Hi. Just got A:M a couple of weeks ago and I love Animation Boot Camp. I've tried exercise 1C. Any feedback would be appreciated. Sorry that it went so far over 200 frames.

ABC Exercise C

Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

doug

Sorry for the long delay in replying. Hope you aren't discouraged. I liked your animation a lot and have some comments for you.

1) When the big ball comes on, a little more squash and stretch will give him some more personality. Is he a big flexible jolly ball? Sell it with the motion.
2) The big ball bounces a couple of times, seems to roll a few frames and then bounces again. This is confusing. If he is just bouncing then skip the few frames of roll.
3) When the big ball comes to a stop he wiggles from side to side. It seems like he is traveling right to left and his first wobble is back against the direction of motion. I think that if he starts his wobbles to the left first then it will look like follow through and make more sense. Also, the wobble aren't very smooth. They don't seem like he is settling in or coming to rest, they seem a little random.
4) The little ball enters with little bitty hops and they seem almost too small. Again what knd of character is he? Happy go lucky? Hyper? Sell it with the motion. Higher hops, more squash?
5) When the big ball gets ready to hop you do a great job of anticipating the action by having him squash down first. I think you could push it even further.
6) When the big ball lands, the little ball heads up (by the force of the impact I assume) and at the peak of its motion suddenly starts heading to the left to land on the ball. I think it would look more believable if he headed more left on the way up so it wouldn't look like a sudden change of direction at the top of the jump.
7) The animation of the little ball being thrown progressively higher by the big ball is good.
8) When the little ball come hurtling back to earth the big ball starts to squash before the little ball hits it. If it is anticipating the impact, sell it harder. If it is the result of the impact have it start when the little ball hits it. Also, after the little ball hits the big ball there is some separation of the little ball from the big ball rather than it staying in contact. It seems like the little ball should stay in contact the whole time.
9) When the little ball leaves, again I am wondering what he is feeling. Is he sneaking off? Embarrassed? Happy? See if you can sell it with squash ands tretch, as well as speed of motion, etc.

Good effort!

Scott

It was worth the wait. Thank you for the feedback.

The large ball is supposed to be the grandson and the little ball is the grandfather. The grandson coaxes grandpa to come to the center to do a trick (which didn't really come through, I wanted him to do a loop when he is bounced up in the air.

Any suggestions on how to sell the fact that the little ball is old?

doug

You're pulling me beyond the scope of my talents, but (as Jim Carey said in "Liar, Liar") here goes...

1) With limited characters such as balls, the smaller ones are usually seen as younger, more dynamic, so seeing little action out of them is confusing. Not meaning to stereotype, but those are the visual clues you get.
2) If you reversed the roles maybe it would work. You could make the little ball leap on, showing some dynamic hyper behavior. The big ball could then kind of mope on. Slow with lots of squash would show effort associated with its moves. Or they could come on together with the little ball jumping around to show the difference in ages.
3) The smaller ball could then be seen to pester the big ball in to letting it jump onto its shoulder. Then the tossing of the small ball in the air would work well. At the end, the small ball would squash the big ball, but then show alarm and be upset. Then to really pull a fast one, the big ball could spring back to life and they could both have a good laugh.

Take a look at other's efforts with this boot camp to see what techniques they used to sell different personalities. Don't get to hung up making this one perfect. The key to this one is understanding how to use squash and stretch as well as motion curves to get a ball to come to life and bounce.

An upcoming boot camp (#3 I think) uses a juice box for animation which will make it easier to show some emotions.

Scott