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#1 04-04-2012 8:08 am
MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Hi!
This is the first time I'm creating a Mini Challenge, so I hope you all are going to participate nicely and enjoy yourselves.
Right, so here's the drill:
Everybody has done walkcycles by the hundreds, I'm sure, but what most people are neglecting a bit is the (not-that-easy) task of having a character start walking, and while this might usually lead into a vanilla walk, to do something different, why not have the character enjoy his walk the same way you enjoy animating it?
In this task, you might learn a bit about anticipation, weight, and conveying emotions through body language rather than through facial expressions.
There are multitudes of different walks, even if they're timed similar, they might look completely different.
Edit: So, to put it in a nutshell, here's the actual challenge: You're supposed to animate a happy walk from a standING POSITION, including an appropriate anticipation. No need to add a park or something. Think about your character before you start animating, who it is, and what the character actually defines as "happy"
To get you a bit exited I'd like to post this awesome animated Animators Survival Kit logo made by the great Richard Williams himself!
Since we started late, and this be a fairly complicated task, I'd like to set the deadline to the 23rd of april, and as always, try to keep the video length to 75-125 frames.
Here's a link to how to use the dropbox, please try and keep the videos below 10 MB, and if any more questions arise, Steve did a nice FAQ here.
Now have fun!
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#2 04-04-2012 9:25 am
- blackbird256
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- Registered: 07-28-2011
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Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
This sounds interesting.. I just want to make sure I get one one thing straight before i go into the idea-hunting phase... this character's in some kind of park, right? or is the task to simply start a walk and make the character enjoy themselves. I just wanna know all the guidelines clearly..
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#3 04-04-2012 9:56 am
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Hi!
Sorry, you can forget the park, that was just a metaphor No need to add a park
Just have a character start walking on which you can clearly see that he's enjoying him/herself, and enjoy yourself animating it!
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#4 04-04-2012 11:27 am
- thelittlepenguin84
- Upright Citizen
- From: Bristol
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Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Big tip, try to think about why the character is happy. A happy mad scientist may walk quite differently from a happy villain or hero, for which their are many kinds
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#5 04-04-2012 2:39 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
I was a little confused about what the actual challenge was too. Is it a walk cycle? Are they suppose to start stationary and then walk forward? They have to be happy?
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#6 04-04-2012 2:45 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
It's my first challenge, and it seems like I'm failing already I'll rewrite the challenge a bit, so it becomes clearer
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#7 04-04-2012 3:01 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
I'm REALLY confused. It says "animate a happy walk from a stand." What kind of "stand?" Like, a microphone stand? Or like a gazebo or something? Maybe a magazine stand? But wouldn't that be considered a rack? Can we animate a happy walk from a rack instead?
You're doing fine, wolfor! Don't worry, it will all work out and you'll quickly find your groove.
I'm not sure if I'll have time to do this one, but it sounds very challenging because of all the "thinking" of the character involved. Using a hammer you can sort of skip out on the "what the character is feeling" part, but when you change from a stationary pose to a moving one, the character MUST have clear motivation. Exciting!
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#9 04-04-2012 3:17 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
to you both
Is it doing something "from stand" instead of "from a stand"? Darn you, English language!
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#10 04-04-2012 4:00 pm
- StefanLipsius
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- From: Greater Toronto Area
- Registered: 11-30-2008
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Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
No no. It's definitely "from a stand". But people are getting it confused with a different type of stand. From an idle, or from a standing position would be better than just "from a stand".
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#11 04-04-2012 4:15 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
wolfor wrote:
to you both
Is it doing something "from stand" instead of "from a stand"? Darn you, English language!
Oh I'm just messing with you! From a stand is correct. From a standing POSITION would be even better, but I don't think "from a stand" is at all confusing. What would be helpful, perhaps, is a very simple image to show what you mean. For example:
Now yes, this will bias some animators, but honestly they should be forging their own path anyway, so maybe this will simply take away the "first, cliche idea" for them so they have to make it more interesting than the 25 second sketch I just did there.
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#12 04-04-2012 4:42 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
thanks guys! I've been confused the whole afternoon, anyways
JKR, that was actually exactly what I was thinking about By the way, if you did those three drawings in 25 seconds, you should get this challenge finished in under 10 minutes, right?
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#13 04-04-2012 6:29 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
wolfor wrote:
JKR, that was actually exactly what I was thinking about
By the way, if you did those three drawings in 25 seconds, you should get this challenge finished in under 10 minutes, right?
Ha ha, if I wanted it to be as garbage as those three drawings are!
You can't rush art!
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#14 04-04-2012 9:17 pm
- Mr. Bear
- Registered: 11-01-2010
- Posts: 15
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Sound good, I'm looking forward to it.
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#15 04-04-2012 10:31 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
wolfor wrote:
By the way, if you did those three drawings in 25 seconds, you should get this challenge finished in under 10 minutes, right?
MAN. Look what you did. You totally got me. You sucked me in so I had no choice but to participate, and then I had to decide what the character was THINKING, and then it didn't make sense without including him feeding the duck at the park which is WHY he was happy, and now I'm 50 frames in and he isn't even "standing" yet in the "stand then walk" challenge!
I just can't keep things simple, can I?
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#16 04-05-2012 8:32 am
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Harhar! That was of course my intention all along!
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#17 04-05-2012 12:24 pm
#18 04-05-2012 2:34 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Here's my early test. Clearly more love was put into the duck than the human.
Dunno how far I'll take it with all my work I have to do, but at least it's started!
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#19 04-05-2012 3:04 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
@jkr while he was walking ehh is't he getting smaller ?
Last edited by fakepivot (04-05-2012 3:04 pm)
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#20 04-05-2012 3:07 pm
- thelittlepenguin84
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Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
@ fakepivot, yep and let that be a lesson to you. don't feed the ducks!
Last edited by thelittlepenguin84 (04-05-2012 3:07 pm)
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#21 04-05-2012 3:19 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
It's um... it's... an illuuuuuusssssion!
Dang. I hate how I have zero consistency. Sigh. How does one practice that?
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#22 04-05-2012 3:23 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
draw a line on top.. like a refernce line that show his hight .. makes it easy to keep size constant and remove that line later while testing
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#23 04-05-2012 3:38 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
Hahaha never feed the ducks, right
I guess you can practice that by drawing the same character 200 times a week for a few months
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#24 04-05-2012 4:01 pm
- thelittlepenguin84
- Upright Citizen
- From: Bristol
- Registered: 03-30-2010
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Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
if you really wish to practice consistancy, I suggest this link
http://blog.11secondclub.com/2011/04/dr … -doug.html
I know you have seen it before, but practice makes perf... well, people much better
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#25 04-05-2012 4:45 pm
Re: MC 29: Lets take a walk!
I'm not sure how that would help consistency in form, though? I mean, it will get me really good at other stuff, for sure, I love that tutorial booklet.
I guess it's like wolfor says, you need to draw the character 200 times until the proportions are burned into your brain.
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