A couple of days ago, I received some good ol harsh loving from a fellow animator. His feedback gave me a handful of things to think about and consider about my shot. Even though his suggestions meant I had to redo a lot of my poses, I decided to take in almost everything he pointed out to me into account and apply it to my animation.
The past three days were literally like a race against time, as I really wanted to get the job done before the deadline as well as getting the shot to a level I am satisfied with.
Other than the lip sync that still needs a lot of love, I am quite happy with the flow and the overall intensity of the shot.
Hey Avner,
I was afraid I had discouraged you. Instead you dug in a pulled out some genuine improvements in your work.
I think you have made large leaps forward in a short amount of time. There is a tremendous amount of consistency in this sequence that wasn’t quite there before. The fact that you had figured out a lot regarding the energy level or intensity in the audio track I think gave you a good launching point. You have the entire character being animated throughout to a much greater extent. And I’m starting to see more evidence of flow-lines in your poses.
Besides compliments I have a lot less to say this time around. I like your treatment of the center character a lot more this time around. He really is communicating ‘oh my god, what is happening here?’ There is some nice combination of posing and movement with him and the devil on the word “…great!” You are starting to animation an kind of invisible energy that permeates both characters.
That’s what you want to do, animate energy. Not movement. Physical energy and emotional energy. Movement becomes a by-product of that energy.
Additionally, even though you are using a very old, tried and true, theme by having the devil and angel arguing over what the central character should do, you have managed to avoid some of the cliches others working on this clip are doing. For instance, the gesture on “…cut a deal, shows the determination of the character, how committed he is to this thought, but does so without cutting on hand into the other in pantomime. Another good choice in your work.
There are lots of great little moments contained in the animation of your central character. I think the poster is funny now too. I assume you do too.
Probably at this point what you have is a good concept, that has been reworked intelligently to great effect. The smaller troubles that I see iprobably have more to do with your process than with your knowledge of and/or interesting in applying principles of animation.
You need more energy in your movements. This comes as much from the windup as it does in the execution.
Ever hear the flash on a traditional camera build up charge before it is ready for the picture to be taken? weeeeeeeeeeeee; Pop! Another picture to take weeeeeeeeeeeee; Pop! And so on. This is what I think you should start to develop in your work. Here maybe, but in general, definitely. Build the energy (anticipation) then deliver the action (action) then demonstrate how the energy dissipates after it has been released (reaction/overshoot).
Every action needs these three phases: anticipation > action > reaction.
Usually, when animators start to really understand this, they begin to overdo it. Then they learn to dial it back and measure the energy level appropriate to the performance.
Also, I think you can start to explore more abstract qualities in the shapes of your poses. For a great example of both of these last two concepts, check out this post by Keith Lango if you haven’t seen this personal work of his yet:
http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?p=645
You may have to right-click and choose ’save link as’ to view the quicktime file. I’m having trouble getting it to play in my browser, but can download it just fine. Step through the animation on a frame by frame basis and you will be amazed at the changes in shape he has created. He is experimenting with other things as well but the performance starts with a tremendous energy build-up and release and this is accomplished with ’shape change’ that is very abstract. Step through frame by frame.
So, what was that thing I said about “process” earlier?
Well, if you allow the software to show you inbetweening too early, its tendency to mushy, spliney, evenness is all but impossible to avoid. If you haven’t already, start working in Stepped Tangents from the very beginning, and don’t stop until you absolutely have to. Early in the process you show feel the energy of emotion in your poses as they pop for position to position. That advice about staying in stepped tangents for as long as possible is how you focus on great looking shapes and develop the performance qualities and energy in your posing from the very first keyframe.
The last pose is a big improvement over the baseball umpire “you’re out!” signal before. I’m not completely sold on it as an acting choice for this piece but it communicates the intensity and frustration of this devil character. And the flow is a lot better.
After the original commitment of time and energy it can be more than just a little daunting to give a project such as this a thorough work-over. Commendable that you are willing to change so much, so late in the process. Also quite flattering that you take my opinions so seriously to devote so much energy to the ideas conveyed. I take it that my past remarks struck a cord of recognition in you.
That’s where you have it going on… your instincts seem to point you in the right direction. Good luck with the competition this month. Looking forward to more of your work in the future.