Well, you guessed it. This is my Bootcamp Thread! I put my name in the title so theres no confusion. Everything is always open to critiques. So, thanks for reading/watching!

(almost) All my ABC work can be seen here: http://homepage.mac.com/joshgarlick/animat...eSharing18.html

Looks really good Josh. The only thing I can point out is that I don't think that things squash at the top of an arc, squashing happens when forward energy is blocked by something, at the top of the bounce the forward energy just wears off as it fights gravity, so the ball returns to neutral because the forward/upward energy is neutralized by the downward pull of gravity. Also at the very beginning the bouncy ball falls a little faster. But I had to scrub through slowly to find those. \

You've got the basics, let's see some excercise with follow through and overlap from you, maybe stick a tail on Mr. Ball.
-Alonso

I don't know though Alonso, it really depends on what you're going for. I read your comments and watched the animation again, going through frame by frame. By having the squash at the top, it makes the ring look alive compared to the other one, as if it's trying to keep its bounce going, the squash at the top of the bounce is just like a little kid pulling up their legs when the jump into the air. What you suggest makes sense if Josh is going for a very physically correct look for a bouncing ball in reality, but his animation reminds me of the Pixar lamp sequence, and gives a lifeless object character.

Thanks Alonso and Slipin Lizard! I was not really going for a natural look with the squashy ball, I can see both of your points, I like the squash but maybe It was a little too much. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to reply, I am working on overlap now, not with Mr Ball just a regular ball. It will be more interesting then this I promise!

If you're going to do the squash in the air, do it after the ball has started falling again. Then it can be an anticipatory move before the stretch into the next impact. Less mechanical than having it happen right in the middle of the bounce. Presuming you actually want a "live" ball.

But most balls are not live, so you wouldn't do a squash in the air at all, as Alonso explains.

But generally good timing on that test.

Thanks Robert. That's very helpful. Heres another test, tell me what you all think! So Alonso, to pass level one in the Ultimate Animation Bootcamp I have to do a final project?

Thanks!

Click here to watch BallOverlap_UABC_02



I probably shouldn't be making these so long since I only have till Jan 1st to get them all done! Yikes!

Ahh, that's my devious little plan. I've set it up so I don't have to decide if anyone passes, you have to decide yourself if you pass. I didn't mean for the final projects for the levels to be bigger a deal than the excercises you've been doing. Level 1 is basicly just showing you can move things around more or less believably and have a basic sense of the 12 principles, I figured a couple of balls interacting, with at least one tail would make that easy to display and allow some room to have fun.

Anyway, about your BallOverlap
I'm starting to really hate that tail model I made, so difficult to work with. (Please if anyone can throw together a better one, post it up for the forum) It's pretty smart of you to keep blocking these very 2d, simplifies things for yourself (just make sure you can work in 3d also). It's looking niiiice already. Your squash and stretch is excellent, great anticipation for the hops at the bottom of the screen. The only problem with the squech is the bounce of that last ramp onto the ground (this looks like it might be a rig problem) It looks like the ball squashes and then flips over flattened. I think the problem here is the axis of the squetch is not following along the arcs.
It's a little difficult to see clearly what's going on because of the shadows. You might try rendering a shaded view instead of a final view, or turning up ambience so we can see better what's going on on the ball and tail. (The tail batting is getting totally lost in the shadows) Because your so 2d staged you don't need to worry about 3d sculptural lighting because your selling everything with silhoette. Oh and it's a little distracting that there's not ground it's landing on, if it lands on the bottom of the screen that would help, or if there was just a big flat platform.
As for the tail. You've done pretty well, looks like in some places you were fighting the crappy rig. In the longer spaces in the air you've done great making it follow behind. In the quicker changes in direction I feel like the last joint is not right, I think I'm just not seeing it's snap, as it follows along and gets snapped to the opposite of were it was (make sense?) Dealing with tails and overlap you wind up with your keys scattered/staggered all over, I think you may just not have enough keys for that last tip. First contact with the ground I think the tail needs to continue the direction until it hits the ground. It looks a little funny sticking straight out the back like that when the ball comes to a rest, but I realize that's my fault for making the tail only 3 short joints. The flick for that first hop is good, but at the top of that arc it's curling up like a "U" and it needs to roll up like a "n" and then flick over to the coming down part you already have. The scorpian look is okay, just a note, when I watch my cats if they raise their tales (like their arching their back up) the pull comes nearer the base making more a n shape, I don't think they have the muscle to control the tip of their tail (but that's cat tails, who knows with ball tails ). The batting is totally getting lost in the darkly shaded tail and ball, since it's already basicly a silhoette I'll point that out (tail gets lost in the silhoette of the ball) it also happens too fast, looks like their's five flicks, try maybe 2 or 3. Silhoette wise you might try not flicking the whole thing so much, just flick the second and third joint in the back and arc them up instead of around the body (but that's just one suggestion, I'm sure there's many other possible solutions also) That constant slow squashing is very good. Make sure that the tail joints are trying to point to where they've been. Really really good start!

