My first Maya anim! YAY!

Nothing special as I used the Generi rig, but I was in need of something to animate using Maya

(it's just over a 1MB and there is sound too )

Still a WIP, though I'm pretty happy with what I have so far. Crits are welcome.

haha i love it. is the audio supposed to cut in and out like that though? o.O

Hey Globes...great to see you pumping out some maya animation!

I won't critique it because I know how confusing Maya can be to animate! Now....once you get going a little more you'll be getting my regularly harsh comments...LOL

And Global listen to everything T tells you that guy is worth a million dollars when it comes to animation, otherwise very good start maya can be a pain that's why I stick to max

Ok well originally I wasn't going to comment because I assumed it was just a preliminary Maya animation test (as it is), and that you weren't worried about getting the animation down too well....but you asked for it

-The opening pose....I like what you're doing with the tongue etc...but you need to exaggerate it a bit more. I'd say tilt his head over to the right...have one eye closed a bit more than the other etc. Right now it's not reading right and I honestly had no idea what he was doing, the first time I watched it

-The 2nd pose (where he takes a break between reaches, and lets his arms down momentarily) looks awkward....he has his hands out like he going to exclaim something, as opposed to getting ready to reach back again. I'd say have him let his arms down to his sides as if he's trying to catch his breath or something (because he is working quite hard at it )...might need to stretch that area of the animation out a bit more (maybe even have him wipe his brow or something)...but right now it's still not reading right.

-The 3rd pose (where he reaches back again)...looks great! Very natural

-As another thing...when he is reaching back...there doesn't seem to be any detailed hand/finger motion...it just looks like he drapes his hands over his back and waits ....maybe have his fingers move around as he is struggling to grasp onto something (the crazier the finger/hand motion, the better)

-When he says "could be worse", the timing on his right (our left) arm is a bit off. It snaps back at "could be" when it should only snap back at "worse"

-Same thing with the timing on his eyes. He looks up at "could be", when he should only be looking up at "worse" (because of the intonations in his voice).

-When he says "worse", try having his mouth open a little less (open as in, to pronounce the "orse"...right now that part looks a little odd).

Other than that...nice job Very smooth posal transitions etc...looking forward to seeing this done!

Ah, now that's more like it!

Great crit Tyson, thanks bud. I'd already mentioned about the arm movement and the last mouth shape on the dialogue... but now that I look at it again I can't believe I let that second pose pass the personal quality test! hehe

I went for a frustrated look, but you're right - it doesn't read well at all. In fact it doesn't read like anything! That right arm snapping back was something that I had in mind to fix, but forgot hehe. I did a couple of hours last night and had my first Maya crash! I lost the lot as it won't reopen the file. (I still have the pre-tweak file so I guess I should be thankful!)

Yikes! Yes...maya can be a real pain when it crashes :S (as we've discussed before hehe)

hahaha, nice anim mate! Wouldn't mind seeing it with the arrow a bit longer

Good to see you posting some ani Global. Nicely done for a 'get to know ya'


Peter