AM master class work

[A00017940]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68FHDJhtOSo[/youtube]

some work done at AM master class. enjoy it very much and learn tons of things. great course.
comments and critique are all welcome!

[CraZ3D]

Good animation .~~!!
推!!

AM provide those creature ?
any tips to share ?

[A00017940]

Yes, AM did provide the rigs, but they are working together with animationrigs.com, and there are many cool characters' rigs on the site.
After finished this shot, I found it is useful for myself to use lots of time for planning and polishing. let say if I have 3 days for the shot, I would use 1 day for planning, 1 day for blockings and breakdowns in spline mode, and 1 day for polishing the last 10%. If I could, I would make up more time for polishing.
hope it's useful

[kingnt66]

Very nice animation work!!! Are you working in HK or Oversea? One small comment, the Dragon seems a little bit lack of weight. I understand it's flopping its wings, I think you can add a little more weight to the part where it land on the ground. And the part where the tiger hit the ground can be harder, maybe a little more recoil and bouncing? Other than that it's a great piece of animation!! I love the pose and the timing. Do you make a lot of thumbnail?

[A00017940]

Thx for dropping by and the comments Kingnt66,
I am working in Hk now and I think I will soon apply jobs in Vancouver since many studios are setting up there. Hope things could workout.
And yes, lots of thumbnails, but I am not a good draftsman. Haha

[LoGao]

Really great animation! It's smooth and detail!

Just the dragon it's a bit too human. Especially the last motion she throws the tiger to the ground.

[A00017940]

Hahaha, very kin eyes Logao, maybe I should look for a better reference for that, that swing motion is referenced from a tennis player
Thx for dropping by and the critiques

[LoGao]

Can you share something about animating or AM for us?

[A00017940]

sure thing,

at AM, you are required to draw thumbnails a lot, it is part of the planning process, it really help to explore different ideas and poses. great time to apply the 12 principles and look for reversal. showing it to the supervisor and make sure you are going with the right direction. As you can see I am not a very good draftsman, i need to sketch more.

[LoGao]

Oh~I do draw key poses like your thumbnails but not like this detail. It's very nice and helpful!
I will act the motion myself, do you? ha

[A00017940]

yeah, I act out the scene too if i were doing humanoid characters, but if doing creatures, I will look for reference from youtube and stitch the action together. do you block it out in step mode or spline mode? because I notice that VFS studio like ILM don't do step in blocking. even when they were doing Rango. but dreamworks and pixar would do it in step mode.

[LoGao]

I'd tried blocking in step mode for a commercial animatic before. The client couldn't understood and said that the motion jagged...haha

I like step mode. It tells the key pose and timing clearly.
But I usually work in spline mode for the honorable clients~

[A00017940]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMJPVTCLnfo[/youtube]

some more work,
comments and critiques are all welcome

[LoGao]

Is this one shot in a sequence?
There's not much to critique because you've already well done with the motion of the dragon.
Just in personal opinion, as you've animated the wings moving down then up at the very last second, I'll keep her wings down to firm a key pose.


btw, any other member please joins our discussion~
Here look like a private party now.

[kingnt66]

Another nice piece of work!! I think you should able to find yourself a job in no time. Do you want to try US? There are a lot more opportunity here

I kind of agree with LoGao, your overall pose and timing is very nice, the body mechanic feel very natural. The only tiny problem is too much motion, especially toward the end when the dragon shake it's head. I understand you try to put more subtle movement here, and I can almost see you take reference from an eagle or other bird like creature. But remember a dragon is a giant creature with a lot of weight, if you can tune down the motion of the wing toward the end, it will show a bit more weight as well as a stronger key pose. Again, this is already an excellent piece, I'm just trying to be picky here.

Good job!! Please share more of your work!!