Oh and another way to look at my last crit in comparison to Slipin Lizard, I didn't realize the ball was meant to be alive, so that needs to be sold stronger. And everyone's got their own opinion, so the ultimate one to trust is your own. And it's great to get as many opinions as you can so here's a shout out to Slipin Lizard and Robcat for chiming in.

-Alonso

Thanks Alonso! That's one of the best critiques I've ever got. Thanks for taking the time to help me.
Don't be so hard on yourself about the model, it was fine.

Click here to watch BallOverlap_UABC_Lines

Fixed the weird S&S on the ball on the last drop. Made the the tail so it doesn't overlap on the main body, and slower wagging. Switched it to lines (toon) to fix the bad lighting. I don't really get what your talking about with the 'snap' could you please explain it again? I tried to fix everything you said-please let me know if I missed anything. Thanks!

I think that's working quite well. The initial landing onthe ground seemed a bit dead, but not implausibly so.

the shaking tail before the cat jump is a bit frantic. My cat seems to work into it rather than start shaking all at once.

But I think it's working well.

Thanks Robert, back to tweaking . Next on my list is something with Mr. Ball-perhaps him on a ball balancing (good suggestion Alonso!)

Sooooo, since this is self-directed I officially declare myself past level I. I would like to thank the academy, my agent, and Martin Hash.

Definetly (sp?) easier to read in toon lines, and I appreciate having a ground to land on also. The tail wag makes more visual sense, we can understand better whats going on. Good improvements.

So what I meant by snap is: In a chain or tail or whip or whatever, basically the end of each segment points to where it is coming from, and the start of each segment is getting pulled along to somewhere new. When all the segments are together this gives you those nice gentle curvy lines that you see in whips or seaweed and stuff. The final segment follows this idea, it's trying to point to where the tail has been, but since it's the final piece it's slow, so it often is pointing and oriented one way while the rest of the tail has already come around and oriented the opposite way, so what happens is as the end segment is pulled into the new orientation its tip flicks around to the new orientation. Uurggh This is hard to 'splain in words.

Do you know about figure eights? When a character is walking their hands at the ends of their arms are making arcs right. Up high in the front, swing low in the middle, then up high in the back. Like a C on it's back. Well advanced animator's go one up on this. At the ends of this C (at the front and the back of the arcs) they add an extra little loop. This is the extra flexibility of the wrist and the extra momentum of the hands. So the whole arm from the elbow is swinging forward, at the end the forearm runs out of momentum, but the hands have a little bit more momentum so they swing up a little. The arm starts swinging back, and the hands are drug along from the top of their arc and get pulled back into the bigger arc of the arms, until the back of the C where the same things happens. So all together the motion looks like a figure 8 on it's side, but with a long skinny middle point.

Looks like that's the clearest I can explain it right now. One of the CGChar ask the pro's talked about it once, but I don't remember who or where. One day I'll get my A:M box back online and post an example. Until then keep your eyes open and observe follow through things in life.

Anyone else better explain the figure 8 follow through idea?

