Models
Ik Joe w/ setup machine rig
Ik Joe w/ my rig (sorry no fingers)
by Steve George (AKA Tunames)
Basicman zip
basicgal zip


So gotta do this quick on the sly because I'm at work and not supposed to be on the net.

Preston Blair Walk/Run info

Actually all of Preston Blair's stuff is good, so root around on that link.

Excercise A: Fall down. Make your character fall, or trip or get shot or punched, or pass out. Knock 'em down somehow.

Excecise B: Generic Walk and Generic Run. Bring the character across the screen. David suggests not using cycles because they can be a crutch. I usually find it more work to get a cycle to work. Either way make sure you show plenty of follow through motion on the arms and stuff.

Excercise C: Redo your walk and run with an emotion (ie. depressed walk, angry run)

Gotta run. Maybe I'll get a chance to make this make more sense later.

-Alonso

If you do choose to do cycles then make sure the final render DOES NOT look like a cycle. This will mean overlaying actions in the chor.

Cheers

We have our work cut out for us, don't we? Is this a 2-week Boot Camp?

There is no hurry. The timing of the bootcamps is irrelevant. Those wishing to undertake the exercises can do them in their own time and at there own rate.

No-one is moving ahead and no-one is lagging behind. These bootcamps will be posted as they are thought up so just because Bootcamp 6 is up - DON'T RUSH your participation in ANY of the earlier camps.

We're all still here and we should all monitor all the exercise topics for new starters and anyone else who completes those exercises.

Cheers

Good - I'm still trying to get the jump right! I'm glad there's no rush.

Good news for me also!

I've been tied up studying for an exam. I've taken it today so now have time free for boot camp.

Hey, I'll be out of town (at Disneyland!) this weekend, so I won't be able to post anything 'til next week. Have fun, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's work!

I decided to take a stab at this using the Ik Joe w/ setup machine rig, but found a few minor problems with it:

1.Only thumb and index fingers work on the left arm - some of the cps are not assigned to the correct bones.

2. The IK setup on the left arm sometimes misbehaves - the hand jumps when rotating the elbow (Lbicepcontrol bone).

These are minor and I fixed the first one and worked around the second, but thought you should know.

OK, here's my first try at the fall. I'm fairly satisfied with it, but still open to critique.

Cindy,

Very good. There are only 2 issues:

1. He hits the deck too quickly - you need a few more frames in there
2. Based on your keyframes, he should hit with his knees first, which WILL jar the body, very short delay and then the body should fall down. You have the body curving forward from the knee with the knee at least 6" above the ground.

The work you have in the last part of the fall and all the followthrough is well done although I might have continued the followthough 'bounce' of the torso with a little sqaush and stretch so it didn't end so abruptly.

Cheers

Hi All!
This is my attempt at making a character take a fall from getting shot, or hit by something.

Exercise 6A
Exercise 6A (side view)

Looking for comments...

Cindy:
Great Bounce! Let's see... I know, Joe's got these huge feet that get in the way, but still ya gotta make sure to make it feel like they are rotating from their connection to the ground, not the ankle. Of course your timing is keeping that from being a major issue, but I did notice it. The arms are bouncing perfectly, but if you wanted you could add a 2nd littler bounce to them. I would recomend leaving the body mainly pointing up and arcing back when the knees hit and then tilting the pelvis and curling the back (don't change the animation after the hit, just slide the keyframes around before hand) to give the successive breaking of joints feel. You could put some drag/follow through in the arms as he collapses. Great job, great timing!

Joseph:
Perfect! I can't really offer any suggestions. Oh here's 1 really nitpicky thing, the lower/lumbar spine is staying concave, even when the rest of the back is totally curled over. But I'm noticing that is really common on all the basic man entries so maybe it's a rig thing. Bravo


-Alonso

Okay, I got back a little while ago and thought I'd put in an hour before I go to bed. Here's what I've come up with so far:

Looks good Patrick I would add is a little bounce at the end, he just stops and maybe a little more arm movement at the beginning like he's trying to catch his balance..............

Hi Joseph,

I could only get sideview to work - the other cycled in Qt by the actor was stationary!

Nice - But (don't you hate that )

1. He's been hit in the groin - no option there. Hips move back and the initial follow through is very nice except the arms swing up. The arms shoudln't swing up. It's almost as if he is throwing his arms up.
2. He's moving way to fast for my taste. It would have had to have been a cannon ball!
3. His right leg stays locked at the knee through impact with the ground. He skids with no hip bounce. The legs do stretch put but do not bounce themselves.
4. Theres too much twinning in the arms and legs. You do have moments of difference but on the whole they twin.
5. The follow through on impact is generally OK but there's just a little too much bounce in the shoulders and head.
6. The whole antic stops a little too soon.

