the air for some time right?
In the second jump he catches the top part of the wall with just one hand! I don't think thats quite believable, unless he wants to hurt his hand or something.
Then the way he pulls himself up and up on his feet doesn't look quite convincing to me. I just don't feel the weight and its off balance... its just going from one pose to another linearly without having a proper breakdown in the middle.

I'm just pointing out a few, and there are more things to work on. I would suggest you to work on simpler test animations like flour sack jump and character jump from a point to another without the hands, side step, etc. And keep it super simple. Work on your basics, like posing and get familiar to drawings and their appeal.

I think you've just started so don't worry, you are doing good.
All the best!
...........A

[ameeesha]

hey... thanx a lot for ur suggestions...i hv tried this simple character jump...pla gv ur feedback...thanx


jump from amisha on Vimeo.

[Amrit Derhgawen]

Hi,

Its good that you tried the jump. I do see quite a lot of weaknesses. May I ask you a few questions. Have you done your basics like bouncing ball exercises? Have you looked at Muybridge jumps and copied the poses for this exercise? Just wondering as it looks quite similar. What is your workflow, how do you proceed with your shot?

I do not think that this jump is working. You need to go back more into the basics like bouncing ball. I can see that you have to learn a lot about easing in and out, spacing, timing, arcs, etc.

Forget this jump or any kind of jump at this stage. Start with bouncing balls and make a bouncing ball cycle. So, a ball drops and bounces back again to the same height and then again goes down, and so on....

Goto Maya settings, and set the in and out tangents to stepped and now animate the ball. There will be no inbetweens. I ask every newbie to follow this approach because I believe it really helps and lets you visualize your animation from a 2d perspective without worrying about the computer inbetweens.

Use this free ball rig (I've never used it but looks good), and don't use the texture and please don't add any rotations. I want you to focus just on your translation right now, so no rotations.
http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downlo...ball-5619.html

Make your key drawings and the major breakdowns and time your drawings. No need for any inbetweens.
Do it and show it to me here. Please upload your movie in QuickTime format so we all can scrub and go through every frame.

Best.......................... -A

[ameeesha]

hey..thnx so much for ur feedback..i ll surely do d bouncing ball n put up a mov file asap...yes d jump poses i hv taken from Muybridge...usually i see the reference video n do the key poses accordingly & thn do the inbetweens but for this jump i have just tried the poses from the book

[ameeesha]

hey this ball character is maya 2008 file n i have maya 8.5....are thr any chances tht i can open it in 8.5??

[ameeesha]

http://boxstr.com/files/4817258_bqaoj/ball%20bounce.mov

hey this is the link to d mov of bouncing ball...pls chk

[ameeesha]

i hv uploaded this bouncing ball video but its without the framecounter as i hv a prob with getting the frame counter..i downloaded the script file from highend 3d n copied it in scripts folder as it was given in the instructions but i m not getting the frame counter in heads-up display...m using maya 8.5

how do i get it?

thnx
amisha

[Prashanth Cavale]

not sure if its just me...but for some reason, Im not able to access the link !

-Prash

[The Craftsman]

feels more robotic and spring like behavior. but good effort. but I can see that improving this is like a piece of cake for you I bet.... work hard good luck

[ameeesha]

http://boxstr.com/files/4822769_xvsv...ce%20ball1.mov

hey prashanth this is the new link with framecounter

[ameeesha]

hi craftsman

thanks a lot for ur feedback

[Amrit Derhgawen]

Hi there,

First of all read again what I asked you to do. I do not want you to animate in spline or linear. Keep it on stepped and just make breakdowns and keys. If you are still not sure what to do, feel free to ask.

You have to work hard on this. This is not working at all. First of all, don't feel bad and get yourself, if you don't have already, a cool book by Dick Williams named Animator's Survival Kit. Read that from cover to cover.

Right now, you are squashing much before the ball hits the ground and the spacing is not at all working. For a normal bounce, this is not how its done. You are letting the computer animate for you and it is simply interpolating. Remember, if not monitored carefully, the computer always gives crappy inbetweens. You are the animator an you are responsible for every single drawing. Always keep this in mind. I hope this JPEG explains you all.




