Blink and Emotional Change | Isaac Traenk

Hi all! I've combined a blink with an emotional change.

I've figured out some techniques during this that I'd like to share at the bottom of this post. The first vid is the playblast. It is a polished work in progress; I haven't given the hands any icing yet. I'm actually going to add on to this. I have something special planned for you all. ^_^

Below is a stepped preview with the reference I used in the background.

Tips and Techniques

1. See the reference? I found out you can put your reference video on a free image plane and it will play as you scroll though the maya timeline. It won't play in real time, but it is extremely helpful in trying to time out and pose your character. Notice though that after I used my reference to find time and pose, I adjusted them as needed. Reference is only a guide and not a set method (don't follow the reference to the "T".)
2. Another thing is I never used stepped when animating this. I ended up doing double key holds and then smoothed it out from there. I only included the stepped version so you can see where my key/pose changes are. Stepped confuses me because I can't see the flow. The animation just "stops" in my mind. It's like when doing traditional animation. In TA, you have to keep flipping pages to see the flow of the movement. Same goes for maya in my opinion. if you don't see what happens between poses, then it only becomes images instead of animation. But I'm not saying stepped is bad. It's only a method. You need to find what works for you.
3. I did key poses on full body set keys, but then from there (after the general timing and posing were good) I started keying certain groups separately. The groups were: Body (chest and arms), Head, Hands, and then the Face was separated into Eyes, Mouth, and Brows. I keyed all these separate after the full poses, because you don't want to key small nuances in the whole body because that will add too many keys and will disrupt the flow of the graph curves. It also makes it easier to adjust timing for groups if they are separated.
4. Don't make more keys to make parts drag. Instead go to the breakdown key and make the pose drag. So in other words, instead of sliding keys around to adjust the spacing, change the breakdown pose so it is closer or farther to the next pose. If you keep your breakdown keys exactly in the middle of your key pose keys, it makes it easier to clean up later.
5. Kill the floatyness. It's ok to make things pause. Things pause in real life, but the trick in maya is if something is going to pause, make it move just enough so that it has pixel movement. 
6. Also, ARCS. use the arc tool to fix them from the camera. No other view matters. We aren't making 3d animation. It's a 2d movie made with 3d models.
   
   Hope this helps
   
   -Isaac
   www.blog.isaactraenk.com

Tlees | Thinking mmmm

Hey guys~ so not only did I get distracted with this one I also didn't want to work on it because it was super long and I felt uninspired to finish it. So....I just cut everything out that I wasn't excited to work on (like 200 frames) and finished it way faster :) I'd appreciate a crit ~~ <3

Doda | Run Cycle: 2nd Pass

Run_Cycle_2nd_Pass from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

Thank you guys so much for the critique on my first pass for my run cycle. I decided to take what you guys said and I did a second pass. Feel free to crit again if you see something else that needs fixin'.

Thanks guys! C:

Password: ringling

Millie | Blinky Blink

Buh, process

Blink | Summer Animation Bootcamp 2013 from Millie González on Vimeo.

Herpy hurrrp. This is a pretty-much-final version of my blink. There's still stuff I'd like to work on, but for now, crits away!

Password: millieroxs 

yes with an 'x' 

Tlees | Blink

Hey guys, thanks for the critique on my first blink test! Here's my final go. I included my super boring reference clip that I loosely followed. I wanted to make the timing faster, and keep the expression in the end instead of letting it fade. I also worked straight ahead the entire time and experimented like crazy in the graph editor. It was incredibly fun!

Almost finished pass...

And final!

Password: ringling

Doda | Run Cycle

Run_Cycle_First_Pass from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

And here's a run cycle! Sorry about the glitch, though, in the perspective view...no matter what I do, it just always exports that way. :/

Password: ringling

Doda | Blink!

Character_Blink from Rachel Doda on Vimeo.

Here's my character blink for now; I just did one, simple blink, so it's not anything too fancy.

Password: ringling

OLO | derp derp

Derp derp. Hahahahaha.

OLO | BBounce

AHHH BALL BOUNCE. I actually finished this a few days earlier, but I didn't get to post it...youtube confused me a lot...

Anyways, here it is! Sorry that I forgot to loop it...it would be easier for you guys to crit if this was looped.. I'll remember next time!

But please critique this! :D

IsaacTraenk | The Ball bounce!

Having only one Control feels so freeeeeeee! Inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog!

It seems Vimeo provides a better frame rate, so here it is there.
Password = ringling

itraenke ballbounce from Isaac Traenkenschuh on Vimeo.

And a would be rendered frame using maya software:

www.blog.isaactraenk.com

Tlees | bbounce

Super informative, got a lot out of the basics without feeling stressed c:

Millie | Bbounce

Hey everyone! Kicking it off with a ball bounce! Definitely awesome to do one of these again, it's like it actually makes sense now.

MAGICAL UPLOADING STEPS | Tutorial - Hasslehoff

After much experimenting the great and powerful Millie and I came up with an organized approach to uploading our videos for critique! It goes a little something like this:

1) Go to the labels tag. Labels are freaking awesome - all you have to do is click it and anyone who has the exact same label will show up. In the example below I used tutorial, and hasslehoff. NOTE: It has to be tutorial, not mytutorial or lolunicorntutorial - think of it like a password. Also, it's a good idea to add your name because then you can keep track of your personal progress!~

2) This is kind of dumb but necessary. In order for blogger to find the tags in the search you have to put the labels in either 1) Your title OR 2) the description (one or the other). You can see that clearly below!

3) To see what the labels for each project are, simply check the Google calendar descriptions c:

This tutorial is already set up with labels and everything so check it out if you want. Also feel free to message Millie or myself (Tabia) on facebook is you have any questions! Happy animating :)