Considering how fast he was knocked back I would have expected the the legs to fold up on the body considering there would have been far more drag ont he body than the legs.

Antic in this case is 'the falling over'. In the jumping exercise it was 'the jump' etc etc.

Cheers

A quick collective reply on the entries so far.

Cindy...

• Note David's comment about speed. On a related note, there's no sense of gravity, i.e. the body's movement starting out slowly and accelerating as it falls. There's also no feel of gravity in the bounce...very even movement from ground to air and back to ground.
• Note Alonso's comment re: the feet. Also, it's a bit too obvious that his legs are still in IK mode after he lands, esp. his right leg. Not sure if there's an IK/FK control; if so, use it. It'll fix the feeling of the leg being controlled by the foot.
• No feeling of inertia. If he's falling forward, there should be some continued forward movement after he hits the ground. Not a ton, but some.
• The pose where he's looking up doesn't read really well, mainly in terms of why he's doing it. My gut tells me he's having a heart attack or something, but the move is too linear, and the hit on the pose sticks too solidly. There's a little overlap as the spine curves back which is nice, but it doesn't help the overall problem.

Joseph...

• Nice work! David's comments seem to cover most of it, but there are a couple other things I spotted...
• The opening pose is very awkward and unnatural, with the hips so far back and the arms so far forward.
• There are some hitchy spots in the "bounce" part of his landing, mainly at the end. The body snaps and sort-of-holds a couple times as he's laying back down.
• His backward slide comes to a stop a bit too abruptly. This problem is most evident from the side view. The slide should ease more smoothly into the final position. Messing with your channel curves will be the easiest way to fix this.

Patrick...

• Gravity issue. It doesn't feel like he's falling down, but that he's intentionally relaxing his legs. Also, the side-to-side sway really isn't necessary. People generally don't do that if they're fainting. The body just relaxes and they collapse. Once you kill the sway, you'll be able to get his sideways movement into the main fall starting a little sooner. Think "ease."
• Nice final pose! Contrary to Tunames' suggestion, I don't think a bounce would be appropriate for this type of fall. It could use a bit more follow-through and settle, though, after he hits the ground. Just get his body parts shifting slightly to register the inertia left over from the fall, then have them softly settle into their final position.

Many thanks for jumping in Justin. Its fantastic to have a pro look over our work to keep us on the right track.

Cheers

Joseph: I agree with David about needing some bounce in the legs when he's being dragged against the ground. I think the rest looks good, though! Good movement in the head and arms when he lands. It really feels like he's been hit with something.

Patrick: Good poses! I also think his body and head should bounce after he hits the ground.

I'll work on mine some more tonight. Thanks for the comments!

Ok here's my attempt at this exercise

the fall

Steve,

A generally nice feel and good timing.

Issues:
1. His leg goes out from him bent - the leg should straighten.
1a. His other leg should have made some attempt to correct his fall but you've linked its movement to the slipping leg. Actually the non slipping leg is virtually motionless during the initial part of the slip.
2. Mid fall is fully twinned
3. The feet don't bounce - I'd give them a tiny bounce early in the impact part.

Cheers

Hi Steve!

Good job, you did a nice backwalk.

One thing that i would change, is starting the fall a few frames later, at least after the hips are behind the right foot, and then keep the foot down on the ground sliding with the banana skin for a few frames. Hope it helps.

Michel

Here's another attempt. I removed the extraneous hip sway (you were right, Justin- it looks a lot better.) and delayed the downward motion some to try and speed up the falling motion while leaving time for the head and upper body to telegraph what's coming. I also played with the timing at the end to avoid twinning and to ease in to the resting position. I'm pretty happy with this but I'm sure it can be improved!

Good one patrick. he needs some sugar i think:

I have been using AM for a week now, and here is my first anim ever.

Incase you wonder what he is doing before he gets shot..he is begging for his life:
so its not what you think its is. he is not giving head.

http://web.comhem.se/~u06200163/1/hohoho.rar
any advice are appreciated

Hi Patrick,

This is looking good.

