a strange little test!

...that believe it or not, I learned a lot from!

I took a simple movement of the body that I understand, and tried three different types of spacing. each test has the same timing, but different spacing.

1st test- favors the extremes (hips to one side), no ease coming out or going into the extremes.

--9 frames at each side extreme, 4 frames to transition to the other side

2nd test- totally 'smooth' spacing with short eases on the extremes (flat tangents). this one spends as much time in the center of the movement as it does near the extremes.

--constant movement, never stops or pauses, perfect sine waves

3rd test- more time is spent at the extremes, very little in the center of the movement. this test uses long 'drifts' around the extremes. this produces snappy action without being harsh. I would say this is the winner and most natural spacing for this type of movement of the body...except for belly dancers, who would hit the extremes much harder ;o)

--7 frames around each extreme that slowly drift into, then out of the extreme, 5 frames of fast transition in the middle of the movement

the 3rd test gives the best illusion of muscles and weight. it's snappy enough to be appealing and not be swimmy, and smooth enough to show some weight and the stretchiness of muscle.

pocoyo test a

I copied part of the Pocoyo intro to learn the style. I modified the Bishop rig from AM to be a little cute guy...needless to say, I had to break the rig a bit ;o)

...this is minus the lovely camera-move from the original.

I LOVE this style... so crisp and punchy! I learned a ton from this test!! ...ahh the joys of creative spacing and keying every frame!

Here's the original:

SHOULD CARTOONS END WITH A MESSAGE?

Some very good thoughts in this one:

http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.com/2009/05/should-cartoons-end-with-message.html

baseball- finesse pass

not done yet... more to come

character rig courtesy of Animation Mentor

accent- hammer swing

Richard Williams' keys.... just wanted to try it. the fulcrum of the hammer swing is a shortcut....I wanted to focus on the accent/spacing of the hammer swing using the motion blur (speed lines).

accents- points

a test of a point accent using Richard Williams keys and timing charts. this doesn't seem to read as well to me with a 3d puppet as it would probably read with hand drawn animation.

a RW soft point... this one reads a little better in CG. 

clay guy

he, he, I'm not sure what exactly this little guy is....cat, rat, dog??
who knows.
he is clay though.
:o)

double bounce cycle

not quite done yet, but almost...not quite sure where to go from here. this is a two step cycle, so it repeats, no variation. mickey mouse watch out, he's strutin'. :o)

character rig courtesy of Animation Mentor

baby bishop- just for fun!

lighting is terrible.  just for fun! :o)

technical test- hand drag on console

I had a lot of trouble with this situation in a shot I did for school....I found a wonderful solution, and what gave me fits for weeks and weeks, took 45 minutes to setup and animate. This is still rough, but look what I got in 45 minutes! A miracle I tell ya.