!!!! BOOTCAMP 2 !!!!

Bootcamp 1 was such a success, so I guess we'll continue. In the ask the pro threads over on CGChar the pro's often warn against trying to run before you can crawl, and emphasis building up your elementary animation muscles. So that's how I'm approaching this bootcamp idea, start small, with little projects that can be completed fairly quickly, and build understanding of some of the 12 principles of animation. (Michael Comet's has a decent tutorial on the 12 principles if you are unfamiliar with them) We'll work some of the principles with primitives, and then we'll move onto simple excercises with characters. Eventually we'll work more on acting and emotive skills, once we have an idea of basic animation physics.

The #1 thing you can do to improve your animation is: ... animate. So these excercises are simple and quick to help you dive right in instead of getting distracted with grand schemes and huge set ups. If your feeling inspired keep going, make up your own excercises, push yourself, try new things!! You gain more by just experimenting and learning by doing then you do by surfing forums and looking for that perfect tutorial (and I know because I spend way to much time doing those second two things )

Anyway bouncing balls are great because they force you to work with so many of the basic principals of animation (timing, ease, arcs, squash&stretch). But I'm a little tired of watching them. So let's move onto Tails.

Here's a little project
And the model you will need for it.

So here's our old friend the ball, but you aren't going to animate it, we're focusing on it's tail. This bootcamp is about arcs, follow through and overlapping action.

Excercise A: open the premade action. it's the ball swinging back and forth, looping every 40 frames. Your mission (if you choose to accept it) is to animate the tail being drug along by the ball. Full credit if you set it up to loop nicely. (This'll will help you later when you want to animate arms)

Excercise B: open up the premade chor. here the ball is swinging around at different speeds and then falling on the ground. Animate the tail to match.

Excercise C: if you hate my animating, it's to constrictive or boring for you, well then unhide the other bones in the ball and make up your own excercise with the tail. Try having it bounce across the screen, and maybe up and down some stairs or off a small ledge, for example. (and you get to work on your squash and stretch again, joy)


Advice:
Start at Tail 1 bone, get that one moving right, then move onto tail 2 and finally tail 3. Animate from the root of the heirarchy out.
Get out the dry erase marker and make sure your arcs are correct by drawing on your screen (doesn't work if you have a screen glare coating, but you could tape cling wrap on the screen and draw on that)
For A, think about a lazy figure 8, like basically a wide open C with a loop at each end.
If you prefer, change the starting point of Tail 1 (in the modeling window) so that it starts at the bottom of the ball instead of the center, it will change how the chain moves (super deluxe extra credit for doing all 3 excercises with the both types of chains)
Don't get to carried away on C, keep it managable.


Let's say due date is next Wednesday(Jan. 12th) before you go to bed. If you are reading this after that date please go ahead and do the excercises, you just might need to start a new thread to get critiques.

Remember, it's about learning, so try it, put it up, get some critiques, critique some others, improve yours, put it up, get some critiques, etc etc.

Cameron Miyasaki's ball animation also has a tail
Keith Lango has a quick tutorial on Arcs I believe

Have Fun!!

-Alonso

Woo hoo! See y'all tomorrow...

good point Jack. It hadn't been working for a version or two so I got out of the habbit of using it.

Here's my version of Exercise A:

Exercise A

Cheers

Heres my version of Exercise B

Exercise B

Cheers

There are no pre-made chors in mine of him swinging and stuff...

I CALLED TOO SOON! I HAD OPENED THE MODEL!

I finished awhile ago, but my 250free account won't work. Give me a sec.

higginsdj: Excellent job! Are you sure you need these lessons?

Even if he doesn't, they're fun!

Sweet! just downloaded the project and model, will give it a try when I get the chance

Dunno how to save those files, they are just txt te me. HELP

I guess turning on dynamic constraint for tail 3 would be cheating

If you follow Alonso's wise advice aboutfirst animating tail 1, then tail 2, then tail 3, you'll probably find it easier to disable IK on 2 and 3. You can either do this in the chor (select the bone, then click on the Lock icon), or setup the model that way (open the model bone properties and change the, uh, whatever the IK setting is called).

It can also be easier to use the fancy rotate manipulator rather than the default bone dragging. Again, you can do this manually in the chor by hitting the R key while a bone is selected, or you can set the bone properties in the model to always use rotate-only manipulator.

