Class 1 Week 3

Hello again! I'm back with some tips and tricks. But first let's start off with some serious advice:

Ok.... so you shouldn't blame your parents if you don't succeed..but hey I tried.

Onward! This week you finally start animating! The bouncing ball is so simple yet so important.

You will see throughout this entire class that it's used as a base for so many things. For now... it's just a ball... bouncing :P

First off, please please go film some reference! Here's some I filmed:

But you really should film your own for practice. There are a lot of tips that you'll get from other students as well as your mentor about a bouncing ball, so I won't dwell on it this week. Just make sure that your curves look real nice in the graph editor. This animation will be great or not so great based on the curves.

Now what I REALLY wanted to spend time on today is the pose assignment!

I want to talk a little bit about the evolution of a pose, and most importantly what “EXCITEMENT” really means.

You have already done one posing assignment; however this time you have to fit a mood. So what exactly IS excitement?

EX-CITE-MENT:

A feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.

Something that arouses such a feeling; an exciting incident

(Google dictionary).

How do we as humans portray excitement? There are SO many ways. I highly recommend giving your pose a background story.

-Did Stu just get a Nintendo 64 for Christmas?

-Did he win he lottery?

-Is he getting married?

There are an infinite amount of stories you can come up with. Next is how you portray it:

-Is Stu jumping thru the air because he can't hold in his emotion?

-Is he stretched out and reaching for the sky?

-Maybe Stud is a bit more timid, so he holds that excitement in close to his body.

Think about these things.

Now here's the evolution of my own personal excitement pose. It's a bit cliché, but we all have to start somewhere.

So we start out with our sketches of course. Draw a lot. Just because you fill up one page doesn't mean you have to stop. It's good practice anyway:

Next you pick out your favorite and define it:

The pose I chose was circled and I drew it again in Photoshop  I defined the line of action and in my head I gave him a story: He's at a sporting event and his team just scored. I can relate since I'm a huge Blazers (Basketball) fan.

I finally get in to Maya, and I pose Stu out and post it on my public review:

I wasn't sure how to improve it, which is why I posted it. A fresh set of eyes can always help you fix your problems.

My peer buddy gave me a draw-over, explaining that I should carry the line of action all the way to the back leg:

I took the feedback and reposed it:

After posting it to my Public review again, I got feedback about the back leg being difficult to read, and that the spine looked a little broken...so I refined yet again! This is what I turned in to my mentor:

I felt pretty good about the pose overall, but was eager to receive feedback from my mentor so I could improve it.

Here's what my mentor suggested: He told me I should rotate the hips back to help the back leg be even more clear. He also suggested I make the front leg more straight so the line of action flows thru it better. Add in a few minor tweaks for polish

And voila! Here's the final product:

Now is it perfect? Of course not. But it was week 3 or 4 and I had a final product work showing. Eventually you will improve and be able to look back at your old work and realize how far you have come.

Good luck this week and have fun with that bouncing ball and the pose!

Message me if you have any questions!

~Bsly