rice field hop

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 6:49 pm

Awesome funksmaname. thanks for the demo

I saw your suggestion earlier about moving the packs up and down. At first I was concerned about adding anything to the existing animation and risking corrupting it so I'd have to redo it all.

But looking at yours, looking at your file I realize you used bones but it seems like it would be just as easy to break the shapes into separate layers and move them around. I'll do a test and see how the pack bones effect my moving the packages around a bit.

chucky,
I'm no expert on dynamics so I'm not sure if any changes have been made.

I have been taking notes on this project that I intend to share. It may be a bit dry since I have not mixed in any images or animation samples into the doc. Perhaps I'll go back to the older files and make a few. But a fair warning some of it is dull.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:48 pm

i just used bones for convenience - but yeah, seperate layers, or even just point animation would work the same - i just 'hard rigged' each box to it's own bone... the only advantage that gave was that moving each box also moves the boxes that sit on top of it, so there is a sort of relationship between them that you can maintain... there shouldnt be a high risk of corruption - but if you're scared, save the file as something else or back it up and then continue!

-----------

Couldn't help but mess with it a little more: YouTube

Slapdash rigging, but good exercise

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:59 pm

This took a good while

With dynaimic (toned down from last time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyiA2mdz7ME

All hand animated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Oe_ExW4FrU

I wanted to try and tone down the movement of the dynamic bones to see how it would look.

And as suggested I hand animated the pack. All of it. I took a chance and added some bones for the individual packs and had to redo the bones a bit for the banner and the small flag. No animation corruption.

Note:
I think I need to adjust the speed of the rope some more. There are a few moments when the rope is to slow and to fast but mostly pretty good.

This is the first time I've animated something this complicated so it went slowly. The rope and bell part was very painful the rest was a 'little' easier. Hope y'all like it.

I'm going to start on the water animation and splash now. Then go back and make final tweaks as needed.

-ray

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:00 am

that's pretty cool man

i definately prefer the one with no dynamics... my main issue in general is you don't feel the weight and imbalance of the stack.

For example, when he stops on the 2nd rock on one leg, the stack is clearly resting off center to the left... for me, you should feel like his momentum is constantly controlled by the tipping of the stack, rather than the other way round - like if he had it in balance (totally straight) then started to tip it in order to pull him forward in a way... you know what i mean?

when he's about to take the last jump he tips forward and the stack starts to fall - he should take this oportunity to jump rather than stop to think as the weight of it would not just stop like that? the only stops should be trying to regain balance, rather than a pre jump pause with stack already tilted?

feel free to tell me to shut up though - just my 2c

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:38 am

It works great with no dynamics. congratulations

I loved the doubtful attitude you gave to the character, I really feel he is jumping a river and thinking about saving the stuff from water.
Just a couple aspects I think you could improve:
the second jump would look better if you overlap a little the legs animation.
And the final fall feels wrong. The character float a little bit up, which have not much sense. You should try masking the character to make it look it inside the water, not behind the water layer (check an example anme file here).
It looks weird when he falls down the river, it is too fast, as if there were not water but air, and it's weird that a not deep river suddenly becomes very deep. Maybe you should try a different way to sink the character.
Sorry for bother you with this aspects, it's just I really like what you are doing here and would like to help to improve it as much as possible.

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 5:35 am

Your suggestions, comments and compliments are very appreciated funksmaname and selgin.

Even though I've read some animation books and have done a small amount over the years I still know I have a lot to learn. I'm just hoping an employer will be willing to give me that chance.

Weight movement... I'll take a serious look at it and see what I can do. I think weight is one of my weakest spots. Maybe instead of having him lean forward and pause I have him squat straight down, pause then lean forward and jump? that would give a chance to sort of hesitate and prep for the jump.

The slow movement upward was 'in theory' the water current pushing him slowly to the edge of the water fall. Let me try to add the water FX first and see if it helps explain what is happening. If it still looks odd, maybe I can add an animation of him taking some steps and then slipping and falling on his butt then being pushed over the edge. Or maybe I'll just do that because it sounds more interesting.

Does the weight balance seem fine except for when he leans to take the jump?
Selgin, please explain what you mean by overlap the leg animation on the second jump. The leg over lap each other but looking at youtube it is very blurry so maybe you mean 'not' overlap so much so they are both visible?

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:35 pm

squat down sounds good to me

maybe as he squats and leans, the stack slowly tips forward until he vaults...?

I didnt get that he fell off the waterfall, but now you explain it it sort of makes more sense... still i think the human instinct for self preservation should make him at least try to catch himself (even if it is falling on his butt!)

Keep at it

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:14 pm

I got a lot done...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8pygf6vdao

things I'll do:
fix the mask at the end, the canopy shows up in front of the rocks on the right as it falls.
The way I did shadows made the blob shaped shadow I intended to use on the character not work the way I wanted. It will required more work to fix it and I'm losing the motivation to bother with it.