David: Nice work on A. It feels a bit even, though. It could use more snap in the change of direction. Along with that, a little more overlap between the movement of each piece would be nice as it progresses, even getting into some subtle S-curve shapes.

B could definitely use a bit more tweaking. As with A, this could use a bit more tweaking in the tail swing in the early part. Also, the movement at the end of that section feels a bit too quick. It probably wouldn't come to a rest quite that quickly. Based on the flexibility you established for the tail in the early part of the clip, it should still be swinging a good bit when the ball starts into its fall movement. The flop after it falls is pretty good, but a hair too snappy. It also feels a bit generic to have the tail still pointing out straight behind the ball. Consider having the pieces roll to the side more after landing.

How come the project files are text, how do you save them?

I think that all A:M files look like text. If you change the name of the extension to .prj and .mdl it should open in your A:M. I don't know why your computer would be changing them to .txt in the first place though.
If that doesn't help I can put them in a zip file when I get home.

-Alonso

Some browsers open up the file as text instead of downloading it.

Another way to save the file is to right-click on the link and choose "Save link as..." or "Save target as...", and it should download OK.

Thanks Pixeldust - but as Justin has pointed out - I can animate but those final touches still elude me and I dare say that will come with experiecne - and experience comes from doing

Cheers

I did part A but I have not figured out how to post it being that it is just an action.
Perhaps higgins can give me some pointers.
Here is my first attempt at part B.

This is too much fun.
I should have started making things move years ago....

anyway.
Ex A (527kB)
Ex C (530kB)

Had a lot of fun making C and I've already got a dozen other things I want to do to the ball.

-simon

David:
A: looks really good, the first joint seems like it could be slightly more flexible, actually it looks like you are wishing the joing started at the bottom of the ball instead of the center, why don't you move it and try it that way.
B: I don't see any improvements on B, except maybe a little bit of movement in the tail as it is drug along the ground, but that's not necessary, great job.

Eburrit:
Really close, you have the fluid feeling. Initially the tail is going to high for the amount of force on it (I think) and if it did have that much force it would follow through further when the ball stopped. The next to passes are pretty good, but it does wind down aa little to quickly based on it's previous motion. Great snap in the fall once the ball hits, you might try adding similar snap when the ball starts it's fall, the 3rd joint overshooting the path it's parents took. Looking good so far
Oh and you should be able to use the render to file button in an action window, it just won't render with fancy lighting.

Simon:
A looks good, you got this one down, for more of challenge try making it looser so that there's more snap at the end of the chain.
C: Fun! Seems to me that the tail would originally be trailing right behind the ball, and wind up higher than the ball once the ball has crossed the peak of its arc. For more impact go straight from the frame where the ball is just touching the wall, to the next frame being completely squashed, POW! I feel like you could get more bend in the 2nd joint at the impact.

-Alonso

Heres my exercise B:

Exercise B

Not that mine isn't looking the same right now, but the tail looks like it had too much coffee.

Simon:

A looks pretty good, but maybe the tail should move a bit after the ball stops moving.

C looks very good. The only thing I noticed was that after the ball hits the ground, the tip of the tail sort of moves like the rattle of a rattlesnake.

I haven't done anything yet - I'll work on it over the weekend.

Hi Eburrit,

Just render out the action window ie have the action window open then click on the render to file button and proceed as if you were rendering the chor.

Other option - create a new chor and drop your action on to the ball with tail model!

Cheers

Paul: interesting take to have the ball being pulled by the tail. I think that for this to really sell the tail has to be straight (imagine pulling your shoe by the shoelace, the shoelace would be straight before the shoe moved) The follow through after the side to side before the falls was okay, but a little strange since it sometimes seemed to start from the 2nd joint. I'm not quite sure what the tail is up to during the fall, but it react decently to the ground.
Try this experiment, start the excercise over, this time point the end of the Tail 1 bone to where it's end had been 3 frames earlier, Once you've done that the whole way through do it with Tail 2, and then Tail 3.

Another classic excercise working with these principles of follow through and overlapping actions is to draw a hair, or a lenght of seaweed flapping in the wind/tide.
Keep going!

-Alonso

Hey Alanso, i've pretty much finished excersize A but how am I supposed to make it loop nicely? , I just cant figure it out

Well I figured it out heres my excersize a!

Excersize A

Heres my excersize B!