-Alonso

Thanks Alonso! I completely understand what you're saying now. Thanks for taking the time to write all that! Either you are really fast at typing, or you really want to make sure I understand these concepts. i think it's both! The Balancing Mr Ball should be coming for the render press soon. Shooting video for this has proven hard enough:

Hello Everyone, here's the balancing mr. ball. Still very rough, let me know what ya'll think! Thanks


Big file, please be patient

http://www.filegone.com/1c7b

Wow, that's a really good excercise, your going to learn so much (and probably get so frustrated learning it ;P )!

It's good your filming reference (or at least trying) because this excercise is going to be delicate to make it feel right. It's all about center of gravity, so by doing it you are going to develop a great sense of balance for your animation.

Wow looks hard. Lets see. Check your reference, but I'm thinking that no matter what the center of gravity has to be over the ball (because otherwise it'd fall, and it has nothing on the outside to push off against.) So when it's leaned to one side or the other, and then pushes with it's feet to get back to center, I think the pushing the center of gravity still needs to be over the ball (maybe over the outside foot on the outside of the ball, but still over the ball) I think I want to see the leg straight and locked when it's balancing on one leg, but i think that might just be personal taste so maybe not needed.

The way I think about center of gravity is like a cannonball that rolls to the middle of all the weight of a character, so when a legs up the cannonball rolls partly towards that leg, and there's always a magnet pulling downward on it (gravity). I put up an illustration of these ideas in my 12 principles summary. But by the end of this excercise you'll probably have a much better sense of balance than me. http://www.hash.com/amtutes/Bootcamp/mytwelve.html very bottom of the page.

The ball is pivoting at the bottom, not rolling along a ground. But nevermind, it's an excercise and that's not an important part.


Anyway, much props for attempting this. You've got a really good start on it. Can't wait to see more. Keep us informed of things you learn and work out while doing this.

-Alonso

Your balancing Mr. Ball is Looking good. There a some areas that I think need improving,like when his balance goes from one side of the ball to the other right near the begining of the animation it seems his momentum would knock him off the ball. The rest looks more believable to me. I like the 1 legged part, it really looks like he's trying hard to keep his balance and for the most part it think it works.

Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks you guys. I'm working now on getting almost every pose balanced. Thanks for the examples Alonso!

just browsing the forums. You are doing quite well with the exercises. I see you are working to live up to your screen name

Keep up the good work.

Thanks a lot dborruso! Good luck with your new studio.


Thank God for weekends! Balancing Mr Ball is coming along. I'm not sure if I'll have any hair left by the end of this one.

My prediction was correct. I don't have any hair left.


Ok, here's the latest version. Still needs some clean up (major smoothing out). They say artists shouldn't comment on their work before people have their say. If you are one of "they" skip the next two paragraphs, come up with your own opinion, then read my rant.


Please don't think I'm coming up with excuses, I'm just thinking out loud. Hopefully you will learn something from my mistakes, I'm just saving you the frustration.

The main thing I did wrong was that I did not let the computer help me, and my key placement was erratic and not well thought out. I really must work on Richard William's or Keith Lango's systematic breakdown of placing frames. Not following a step-by-step program like this makes the process of animating even more daunting. Animating is not fun when you don't know what you're doing. Simplicity is key. And, darn it, I must plan. I'm so upset with myself because the is the 1000th time I didn't sufficiently plan, I have to know what I'm doing---no----REALLY know what I'm doing before I start pushing things around. I'll tie myself to the chair with duct tape during the planning stage if I have too! Hopefully this is the last straw, and I will learn from my mistakes. The Spine Doctors blog aptly posted something about being stuck and in the "I suck a doing this" phase, it should be helpful once I get started on my next one.

Poopies.

That was my rant.

Enjoy.
http://www.filegone.com/56i5

Thanks I advanced for any critiques.

hey Josh,

Man you get so much props for taking on such a tuff assignment!

So honestly I don't plan as much as I should (maybe that's why i'm not pro yet) I see it in my mind, and I'll jot down some thumbnails, but I don't spend a whole day on thumbnails all the time (but I think some ask the pro thread somewhere recently admitted this also) As long as you are thinking about it before you start, and don't just jump in and slop around, I think that counts (at least partially)

Let's talk definitions. Golden keys, Extreme keys, Breakdowns. (lots of different names for these, but the important part are the stages they mean.)