Last but not least, render the high resolution version and hope my computer doesn't die in the process.

elbramtsol · Post by **elbramtsol** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:28 pm

WOW! the best Anime Studio water splash that I've seen. Good good improvement

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:30 pm

I concur - the water effects are brilliant!
well done!

a couple of small suggestions...
The waterfall looks like still water, maybe have the occasional line or piece of debris flowing down the river?
Also, if you could add a little seperation between the background and foreground that would be good - like a semi transparent white gradient layer at the join? also, if you could animate a 'mist' loop where the water is that might sell the waterfall idea too?

its really taking shape and the splashes are really great! I'd like to see a closeup of that in isolation to see how you did it

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:51 pm

Thanks elbramtsol, thanks for the feed back funksmaname I'll try and fix it, I'm hesitant about mist but I have been considering drops of water splashing up a bit.

Since you both mentioned the splash I'll share some more about it.

Here's video of the splash as well as the pencil study I did for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvVpHEgjiKk

A month or so back I got the book "Elemental Magic" by Joseph Gilland. So on the side I've been doing pencil drawn frame by frame splash animation studies. With a light box I got cheap from Craiglist and some blank index cards.

But I also saw some great FX animations done in ToonBoom that I studied as well. http://vimeo.com/7258783

Here is a blog that led me to it that was also helpful. http://flashfx.blogspot.com/

-ray

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:40 pm

Thanks very much for sharing this. I was trying to make a splash and it was not looking to good.

It's REALLY looking good and I'm impressed.

Seeing how this is a water fall that is power full enough to wash him over the edge I think that some force (flow) in the water might work with this. The way the water reacts to the rocks gives the look of calm water, but I would keep that and just add some white water as the water crest over the edge as suggested in an earlier post (mist.)

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:07 am

That closeup splash animation is amazing. :D I would definitely cut to a closeup of the splash (with sound effect) in the ricefield hop. I'd also add a closeup shot of his face as he focuses before he jumps.

Personally, I'd forgo the falling down the waterfall because I think the splash should dominate the scene. Otherwise I would want the falling animation to be even more mind blowing than the splash. I bet looking down at his pants and then a well timed exasperated sigh could act as the gag.

You've got perfect natural colors on your character and his luggage. I think the scenery would look awesome as an overcast day. Sort of white sky and Kurosawa-esque mist. And the greens more in the yellow direction. Colors like this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamaki/211596790/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/48982404@N07/4540023121/

I started trying color variations here a couple weeks ago, but didn't have time to post:

I didn't quite get the fresh, clean, cloudy effect I was going for.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:39 pm

i like the seperation iwaxana suggests - you might be able to just put a layer behind the waterfall layer that is a solid yellowish colour and change the blending mode to 'tint' tha background for seperation.

I also quite like the idea of him not falling off, but closing up on your amazing splash and him looking down with a :s face... this sort of makes his whole stack thing obsolete in a way (compared to the splash, theres' still something not quite working with it for me)

Thanks for sharing your splash pencil test and animation... i think it answers everyone's question about what can or can't be done with AS 'as a tool' - and the answer is, if you put the work in, you can get amazing results!!

fracturedray · Post by **fracturedray** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 5:23 am

I want to thank everyone for the very helpful critiques. By asking for more from me you helped me improve a very simple idea with a complicated and steep learning curve.

http://vimeo.com/13613633

I found it very funny that y'all really liked my water splash animation so much that you decided the rest of the animation was not as good in comparison. Which is fine by me because I really did put a lot of effort into learning and practicing water splashes.

Next week. I'm going to do pencil animation studies of various effects. That seemed to be the reason everyone like the splash, so I'm going to focus on that and refine my skills.

The week after that I have contract work. It is not going to lead to a new job so I'll still be practicing animation, particle effect and improving my portfolio in the evenings.

sbtamu,
thanks and I hope the link to the blog helps you as much as it did me. I felt the same way about the water being plain and after a few test I made a decent looping particle effect for the waves.

Iwaxana, funksmaname,
Thanks for pointing out the need for tweaking the colors. When I started I used styles for almost every single color because I knew I'd need to tweak them later (sooooo handy, I wish styles had groups because I had about 30+). I did add a smidgen of yellow, but mostly I tried to get the colors close to the photo reference I had.

I'm keeping the falling over the edge because I'm stubborn.

Actually I like it because for me it is obvious the character won't make the jump but unexpected that the water will push him over, at least I hope it is. Do y'all mostly not like the falling over, or does the animation still look weak?

I also had in mind making a cut to see the character hesitate and look at the jump. I passed on it because I made this little story simply to show I know how to draw and animate. I will however consider adding it later on and if I get cocky maybe I'll do a slow motion version of him splashing in the water.

But I need a break from this project and with the contract coming up I also wanted to take a break from the computer.

I'm going to finish some notes I made as I worked on this and post it somewhere, here or in the tips tech or something. I share a link here if I post it elsewhere.

Sorry I can't make it as bad ass as y'all want but I promise to get better...