For a little more anticipation. Try leaving the legs as the last thing to give out. For example head>shoulders>arms>hands>hips. (these can overlap) Sort of a chain reaction thing from his head to his feet.

looking good Patrick I still think you need a little follow thru at the end that looks like a hard surface he's falling onto and you give the impression he's landing on something soft. does that make sense? anyway here's my next attempt I'm actually pretty happy with this one. so I know David 's gonna find something I could improve which is why we're here right?

the Slip

Might as well throw in a walk too!

Walkin'

Hi everyone!

Man this fall took me a long time!

Great to see so many completed, can't offer any useful suggestions so far on the falls.

Steve: There's something not quite right with the walk although I can't put my finger on it. Looks a little robotic and cyclic, maybe add a bit more secondary motion. Sorry I can't be more specific.

Alnori: Can't view your animation, my computer doesn't recognize the file type.

Oh.. and here's the fall.

Cheers

Mike

Mike if you think the fall was tough wait till you try a run a couple of things I see on your fall.
1. when falling forward I think he would reach out to catch himself more and his hands would be no higher than his shoulders kinda like a push-up

2. there's no secondary motion or follow-thru on the hips they seem to stick to the floor.

I just finished watching Jeff Lew's video I got a lot from it I would highly recommend it. Which brings about this question for Alonso or David "any recommended reading?"

Mike, the fall looks good, but if he is tripping over something, maybe show the impact of the foot on the object causing the trip, holding the foot still as the body goes forward and down.

Sorry if I am a little quiet on the forum of late but I'm working on an animated short for Frank Silas (almost completed around 2 minutes of facial animation and lip synch work - thats about 1/2 way)

Recommended reading:
---------------------------
Illusion of Life - #1
Animators Survival Kit - #2

Recommended Viewing:
----------------------------
Jeff Lews DVD
Hash Siggraph Tapes and CD's where animating examples are provided.

I actually found all the books in the world on animation Timing but didn't really find them of much use. I did find the DVD's and CD's of great use. Seeing HOW to animate is a great deal easier to learn than just reading about it.

BUT

You need to know the background and understand the concepts and thats where the 2 reading referecnes come in.

Cheers

Hi Mike!

Patrick:
Strong start. I like the little waver as he falls. I think the point about the knees changing direction is correct, they wouldn't. When I try and do this action myself I find that the direction reversal comes from my upper body collapsing down 1 side, but then getting dragged along by my hips which are going more straight down, or a little in the opposite direction. Beautiful collapse into the floor. Might want to reconsider the arms lifting near the end of the fall, because it goes against the idea that everything has relaxed. It's looking good!

Steve:
A: Good improvements. I think the arms should go wider during the fall, to spread out the balance point, and to try and reach the ground to catch it. The legs pin wheel well, but you might consider having the non bananna one higher in the air when it happens, so that it feels like more weight is over the trecherous footing and the 2nd foot couldn't catch the body. The fall feels a little slow. I'd like to see more unrolling of the body as it hits (don't know if the rig will let you) but right now when after the butt hits the body just lies down, I'd like to see the butt then lower back then upper back then neck then head make contact with the ground. The arms are freer than the torso so they should hit sooner (because gravity pulls straight on the elbows, instead of pulling down through the chain of the spine (does that make sense?)) good bounce, great effort overall, good job putting some scenario and acting in there.
B: the walk is pretty good. Try making the contact frame having the leg straight out and the heel hitting with the toes pointing up some, this will enable you to take bigger steps, right now the steps are a little small. It looks like you have some twist in the pelvis there, you are shifting the COG back and forth over the feet, good. The hands are good, but you could put a little offset in the wrists.

Mike:
Love the repositioning of the limbs as he tries to get back up. Your not selling me on the trip, I think it's because the foot is coming fairly forward already (might just be camera angle) when we trip like this its usually because we've already committed our COG to a place that our foot is blocked from reaching first, I would suggest stopping the foot almost as soon as it starts moving. I think that I would throw my arms up higher at first and then point them at where I expect to land in order to catch myself. I think you would get a bounce at the pelvis at the angle of landing you have, with all the additional follow through that would create. Excellent follow through on the legs as they get kicked up.


Reading list:
Definitely the Disney Illusion of LIfe, that is THE ANIMATOR'S BIBLE that's basically where the art form was written down (tip, libraries often have it, you can read it there for free )
The Preston Blair Book I linked to earlier has some good things in it, and it's online.
The Animator's Survival Kit is pretty good. I got some stuff from it, but I know that some people find it repetitive, but worth a read if you have the time. To sum it up: "go somewhere interesting on your breakdowns (pose between your extreme defining poses) don't go from A to B to C, instead go from A to Q to C"
Stop Staring by Jason Osipa is a great book if you are doing lip synching.
www.KeithLango.com all of his tutorial are excellent
The CGChar forum's have some great threads called "Ask the Pro" that are forum members asking questions of proffesional animators.

