Yet another attempt to learn animation

I started a thread like this some years ago but it all went a bit pear shaped. I bought the animation fundamentals course from cgcookie did the first exercise ‘the bouncing ball’. Then I got a litte distracted by some projects when I tried to get back into animation my computer broke and I was stuck for a year on a lame laptop.

So I have decided to give this another go, I have shown I’ve go that dedication thing down with my 500 bad drawings thread(± 4 years and still going). I will try and do the same thing with animation keep it simple and straight foward.

I added to the animation fundamentals course with a parkour one and the animation kit one. My first task is to get through these courses and then branch out and do my own thing.

My first exercise the bouncing rubber ball

Nice work TM. And good on you for persisting. Your hard work will pay off. I’ve subscribed to this thread and will do my best to help you out.

The bouncing ball is looking quite good. The main critique I have is with the amount of squash and stretch, particularly on the first couple of bounces. This is almost a stylistic thing, but if it were me I’d tone it down a little. As you progress with more complex animation you will find that getting the right amount of squash and stretch is a really tricky, subtle thing and it’s well worth playing around with especially at this early stage with such a simple rig.

Thanks for the crit, I looked at my video went a back and dialed down the squash and stretch hopefully it is a bit better than it was before.

Looking better. Personally I think it’s still too much on the first bounce, but as I said this is a stylistic thing.

Okay this is my final attempt at the bouncing ball. I toned down the squash and stretch on the first bounce.

I also started up on the next exercise offsetting keys.

A quick tip: use dithering value about 2 to get rid of banding on your renders.

I’m starting to learn animation and it is much more difficult than I thought. My animation looks with hard and robotic movements. I think you’re doing it well, your animations looks with fluid and natural movements. Good work!

You should have seen my first attempts. My old thread from two years ago is still buried in here some where. I have done a few bouncing ball animations.

Also it helps that I am following Beorn’s(freen) tutorial from blender cookie which I would highly recommend if you don’t already have it plus he critiqued this and my old thread a bit which was extremely helpful.

I think I will start making lots of mistakes once I get to the ball and tail, walk cycle and other exercises of the course.

@Algirium thanks man I totally forgot about setting a dithering value, I will added to my check list of things I need to set before I render out an animation.

Looking good.

This is what happens when you stir too many pots, you lose track of the things you were supposed to be working on. I remembered I was supposed to be making another attempt at learning animation this year.

I recently sat down and worked on the next exercise, the pose to pose one. For the next exercise I will try and come up with an idea of my own, to test whether I can work without having a tutorial to always look at.

Comments and crits always welcome

continuing on with animation.

This is my first attempt at a walk cycle. I know there is so much wrong with this but I’m still proud of it. The hardest 3d related thing I have down so far.

comments and critiques welcome. I built the ball and leg rig after failing at animating a full character I thought cutting the torso, head and arms would really make things easier for me.

First, you need to fix the knees pop-up, then correct right foot postion(24 Frame). Make a good loop, clean curve and then you can easily change weight. Remember the slow in and slow out give your character weight.

@floo I will definitely try and fix the knee pops and the right foot. I am currently updating the rig and adding a fk leg set up to it but once I am done with that I think will I do another clean run on this from scratch.

Amazing progress!

it walks kinda looks like a fat guy carrying something heavy.

Banding? Do you mean the stripes instead of a gradient in the background?

Best of luck in your endeavor! Great to see skill progress threads like this

I have not updated in a long time a second attempt at a vanila walkcycle. I took on board all the crits and tried to make sure the were no knee pops this time around. I should probably try and build a rig with squash and stretch on the legs so that I can get them straight without knee pops.

I was fairly happy with my vanilla walk so I attempted one with a double bounce in it.

In case you are wondering, Yes this thread is going to be filled with nothing but walks, jumps, runs,skips etc. Think of me as a baby learning to walk…Animaition with acting is something that is very far off into the future for me.

I am starting to study walks with arms, struts and a few other personality walks. Hopefully it doesn’t take me half a year to update.