Car animation

Started by: Tawnik | Replies: 24 | Views: 1,293

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Jan 28, 2010 3:18 AM #541235
That was actually really good. The walk was very fluid and riged in structure, very realistic. Only thing with the car is when it accelerates again, it does too fast, making it loose it's heavyness. Also, you might want to check the wheels, they look a bit wierd with the way they stoped while the momentum is still moving the car's skeleton.
Compose them all together, the car stunt and the man walking then do something like it hits him or the man does a dive role.
sunnygo

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Jan 30, 2010 12:24 AM #541632
I really like the animations! I can't really think of any improvements. ^^;
Airec
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Jan 30, 2010 9:47 AM #541744
The way the car wobbles and bounces feels really nice in all of these, good job :]

One thing that bothered me though is you're sort of stuck in between "realistic car" and "thinking cartoon car." It looks like you were going for something more cartoony so you probably wana think a little more about the anticipation for each action the car takes. The anticipation is what's going to clue us into the cars motive and distinguish it from a random vehicle being driven by some guy (try looking at Disney/Pixar's "Cars")

Does it rear back slightly and then slowly accelerate from slow-fast or does it do a giant warner-style antic and then zoom forward. Right now the car is clearly driving itself, so the next step would be to think about how it's driving itself and why it's driving that way. You really have to get inside it's head. Animation is basically acting after all - every action has a reason behind it and its up to us to decide what that reason is and use it to shape the action.

On another note that guy almost getting hit by the car looks pretty good. Again though I'd think a little more about why he walking/where he's walking to and use that to give the walk more character.

The guy feels a little stiff, it seemed like from the legs up he was really straight and not moving that much...when you walk your upper body usually move's alot more. His torso would at least have to be rotating a little around the Yaxis for example for his arms to be swinging that much.

The big thing though was it seemed like he was going from "walking action" straight to "backing away action". Try thinking more about the thought process you'd go through when almost getting hit by a car. You're walking. You notice something either by hearing or from the corner of your eye. You glance over to see what it is. You realize that its a car. You react.

So before you can react to the car you have to realize what you're reacting too, and to do that you'll probably need to turn you head and look at it. That's another situation where you'll really wana think about what's happening inside the character's head and even act the situation out and record yourself.

Anyway that's all for now, sorry if I was a little longwinded :P
Hope that helped some.
Tawnik
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Jan 30, 2010 10:48 AM #541752
Thank you soo much for every single word, you've just totally made my day :) You're 100 % right and I know what you're talking about, I read the book "Animators survival kit" and I guess thats where your knowledge comes from, but well, I wasnt acting the words of advice W.Richards gave me through the book, I kinda forgot about it.Thank you so much for reminding me :) I will definitely improve with these tips.I hope you can stay here, on this forum, or, do you visit 11secondclub.com ? I'd like to keep in touch with you, cause you seem really skilled and well informed about the magic of animation :D
Airec
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Jan 30, 2010 11:03 AM #541756
Haha no problem. I've actually been lurking here for quite a bit - this site is where I got into animation in the first place. I watch stuff from 11 second club every now and then, but I'm in school for animation atm so there's not really enough time to do extra stuff. But yea I'll be around. Feel free to shoot me a pm or an email anytime.
Tawnik
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Jan 30, 2010 11:07 AM #541758
Great, same here, I grew up on stickpage, what school are you studying ? What country..
Invert

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Feb 1, 2010 2:32 AM #542338
Not bad but the most noticable thing that I did not like was that when the var hits that man he reacts a little late, and when he does it does not push him far enough, the way he eases back into his normal stance as he he holds his hit stomach makes it look like he got hit much harder than how he reacted.
Airec
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Feb 2, 2010 5:38 AM #542805
@tawnik
I'm at Ringling College of Art and Design in Fl studying computer animation. Idk what kinda schools you're looking at (or if you're in school already) but I'd totally recommend it if your looking for someplace to study.

and uh...United States
Tawnik
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Feb 2, 2010 9:47 AM #542836
Invert, he didnt get hit, hes just scared, it doesnt push him, hes supposed to try to save himself, he doesnt hold his stomach :( does it really look like that?

Airec, thanks for telling me, I will google something about it, some reels etc, but Im from middle Europe, so, I guess this might be a problem :)
zer0gravity
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Feb 2, 2010 11:36 AM #542851
can you put it into .SWF? I can't watch videos =S