11 Second Club - Forums - Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

thelittlepenguin84 · 06-13-2011 7:54 pm

Hello guys,
I am personally fascinated by the movement of hands in animation. They can be used to create some wonderful assymetry in animation, and can be very expressive just by themselves. Here are three wonderful examples.

Direct Link

Let us also not forget The Thing out of adams family. Each example shows great character.

Many beginner animators almost see the hands as an after thought. So when I saw Sudipto post this video by Florin Toma, it generated a whole new challenge.

Direct Link

The challenge is present interaction between ball and hand, preferably to pick the ball up. This set up shows a guideline for presentation http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27821493/hand%20and%20ball.jpg

Think about hand poses, break up those fingers to form some interesting silhouettes and think about what they can express. Does the hand creep up on the ball like a tiger and pounce? Does it wave like a magician? How light is the ball?

For those wishing an easier task, place the ball already in the hand and throw it off screen. Warning though, this challenge is hard but I believe could produce some great results.

Frame rate should be 24fps, and animation length should be about 100-125f. I have created some f&a on the blog, but any further questions, just ask. http://blog.11secondclub.com/2011/06/mi … ipate.html

Lastly, I'm thinking this could end up being a three week challenge, due to its difficulty.

Hope you guys can get involved and enjoy!

Last edited by thelittlepenguin84 (06-13-2011 9:17 pm)

NickNitro · 06-14-2011 2:02 am

This is a fantastic mini challenge penguin! I too love hand movements and will be really looking forward to trying this out myself!

I hope we get some really nice stuff here.

Good luck to everyone!

Camaro · 06-14-2011 2:25 am

Wow, brilliant idea and examples. I'll probably participate

KyleG · 06-14-2011 2:43 pm

here's some cool reference to get people inspired...it keeps more crazy as it goes along

Direct Link

Staker · 06-14-2011 2:48 pm

Sounds like a fun challenge! That animation is amazing! Great idea to show off all the principles!

Kyle thats crazy! If someone can do an animation of that and still make it look real I would be impressed, because that ball looks weightless!

ManaDragon · 06-14-2011 3:01 pm

I'm gunna take a break from my walk cycle and see what I can do with this. Should be an interesting challenge!

NickNitro · 06-14-2011 3:01 pm

KyleG Ive seen that before! Guys that do that are incredible! Such fluidity in his movements its amazing.

thelittlepenguin84 · 06-14-2011 3:15 pm

Its a hard challenge, but I was real excited when i thought of it, and now delighted to receive a positive response.

Hoping as the year progresses, it can be repeated but in a different way. I look forward to seeing the work

NickNitro · 06-14-2011 4:08 pm

Penguin - Have you decided how long officially this challenge will be? For a beginner like me the longer the better haha but I do remember you saying you werent sure but it could be up to a 3 week challenge because of the complexity.

Last edited by NickNitro (06-14-2011 4:15 pm)

thelittlepenguin84 · 06-14-2011 4:26 pm

I think im going to call it a two week challenge. Lets see where people are in two weeks time. If they need the extra week, I'll consider prolonging it

NickNitro · 06-15-2011 12:55 am

Awesome thanks!

NickNitro · 06-15-2011 2:15 am

Direct Link

This is my rough blockout. Please I would love some critiques even at this early stage of blocking in spacing and timing.

-Thanks

Edit: For some god awful reason I thought in my head 120 frames was 10 seconds

its 5 so I think too much is going on in this animation for the frames needed to complete the task. I kept clocking myself for 10 seconds when video taping.

I need a lot of holding frames because there are a lot of slow in's...hmmm

Last edited by NickNitro (06-15-2011 3:37 am)

Agelessj · 06-15-2011 3:38 am

Nick you're off to a good start...the poses you have are pretty clear but without a frame counter i have to guess on the timing. Not a big deal. The only thing i notice is when the ball recoils back to the hand, u may want to make sure your giving yourself enough frames for that move. I would either add maybe 2 or 3 frames to it, or have the hand not go off screen completely.

Other than that, i think it looks solid...its my first time posting on this site so ill do my best to participate.

Have fun

Camaro · 06-15-2011 3:43 am

One thing to consider, is you should probably not limit the competition to just a ball. Perhaps call it "Hand and object interaction", leaving "object" to interpretation.

NickNitro · 06-15-2011 3:55 am

Agelessj: Thanks a lot I am still trying to figure out why when I convert the avi to mov is squashes the video tried to mess with the settings but still no luck owell. Yea for that ball roll I will take a few frames to make that clear. Ill try and not have the hand go soo far off frame to see if that helps make it a bit more clear.

I don't know how to add a frame counter I am really new to posting animations so if you have any suggestions on that that would be awesome.

Camaro: I guess I took it literally but I do like the ball idea. I want my hand to act timid to the ball, and having him push it and it roll back and the hand kind of jump back scared I think reads really well atm. Maybe after this I will do another object.

Thanks for the comments guys I really appreciate it. Its the only way I can grow as an animator.

Last edited by NickNitro (06-15-2011 3:56 am)

thelittlepenguin84 · 06-15-2011 8:37 am

Hey Camaro,
I wanted it to specifically be hand and ball. Its about taking the challenge and trying to find your own twist. That hand can really have its own personality. As said before, it could have the character of a spider, or a magician as well as many others. How can you show an evil hand as opposed to a good? If its elegant, charming, how do you present that idea? Then you could also ask yourself whether the ball has its own character. Is it heavy, light? Is it alive in some simple way?

