The Rat of the Bridge

Hello guys! since few months I had the crazy idea to do a short animation of a few minuts. Specifically a fight between a Cat and a Rat. There is a lot of ideas behind that simple scene and lot of work to do. Today I presents a little forward step to that little personal project. There’s a test animation of one of the characters. Hope you like! there a bit more information here: http://cgcookie.com/profile/rhyging5/

Nice character! The animation, however, is looking floaty and unnatural.
I think you should spend time in the blocking pass and really make sure all the poses are working. Then switch on the splines and polish the curves to make your animation pop more.

Yeah, your are right, there a lot to polish in the animation. I have no experience in that area. I Hope your “animation fundamentals” tutorial, that I starting to see, helps in that sense!

for a rough in, pretty cool.

Yeah its needs work but I think your ideas are cool.
Great character design…

I think that is very important to get who your character, most don’t seem to get that right. You did a great job making him seem very much his own person.

character design and render looks great.

Thanks guys! and yeah…I put so effort giving charisma and personality to the character, think this is esential.:wink:

Your animation is fine, only the timing is wrong. The swings of the sword and flipping it in the air need to be faster for it to look correct. You can also add a little variation in the “stand-by loop” because it makes it look like his face is having nervous ticks, especially the mouth area.

The overall presentation and the character look great, and with some more polish the animation will be as well.

It is the hesitation I believe. It does not need to be realistic but in real life the swing/ spin has a consistent speed. Chop chop sword fighting has a lot of wasted energy. Think of the sword like a ball on a string, it keeps momentum.
The first chop right to left is very awkward in real life. If you chopping sword to sword that’s OK but if nothing is there it is a put you off balance move. You must then step into the cut or follow the weight. And wrist is twisted at this point. For a right to left/ chop chop swing arch up in the middle of the swing. There must be a hesitation at the end of the swing and a lot of body shift. This is a bad way to swing a sword this just might make it look a little better. Stepping into the swing may be something to consider. It is a heavy sword.
The stab is also a bad move for a heavy sword . If I may suggest, how about a fencing step there. He is showing off it may look cool here. Something to recover the off balance. It looks to me like the fencer is steeping back from the cut. It is awkward to pull back the weight with arm only.
I think anything goes in cartoons it does not need to look real just cool. Im not suggesting you make anything look real.
These are just some ideas as I have spent time considering these moves. I like to practice with a short piece of muffler pipe.
This is inspiring. very good. Thanks for posting

Here there is another test animation. In this case, just a turnable:

The bridge looks great. The rat looks great. It is inspiring.

You have a marvelous idea for “fantasy detail,” and I am really looking forward to seeing the completed show.

As for the original sword-play animation, I think that what was wrong about it was that it looked springy, or bouncy. Now, you might want his long nose to be a little rubbery … that’s okay, that’s a characterization decision. But sword-play should ease-in very quickly, and ease-out even more decisively. You do have his whole body engaged in each move, which is good.

lot of potential, lot of work coming, keep it up :slight_smile:

Animate the Seed value to get rid of the overlay effect of the noise. This will help a lot on your final render.


Good model btw