Punch Tests, early phase

So heres the fruit of a half a days (well an hour or two if you include what ever else got in the way) work, I have just blocked out the major poses for the lead punch. With it being a snappy punch most of the frames have gone towards padding out the return to the characters "ready" stance. My very first play through had the punch looking very stabby. The fist would stop at the arms full reach and then come back, no flow just an abrupt stop and then return.
So ! This version, featured above, has had a bit of tweaking, its had a frame put in to cushion it after the arms full reach and to give the follow through (no giggling) effect. As it stands, it now seems to have little impact, so I'll go ahead and give it more snap back after the punch lands and possible start exaggerating the pose to get a little more from it.

More soon! - Work hard.

Into the swing of things

So lately I'm being a bit forgetful with posting updates on here. Perhaps its to do with the increase of work shifts i'm taking or maybe its partly to do with a dip in my work output. The first reason problem effects the second, but if I want to get somewhere fast then I need to try a bit harder and not see the end of my work shifts as time to crash out but rather a chance to give me a shot at a worthwhile job. Procrastination aside heres what I'm on with at the moment, between cracking on with exercises set by my fairly new mentor i'm improving my drawing skills. Now whereas I have no trouble pushing myself to copy something I see in front of me my actual knowledge and understanding of creating anything via pencil or wacom is pants to say the least. So i'm stripping it all back to basics. Which is an odd phrase considering the subject, i'm not talking basics as in simple shapes, I want to understand, stances, posing and structure at the very core. If I can get the hang of bone structures first, it will literally lay foundations or the bones of my characters and poses which will in turn help me in my animation work.

So my first documented study seen in this sketch is the hips and rib cage. If I can lean what they look like and learn how to simplify these shapes quickly and correctly I can move onto the next phase.. Muscles!

Picture two is for one of my pet projects. Yes another one, but this one is actually getting worked on. It is quite simply the study of the punch. I am a keen animator and Marital artist both, so it will help me in both areas if I combine both my disciplines. I often get wound up with films/tv or games when a character supposedly hits another and it just looks hideously unbelievable. Now whereas in good scenes where a decent physical altercation takes place a simple camera trick can be used, I have the luxury of actually being able to make my characters collide.

One thing I know, is its all in the contact. The weight of a punch must be believable, for a strong punch a person must incorporate their body weight into its momentum. For a great punch it must follow through the target, only coming back stance (for defence or a second punch). So my study is creating the best look in a 3D, rather than looking too much into other peoples methods too much, I will be studying this one from my own references.
The posing I seem to be getting down fairly well so far. I have recorded myself doing a few JKD or Bruce Lee style lead punches to study its snap back look. The trouble with this particular punch is it focuses it technique on not being seen, simply put there is no anticipation for this punch. If done properly the practitioner lunges his first forward and his/her first motion, there is no wind up or bring it back for momentum. Now muscle memory for pretty much any other motion involving the fist causes us to bring our hands back, be it a punch or throwing a ball. With anything else it wouldn't be effective to generate enough force this way. But with this punch the idea is to connect your bodyweight with the other guys face whilst using little strength from your arm muscles at all. Given correct timing and structure of your body right down to the origin of force or contact point with the floor, you will be using your whole body weight to push an opponents face back.. Result, knockout. So coming back to my point, I want to be able to create this look in my animation test.
So what issues am I facing. Well As I just mentioned above, there is no anticipation with this movement, so out of the box it looks a little odd. In conclusion to this visual issue I will most likely simulate the character in motion before loosing his punch. That and putting another model on the receiving end would make it look better perhaps.

I've been studying up on the use of time bars a lot now. As in those little animator sketches that plot out the keys used in a time frame. So Jim if your reading, thanks for giving me that useful skill its helped my planning no end and I will upload more of my exercises shortly! Enjoy the rest of your holiday mate.

To the rest of you, Work hard :)

Felty

Ball update

I haven't posted in a while. But just to show a bit of progression heres the updated version of my latest work on the ball exercises.