Goldens/Storytelling: these are the ones I'll sketch out, these are the ones that sum up a feeling, or action. These are the storytelling poses, the ony ones that would appear if its in a comic book form.

Extremes/Keyframes: the contact poses. The extremes of an action that aren't vital to the storytelling. The heel contacts of a guy walking across the room (only one shot would be the Golden/comic book image showing that action took place) The extremes of an arc (hand on sword hilt, to sword out threatening someone)

Breakdowns/Inbetweens: the poses that smooth out and make arcs between extremes.

We use the same words as hand drawn animation but mean different things. (the golden term I grabbed off some AnimationMentor blog)

Anway my process:
1. I'll think through my animation, picture basicly what I want. I'll jot down some thumbnails of important key parts of the animation, trying to get good shapes, line of action, silhoettes, etc.
2.Then I go to the computer and put my golden's in, whole body force keyframe on everything I might move ever. Sometimes I sprinkle them through the timeline where I think they'll land. Sometimes I just put them all one after the other and see how they flow, then I spread them out to where I estimate they'll need to go.
3. Then I quickrender the animation (Keith uses hold interpolation for this which helps, but when I started animating that feature was busted in A:M so I'm used to it being all spliney too.) Now I go through and shift these poses around and make quick renders until I get the timing I want.
4. Then I put in all the contacts and extremes, fleshing out the rest of the animation. Grouped Pairs is a trick I just learned off an Animation Mentor blog, every extreme you make make a copy of it and put it right before the next extreme you make, basicly manually doing hold interpolation. This is convienient for dealing with timing and moving holds later.
5. quick render and fix timing (but takes longer to do than type)
6 or 7. Polishing. If your clever you will have been considering overlap and follow through and arcs in all the poses you've already set. Anyway I set breakdown poses to make smooth arcs from my extremes. Often what I'll do is in the middle of my 2 extremes on the timeline I'll pull the model into a good arc making pose and force keyframe, then I'll drag this breakdown pose towards one extreme or the other to make slows to the further one and quick from the closer one. I also at this point try and delete exra keyframes that were set but the bones don't actually move, so my timeline is cleaner and the keys I have actually are doing something.
7 or 6. Polishing. Dragging individual bones keyframes around so everything doesn't happen at the same time but overlaps in time nicely. I try and drop breakdown's before I do this because things are clean, but can't always be helped.
8. render and watch and watch. I write all the mistakes I see down all at once, find everything I can. Follow arcs on everything. Then once I don't see anymore mistakes I go and fix everything on my list and render again. This is faster than fixing one thing at a time.


So there, a Whooole lot o talking that you didn't even ask for. Anyway, about YOUR animation.

Really really great! The balancing with the foot out in space, and the little toe flexes there, very nice. I LOVE that little re placing feet at the end. Really nicely done. Good holding onto the ball as it rocks. Great work on the feet, I've actually dealt with similarly trying to keep the feet on something round, you've done a great job making the feet feel planted in place (while the damn thing is moving all about) only 1 or two pass throughs/ drifts.
Things that you might consider to improve (take what you want, leave what you want)... You might try mixing up the timing on the first rocking back and forth, have some slower and some at current speed, so each rocking reads more individually and to put texture into the timing. At the end of the last rock I really want it to very cautiosly move it's weight (in other words very slowly) to try and do it's one leg stuff. When he's on one foot for part of it the weight seems sufficiently over the support leg, but for most of it it doesn't quite seem there. I think the pushing the ball over with weight isn't quite there yet (sorry) I think you have it right the Mr. Ball getting his COG closer to the ball to stabilize, I think what needs to happen is for Mr.Ball to shift his weight over the higher foot and then to push with that foot (he raises upward while the ball rotates and feet rotate away) L shape I guess (over than up) I think I'd like to see some real slows on some of those (not all) at the very edge, so it feels like he's really carefully readjusting the balance (sometimes you have time to be careful, sometimes you just throw the counter) Man that little foot shift at the end is great, you've got the weight there, perfect! Great job concentrating on how that sticky out foot changes the COG when it's out, when it's close when it's high, when it's low.