Work on stepped tangents right now and forget the computer inbetweens. If you have any questions, do ask.

best...............-A

[ameeesha]

i m doin it again will post it asap.... i hv d animator's survival kit- Richard Williams

[ameeesha]

http://boxstr.com/files/4824845_o0iby/bounce%20step.mov

ball bounce stepped tangents...pls chk

[Amrit Derhgawen]

Originally Posted by ameeesha

http://boxstr.com/files/4824845_o0iby/bounce%20step.mov

ball bounce stepped tangents...pls chk

Hi there Ameeesha,

Glad you tried the stepped mode. It is a good try and going in the right direction, however there a lot of spacing and timing issues. This ball exercise is all about spacing and timing so you have to pay a close attention to them.

Since you are so dedicated and doing whatever I'm asking you to do without any problems, I'll write a little bouncing ball cycle tutorial for you, and I'm sure it will help others too. YAY!!

The Bouncing Ball Cycle Tutorial

I'm going to teach you the 2D way of animating it. Of course, I can do this with graph editor but I need to show you the traditional way of doing it so you can clearly see what is really going on. Later on we will be using Graph Editor just to fine tune the spacing.

1) First make your golden drawings. I have 3 golden drawings here.... (I) The highest part in the air, (II) Squashed on the ground and (III) again back to square (I). Every drawing right now, should be stacked and should be on frame 1, 2, 3, ... and so on.

2)Make key drawings. Make a stretched contact drawing, where the ball is about to hit the ground and should be almost touching the ground and stretched (the stretch depends on the speed of the ball, and of course don't make it off model/volume, no matter how fast the ball is). The next important key you want to make is the stretched departing drawing, where the ball is popping up in the air and should be stretched as needed, and should NOT be touching the ground. After you have done this, you may wanna make at least two more keys easing out of the topmost golden drawing and easing in to it, just to suggest you the motion and also the slowing in and out of the top most golden drawing. You still have all your drawings stacked, on frame 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. This is the important step and if done correctly, will make it a lot easier for you to animate the ball and fine tune your inbetweens (their spacing).

3) Time your drawings. I normally keep my drawings on 3s' or 4s' (this means I'm HOLDING the drawings for 2 to 3 extra frames) where the speed of the ball is pretty slow (in this case, the topmost part). Then in the middle part of the balls journey, I may bring it into 2s' and in the part where the ball is about to hit the ground (the stretched contact pose, the one before that, the squashed contact pose and the stretched departing pose) I go into 1s', that is, there will be no inbetweens happening between these drawings. This is the fast part and I will be looking for covering more distance in lesser time! I hope this makes sense. This is the most important part...... remember, timing is the king. Bad timing = Bad animation. Make a playblast and check the timing.

4) Convert into Linear tangents and start inbetweening it. Its like filling in the gaps which you made while timing your drawings and doing 2s' and 3s'. Normally favor your inbetwens to the previous drawing, that is, your inbetween pose will be closer to the previous one. Since Maya does not have an efficient onion skin feature (or at least I'm not aware of it), I would recommend you to use < and > keys to flip between your previous and the next drawings and use your eye and sense the spacing. I do this a lot and almost all the time when I'm animating. It is also done easily in Graph Editor by checking your Translate Y. Remember, by adding inbetweens, you are starting to make it on 1s', that is, no holds. You may use any annotate software to track the spacing or may simply use a dry erase pen or whiteboard pen to mark on the screen and track the spacing. Tweak your spacing carefully and you may fix the timing at any stage if it is helping your animation to look any better.



Well, thats it for now. Hey, look what I have done for you!! I did a quick little bounce cycle animation! Its not perfect but I'm sure it will explain everything quite easily and help you a lot. Study it frame by frame and check out how I did the blocking part. I did not use Graph Editor and just eyeballed my animation.... and this is what I got in Graph Editor (check the above image), and finally I tweaked the Translate Y in GE to make it better.





Note that I have not let the computer make a single inbetween here. This is what I would do when animating in 2D, right? So, this is just the approach I would like you to follow right now. Just forget that the computer is your inbetweener. And I guarantee you a steeper learning curve.

Best..........................-A

P.S. You may download the movies here.

http://www.amritd.com/MyVideos/help/...e_blocking.mov

http://www.amritd.com/MyVideos/help/BallCycle_anim.mov

[ameeesha]

hey...thnx a lot for this tutorial its really helpful...srry for late reply will post the update soon

[ameeesha]

http://boxstr.com/files/4855799_ys59f/step.mov

hey pls chk i ve updated bounce with stepped tangents...srry for d delay