There are many different ways you could tackle this challenge without changing the object.

Then throughout the year, the challenge will be repeated but changed in some way.

@nick, keep it up, its looking good. For a simple frame counter, go to 'display' 'heads up display' 'current frame'. It'll be a very small one, but easiest to produce.

Last edited by thelittlepenguin84 (06-15-2011 8:56 am)

Agelessj · 06-16-2011 6:09 am

Hey Nick, next time u playblast something click the little box option and make sure the option "scale" at 1. If its at .50 or .25 then thats probably why its shrinking your stuff.

NickNitro · 06-17-2011 12:00 am

@Agelessj

Thanks, I actually did check that after my first playblast and had it at 1. I actually think its hows Quicktime Pro converts my playblasts from avi to mp4's where there is an issue....hmm...Ill try and figure you what it is soon.

Edit:

Little WIP Update (with a small frame counter hopefully ha)

Direct Link

Last edited by NickNitro (06-17-2011 1:25 am)

stacey1983 · 06-17-2011 5:49 pm

Hi All

This is my first time on the mini challenge, I was given the advise for trying this forum out so I can improve my skills cos at the end of the day, you guys know what your talking about

I use my camera to film my partner picking up the ball and throwing it into the air so I can see where the main poses are in the frame count in quicktime.

All feedbacks (good/bad) will be appreciated

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32572115/blocki … e%2001.avi

KyleG · 06-17-2011 6:07 pm

@stacey1983
it would be helpful to turn off all the controllers and joints when you make a video & include a frame counter

ajfrank · 06-18-2011 1:24 am

after the hand pokes the ball, u should have the ball transform into like a godzilla type creature and have him bite the dudes arm off and have gallons and gallons of blood squirting out for like 20 minutes and then finally have the dude collapsing from blood lost

ManaDragon · 06-18-2011 3:12 am

Bit extreme huh?

@NickNitro
Anyway, you know how your hand backs off in like fear? I'm thinking there's a certain amount of fear that causes where the hand would cowardly go, and judging by these first poses, it doesn't seem that afraid of the ball. However, the hand is scared enough to go all the way almost outside the camera.

So either, when the hand backs off, it shouldn't go almost off-cam entirely, but maybe has a more subtle surprise and almost in a playful way. Or, the hand should be really nervous and should take a bit more time reaching out to touch the ball, and then sweeps off in the other direction. But take these ideas worth a grain of salt, I am just a random poster after all!

@Stacy
The video download was like... corrupted or something, it almost didn't play but what I could make out, the ball is tossed in the air and caught and places back on the ground, it looked pretty good, keep it up!

Last edited by ManaDragon (06-18-2011 3:17 am)

stacey1983 · 06-18-2011 6:34 pm

Hmmm that is strange, I just playblast it and then drop it into dropbox thinking it be similar or even better than uploading it to youtube/ vimeo.

and also I thought you can get the frame count if you play it in quicktime anyway thats why I did it in dropbox so you could use quicktime to view the frame count?, or am I totally missing something?

At the min, just uploading it to vimeo so hopefully you can view it better.

Direct Link

but shall sort it out in the future so it will upload as quicktime to view in frame number

Last edited by stacey1983 (06-18-2011 7:34 pm)

DNW620 · 06-19-2011 3:12 am

Hey everyone!

I thought I'd dive into these challenges to keep practicing the basics over the summer. I went for a very simple hand and ball interaction. Here is my latest pass. Any comments or criticism is appreciated; I know there is a whole lot that I can improve.

Direct Link

Last edited by DNW620 (06-19-2011 3:15 am)

Misterate · 06-19-2011 6:21 am

stacey1983 wrote:
Hmmm that is strange, I just playblast it and then drop it into dropbox thinking it be similar or even better than uploading it to youtube/ vimeo.

and also I thought you can get the frame count if you play it in quicktime anyway thats why I did it in dropbox so you could use quicktime to view the frame count?, or am I totally missing something?

At the min, just uploading it to vimeo so hopefully you can view it better.

Direct Link

but shall sort it out in the future so it will upload as quicktime to view in frame number

Try and get the hand to come up a bit before it catches the ball, and then translate down a bit as it catches it. It's how we naturally cancel out the falling speed of an object I feel!

#1 06-13-2011 7:54 pm

Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#2 06-14-2011 2:02 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#3 06-14-2011 2:25 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#4 06-14-2011 2:43 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#5 06-14-2011 2:48 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#6 06-14-2011 3:01 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#7 06-14-2011 3:01 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#8 06-14-2011 3:15 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#9 06-14-2011 4:08 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#10 06-14-2011 4:26 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#11 06-15-2011 12:55 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#12 06-15-2011 2:15 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#13 06-15-2011 3:38 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#14 06-15-2011 3:43 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#15 06-15-2011 3:55 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#16 06-15-2011 8:37 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#17 06-16-2011 6:09 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#18 06-17-2011 12:00 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#19 06-17-2011 5:49 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#20 06-17-2011 6:07 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#21 06-18-2011 1:24 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#22 06-18-2011 3:12 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#23 06-18-2011 6:34 pm

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#24 06-19-2011 3:12 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

#25 06-19-2011 6:21 am

Re: Mini-challenge week 10: Hand and ball interaction

stacey1983 wrote:

Board footer