Sunday, February 01, 2009

Santa Rocks - OMG no more stepped keys!

So I took a chunk of the animation I'm working on and weaned it off of stepped keys, finally. I hadn't touched this for a while since things got busy with my choir's concert and work stuff.




I always dread the transition between stepped and spline, because it's so hard to keep that snap and spark to the animation once you start in-betweening. It's also when I start noticing that the cheats I did to capture certain poses don't work once I need to put a breakdown in between the two keys. What do you guys think?

2 comments:

Andrew Chan said...

Hey Erica! Looks quite sweet so far!

And yeah, converting to spline can make the spacing and timing feel too even since the curves.

Overall I like what I'm seeing so far! Can't wait to see the final!! I like how he's building up that smile as it's unwrapping. but maybe an.. :O expression as it's unwrapping and a quicker transition to show the emotion change to :D

It's just a bit harder to read the facial expressions when the head is tilted down.

Btw, with the part where it says.. OH MY GOD! Maybe have his eyes dart around to show that he's thinking. I think eye direction can greatly bring out the life in the character!

Here's an example of what I mean. Just look at the eyeballs, and see how it darts around to show the character is thinking instead of having it stare off into deep space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj6bzav7g10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fPVYwJllg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8I6Po12u4c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC0oOp9N3UM&feature=related

After watching it.. The body doesn't need to move much and just basic eye direction moving around can tell so much about the personality already.

Well.. i hope these links come in handy! best of luck!

erica said...

Hey, thanks for the reference vids! I love the Robin Hood ads, you're right, you can tell so much by the character's eyes. And actually I haven't done a pass on the mouth yet, I just took it off stepped keys and left it alone while I got the body motion working (as promised!) ;) I like your suggestion of holding the :O shape, and doing a quicker transition to the smile to show the change of emotion. I'll definitely try that!