Animating stickmen

# 1 03-11-2006 , 09:06 PM

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I was thinking of making a small stickman animation, where one (or more ) stickmen were moving abt running and all.

But however when i talked to my friends about this they disagreed, saying stickmen animation would be too stiff (as compared to an acutal human or animal) and there would be problems like telling the difference between the left and right legs and hands.

Beacuse this will be the first time i will be animating a character (well in maya at least), and i thought that animating stickmen was problary easier to learn the basics rather then diving straight into a full human/creature chracters. i was wondering if anybody could give me any views on this..... pls help meeee

thanks
:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

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# 2 03-11-2006 , 09:52 PM

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you are right your friends are wrong. Animation is about conveying the idea and emotion right? Well I think you can do that just fine without all the extra hassles of complicated rigs and character tools. If you're just learning then by all means keep it simple!

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# 3 04-11-2006 , 05:19 PM

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If you going to animate stick men do it on paper user added image

to be honest, dont waste your time doing any rigging if you just want to do a few solid black lines.

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# 4 13-12-2006 , 06:27 AM

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if you want to animate stickfigures, try:
https://www.geocities.com/peter_bone_uk/pivot.html

it is a very simple and easy program meant for that.

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# 5 13-12-2006 , 07:41 AM

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Dude - there are no rules - if you are into your idea then just do it - animating stick men sounds like a good idea and you can animate them anyway you want - stiff, bendy, whatever.
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arran3D

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# 6 13-12-2006 , 06:03 PM

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Yeah, I have to agree. When it comes to art, there are no rules. It is all up to the Artist(s), and only truly inspired work comes from this type of thinking. I don't think there are any right and wrong answers. The only time I apply rules to my work is when it is just that, at work. With my own creations, it's all about Artistic Freedom.

Eric Tacti
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# 7 14-12-2006 , 02:56 AM

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check this out!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Pdu...elated&search=

its done by pivot as i mentioned before.

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# 8 14-12-2006 , 03:39 AM

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Gr8 Flash anim... Is it yours?

Anyway, to see one of the best in the world check this guys site out...

https://www.xiaoxiaomovie.com/index02.htm

Totaly fantastic (IMHO)

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# 9 14-12-2006 , 03:51 AM

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lol i just had to do a scene with a stickman user added image

done in maya. then put on a filter in PS. I played around with the light. I wanted to get a strong sunlight effect with lotsa lightfog. turned out not exactly how I wanted, but still looks nice i guess.

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# 10 14-12-2006 , 10:56 AM

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one thing about stickmen is that because it is such a minimalist way of animating, it is actually really good to show that you have good knowledge of body movement. I suppose with 3d anim it is a bit different since once you set up the joints, those are the limit, but back in the days when most animation was done by hand, the early test anims that the senior animators got their jrs doing were with stick figures, so they couldn't hide sloppy anatomy and understanding with clothes.

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Animating stickmen

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