Moho Forum

OK, today I'll challenge you. Have a look at this:

(it's from http://www.gifyo.com/rogueypie/1751599)

See the subtle movements of the head, it only turns some 5° - no need for complicated 360°-full-turn-head-rigs or any 3D simulation. And watch her eyes and eyebrows and mouth.

Anybody able to animate a character with this amount of expression? Or, if that's too subtle for you, a cartoony exaggeration of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtSJqPNNsO8
http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/animato ... IC_ID=1103

As I said in the other forum, fantastic! the little look-up and the following eyebrow, very subtil, and I love the small mouth changes that express so much, well done!!

some people make animation look easy

That's a good one (and fast), Synth.

Okay, here's my attempt. It's helpful to break a sequence down by motivation (Ollie Johnston asked, "What is the character thinking and why does he feel that way?")

So this scenario might be a girl fixing her makeup before a date. I'd break it down into 3 phases of motivation/emotion:

1) "Can't get my hair right!"
2) "That's much better."
3) "Not bad, girl!"

This translates to 3 key poses. So I hold each key pose for 6 frames and add 10 frames in between for breakdown/ease in/anticipation into the next pose.

I won't necessarily match the expressions or timing of the original frame for frame. I only use it as a guide. My goal is to make each expression read well.

So, here's my example (red is key pose, blue is the breakdown):



Admittedly this could be improved a lot, but the main thing is the strategy in approaching a challenge like this.

Here's my take on this. It's nowhere near as nice as Neeters or Wes'. Mine doesn't have hair, couldn't find one I liked, tried 4 different ones, and it could use a lot more tweaking. I also don't have a way to make a Gif, so youtube will have to do. Neat idea for a project Slowtiger.

Edit: Thanks Stephan for the Gimp tip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_mnCv0XhtY

jonbo wrote:Here's my take on this. It's nowhere near as nice as Neeters or Wes'. Mine doesn't have hair, couldn't find one I liked, tried 4 different ones, and it could use a lot more tweaking. I also don't have a way to make a Gif, so youtube will have to do. Neat idea for a project Slowtiger.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_mnCv0XhtY

Download GIMP, it is free and it can make gif images.

1. Make a folder somewhere.
2. Render the cycle as jpg to the above folder.
3. Open GIMP and import as layers, select all the jpgs.
4. delete the background layer
5. Save as gif. click on animation, .50 ms will give you normal speed.

Thx Steve.

jonbo wrote:Thx Steve.

You're welcome!

It seems you did not delete the background layer though is the reason it has that little jump. In the GIMP layer pallet, scroll all the way down and you will see a layer called background. Delete that. IF you did delete it and it still jumps, maybe a duplicate layers is in the mix. But it seems you got a good start on GIMP for your 1st try.

If the animation looks slow you can also change the rate the frames switch. I find that 50 ms gives results that look like the render in AS. 100ms is half time, etc.

Yeah, the jump is in the sequence not the background. I'll have to fix it. But meanwhile, I updated my avatar too.

jonbo wrote:Yeah, the jump is in the sequence not the background. I'll have to fix it. But meanwhile, I updated my avatar too.

I am glad you are using it. Welcome to the world of photo editing.

Wow, honestly I didn't expect anybody to accept this challenge ... Nice stuff!

Here's my own turn, I tried to incorporate some of the movements into my own character. (Done in TVPaint.)

http://www.slowtiger.de/examples/g2.mov

That's beautifully done Slowtiger, I love that style.

Yes, agree. Work from a true master. Good thing you didn't post this first or I would've traced it in AS.

Hey, that's just a sketch, and it's not even really good - it's a starting point for a scene. Don't let yourself get fooled by the "artsy" pencil lines. But thx for the compliments, anyway.

BTW the woman in that GIF likes your efforts too. If anybody is inclined to turn her into a nice cartoon character: visit her blog http://rogueypie.tumblr.com/ and see more images.