Akem Singh - Jump and run - Critique

HAHAHAHAHA! The run is awesome!

There little things I'd tweak for the run. From x5 to 6 the spacing screen right seems suddenly bigger than right before. Same from x11 to 12, etc. With that sudden acceleration and slower movement beforehand it gives the run a little sticky feel to it. It's like he's really trying to push off for the next step and then suddenly he gets let go. So make sure that the spacing is smoother.

Same thing goes for the jump. From x19 to 21 there's a certain amount of speed and then from x21 to 23 the spacing is suddenly very small and it slows down the movement quite a bit.

Right after the jump, from x25 to 26 the spacing is suddenly much bigger.

After the landing from x40 to 41 there's again a sudden spacing increase.

Overall make sure to smooth out the translation to the right so it's not so harsh in terms of changes.

The jump overall feels like he lifts off and is then being sucked over to the right. The movement is faster than the speed of the run.

It's a great first pass, you're already very close, nicely done!!

Cheers
JD

Akem Singh - Sneak and jump - Critique

First the jump.

It has a nice feel to it!

I wouldn't go as far back as x3. Looking at that frame alone he'd fall backwards. If one of his feet was back there to push him forward again, then no problem. But as of now, it's a bit too far.

When he lunges forward, I would bring out his right leg earlier and stretch it forward a bit more, so that it's part of the jump. If you look at x10 to 17 for instance, the right leg is pretty much the same, save some rotation. But if you're not using it to lead the jump, then you might as well just do a regular jump with the body leading the action.

Overall though I feel that the arc is a bit flat. It feels like he's floating a bit to the right. If you bring him up higher than I can buy the distance. Unless he really leans forward.

The stop is a bit abrupt on x32, he swings back pretty fast and then stops. Especially given the distance, I would actually have him bounce a little bit further to the right with a little step.

Hahaha! The sneak is coming along very nicely! Little things:

- I would slow down how quickly the foot rotates up from x21 go x25 (and subsequent steps).

- the footroll is a bit early. You have it start right when the foot plants, like on x5. I'd actually have it go down up to x21 because he's applying pressure onto the foot in order to get up. Then, as he's moving the leg forward he's really trying to reach forward, so his back foot will roll up during that time.

- The side to side move (front view) could happen 3 or 4 frames earlier and end later. Right now it's a tad fast, which makes it a bit weird when he goes to the right and then stops so quickly. He's sneaking, on his toes, so he won't have that much muscle power to quickly stop his body. So I would soften that part a bit.

Little things! Almost done!!!

Akem Singh - Sneak - Critique

The sneak is getting better! I know it's a sneak and that when you sneak you're trying to be careful and quiet, but something is feeling a bit soft right now. I think it's the combination of the how soft the body rotates up and down and how the toes fold right after the plant. If you could sharpen up the body movement especially, and maybe reduce the amount of up and down could help. I would also wait until the foot touches the ground before you start lowering the body so that the body is more supported by the foot.


Almost there!
Cheers

JD

Akem Singh - Sneak - Critique

Animation wise it's better than you think! There are three big-ish issues that stood out, but that's all fixable, I don't think you have to start from scratch.

First, the body feels a bit like it's underwater. The up and down feels too spliney and you don't feel any gravity. When the body goes up and the legs push the body up for that, it will move slow at the beginning and the gradually accelerate until the highest point, then the body will have some hang time and then gradually fall down until the foot is firmly planted and the leg stops the fall. That's in essence what happens to the body during a walk. In your case the body up and down timing feels the same, there is no acceleration in the up nor in the down, so just work on the timing for that first. The weight of the body has work and since you're tweaking the body, it will mess up your legs, so worry about them later.

2nd thing, speaking of body, it looks like the feet are moving forward too much and leaving the body behind. Watch x114 and x143 for instance. The body would fall backwards during those moments since it's off balance.

3rd thing, in the front view, your feet are pretty wide apart and there are no arcs during the steps. The feet are pointed straight towards us and move in just that axis and up, but not sideways. You can rotate the feet out a bit, bring them closer together and introduce an arced path for each step. The feet can arc in or out during the passing, that's up to you.

I would work on the body first, then address the bigger arc issues with the feet and then go from there. Let's not worry about detail stuff yet.

Hope that helps!
Cheers
JD

Akem Singh - Walk - Critique

There was a question about my walk cycle workflow:

I haven't animated a cycle in a while but have done walks from A to B just recently. Either way, I focus on the body first, yes. I want to get that timing right so that the translations feel right. The main weight has to work. If you tweak the legs you just have to know that that part will change the moment you change something in the body. So I won't bother with foot rolls and off set and crazy stuff like that. First the body, then the hips, then the legs and feet. That's kinda the approach. Anything that will screw up the legs gets finished first. Not polish polish finished, but finished to a point where additional changes won't affect my legs, knees and feet.

