sh1100_DTH_caught

[Michael Cawood - Director]

If this is your first shot please check the Animator's Handbook for tips.

sh1100 (10 + 47 + 10 frames including handles)

Cupid has just fired his beam on high power towards Death. She is struck by the beam. In shock, she's yanked from her seated position and only just manages to turn over and catch hold of the chair as the beam pulls on her like a tractor beam. Her right arm grabs onto the left arm rest and her left arm holds onto the main chair seat.

The layout file is here:
C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\024_Animation_DTH\sh1100_DTH_caught

Then when you start to animate save the file in the same folder with your own initials and a higher version number.

There's reference footage here:

http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/reference-footage-v60

C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\020_Animation\DevilsAngelsDating_Animatic_Reference.mov

Please ask any questions you have in this thread, and post updates here. Make sure videos and images go in the appropriate sections first then post links or code for them in this thread so that we can discuss it. Note that it can be useful to post videos on YouTube, then just copy the code to this forum, as it allows us to use the video in other YouTube playlists. If you do this wait a little while between uploading to YouTube and pasting the code here, if you do it too quickly YouTube won't have made a thumbnail image yet and we get nothing on this site, making it hard to find in our gallery. Try to label entries by the full shot name as well, with decent tags and key words.

We also need one maintained playblast in the Dropbox folder that's always the latest and it's named after the shot (nothing more, and only one video). Again, study the Animator's Handbook for guidelines to avoid repeated nagging in your feedback and keep all the notes focused on the animation.

Good luck.

[Joe Cracchiolo]

Just wanted to give you an update on my progress. I have the chair detaching less form the main body of the chair. I also made the hands a little more snappier although I don't know if I should go a little further, I wanted to make her movements at first slow to help contrast with the fast action of the rest of the animation. I also turned on the dynamics. I'm aware that its going through the chair and needs to be worked on, I just wanted to see if it was going in the right direction.

Let me know if you see anything that stands out or areas where I might be missing.

Thanks
- Joe

[Michael Cawood - Director]

1) I guess the scythe is only rough at the moment, as it's frozen then rolls quite a lot at the end.

2) On the Dynamics, her hair seems really stiff and needs to flow around much more. Her hood is ok as a starting point but I think you'll want to do a lot of manual shape changes (with the normal controls) to make it look better to camera across the animation, minimizing intersections and polygon knots at it's base.

3) Her hands shouldn't be in the hooked claw shape as they are approaching contact. Approach flat ans splayed out for maximum contact then form into the claw as she slides back. The same applies as her right hand leaves teh main cushion to move to the armrest.

4) Do what you can to minimize the shoulder, back, hood, and hair crush that's going on. At best all I can think to do in the comp is to blur or darken that area to avoid people noticing it. Otherwise it's a bit of a mess.

5) Is she actually in contact with the cushion at the start? It's not looking like she is, perhaps she's moving a little differently to the cushion as it rises. Use the left right squash on the cushion to help convince us she's displacing it as she moves screen right.

6) The chair parts are feeling a little odd in their motion because the armrests and back are parented to the base. The way to improve this would be to create locators for all three, but leave them in their own group outside of the chair's hirachy. Parent constrain them with no offset to their controllers. Bake the animation curves of those locators. Delete the constraints. Mute the animation curves on the chair armrests and back. Constrain the chair part controllers to the locators with no offset. Then smooth out the baked curves, removing any major spikes that would stop it looking like it's floating freely in space. Only do this fro the armrest and back the base already moves freely in space and isn't parented to anything.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Ultimately this is really looking strong, and all these notes are polish. Well done.

[Joe Cracchiolo]

Hey Michael I'm a little stuck. I was trying to add the locators to the chair parts however I keep getting stuck on this part "Parent constrain them with no offset to their controllers." I know how to do all the other stuff however I don't know how to constrain something without an offset so after I constrain something it freezes it in space. I'm pretty sure this is a simple thing I just cant find any information on it online.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

In any constraint dialogue/options ox there's a Maintain offset tick box. Just make sure you're using the options box and unticking that.

[Joe Cracchiolo]

okay, I got it figured out. Turns out the problem I was having was that I was constraining the items in the wrong order, and it did not even occur to me to switch the order. Anyways, that's a pretty cool trick, thanks for the help.

[Joe Cracchiolo]

I worked on all your notes, spent a lot of time tying to get this buttoned down. I tried to hide the weird shapes in the cowl by changing the shape of it. I'm curious on how you feel about this.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Quick note, you're just making it in time for the next update... but I renamed your mov file because you didn't give ti the same name and that' breaks the edit. I'll get to shot notes after I've done all the updates.

[Joe Cracchiolo]

I probably forgot to rename it before I posted it

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Looking good overall, here's just a few notes.

1) I'm not keen on the shape of the hood at 45. Perhaps it would be ok if this was her first shot but I think it's too inconsistent with all the other shots to work.

2) The arms looks like they are moving towards the chair before she is struck with the beam. Perhaps she sees it coming, but I think it would be better to leave them unaffected until the impact frame, then have a much bigger arm reaction, and move them fast into reaching for the chair with a nice ark. It's all a little too smooth and evenly paced at the moment.

3) There's a bit of a no-mans land effect going on with her tail from 30 to 42, in that it's not clear what's happening to it. You need to invent some "business" for the tail in this area. I.e. some more poses. It could be that her tail flips out towards Cupid Beam once in a small way then she pulls it back, before she's finally unsuccessful and it's pulled out again as it currently is animated after 42 (although taht action could be speeded up a little).

[Joe Cracchiolo]

So in this pass I fixed the arms and gave them some more clear arcs. I also added a little business in the tail which I think made it look a lot better. I also found a solution for the hood so now its not doing anything weird. I also worked on everything else as a whole. Felling a little stuck at the moment so anything you see going amiss would help me out.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

1) Her left arm still travels too slowly to the cushion from 17 to 28. I'd suggest delaying the start. It also could help to arc the hand up and to the left for the breakdown, which will make the hand travel further to get to it's target and there fore seem like it's moving faster.

2) The right hand needs to stay in contact with the cushion, pushing down and gripping at 43. It's leaving too soon.

Besides those points, it's going really well and you're nearly done.