Personally I have spent way to much time looking for the perfect tutorial. After you've read a few then they are all basically saying the same thing (with the occasional gem in there) and I think learn more with your time if you spend it actually animating than if you are reading.

I'd say read The Illusion of Life and Lango's tutorials, and then get to work. Then read everything else once you need a break from animating.

I've got some other places in the link section of my site (www.Alonso-Soriano.com)

Also I have a fight scene animated on my site with lots of people falling down if you want to see if I'm all talk and no substance.

Good work everyone, keep going!

-Alonso

Thanks for the insight Alonso touched up the walk a little. as for the spine "unrolling" I'm kinda limited because of the rig one of these days I'll redo it but I'm spendin' to much time animating. liked your fight scene. What rig did you use for your character?

Walkin'

Steve:
Good improvements on the walk, the wrists and toes look better. I'd say it's done.


On my fight scene I used my own rig. I've never really taken to the other rigs out there and I don't have the set up machine. (Not that I can't animate with those other rigs, I just don't) Basically the same rig as on my rigged IKJoe, except having the head and chest controls translatable is a new addition I put in after playing with the SURE rig posted to the forums recently.

Off to work now

-Alonso

And here's my try at falling.

fall3.avi

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Alexey,

Not bad. It reads pretty well except for the full twist (from on knee to on back). I think the twist is what makes it feel too fast as well.

I'm not sure that the character should be airbourne at that point either and the follow through stops a little too soon. What this shows me is a conflict in the weight of the character through the action.

Cheers

Alexey:
Welcome! Some nice expression in the body there. I especially like the arch right before he collapses. The first step the weight gets there before the leg is there to catch it. The toes are staying flat even when they are in the air, think about how gravity pulls the foot down, and how we reach with the foot for our next step. Nice laying down of the limbs in different time as they hit the ground. Feels like he's bouncing off his knees and I don't think he should be. Also you have the chest begin a sweeping arc downward, but then it stops suddenly and goes to the side, the forward momentum just dissapearing, watch your chest bone and see what kind of arc its making. Nice job so far, keep going!

-Alonso

Thanks so much David and Alonzo,

OK, here's the update. More follow through all around (the fall comes out very theatrical, but I like it)
fall5.avi

Thanks again guys for taking the time to do this!

Hey we'll go another week on this ABC, I think I way over assigned So get in here and get to work

-Alonso

Here's another try at the fall. I tried to get him to not look like he is rotating at the ankles like last time. Raising the hip up a bit seemed to help. Also, I worked on the offsets on the head, arms, and legs. I'm still not sure if gravity is correct.

Thanks to everyone for the input!
Here is another try. Exercise 6A second attempt:

Exercise 6A second attempt

Hi all everybodys doing great so far. Welcome to Alexey, I'm always the last at everything.
Joesph thats quite a blow to the gut.....I like it

Cindy looks good except at the beginning he leans back without shifting his weight looks like he should fall back. then when he starts to fall forward he strightens his legs and raises up as he falls I know those big feet get in the way! but I think his knees should contiue to buckle as he falls down and forward. anyway my 2 cents

heres my final attempt at a fall or slip in this case. and my first pass at a run. runs are hard pay attention to the Preston Blair tuts

The Slip


Runnin'

Hi guys. Decided to take a stab at commenting on other's animations:

Cindy, I really like the fall, but the beginning is misleading I think. Adding to Stieve's comments, the feet move as if the ground shifted back from under him and his toes penetrate the ground, maybe the toes should stay put till the actuall fall. There is no follow through on the head at the beginning also.

Joseph, all good here, except maybe for the last movement of the head at the very end - I think easing it out would work better.

Steve, your slip is very good I think. I would throw the legs further into the air, exaggerate it more, but i do tend to get too theatrical.
The run needs more work. I think the body could move much further up and down which will add to the feeling of weight for the character. Also the shoulders and pelvis are motionless and should be pretty active in a run. The arms are too stiff - brake up the joints, make the hands follow the arms and the arms follow the shoulder this will add to the fluidity. I looks like you animated it in a cycle, I find that its a better learning experience if you actually move the character across the screen - making a few steps gives you a better feeling of your motion and gives you a better chance at working on your follow throughs.

Hope this makes sense.

And here's my walk:

walk1.avi