Your walk looks already great!

Looking at the body, you're in a great position!
Front view: the side to side is nicely exaggerated, the up and down has a nice feel to it as well.
Side view: here's where I would tweak the forward translation a bit. Right now the body slows down towards the point where it pushes up for the next step. Looking at the spacing it gets smaller and smaller up to x15 for instance and then from x15 to x16 the spacing is much bigger. Watching that in real time gives the impression of a little pause for each step, which makes it a bit hiccuppy. I would actually take that out and make the forward translation linear or at least reduce it by a lot in order to get rid of that pause feel.

The feet:
It's good to get rid of any default rotations in any body part. So in the front view the feet are pointing straight towards the camera. You can rotate them out, one a bit more than the other, for asymmetry. Then, the bottom part is flat and parallel to the ground, so tilt the foot sideways the moment it gets off the ground. I like the outer arc the foot is following though as it moves forward.
One thing though, the body forward up and down rotation (side view) feels odd. From x3 to 6 for instance, as the body goes up, I would rotate the body forward for the overlap. Kinda where it is at x10, but start that much sooner so you get earlier into the body rotation on x13, then after the step on x18 the body would be done again, etc.

Looking great already!!
Cheers
JD

Akem Singh - Ball and obstacle - Critique

​The clip looks good!

It's overall pretty much done, I have only a few little areas in mind that would need tweaking:

First bounce feels good up until around x14. After that the ball seems to get pulled to the left. The momentum increases and the arc gets stretched out. I would adjust the spacing backwards from x14/15 on, so that you don't have to change all of the rest.

Watch how far screen right the ball goes after the bounce on x20 to x26. After x26 it feels as if the ball is slowing down in midair and doesn't travel as far to the right anymore. So check your spacing and adjust the arc.

Watch where you're leading the ball from x31 to 32. If you'd follow that line up it's pretty steep. But from x33 to around 37 it feels again as if the ball is getting pulled to the left. I would angle the blue object more down (left side) so it would make sense for the ball to go that far to the left and with that arc.

The roll up is good, although you could speed it up a bit more, especially during the x080 area, so you can really feel how it accelerates during that part.

There's another section where the ball feels like it's being pulled to the right, from x94 to 97. The rest is great.

So overall good, just little things here and there!

Akem Singh - ball and tail pt2 - Critique

Here's a follow up on a previous feedback post:

Hey Jean,

Thanks for the feedback but i'd like a little more information since its kind of hard to follow in texts form. Maybe little sketch's or doodles would make it easier to describe what your saying?

Yes please, tell me when I'm not clear enough. I need to make sure that the critique makes sense!

Anyway, I'll try and break down the bits that I didn't understand:

"when it lands on x10, the way the tail curves, you could have it a bit more to the left (so that the tip is not right above the ball), but then on x11 the tail wouldn't be up anymore, but pointing down"

Okay, this part I get! :)

:)

"(imagine a whip action, or a flag waving and you're looking at it from the top)"

I'm having trouble relating this to a tail on a ball?

I meant this:
Imagine when you crack a whip on the ground, after you swing it up, when you throw it down, that downward motion, that last bit where the tip is point up and then goes down. Or take your hand, straighten the fingers like for a salute, but the ball of the hand on a table, not but the hand down flat on the table. But do this so that it's not laying flat at once, but you go from the ball to the tip of the fingers. One bit at a time rotates until the tip is down. Your ball tail move should be like this when it hits the ground. It should curl over the ball, it should curl down to the ground.

"As the ball goes up it would be more like x16 where it follows the path of action"

Could you describe a bit more about following the path of action?

Putting aside all the overlap and good stuff, if you have a tail attached to a ball, it's going to follow where the ball is going. The ball is pulling the tail. Wherever the ball is moving, that his path, or path of action: straight roll, bounce up and down, bounce left to right, etc. So the ball will follow that path and because it's a soft tail and bendy, it will follow the path pretty closely as opposed to being just still and hanging in there for the ride.

"and after the apex curl up, so not down like on x20. More up but not as much, maybe half of that"

Sorry but this has me totally confused! Hmm, to me it does look like its curling up already at x20. How can I make it go up
half as much without bringing it down?

This goes back to the tail following the path of the ball. So at the apex, meaning the highest point of the bounce, the tail will be curled less down, because it needs to stay on the path of the ball. See the red lines.

"as the ball falls the tail gets pulled again along the path of action and ends up like on x26"

Please explain this path of action thing as it relates to a ball & tail. Seems quite important in getting this to look right.

Check the pictures above for the path of action explanation. In your clip, on x26, the tail is straight and point up, right on the path of the ball falling down.

