Getting back to it...
This is an exercise submission on the exercise Character Ball
This submission has passed!
Exercises are a great way to test what you've learned given certain restraints, while getting feedback from your peers. Plus, they're a lot of fun!
Checking back to see the last time I uploaded an exercise and...wow June 2020 was the date. Yea so I kind of dropped off this tutorial series back then because of a combination of getting stuck on this exercise, other personal projects needing attention, and general life stuff.
I've been working on some game projects since then and I'm realizing how important it is for me to learn character animation... It is just hard to prototype a game and know if you are on to something when you don't have quite the right animations for what you need.
Because of that I'm motivated again to really dig deep into Blender animation and want to push through and finish this tutorial series and the body mechanics series.
But anyway enough of my life story...here is some self-critique:
- I think if I was to do this again I would have the ball either pause a bit before jumping up onto the platform or having the ball look up before jumping. Right now I think there isn't enough breathing space between the first and second jumps.
- The stretch on the first big jump @ f40 feels a bit sticky to me. Not sure if making the ball snap back into its default shape faster would fix this issue. I will have to try that later.
- For the three jumps from around f70 - f110 I was trying to make the ball look like it was skipping happily across the platform. Because of that I think the last jump looks a bit floaty but if that happy emotion came through I guess it doesn't matter?
- I have a sort of settle animation from f172 - f179 from the character coming back from looking over the edge. Not sure if this is entirely necessary. Looking at it now it looks a bit awkward.
Open to any other comments and critiques.
Thanks!
Rules of the Exercise
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1Animation is appealing and makes the ball act like a living, breathing character rather than just a ball.
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2Submission is in video format.
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3Uses the .blend file provided.
Thanks for the feedback Wayne. The stretch spacing issue you mentioned makes sense to me now that I am looking at it again with fresh eyes. I also see what you are saying about the antic.
Welcome back Kevin! Yay!
Well done here. Let me see if I can give you some notes and answer your questions.
-I think you are correct about the breathing room. If you want it to feel like he is looking and thinking about that big jump, you can give him more 'thinking' time before that jump.
Another alternative is less time. You can keep it moving and go straight to the big jump and this will show that this is nothing that he can't handle (if you know what I mean)
-on f40 it is sticky because of the spacing on the top of the ball. You are slowing into the stretch on the top of the ball when this should be accelerating all the way through.
Track the top control from f37-40. The spacing should be the biggest gap to get to the stretched take off.
Also check for this same issue on the other jumps. I won't tell you where I spot it because I'm sure you will be able to see it ;)
-with the section at f172, you can come back from looking at the edge but then I think you can antic the other way before just going straight into the next pose. (ie - antic to the right at f181 before going to the antic at f184)
Hope that makes sense.
But welcome back!