Animation Test

Pausese · Post by **Pausese** » Sat May 09, 2009 10:19 pm

Short animation, not entirely complete, but a prototype for something i want to make. I didn't animate his left eyebrow due to lazyness. And i did not animate his left pupil properly either, due to lazyness lol. I did it by filming my own face (Messing around, and saying the first uninspired thing i could think of), then tracing vectors over certain face parts: Eyebrow, lips, eyes. I did this on every single frame. A bit like how A Scanner Darkly was made, where they drew on every frame of film. It took me a while, and dread to think how long it would take to do a full length animation!

Then horror! due to the differences of framerate in the animation and video recorded, the sound did not match the lips, so i slowed down the audio in Audacity. Though thinking about it, i probably could have just changed the frame rate of the animation lol

I am pretty pleased with the results, though i will certainly put more effort into the next one. Please remember it is a prototype before saying nasty things and damaging my already shattered ego.

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMEUnyoWO6s

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:12 am

Paul! One of your mates shaved off one of your eyebrows and applied lipstick while you were asleep!

Pausese · Post by **Pausese** » Sun May 10, 2009 1:27 pm

Yes that is all very good, but what did you think of it?!

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun May 10, 2009 1:55 pm

OK. You describe this as "not entirely complete". In England this is what we would call "an understatement". Why don't you just call it a disembodied fragment? That would be OK...On the other hand, if it's a prototype you have a lot of work to do.

In a facial animation, the eyes, eyebrows and the mouth are the most important features. The eyes are weird -- they are just floating about for no reason -- unless the character is supposed to be retarded? The voice certainly reinforces this impression...! There is no colour inside the mouth -- just looks like it is literally stuck on the face. Which means no tongue and no teeth. That's not good. And one eyebrow severely limits the expressive possibilities of any emotion!

You justify some of these omissions by laziness. If you are lazy, you have chosen the wrong medium...This is OK if you are just starting out, but "pretty pleased" is a little worrying as a self-critical statement.

rationalRXN · Post by **rationalRXN** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:06 pm

considering the fact that i've been dabbling with this damn software for weeks and can't get a single quicktime file showing anything moving; grats.

don't ever let criticism be placed in any other realm than "the constructive", and as far as shattered egos go, right there with ya bro. i hope i have some sort of example up to vindicate my own self-professed prowess soon, though the way things are going, i may just wind up being a digital painter -.-

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Mon May 11, 2009 1:30 am

Animation is more than knowing AS software, and this looks like what I was doing a few years ago.

Draw something on paper first. Head, background etc. That should be your starting point. Then draw it in AS or copy from a scan. I think you will find that you will improve quickly.

Dale

Durand · Post by **Durand** » Mon May 11, 2009 1:50 am

Quite a valid, if sloppy rotoscope experiment. Perhaps it is illustrating the effects of cerebral- pausese . Ha Ha Ha errrrrrr......

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Mon May 11, 2009 3:02 am

You know, rotoscoping is a pretty labor intense way to use AS.

jackismyazz · Post by **jackismyazz** » Mon May 11, 2009 4:35 am

i like that animation try to add a small black spot under the right eye over the right lip i hope that helps

Pausese · Post by **Pausese** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:45 pm

jahnocli wrote:In England this is what we would call "an understatement".

I am from England lol

synthsin75 wrote:You know, rotoscoping is a pretty labor intense way to use AS.

I agree, it is just something i wanted to try, and plan to use this only once again in an improved final short.

jahnocli wrote:On the other hand, if it's a prototype you have a lot of work to do.

In a facial animation, the eyes, eyebrows and the mouth are the most important features. The eyes are weird -- they are just floating about for no reason -- unless the character is supposed to be retarded? The voice certainly reinforces this impression...! There is no colour inside the mouth -- just looks like it is literally stuck on the face. Which means no tongue and no teeth. That's not good. And one eyebrow severely limits the expressive possibilities of any emotion!

It is just an animation test, therefore not as much effort has been put in as would be the final product. The final would include extras such as inside of mouth etc. And i may not as been as lazy as much as i was eager to post this for feedback.

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:55 pm

If you are "laughing out loud" about being based in England, I think you might be having a few issues with the concept of understatement...

Some additional advice: you are using Anime Studio to produce frame-by-frame animation. You *can* use it this way, but it's not meant to be used like this all the time. Its primary feature is a bones system, which allows the program to automatically set in-betweens linking two poses. Surely this should appeal to your laziness? (only kidding...)

Pausese · Post by **Pausese** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:57 pm

I was laughing out loud because i thought it was funny that you said you where from England! And your post suggested that you where talking to someone whom you thought was not from the UK.