"one thing I wouldn't do is the direction change like you have it on x55, where it goes down and the up again. That looks more like a voluntary change vs. a straight physics overlapping action"

Don't understand this part. Where does it change direction at x55? Do you mean after x35 where it hits the wall and then spins in the other direction? Is this wrong?

Areas like x48 or x55 do look wrong if you are going for physics and even on a character level it looks odd. This being an overlap exercise the tail has to follow and be pulled by the ball, so if the tail is moving downwards, clockwise, it can only change the downward direction if the ball forces the tail to do so.

"I would keep it rolling beyond x70, it comes to a sudden stop there."

Would the ball "roll" at all since it has a tail attached to it? I couldn't quite picture what it would do but I guessed it would keep bouncing a little more and then come to a rest with the tail overlapping over the ball a little?

That's exactly it. The ball's bounces are getting smaller so the tail will have to come down and not stay up and at the end the ball can roll a bit and take the tail up, over the ball, like you said.

I think I made the mistake of not making the distinct between "a voluntary change vs. a straight physics overlapping action" and assumed there was suppose to be some action propelled by the ball having some character or motivation of its own?

Yes and no. It's true that in those bouncing ball assignments with tails the balls suddenly don't rotate anymore. :) It's just a ball taking the tail with it. But for the sake of the exercise, it's okay. The ball can have a motivation of its own, but the tail not, it's just straight physics at this point. Unless you go one step further and treat the ball and tail like a little animal and have the tail move on its as well. Like a little dog. When they move around you have straight physical tail overlapping action mixed with voluntary swinging and stiffening and all kinds of other movements.

"Or just cut the shot there."

I'd like to keep animating it coming to an end properly than cheating myself out of learning how to do that :) I think it might help me learn how to make an object looks like its coming to rest properly with overlapping action.

Also can you give me some more advice about what the tail should be doing between frames 44 and say 70 to make it look better? I'm guessing there should be a lot less movement but still overlapping some how?

Yes again, you're right. The overlap will get smaller and smaller but the ball will still pull it along. You can always take a piece of string and attach it to a ball and then film that for reference.

Sorry if it seems like i'm asking for too much detail but i'd really like to understand and get the hang of overlapping action as I think it will improve my animations alot!

Thanks!
Akem

No need to apologize!! That's exactly what I'm here for and what this workshop is all about. You can never ask for too much detail!

I hope this is clearer!

Cheers
JD

Akem Singh - Ball and tail - Critique

Ok, looks good, but I would do it this way:

when it lands on x10, the way the tail curves, you could have it a bit more to the left (so that the tip is not right above the ball), but then on x11 the tail wouldn't be up anymore, but pointing down (imagine a whip action, or a flag waving and you're looking at it from the top). As the ball goes up it would be more like x16 where it follows the path of action and after the apex curl up, so not down like on x20. More up but not as much, maybe half of that and as the ball falls the tail gets pulled again along the path of action and ends up like on x26 and then on the next bounce you start over with the overlap towards the ground.

This will alter how it will look like after it hits the wall, but one thing I wouldn't do is the direction change like you have it on x55, where it goes down and the up again. That looks more like a voluntary change vs. a straight physics overlapping action (hope that make sense...). :)

The ball bounce is good though, but I would keep it rolling beyond x70, it comes to a sudden stop there. Or just cut the shot there.

Akem Singh - Bouncing balls - Critique

Looks great! Now I'm just being super picky:

- the last hop around x96 feels like it's traveling too far (z translation). The
height of the bounce is fine, but the length of it could be shorter.
- the ball comes to an end around x226 but it's a bit too abrupt. I would make
it roll out a bit longer, maybe 10 frames or so.

The medium/heavy/light one looks great too! Only the last ball should have one
more little bounce at the end. I feel like there is still enough momentum for
that there.

Nice improvement!!

Cheers
JD

Akem Singh - Bouncing balls - Critique

Nice widescreen btw. but not really needed for that clip. :)

About the different balls, let's start with the heavy one:

The first bounce up is a bit high, taking away from the bowling ball feel. You could just cut out that part and continue with the little bounces, so the frames would be something like x110 and then x119 and on.

The left and far right balls feel very similar. Even though the left one is a bit slower, I miss the clear distinction between a basketball type of weight and a balloon type of weight on the other one, which would really show the difference between a medium and light ball.

I would replace the far right one with a balloon type of ball and keep working on the left one. Speed wise it would be a mix between the two. The left one is a tiny bit too slow, the right one a bit too fast. Exaggerate the hang time a bit more by adding a frame or two at the top and give it a clear acceleration when it falls. You should also add about two more bounces at the end. The last bounce's height is too high to be the last one. There is still enough energy and momentum in the fall to settle and bounce a bit longer.

Hope that helps!
Cheers

JD