good

You could also have a lamb come into the shot curious about the opening and he pushes the lamb aside.

Looks like your having fun with it..

a lot of really nice posing there Mr Roberts! a few things you might need to watch out for, around frame 223, his center of gravity appears to be way off from where his feet are standing, and looks as though he should be falling over in that stance.

at around 345 when he's building up the anticipation for lifting the rock, have his waist rock back and then explode forward into the lift to really show how much force he's exerting.

I'd almost like to see a little bit of a step back around 450ish when he finally gets the rock up to show how he's absorbing its weight into his own center of gravity.

lastly I think you can push the poses on 677 and 690 more to really show the frustration from a extreme build up  of anticipation to the snapping action down and then recover.


these are all fairly nit picky though, it really is a nice blocking pass! cant wait to see the next incarnation!

Hey.

Thanks a lot Chameo! You had some great tips in there. I've changed the area around f223 a bit now, so it's a bit more subtle in him looking back, with a nicer pose. I don't quite understand what you meant on the second paragraph, could you expand on it a little bit please? I've added a little absorption back step as the rock goes down, but I'm not too sure if it's working, perhaps another one on his right foot might sell the weight a bit better. Thanks!

Hey jloyal, thanks for your comments. The pose on this next pass still looks similar in both cases, I'll jazz it up a little bit tomorrow so that they don't look alike.

I had a spare few hours today, and here's how it's looking so far:

Direct Link

Any feedback would be awesome. Thanks!

I agree with wolfor, he feels way to casual for trying to stop sheep from escaping.

Hi Iestyn,
The animation from after he bends down till the end looks really good..
After 508 he cud turn his head slowly to see where he is going to put the rock. The foot movement before that works so well.
To me the pause between 280 and 300 looks very long, I know this is where he decides to to lift the rock. This is just a suggestion but maybe you cud shorten that or just hold the pose at around 249 which is more interesting and thats where he cud do the thinking.

Either way this a good animation in the works. Goodluck.

Hey guys. Thanks for the comments on the slow bit, I shall go back tomorrow and try and delete some unnecessary parts - I've done so a little bit in the new WIP below, but I feel that I can chip some more frames off.

I just wanted to upload this before I head to bed to see what you guys think. I've changed the into totally, so he get a bit more worried about the little lamb, but the poses aren't final yet - I just wanted to see if the idea works, I'll get busy working on the poses tomorrow:

Direct Link

What do you think? Does it feel better rounded now? Thanks everyone!

I had some spare time last night to move into spline. This is the first half, with the timing adjusted here and there, and a few chunks taken out to make it flow better:

Direct Link

I already feel that this piece is quite long, although I feel having him run off screen would be a nice touch, I don't think I'll go down that route, as I'm trying to keep the frame numbers down - thanks for the suggestion though

How does it flow to you guys - anything that should be addressed? I know there's a few pops here and there - that's mainly because of the FK/IK switch, I shall ease them out a bit better next time. Any thoughts/suggestions would be awesome, thanks!

Been playing around with the timing a bit more, and polishing the splines a bit more - does the weight of the rock feel correct to you folks?

Direct Link

Thank you!

Edit: Tweaked the lift just a bit.

Last edited by iest_rob (02-15-2012 1:25 pm)

I love it! This is becoming really great!
I'd say the weight seem believable overall, except for the lift itself, there the stone seem to be a wee bit too light. Couldn't put my finger on it, though, maybe the lift is too fast, or maybe the arms are bent one or two frames too early?
What I think is a bit distracting is the noise on his hat, I would remove that, at least until rendering.

Actually I meant around 457, but yea, looking at again, maybe you need to tweak that part around 476 as well a bit

Just had a great advice from a friend - that he doesn't look at the problem, only the solution - so I'll go back and add a small bit where he looks at the gap in the wall.