The previous one was a little daft in the sense that the ball seemed to have a mind of its own, somehow bouncing on each step with equal force and distance. So heres the updated version, with actual gravity!

Arcs, apps and more bouncy balls!

So I've been itching to get my Wacom to use this week as it has just been sat gathering dust for a bit. So today I downloaded a trial version of "Ultimate pen" which is basically an app that lets me scribble over my other programmes, so its hand for animation arcs etc. It's been very handy to quickly plot out some animations and just litter the page with helpful timings or notes.

Oh here's a blocked out test I'm doing, its another popular practice, its another ball, but this time its going down the stairs! I'll upload the finished version soon along with some samples of different weights.

Stay tuned for more tests and some of my anatomy study sketches!

The next few weeks

I'm back! Yes I'm fully aware no one knew I was gone, or that I'm "here" even so to speak. Anyways, moving away to study in solitude means travelling is necessary if I wish to see the misses. Not that I mind but it usually means a week out at a time from study, a welcome rest mostly yet I am usually gagging to get straight back to it by the end of the week. Arriving back now at this point in the month means I am left with a little more than a week to start and complete a 11 second club entry. Now as much as I hate the idea of leaving a gap between what I want to be a full years worth if entries I have decided not to force it and concentrate on my drawing from now till the next competition starts.

For the remaining time I have chosen the following subjects:

- the human skeleton: understanding a realistic framework to my characters
- muscles in motion and giving the illusion of force
- general break down of the body parts and muscle groups.

It's clear I need to spend time studying each section till my own drawings match the standard of my reference drawings.

During this next week I will also be balancing my drawing studies with more animation exercises, yes more bouncy balls as well as some studying on lighting and rendering a scene competently in Maya. I still have loads to improve on, animation wise before I hit the top scores in the 11second club, but it wouldn't hurt to spend some time making my vids look pretty whilst I'm not going too heavy on the maya projects right now.

Going to be a busy week, can't wait!

Paul out

Bouncy balls

So, as part of my back to basics I have ventured way back to the bouncy ball. Its strange that motion can be studied through something as simple as the bouncy ball. Timing, weighting, squash and stretch, they are all in there. So i've been animating a ball, doing a quick render and gradually seeing where the mistakes are being made. In my first go I failed to even out the middle pose and as a result the rest was a bit off, I also used too many keys when the ball was landing, giving it a speed up and slow down effect, which was very odd. So i've had a play around with the poses and made sure I kept it all on 2's this time round.
One by one i'll pulling the tangles out of the knotted string that is my work flow.. Anyways, below is a quick playblast of the last ball I did. It's all stepped, it's actually nice to see one of my animations flow so well in stepped. I know its just a ball but still.. I guess I'm easily impressed!






More work on the basics to follow

Stay choooooned, Paul out.

Animation tests: Reviewing and absorbing the basics

When drawing, I'll often challenge myself to draw a picture that I know I won't be able to render to any impressive standard. Later after a degree of practice I will choose that exact same theme to create another picture to compare standards. I though it was time I initiated something similar with my animation, even if its just something simple like one limb moving in a certain way. The whole point of these exercises or tests is to focus back on some of the basics or principles of animation that I can often neglect in my work flow. It may often sound tedious to go backwards but its definitely worth it to discover small epiphanies within the timings and spacings of motions. After recently being tasked by a tutor to go back to the bouncy ball I have been inspired to follow some other vids on basics, when searching for such things its never too long before Richard Williams pops up. I have been re-reading through some notes and going through lecture snippets on youtube and the latest test i have dabbled with will certainly help loosen up my creativity with poses. So far my 11 second club entries can be a little too boring and seem as though clinging to a more realistic approach. I need silly and wild, perhaps I need to look into films such as "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs and other similar comedy styles.



So heres a playblast of the test I had a go with. I had to tweak one of the extreme poses to get rid of what looks like a a dropped frame feel. A slight adjust of the elbow at its highest point made the movement blend more. The point of the exercise was to open up to extreme posing, so on the frame previously mentioned the elbow is hyperextended in an impossible position.

More of these to come soon, gotta keep cracking on for now.


- Paul Out