BRAVO!

Alonso, you are the man.

Thanks for that awesome overview, of key differences of keys. I've never used Golden Poses (never really knew what they were!), and I've never used Extremes in the right way. Hopefully this will bring some clarity abot how to go about things for my next animation. Great workflow too, there are so many ways to work, I like your way a lot! Thanks for that nice critique, I'll let you know if I can't follow anything, I can tell without the animation right in front of me. Oh, and I didn't forget I will be writing a brief list of things I learned on this project (balance wise). And lastly, for all bootcamp students I recommend doing one animation that is completely out of your comfort zone, you really will learn a lot! Even if you lose a few brain cells.

Thanks I have copied and pasted this into a word doc and created a notes folder with my animations. This will help me plan out my projects thanks

I changed most all of the recommended stuff to the best of my ability. I'm calling this final, I just noticed how little time I have to complete the bootcamps if I want to work on TWO. I now don't have time to fuss over the little details (as much as I want too ) I'm very excited to take what I've learned (and what you all have taught me) and put it to work in my next animation. Onward.


http://www.filegone.com/ue7n big file sorry


EDIT: I'm going to post balencing tips tommorow.

Well, this balancing thing would be an extremely difficult one to pull off.

I'm afraid he would have lost the battle by frame 13. At that point there is no force he could exert that would get him back on top of that ball.

The real path to this bit of mechanics is not to have him pull him self back over the ball ( which he might do if the ball were somehow elastically stuck to the ground and if his feet were somehow stuck to the ball) but to roll the ball back under his body so he has something to stand on again. And you can never let his center gravity get too far off the side of the ball.

Right now the first half looks more like the ball is the controlling character instead of the guy on top.

Yes, a very difficult shot to do.

Thanks Robert,
Yah, you are right,it does look like the ball is in control. Great tips, thanks again for your help.

Some obscure reference video:

two-wheeled (and apparently blind) robot that stays upright by always rolling its wheels underneath it.

http://geology.heroy.smu.edu/~dpa-www/robo...cle_lowres2.mpg

acrobat doing it in two axi

http://www.webdawsons.com/videos/Balancing_Act.avi

I think you did well to make your ball large, the small diameter of the above make for very tiny balancing movements

Cool, thanks Robert. How did you get those, google ? Wow man, I shoulda hired that guy to do mocap for me!

A couple quick balancing tips I picked up while doing the balancing animation, I'm no expert but I might as well share. They're obvious but helpful:

When one part of the body goes one way another part has to oppose it. It sounds simple but it's changeling finding the right ratio because you also have to take into account weight and size of body parts. For example when you are bending down you move your pelvis (butt) back as you reach down with your upper body. You also may lift one leg, or swing back an arm for counterbalance. To really see this in action try bending down without moving anything backwards to counteract, and without falling down. Do not blame me if you get a hernia.

When someone is out of balance and wants to regain composure the movements to do so are mostly unexpected and erratic.

Don't forget to counteract with weight shifts on the hips if you get this right it really helps believability!

Use the ruler tool in Animation Master to crudely split the character down the middle, is he balanced?

Don't fall!

Great Job! Can't wait to see what you do next.

-Alonso

So basically, pix, it seems like in the first part you should have his 'body' trying to maintain its position in the center, and have his legs doing the extreme movement. I don't have my rola-bola anymore, or else I'd take some video of me on it... I do now have a unicycle, but I'm waiting until spring to start practicing...

Cool, thanks for the help brainmuffin.

Howdy folks, lets get started

Here's a stepped spline version of my latest work. Squetch Rig by David Simmons, I think he also modified the thom model a bit. Thanks a bunch David, it's a pleasure to work with! I was having some problems with the foot/leg/kneecap rotation, there are some funky roatations. But, most likely because I'm not using the rig properly!

