Continuation for 3D eyes only

Finished an 8 page paper/take home exam for Animal Behavior so now I have a bit of free time. Portfolio is done except for burning DVDs and printing stuff--so that's going well. Should be hearing about Producer's Show tomorrow. Until then, more 3D stuff because you know you love it:

I'm continuing from my previous post which was focusing on the little wanna-be clown guy animation. I finished the animation over the weekend and playblasted along the way(everyone will probably get a little sick of seeing the same beginning actions)



Getting the weight/movement down for his next movement. Not worrying about his eyes at all and in this stage the ball never comes back down. Since his hands rely on the ball's speed I haven't blocked them in until I get the ball down, so they just fall to his sides. Also started working on his reaction to the off-screen surprise. :) I tried a different story path and in this experiment--the ball didn't come back down until the secondary character comes in. Then the ball whacks the "human" on the head. Ultimately didn't go with that. Didn't feel right and I kept hitting story walls.

Now I'm back onto my original story idea. Got the ball falling now, along with the catching action. Haven't blocked in his hands/ball when he reacts, but still continuing to move on with his frantic jump reaction to what's coming his way. Lots of bugs, what I do is create a list of "things to fix" and get back to them later--for now I'm just getting all the actions going and figuring out the timing for sure.

This one is a bit of a jump from the previous step. I got a little caught up in animating and didn't playblast as I went---opps. Anyways, now the ball is going, the hands are following, couple new actions added, and he has reached his final pose before the big surprise comes boundin' in.

Polishing the "human" guy--starting in on the facial animation, working on the any problems with the animation etc. This also introduces our secondary character. I started off slow, his final speed is MUCH faster and I did about 9-10 attempts on that movement, it was kind of tricky to keep all of his parts in check and ended up doing a mix between straight ahead and pose-to-pose to get the final result. Still not the prettiest run ever, but it works and contrasts the guy. Once the dog appears I focus on him, I have plans for the "human" but for now the main attention is on the dog so the "human" just dies after a bit.


Getting the dog up to speed. Problems with weight though. Some parts he really gets too floaty and it's a matter of how long his feet are on the ground and his main body timing--I was following the "delayed parts" rule where nobody moves all together. Right now too many parts moving at once(maybe 2 frame delay between main body and feet which isn't enough at this point). Feet and main body need a little more delay to get that weight back. Also starting to get his head movement going.

Still tweaking the dog, getting that weight under control, but wanted a break from the canine and moved onto the impact/fall of the "human". I did several passes on his fall, this one is the first fall, but it change quite a bit from this first pass. Still interesting to look back on though.


Another try at the fall, getting a little closer to the final result. First nailing down the body before I even touch his limbs. Dog is coming along, I don't think I was very focused on him at this point.

Now I have the dog's more subtle actions going, like his paws squashing a bit etc. The "humans" fall is now too slow at dog's impact, but his limbs are heading in the right direction. His hand developed the habit of "sliding" when he's shaking so had to go back and fix that at some point. Didn't have a proper stepped key in place.

Going to have to wait until the finished product to see how the dog and the "human's" animation came along. :) For now, I started to get the ball going again after the final return. Can't end on a down note! It's really supposed to be funny! Just blocking the ball in. Getting the arcs right using the graph editor, etc. Certainly not perfect though.

Now it's looking a bit better. Continued to tweak the ball's actions, the following reaction to said ball and remember that "things to fix" list? This is pretty much when I go back and start fixing every last issue with the animation. Things like hands going through knees, any 'pops' to his movements, keeping all elbow and knee controls in check, etc. Just thoroughly polishing the overall animation before winding up with this little 3D piece:


Now time to play with the lighting(though blogger butchers Maya lighting...), get the camera just right, and add some Marx brothers so I now have "Fetch":