Blocking to Final

This is the last animation of the magician. All three of them were done during advanced body mechanics class (that's term 3 in AM) so the idea was to make the character do things that demand working on getting timing and spacing right, the feeling of weight, balance, drag, overlap, etc...all the principles, so that when we start working on acting (term 4) the body mechanics are already there. That's why this magician does some things in a very exaggerated way – so that I can practice my body mechanics skills ;-)

This final shot shows him getting out from beneath the tank, getting up, making one last magic trick changing the tank back into Tailor and thanking the audience. I'll just make this one like last post, showing how I went from one version to the next.

So here's the blocking of the idea

The main comments I got from my mentor:

•  the pose at 85 is too twinned, too even

•  make the pose on 127 bigger and have him hold that

•  there's not enough time for the audience to read the bow in the end, so simplify it. After all that quick action have Stewie simply lift Tailor and have Tailor thank the viewers.

So here's the re-block, after changing those things and starting to spline:

I see now that this still looks very even, seems all the movements happen at a similar speed - but while working on it I couldn't see this. Here are some comments I got on it:

•  correct the weight around pose 85, shift the weight slightly or it'll look like he'll fall over.

•  I was in doubt about how exactly I should keep Stewie alive in the end while holding that final pose, after all, the focus was on Tailor, not Stewie at that point. So my mentor told me to shift Stewie's weight after catching Tailor, have him raise the hand quickly then overshoot and settle.

•  track the tip of the hat. Especially in the beginning, there is a very irregular movement going on there. Well, I mentioned this in another post...this pointy hat has this problem.

Here's the version that followed:

Now some comments start getting subtler, more specific, she said I still should work on the holds and break up the timing.

• pick a primary pose and ease the other poses into it. So speed up from about frame 25 to 46 - have it happen over 15 frames. Then then hold 46 for 5 frames.

•  on frame 73 let it overshoot and settle back the hip

•  drag toe on 112 and on 118 shift his weight so it's on back foot

•  128-158 is taking too long, could be 10-15 frames. Have Stewie catch Tailor just before he falls.

And finally:

It always helps seing which comments people get on their shots an how they progress. So I hope these posts about how I arrived to the final version were interesting. I tried not to make it too big so didn't write about all the comments I got, just the main ones.

I think one of the things that got a lot clearer to me during advanced body mechanics class is that we should always know when to simplify. Also, it's good to exaggerate and do all the crazy things animation allows us to do...but need contrast too, to have a nice texture in the animation...crazy can get boring too, if it's just that all the time.

Polishing and Final

Now it's time to start polishing! The main comments I got on it were:

• the movement in the beginning, when he's preparing to roll on the floor is too linear, track the tip of his hat to see the spacing. We should always try to make the movements as interesting as possible. A linear movement in this case doesn't work well and tracking the tip of his hat will give an idea of his speed.

• have Stewie anticipate that jump in the end and have his feet planted when he falls. Also make him bounce once, slightly. Though he's caught by surprise, he has to gather energy to jump like that. This way,it reads better.

• he doesn't have to swipe his head in the end for the audience to understand he's relieved. That's too much. No need to be so dramatic. He can only look up, happy he survived and then let his head fall because he's exhausted. After all that action, he doesn't need to do that broad „pheeew“ movement. As my mentor told me: the complex needs to go with the simple.

And about the ball/tank:

• think of the car as a heavy bouncing ball. Also make it go up a bit when it's trembling to have a small anticipation, then have it fall down quickly and bounce a couple of times. This anticipation should be there to show the audience what's going to happen. We also need to sell the idea that the tank is a threat, therefore it should look really heavy and bounce like something heavy.

Here's the polished animation...

After that one I got some more comments before reaching the final animation:

• track the tip of his hat. With that pointy hat, it's really easy to notice if there's a weird arc happening. So it helps tracking it to have that looking good. So there should be nice clear arcs when he's leaning back in the beginning and then when he bents into the roll. Also throughout the roll the tip of the hat should follow smooth arcs.

•  have the ball make a more interesting movement, like a simple figure eight, but not enough to get more attention than Stewie. Also have the ball get smaller and then the tank growing bigger and overshoot so it's a nice transition from one into the other.

And at last, the final animation:

Yes, it can get better, but the process of going through each step and getting lots of feedback already helped me learn so much!! This is why the next animation is nicer :-) I'll comment on that one next week!