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AlexanderHenderson — Wieght Lift and Toss Animation
Published: 2011-10-23 17:44:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 2968; Favourites: 56; Downloads: 56
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Description
This was an animation exercise done for one of my classes. The assignment was to animate a character lifting a heavy object and have them toss it. This was a fun step up from previous work, as I got to work with a mre detailed character model of my own creation. This guy was a little tricky to animate, it was hard to keep track of the movement of both his belly scales and his tail. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but if anyone has any criticism or constructive critiques then feel free to let me know.Related content
Comments: 49
Wow. This is amazing! From the sense of weight to the animation of the limbs and facial expression, absolutely perfect. Each limb's animation carefully creates the illusion of weight and gravity. When the rock drops, It would be nice to see it hit the ground within the same scene in order to continue to convey that weight, but other than that its a perfect text book example of weight. I should also add that the line work and character design help to make this project very appealing so bravo on that as well. Keep it up! I'm very envious of your talent!
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Thank you very much for taking the time to write out you thoughts. I'll try and keep the whole weight issue of the rock dropping in mind with future work.
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Not a problem! Keep it up!
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I like the curling and sudden flick of his tail while he's lifting the rock... egg... thing. He looks so relieved when he finally tosses it!
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Thanks, the tail was so tricky to do.
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Well the weight is definitely conveyed. I particularly love how you animated his legs. The facial expressions is a great sell!
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Thanks, I'm glad you like it.
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Thank you very much.
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Thank you very much.
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Late Pm lol 
A your welcome to you. You plan on the cartoon someday, since you do the draw crazy awesome?
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I would like to be an animator someday if that's what you are asking.
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Yes. Believed I am you will be a great very animationer sir
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Quite nice work here! I love pencil tests since you get to see little flashes of construction lines and arc guides a lot of the time, which feel like they give hints at the thought process behind it in a way. As others said, the expressions here are a great selling point, though I also agree that some snappier timing in key parts would help vary the rhythm and increase visual interest a bit.
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Thank you, and thanks for the constructive criticism, I will be looking to fix that in future projects.
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Hey man. The drawings here are beautiful. All nice and consistent and purty. Only thing I can really say about it is that you have too many drawings, and it makes selective bits and pieces seem really floaty. I think if you were to cut out a few drawings in a few places to adjust the timing, it'd be absolutely great. Is there a way to get a frame counter on here?
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Thanks, I definitely see what you mean. I'm not sure how I could put a frame counter on this that would work with the site, but I can see what you're talking about and will take what you said into account with future work. Thanks again.
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wow, looks awesome! How much time did it take for you to make it and which program did you use?
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Thank you, I'm not sure how long exactly it took me to make it, I've worked on it on and off the past couple of days. I shot this using a program called Flipbook.
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I see. Is this program easy to use? I've never done any animation but I'm curious about it.
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Flipbook has some good and bad qualities. It's good for processing many images at a fast rate and good for compositing hand drawn animations, but it is not very user friendly and can be very glitchy, making it difficult to use at times.
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Well, it's great to see the finished product! It looks very well done, very smooth and fluid throughout. The strongest point is definitely his facial expressions throughout, they're hilarious, and they really help convey the emotion of the character, who himself is very well designed. All in all, it looks like a very professional job; well done!
Did you make this traditionally? I would love to know how, it would be great to have an insight into the process.
Also, it would be really interesting to know if you're planning to use this little fellow again!
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Well thank you, I'm glad you liked how it turned out. This was all done traditionally. It was done on animation paper using a blue col-erase pencil crayon, and was shot with a line tester.
As much as I like this character, I don't think I will be using him again. I like to practice different body types so I'm always making up new characters. That and it is required for school. My next animation is going to involve some pirate character.
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I see! I guess it's very good practice to keep pushing yourself to try new things, though it must be a lot of work to constantly come up with new concepts and such...but I guess it's a lot easier to do if you really enjoy it.
I look forward to your next animation! My dad is really interested in pirates and pirate lore, and he did his best to instill some of that in me. He actually named me after one!
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He is a really really nice character! I really like the tail movement you got, and all the little details, like how the rock pushes his snout in *sigh* I really love 2D animation in its raw form
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Thanks, and yeah I love 2d animation too.
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How dare he throw his egg. What a horrible parent, honestly
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I guess he saw your bowling ball float away and assumed the same thing would happen with his egg
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lsjdlksjdlksd lmao ok you win this round.
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I agree with Joshawa about more squash & stretch during the initial grab/lift. Also I'd make him bend over faster to pick up the rock; that would contrast with the more subdued movements later as he struggles with the weight and would make the timing a bit snappier. Nice job overall!
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Thanks, I will definitely try and work on that in future animations.
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Very nice sir! The heavy lifting was always a tricky one for me. I think if anything maybe using a bit more squash and stretch during the initial grab and lift would give it just a bit more spark. This is really good though. I like the shaky knees, and facial expression. All in all nice job!
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Thanks, and yeah, squash and stretch is definitely something I need to work on. I will try and improve that in future work.
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Sweet man! It's looking good though!
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Aggh it's so fluid. I love his wobbly knees.
How long did you work on this?
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Thanks, I'm not sure how long it took, I've worked on it on and off for the past couple of days, I couldn't tell you the exact hours though.
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My word that is well animated! Wow, where to begin?
It's very smooth and the shapes are consistent and clean. The marks of a professional I might add! I like your sense of timing as well, it's rather impressive. The struggle with the lift and how he slowly rises up to carry it. And my favorite part almost certainly be the tail and all of the secondary action you included within it, in particular with the way it arches as he starts to lift.
The only particular thing that comes to mind in terms of critique is the way the rock is thrown. It seems to lose a bit of the weight it had earlier, since he seems to throw it a bit slowly for it to sail that far horizontally. Maybe if it was a more vertical drop after he releases it? Or otherwise, if he throws it a bit faster?
But other then that, wow this is brilliant work. And a lot of effort to go into it! With that level of effort and skill, you are bound for great things!
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Thanks for the insightful response, and yeah, you're not the first person o point out the egg losing weight on the toss. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I will definitely try to look out for things like that in the future.
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Thanks, I could have just told you this in person seeing as you are sitting right next to me, but I will thank you here. Good luck with yours.
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Thats quite awesome! Personally, I'd say when he's holding the boulder higher than shoulder height I'd make the arms shudder a bit or buckle a little under its strain. I guess also the "throwing-arc" of the boulder seems a little too direct for something of that weight, as I imagine it'd pretty much only clear him a little.
Bear in mind though, I am no animator, so I'm probably wrong.
None the less, brilliant work. I particularly like how you got his tail to reflect his various stages of lifting.
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Thank you. I can't tell you how many times I had to rework that egg throwing arc, and you're right, it is still a little off. Thanks for your insights, I will try and watch out for stuff like that in the future.
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No problem. Glad I could help.
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does it is a mix of a cow and a crocodile/aligator?
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I guess you could say that, to me he's really just a general toony dragon.
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