Excersize B

Hey Markus:
A: good job, really close to perfect. It looks like there's a tiny catch right at the point where it loops, this may be because a frame is getting seen twice (the first frame and the last frame are the same?) the trick to avoid that is to end it 1 frame early. Otherwise, it looks fine.
B: Great Job here as well. On the second sweep the tail seems a little stiff at the 2nd joint. The third sweep I think the tail would go even higher. You did really well with the tail kind of catching up when it hits the ground.

Ya I noticed that catch also and on excersize B I see what you mean about the tail seeming to stiff. I tried to fix the catch on A but it wasnt working and it always seems to have a little catch. I'll keep trying though.

Here is my first attempt:

Exercise A
Exercise B

Cindy:
A: Crazy, it looks like an angry scorpian! Right now the tail doesn't seem to be working all together, It seems to be trying to curl up in the middle. I think you are concentrating to much on gravity, it seems like you have the 1st link being pulled by the ball, and the 2nd link being pulled more down by gravity, I think it should be pulled more by the 1st link.
B: Your starting to get some good settle movement in here. It seems like you are trying to add some anticipation of the movement into the tail, anticipation is normally good because it lets the audience know what to expect, but here it's distracting because it's not physically possible for the tail to start moving until after the ball has moved. The ball should always move first. Keep going, we learn best by attacking challenges.
here's my action (.act) for ex. A if you want to take a peek.




Here's mine
Ex A 175k avi
Ex B 180k mpg

A's a little to much for the speed of the ball, and the flick is a little to much as well. What else?
B the tail is a little stiff and jerky, any suggestions for fixing that? Anything else?


-Alonso

Yeah - I think I'm having trouble picturing just how the tail is supposed to move. That seems to be my main problem.

BTW, the link for your exercise B doesn't seem to work for me.

Thanks for the comments!

Ya your link for B doesnt work for me either. Is it because its mpg?

Here's my take on A:

And B:

Patrick - great job on B! The tail on A looks good, but I'm not sure if the ball needed to squash and stretch when it's moving back and forth (although the squash and stretch look correct to me).

Eventhough I don't have A:M yet, I think the ball squash is backwards, it should squish the sides when it stops, like it has force, assuming of course that this ball is not alive (if it is alive the squish gives it character )

I really liked your excersize B Patrick, although my one critique is when the ball falls to the ground the tail doesnt snap enough and doesnt have the same feel as the other movements which I think are excellent! Also on your excersize A the tail seems much more jerky and not as fluint as in your B. I like the squash and stretch it gives it a lot of character like a little kid jumping back and forth excited for something .

OK, I tried exercise 2 again. I'm having trouble getting the tail to look more limp at the end of the animation, though. How do you do that?

Exercise B - take 2

The link to my excercise B should work now (misnamed it)

Patrick
A: I like the squetch on the ball it's cute Your tail works fine, it's a little stiff, but it works fine for the stiffness you've given it and the speed of the ball. Try as a challenge to make a really loose one now.
B:Stiffness isn't working as well for you here. The 1st sway it gets a little to high for the speed, and then I feel like it would have swung past straight down before the 2nd sway begins. 2nd & 3rd passes are good, as well as the settle. Except that it feels a little like the tail is blocked from going higher when it changes directions to go to the right again. There should be some tail flex when the ball starts falling (sorry I made this hard with the angle I threw the ball at the camera) I like how the tail catches up to the ball at the end. Great effort overall.

Cindy:
the first swing is good! The 2nd swing the tail starts to get ahead of the ball, it should trail the ball until the ball stops or changes directions. The settle is pretty good, a little fast thought. The fall is fine. Good improvements.


-Alonso

I decided to re-do A to improve the swing - the tail had too much curl the first time.

Exercise A - take 2

And I tweaked Exercise B a little bit - hopefully, the second swing is better now.

Exercise B - take 3

Cindy:
Much Better!!! It's fun to see you improving so quickly!

-Alonso

Wow great job cindy!, I like how you got the tail to bounce when the ball hit the ground, looks excellent!

Thanks, guys! On the part where the ball drops, I worked on the tail from the side view, which helped. I kind of liked the way the tail dragged on the ground on Patrick's and David Higgins' movies, but I couldn't seem to get that effect on mine.

Guys, if any of you are getting stuck and need reference, those of us who have completed the lesson can post the chors for you to study!

Here's mine for anyone who is interested. Exercise B Project

Cheers