AuthorTopic: Cow chewing grass  (Read 2772 times)

Offline Zizka

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Cow chewing grass

on: May 12, 2014, 07:58:50 pm
Hello guys!

I'm practicing bending shapes while animating and well... I find it difficult. Very.



This isn't finished of course but any sort of feedback would be über ultra mega cool in the zone man.  :y:

Thank ye,

Z.



Little update:



 :lol:
« Last Edit: May 12, 2014, 11:38:46 pm by PixelPiledriver »

Offline astraldata

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Re: Cow chewing grass

Reply #1 on: May 15, 2014, 04:45:07 pm
Not too sure what you're going for here as far as what it is you're exactly practicing, so giving any sort of critique is difficult.

The only issues with animation I see (other than the disappearing brown spot on its chest) has to do with the lack of weight or tension in the head and improper spacing on the updated image. It's clear to see what you were going for, but it's lacking believability atm due to the aforementioned issues.

No resistance is shown, despite the red face, because the cow doesn't have to try again after the initial pull. I initially read it as the cow biting something gross and/or simply getting sick and sitting down before he disappeared off the screen. The haunches are done well enough though, if that's what you're referring to re: blending shapes.
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Offline Zizka

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Re: Cow chewing grass

Reply #2 on: May 16, 2014, 09:23:45 pm
Thank ye. I think I've fixed most of what you mentioned.



Offline astraldata

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Re: Cow chewing grass

Reply #3 on: May 17, 2014, 06:55:37 am
I laughed when I saw this update since it looks a lot better, but it still lacks believability in the spacing between frames upon pulling up the grass finally, so I did an edit:



Mine's still not perfect and I didn't fix any of the head pulling stuff since it all works fairly well, but I spent a little extra effort keeping the head visible for as long as possible before the cow falls offscreen while also making sure the spacing / speed of movement was believable.

The main thing I did was look at how much energy was being exerted on the pulling effort on the prior frames, and how much tension on the grass I imagined from all the pulling the cow was doing, and then I judged the "pop" of the head backwards based on the sense of momentum I got from considering all those prior frames in my head. I added one extra frame just before the "pop" of the grass to give a little anticipation/preparation to just before the backwards direction of the cow's head just before the "pop" happens on the grass in order for the cow's body weight to be the one making him fall backwards instead of him just stumbling backwards instead due to the pull force of the grass not really being enough to topple the heavy cow, regardless of how hard he was pulling in one direction.
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Offline Zizka

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Re: Cow chewing grass

Reply #4 on: May 18, 2014, 01:07:40 pm
Thanks for the feedback, Astraldata. Much respect for your generosity. Your contribution made this piece much better than it was.  :y:

Offline astraldata

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Re: Cow chewing grass

Reply #5 on: May 20, 2014, 09:48:07 pm
Not a problem man. Glad I could help. :)

As you've probably already seen, animation can be a bit tricky at first, but you eventually develop a 'sense' for movement after scrolling through prior frames back and forth quickly, and studying how far different pieces move from one frame to the next.

To eventually get a feel for it, or a sense of timing in your movements, this way tends to require hours of study, but working on animation as exaggerated and cartoony as something like this cow, and making that animation believable by using some variety of realistic physics, will help you get there much faster than trying a more realistic, or toned-down, animation from the start. All of the subtle movements come from larger, sweeping, waves of emotions or energy across the figure anyhow, which just become compartmentalized as separate portions of that figure react to that emotional/physical energy.

It's hard to explain, but that's the best way I can manage to do so.

Once you nail spacing, anticipation, energy-buildup, and recoil, you've got the basics you need to generally move to more subtle animation if you then learn to apply the part about compartmentalizing the reaction of limbs to the overall movement of energy or emotion across the figure by applying the sense you've developed from learning those four other properties.

Beyond that, it's simply a matter of technical skill (inbetweening, keyframes, etc. etc.), so once you get to that point, you should have it down. You'll move quickly from there. Good luck man! :)
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