Thanks you guys, let me know what you think about it! (And that's an order )
http://homepage.mac.com/joshgarlick/animat...eSharing18.html

Check out Modi's stepped "slam dunk"
http://www.modianimation.com/

And check out Dorian Meyer's articles on animating pixel's vs. lead
http://www.doronmeir.com/Frameset.htm
(under articles, took me a while to track down this link)

I was gonna drop a link to Rebecca's animation Mentor blog because she has a link to one of the mentor's doing his preperation in pencil, and it seemed to apply because they're only hitting golden's and keyframes. But all the bloggers seem down at the moment.

Anyway... I think you should drop in the take off post after the first landing. On the launch over the wall I think the left knee should come up to higher around the peak of the arc, (so first right leg comes up, then left leg as right starts going down) I'm not seeing how your going to go from the 2nd ball contact pose to the third seems like it would land on it's butt instead (the weight's not over the ball enough to spaz kick the right leg back rolling the ball under) I'm not sure how it gets in the air either, but that might just be cuz it's stepped. But looking pretty good, good crash landing at the end.

-Alonso

Thanks Alonso! And thanks for those links----should help. I don't quite get what you mean with the "left knee should come up to higher around the peak of the arc". Could you please clarify? I'm going to try and finish this today so hopefully it will be a quick fix-er-upper. Thanks!

I hate to keep bumping this up with double posts. But I figured a might as well notify you all that there is a small update up on my site (ooh, I like the sound of that---'my site'). Thanks!

My Site

Hi Josh!

You are doing well with a challenging goal. There is one balance issue with the landing on the ball, the contact looks right when the foot hits the ball and roll forward, but then the action goes backward, wich looks physically wrong. You have very nice poses when we watch the clip frame by frame. Good work.

Michel

Hey Michel, thanks for dropping by, and the nice comments! I've changed the going backwards, you have a good eye!

Whelp, I'm kinda-sorta done. I did figure out what was wrong with the rig (I was using it improperly as I predicted) but unfortunately it was to late to change all the poses, and I couldn't convert anything to spline without it going all twisty on me. So I had to key every frame, therefor it may be a little 'choppy'. The end needs animating as well.Thanks again guys!

That link again: http://homepage.mac.com/joshgarlick/animat...eSharing18.html


P.S. I'm thinking' two animations for each level in the UABC is agreeable. So I'm off to Level III (with two lives left! Can I save the princess up high in the castle towers?!? To be continued-----)

Nice tread you have going here Josh
Looks good. and is very informative.
Don't really have something to comment.
Don't think its was necessary.
So all i can say is keep on going, it's looking all good


Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours

Thanks for stoppin' by Bertmac, I'm very glad you found this thread helpful (thanks to Alonso). Thanks for the comments.


Might as well put this here once again: http://homepage.mac.com/joshgarlick/animat...eSharing18.html "Done"


Next one: 'Stand up+Full biped'

I'm not sure I understand this excercise. The ball freezes over the obstacle and the bipeds continue with the fall. Is that intentional?

Great stuff Josh! But, you really have to animate that ball, the fact that it stops in midair makes it really hard to watch the action.

The runwithball finaled looks quite good.

I see some of the same force/inertia issues that I saw on the balancing-on-a-ball clip I commented on earlier, but it's over so quickly the casual observer probably wont' be bothered.

The mid-air-freezing ball does look odd.

Now you've done it. Made me actually break out the program and do something. (ever notice how hard it is to actually start working on something, so easy to just read one more thread or something I gotta stop being such a slacker)

Anyway, sorry I didn't get back right away.

Good excercise here. Really good. Jumping over the wall, going up is a different arc than coming down, (hard to fix because you'd have to move all the feet on one half or the the other of the wall.) Nice arcs on the flipping over. Weight over the balls seems slightly off, but like Rob says, it goes by fast. But I think maybe it would help if you brought the hips forward a little on the squashed ball pose (both knees bent) to suggest the weight came down at \ angle instead of straight down, because it looks like if the weight came straight down the ball would fly out to the right.

They're all right about the ball. It's distracting from your main point. The smoother and more natural it looks the more ignored it will be by the audience, and the attention will be where you want it.

