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badpigeon 22 posts
Hey all, I was wondering if any of you knew where I could find some good biped animation tutorials? Ive got the basics down, like running and walking, but I would like to animate my character lifting something, and possibly tripping and falling. I would prefer making my own rig, but this is for a class I have...
I need to have atleast 5 different animations of my character doing different things. I was thinking running, jumping, throwing, lifting, and pushing? I would comp all the renders together in premier. I just cant find any good tutorials online for obscure things push or pull for biped. Im still new to character animation, so this will probably take me the rest of the week, and the weekend to pull off. I would really like to make my character lift a box, and push another. Do any of you know where I could find tutorials like this?
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Jake 212 posts
Well you could take a look through Carlos Baena's links, but animation tutorials on the web are pretty rare from my experience.
http://www.carlosbaena.com/anim_material.html
What I would recommend is buying the book "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams. It's a great source of information for character animation. Or Preston Blair's book "Cartoon Animation". But I'd get the Animator's survival kit. Again, Carlos Baena has an extensive list of books worth checking out:
http://www.carlosbaena.com/books.html
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badpigeon 22 posts
Another quick question.
If you were pretty new to animating, how long do you think it would take to make a character run, jump across a cliff and grab an edge? Using biped of course. Just curious, because ive been so busy the last 2 weeks, and my animation is due tuesday afternoon :S, am I screwed?
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Global 1,589 posts
That's a pretty abstract question badpigeon... something like that could be done in an afternoon or over the course of 2 weeks - just depends on how good / polished you want it to look.
I sometimes surprise myself with how quickly I complete a shot - and other times I'm really aware of how slow things are going! Anyhoo, as a quideline, a TV company producing an animated series would probably expect around 20 - 30 seconds of finalised animation per week, whereas a feature film animator would be expected to produce around 5 seconds per week.
That doesn't mean the animators of feature films are under any less pressure though! hehe
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badpigeon 22 posts
Sorry about the vague question, im just trying to get an idea of how much I might beable to get done before tuesday...
Im planning on spending the entire day tomarrow working on it, 8am to 12 midnight. I just dont know that much about biped, and I cant find any good tutorials on it...
Your post does help a lot though, gives me a better idea of what I might beable to accomplish. I wanted to do a bunch of different animations showing basic things like pushing a box, pulling a box, etc... but now I might focus on one thing and make it funny or something.
Anyways, thanks for the help!
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Global 1,589 posts
Well, my advice would be to really think hard and plan the shot and timing before you even go near the computer. A buch of short anims may be a good idea if the quality of each one is good (rather than a long, very badly executed anim). But even then I'd say you were quite pushed with time if you only have a day.
Don't stress too much though, and don't think what I'm saying means 'well that's it, I'm screwed!'... because even in a day you can come up with good animation.
So yeah, plan the shot... act it out a number of times (which will help with the poses and timing) and only when you are sure of what will happen and when, that's when you sit in front of the PC. The reason I'm being particular about planning and timing is because I know from experience how easy it is to sit down and add a little bit here... stretch out a moment there etc, and before I know it I'm tearing my hair out on a 30 second anim that really should have been 15 or 20!
Say to yourself "This anim will be limited to 250 frames (10 seconds) and I won't go any further than that" (But don't try to cram too much into that 10 seconds
)
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badpigeon 22 posts
Wow, thanks man, thats exactly what I needed to know. Ive been working on concept drawings, and a rough storyboard for a little while. Im going to spend a few more hours tonight working on shot planning, timing and poses.
I think I might use my camera to tape myself acting out the things my character will be doing. That way ill have some reference material when animating tomarrow.
Thanks again for all the awesome tips, and speedy replies!
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Global 1,589 posts
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badpigeon 22 posts
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badpigeon 22 posts
I have decieded to drop the class actually, Its not required, and it was a bad Idea to take it in the first place... doing a 30 second animation with no prior animation skill is rediculous.
Anyways, im going to use the time I spent in class to work on misc mini challenges like the one on 3dtotal, and the ones here! Eventually I want to get into the 10secondclub ones, but they are to advanced for me at this point.
This way, ill actually learn something about animation without having to pay an arm and leg.
