nice, I love the main action grabbing onto the filing cabinet etc.. but the walk over to it looks too rigid. his arms need to swing in arcs without over extending the IK, some overlapping action on the wrists and fingers to make it floppier. and his feet need to roll up on the ball and have stronger contact positions, ie: heel and toe, some overlap on the toe as it drags through the step would be good too, the walk could be a bit snappier too, maybe some more personality in his posture.

something like this from richard williams only not as crazy
.

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Yeah, I've had trouble with the walk right from the start. It's actually an improvement on what it was but as you say it's still not perfect. I didn't want it to be too big and bouncy as no one who is at work is ever going to be bouncy and cheerful while walking to a filing cabinet but I think I may have gone too far in the opposite direction.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

if you are going for a bored office worker maybe a a slow hunched over walk, dragging his feet, pausing for the next step maybe. Being quite cartoony and over the top with the walk would fit with the rest of the animation.
Its looking really good though man, especially so in the unfamiliar realms of maya. whats the job?

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It's at the People's Republic of Animation. There's no specific job as yet but they gave the impression that there'd be a reasonable chance of work if I had some demonstrable skills in Maya. It should also help with a few other companies around Adelaide.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

oooh good luck! everyone there is really nice - specially their 3d guy aaron is a champ

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Did they say anything to you about paid work in the future?

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

ummm not as yet, though I did say that if they needed a monkey im all theirs also applying for the atfrs course in 3d animation which is group based, and has a 12 week placement at the end - they have a really tight relationship with the pra, and if i did that course there's achance i could get a placement with them then.... who knows really just gotta keep trying!

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

sounds promising, have you got much time to work on stuff?.

You could have a crack at animating the andy rig, maybe a short piece of dialogue with body movements and lipsync would be impressive (although time consuming) to add to the office guy piece.

[Link to www.creativecrash.com]

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Honestly, I don't have that much free time at the moment. It's been a bit of a struggle just to get this done. You get home after a long day at work, have tea, feed Lara, throw her in the bath, read her a few stories and put her to bed and suddenly it's 9.00. Then you've got a few hours before bed when you really want to relax but can't cause you know you gotta get this animation done. Luckily this week has been a bit quieter at work and I've been able to work on it a bit so I'm getting pretty close. Hopefully it'll be done soon.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

yeah, of course its got to be hard to find time. Even when you have the time those relaxation hours are hard to give up. Good luck with it. the timing and overall feel of this piece shows that you can animate for sure, nail a bit more of an emotive preamble and you can't go wrong.

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Nice job! I love the cabin falling over and tipping , nice job .

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I'm having bugger all success tweaking the walk so I'm gonna start it from scratch. (The walk not the whole thing)

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

jeez I was going to say, "don't do that"!.

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Nah, I was just going round in circles. "Sometimes the long way is the short way"

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

first off the character. tyson has some good suggestions for a bored office worker def try to add some of those suggestions in. as it stands its a very plain walk.

now as for the anim as it stands atm.
- the arms will be easier to animate in fk. as a general rule of thumb i never use ik unless the character has to plant their hand and keep it in place. using fk you get the arcs for free.

- the feet feel stiff and he feels like he's sliding along the ground. Lift those legs get those toes flopping around lift up the ankle. exaggerate it! have a look at a goofy cartoon and watch his toes flop around.

- there isn't a lot of up and down on the body either and his knees are pretty much bent the same amount the entire walk.

- his hands are in an awkward pose like they are doing the robot.

- i would pause for a moment when he reaches the cabinet. maybe a moment to breathe a depressing sigh before he tries to open it. i would use this as a beat to show his thought process. its important to give the illusion that the character is living and breathing and has thoughts running through their head.

- everytime he tries to pull the door open he should get angrier and more frustrated doing it faster and harder until he gets his feet into it. build up that frustration and get some emotion into it. the change of emotion from bored office worker to frustrated angry office worker could be very funny.

- he should initially grab the cabinet handle with his other hand that way he can turn and face the camera and get his face into it. get some emotion in his face, show that frustration!

- cabinet has a strange pause right before it falls.

- the cabinet could use more ease out as its teetering in its edge.

- it could also fall faster. if you do it right you might be able to get away with it falling in one maybe two frames.

- the final twitch of his legs should happen so much faster

good luck

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and it's a story that might bore you, but you don't have to listen, because I always knew it was going to be like that.

Thanks Matt, there's some good stuff there for me to work with.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Wouldn't you know it, my computer's not starting up now. I just wanna finish this bloody thing! AAARGH!

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Damn computers, you can't live with em and you cant shoot em... no wait, you can shoot em, a recommended option when frustration really sets in, happiness is a warm gun after all.

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wise words and a beatles reference as well. I approve of this post

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and it's a story that might bore you, but you don't have to listen, because I always knew it was going to be like that.

And more importantly a Tom Arnold quote.

New motherboard required but won't be able to get it straight away due to lack of funds. I had 3 hours to work on this at my Maya class last night and it was absolute gold. No distractions or interuptions and I got pretty close to finishing. (Mind you I thought that about a week ago )It's just a bugger that I'll probably have to wait until next Wednesday to finish. We'll see what happens though.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Ok, got my computer back and managed to do some more. I've changed the walk and and some other stuff in the lead up to the cabinet falling over. Keeping in mind that this was a exercise to demonstrate that I can animate in Maya do you guys reckon it's worthy of sending in to the company? In my opinion it's pretty solid, but not as polished as I'd like it to be. It's just that I don't want to keep them waiting too much longer as what with the motherboard dying and various other issues it's taken a fair bit longer than I expected it to. Whadayareckon?

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Looks really good man, the walk is alot better.

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

--Matt

so much better!
but a few things i noticed
- when he is anticipating for slamming his head i think his arms should go up higher and forward for a stronger pose and to help counter his weight.

- when he grabs the draw handle his other hand should be a clenched fist. i do that often as a thinking pose or to show a change of thought. think the classic thinker pose.

- I still would have had him grab the draw with other hand so he could face the camera to some extent

- in general your hand poses arent very strong check out these [Link to www.animationarchive.org]

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and it's a story that might bore you, but you don't have to listen, because I always knew it was going to be like that.

Yeah its a lot stronger, the walk has personality. I think its great. The only small thing that sticks out at me, and I mention this only because it does stick out everything else is smooth. The bit I'm seeing is the last step as he reaches the cabinet. His knee kind of jerks up in a strange way, its like he's reached the cabinet and stomped his foot down but the arc of the leg isnt smooth, theres a sudden quick motion which draws your eye to his foot which doesnt quite work. I would just make the last step a regular step and let his head motion draw the attention. other than that I would just go for it. you can polish these things, re try and try again and then end up missing the boat. just send it in and hope they like it.

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