Anyway, in my crappy little demo (timings off you might need to scrub through it, I did just wip it together in 10 minutes).) Green leg is higher on the upward arc, then red is higher as coming back down. I don't even remember why I do this, but I think it makes it look smoother. I think it's follow through, swinging green under uses it's momentum to pull the body higher, then as the body falls red that has been trailing behind, continues to trail behind, only now the body is going down so red is trailing behind the downward motion. Red and green how christmassy

Looks like maybe you should be leading these bootcamps

-Alonso

Thanks guys (Dahr, Avi, Robert, Alonso) ! Ok ok! I'll animate the ball, my excuse for being lazy wasn't as good as I thought Cool Alonso! (np about not getting back, I know you have a life outside of the forums ) I see what your saying now, that looks very natural. Great job for 10 min! Ok, thanks, all of you for coming, very nice of you to give some of your time for a good cause .

UPDATE: Smiley face overload! Sorry 'bout that.

Howdy Par-ten-ner!

I 'finished' ( I use that word very loosely now ) the run with ball animation. It can be see on my site [link below]. But there is one frame with the ball's arc that's off (if you step through it you can defiantly see it), I can't fix it since I can't seem to find the right file---

Half of me wants me to post my latest, the other half doesn't. I like to get critiques early---but maybe not this early. Nonetheless it's on my site if you want to take a look at it. Thank you.

I was very happy to discover the 'blocked' feature the simply proxies (right word?) the model into simple shapes. There's another version of this on my site just because I think it looks cool. I've always wanted to have a model like this similar to some in the Character Animation Toolkit for 3DsMAX.

http://www.homepage.mac.com/joshgarlick/an...eSharing18.html

Thanks for stopping by. Any critiques are appreciated.

-Josh

P.S. Do you guys like a system like this where you get your own 'hard copy'. Or would you like to watch it on a webpage?

It looks like the set up is good so far. The emotions don't read clearly though. At first it's sad or exhausted. Then it rouses itself up enthusiastically, and then stumbles about kind of drunkenly. The movements individually work fine, but together they are not telling a single story, or at least there is not enough other hints to string them together well. If it's a tired feeling I would add more halts in the up motion, like decide to sit up enthusiastically, take a deep breath summing up energy. Pushing up to standing takes a lot of energy when you're tired, so will be slower. Being tired is like your personal gravity has gotten 10x's stronger so takes a lot longer because it takes a lot more energy, and you don't want to expend energy so you move less. The last part looks drunk because of the head bobbing around.

But the timing is looking fine for the individual movements, so just need to refine the character/story part more I think.

-Alonso

Hey Alonso, sorry about the delay, I didn't see you posted.

First of all thanks! You are so right about the relationship of the poses, and the incongruence of the 'storyline'. I noticed that I'm spending too much on the story, that's for another UABC, this is still 'Biped Mechanics'. (the reason I did some more 'emotional' poses is because I didn't want just a mechanical up and down). So I'm going to shorten the beginning, and leave out the 'sad' parts, so the focus is more on the standing up part. (I'll also fix the drunkenness.) Thanks Alonso!

Hey Josh, I'm a newbie (senior in high school) and I'm definitely not ready for your boot camp. I've been reading this thread though and was just wondering if you work for Pixar, or if it is just your user name? I was just wondering though because that has been my dream since I was about 8yrs. old. I love Pixar! Anyways, just curious.

Hi Teresa! I'm in High School too! So I guess that's self explanatory now; sadly, I do not work at Pixar. I'm just a big (huge) fan, I do regret using "Pixar" as my screen name, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. So yes, I'm just starting out, but I do hope to work at Pixar (or Aardman) as a Character Animator someday. Good luck with your journey, hope to see you there!
-Josh

That's so cool, I can't wait. I'll definitely see you there someday, I just have to go to Calarts or somewhere first!

Haha, yeah, I'm working on that too! However, I'm not sure about Cal-Arts. As Robert said in another thread "if only I started as an embryo---". So, you're a senior, you must be getting your portfolio ready? Best of luck to you!