Blockman Animations

# 1 21-09-2006 , 07:15 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: Bedford, England

Posts: 138

Hey Everyone, it's been a while since I last posted or updated on the site, things have been a bit busy lately. All of my other threads are going to be on hold for the time being, as i've had to change the focus of my Maya work. After flooding places with my showreel, I got some feedback that I need to focus more on one area. So for the time being, i'm intending to create a series of short animations for use in my showreel and also for general practice/fun.

To create these short animations i've created 'Blockman' essentially a series of primitive polys assigned to the rig I created for my short film. The first animation is a Walk cycle. I won't talk about it too much, just let me know what you think.

Click link for Front View (DivX 650kb)

Click Link for Side View (DivX 620kb)

Click Link for Perspective View (DivX 680kb)

Now i'm going to start working on the run cycle. As I now have to work to pay off some of my student debt, I can only really seriously work on my animations for 2-3 days a week, but i still intend to update regularly.

Quote

# 2 21-09-2006 , 12:01 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006

Location: The Netherlands

Posts: 42

nice job,
he looks really good,
but i noticed one thing, which is that he pulls up his knees really high. doens't look wrong, but I don't do that when I walk user added image

...but that was when I ruled the world

Quote

# 3 21-09-2006 , 12:09 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posts: 3,708

looks good rostoons - I like the military style march. One thing that is throwing it off though, I think, is the pivot of the neck to the head. It looks too far forward. If you are trying to get his head leaning back, I still think you need to push the pivot of the head back - at the moment it looks like his brain might fall out the back of his head.:p

arran3D

arran3D blog

Quote

# 4 21-09-2006 , 01:00 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Sep 2004

Location: Queens, New York City

Posts: 367

Overall it looks really nice! I too like the choice of a march cycle (and the helmet is a nice touch)!

The most glaring thing I noticed is that I'm not feeling any weight when the character's heel hits. It's as if he's marching while wearing aerobics shoes! :-)

The heel really has to HIT the deck when a character is marching!

Otherwise the timing is fine!

Keep us posted! :-)

"Ad astra per aspera..."

Quote

# 5 21-09-2006 , 02:30 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: Bedford, England

Posts: 138

Thanks for the comments guys user added image

The high knee raise was intentional to show the forceful-ness of the march, but I may have overdone it a little.

The pivot was in the perfect spot for the previous character that used this rig, but Blockman has such a monstrosity of a head (hey what can I say, he's a smart dude) and to an extent i see what you mean, but i'm quite happy with the head (there isn't a lot of neck movement, most comes from the chest). In the run, I think his gigantic brain is safe in his cubic skull user added image

I totally agree with the lack of weight when he hits the floor. This is something I was concerned about when I was working on it, but i wanted to keep the march as rigid as possible with as little bends in the knees as I could get away with. Obviously, that does need more work. In the run that i'm working on now i've added a lot more flexibility and the weight distribution is something i'm paying closer attention to. I may post up a playblast later this evening to show the progress of the run.

Quote

# 6 21-09-2006 , 03:16 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: Bedford, England

Posts: 138

As promised, here is a playblast of the side view of the run.

crits welcomed

Click here for the playblast (DivX 1.7mb)

Quote

# 7 21-09-2006 , 05:00 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2004

Location: Cleveland, Ohio (USA)

Posts: 1,541

won't play for me. *shrug*

Accept no substitutions.

Quote

# 8 03-10-2006 , 12:13 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: Bedford, England

Posts: 138

Sorry about that Neostrider, it works fine for me, have you got the DivX codec, because that's what all these videos are encoded in?

Update time, I've finished the run and have rendered out the perspective and front views so i thought i'd post them for critique. The side view requires a re-render due to a cock up on my part so i'll post that later. Today I started on my weight animation as well, this is the last one to do before i start re-compiling my showreel.

Click here for the Front View (DivX 680kb)

Click here for the Perspective View (DivX 755kb)

Quote

# 9 03-10-2006 , 02:43 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: stuck in the 90's boston, USA

Posts: 1,871

the run is better than the walk.

his body is too slow going foward. it bopping too strongly. theres no twist on the upper body.
the torso dont really rock back and forth during a run. just twist left and right to keep balance.

Image dump

Quote

# 10 03-10-2006 , 06:44 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: Bedford, England

Posts: 138

Thanks for the crits Vlad

I agree with the lack of twist in the upper body, didn't think about that until today when i was working on another walk. Once i've finished the animations i'm working on i'll go back and fiddle with the run a bit and add the twist, it really adds a lot to the motion. I personally don't think that the run is too slow, but there may be an extra pose in the cycle that i may get rid of, that'll speed the motion up a bit.

For now here is the side view of the re-rendered run (Version 1)

Click here for the Side View (DivX 662kb)

Quote

Blockman Animations

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News