New Scene from "Eve of October"

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neomarz1
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New Scene from "Eve of October"

Post by neomarz1 »

Here is the latest scene from Eve of October. I need a transitional piece at the end, but this is pretty much it. Oh, still working out background music too. Hope you all like what you see.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu5ZXTQdrQ8
Nimphaea
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Post by Nimphaea »

Beautiful...!

I love the special effects. Was the shine of the sword also animated in Anime studio?
Paul Mesken
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Re: New Scene from "Eve of October"

Post by Paul Mesken »

Looks great NeoMarz. It has atmosphere and very nicely drawn backgrounds and characters.

There's one thing I'd like to point out though. You work a lot with close ups and the left and right half of the faces act in exactly the same way. If one eye brow is raised then the other is raised at exactly the same moment and to exactly the same extent. The eyes, the eye brows, the mouth act the same on both sides. It's too symmetrical in timing, movement and shape. This results in stiffness.

I think the animation would benefit a lot if you'd add some variation left and right.

In drawing from life (or photos from life) you'll see that a facial expression might be different on the left side than on the right side (the most interesting expressions are, anyway). One half of the face might appear stern whereas the other half appears sad. Or the mouth might carry another expression than the eyes (a fake smile, for example, where the mouth is smiling but the eyes are not). Timing is different too. The eyes are typically the first to respond to an event.

And the face itself is not symmetrical. People typically have one eye brow which is raised more than the other. People also can raise that eye brow while pushing the other down but cannot do so the other way around (try it out, it takes a lot of practice to do it the other way around).

Direction of gaze is an important line of action as well. When not looking straight ahead, the shape of the eyes follows the direction of the gaze.

Well, there's a lot about this subject but the basic gist is that the face is never symmetrical. The only time the face is drawn symmetrical is in a cartoony way to express numbness or bafflement. It's like body posture. To distribute one's weight equally over both feet and with the left and right side of the body symmetrical feels unnatural. The body is typically always in balance but it's never symmetrical.
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neomarz1
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Post by neomarz1 »

Nimphaea wrote:Beautiful...!

I love the special effects. Was the shine of the sword also animated in Anime studio?


Yes it was. I probably could have done it with a mask. but I made 4 layers for that part. Layer 1 was the sword and case. Layer 2 was a Zebra pattern painted with white airbrush tool (on a cleared layer). The third layer was the sword case padding with a hole cut through all the areas that I wanted the shine to come through. the last layer the spinning twinkle. A bit much for this effect, but Im glad I did it.
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neomarz1
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Re: New Scene from "Eve of October"

Post by neomarz1 »

Paul Mesken wrote:Looks great NeoMarz. It has atmosphere and very nicely drawn backgrounds and characters.

There's one thing I'd like to point out though. You work a lot with close ups and the left and right half of the faces act in exactly the same way. If one eye brow is raised then the other is raised at exactly the same moment and to exactly the same extent. The eyes, the eye brows, the mouth act the same on both sides. It's too symmetrical in timing, movement and shape. This results in stiffness.

I think the animation would benefit a lot if you'd add some variation left and right.

In drawing from life (or photos from life) you'll see that a facial expression might be different on the left side than on the right side (the most interesting expressions are, anyway). One half of the face might appear stern whereas the other half appears sad. Or the mouth might carry another expression than the eyes (a fake smile, for example, where the mouth is smiling but the eyes are not). Timing is different too. The eyes are typically the first to respond to an event.

And the face itself is not symmetrical. People typically have one eye brow which is raised more than the other. People also can raise that eye brow while pushing the other down but cannot do so the other way around (try it out, it takes a lot of practice to do it the other way around).

Direction of gaze is an important line of action as well. When not looking straight ahead, the shape of the eyes follows the direction of the gaze.

Well, there's a lot about this subject but the basic gist is that the face is never symmetrical. The only time the face is drawn symmetrical is in a cartoony way to express numbness or bafflement. It's like body posture. To distribute one's weight equally over both feet and with the left and right side of the body symmetrical feels unnatural. The body is typically always in balance but it's never symmetrical.
Thanks Paul, I really appreciate these little tips. Although this isnt my first anime project, I am still learning. It was quite the job just getting them to look symetrical. It wasnt just raising them at the same time, or just dropping them. Its funny how something that should be that simple, isnt. It took alot of tweaking just to get them to look symetrical. I think I would lose my mind if I had tried to get them to look natural being asymetrical. I will give it a shot, and look for this in other animations to see just what you are saying. it makes sense what you are saying, but I am a strictly visual person. Thanks again, love the suggestion.
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Post by Danimal »

Very excellent! THis looks really very cool!

One suggestion: There's an awkward moment when it cuts from the female to the male who is also facing the same direction and walking. It then cuts to a close up of the male facing back toward the female. This is confusing to the audience and does what is called "breaking the 180 degree" rule because both characters are talking to each other yet facing the same direction. If the male were walking with his head turned the scene would make more sense from a blocking standpoint.

That's a really minor thing though, everything else looked SUPERB!
~Danimal
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Post by DarthFurby »

Strong art, backgrounds, voice acting, but stiff awkward animation. Practicing the fundamentals with bouncing balls and stick figures would go a long way towards fixing that. Otherwise, you've got some good stuff going on.
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neomarz1
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Post by neomarz1 »

Danimal wrote:Very excellent! THis looks really very cool!

One suggestion: There's an awkward moment when it cuts from the female to the male who is also facing the same direction and walking. It then cuts to a close up of the male facing back toward the female. This is confusing to the audience and does what is called "breaking the 180 degree" rule because both characters are talking to each other yet facing the same direction. If the male were walking with his head turned the scene would make more sense from a blocking standpoint.

That's a really minor thing though, everything else looked SUPERB!
Yeah, I know. I struggled with this part. I did several different things. I did a head turn but the animation just didnt work. Haleys has to walk that direction since he's leaving the window area. So the only thing that seemed to look right, was to have Haleys eyes fixed to Eve's position while walking, then rather than use a head turn I established his dialogue position with his head turned towards Eve. I'm trying to use those rules as much as I can, but sometimes you need to break them to get something that looks better. I may work on a head turn rig, but for now this is what I got. Thanks for the observation. Good catch!
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Post by Danimal »

neomarz1 wrote:I may work on a head turn rig
Please don't do that. Every last one of them looks horrible and it's an awful lot of work for a result that is usually comically bad.

Just have him walk to the left as it's in the scene but have his head turned to the right rather then just his eyes looking in that direction. Presto! The scene will work like a charm.

And again, PLEASE, your animation is to good to ruin it with a quirky, unrealistic head turn rig.
~Danimal
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neeters_guy
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Post by neeters_guy »

In the beginning of the clip, should the shadow of the wheelchair be cast away from the windows? Otherwise, Her movement in wheelchair is fairly convincing and the mood is excellent. I suggest having her look in the direction she's moving rather than looking (it appears) stage right. When she pauses slightly, add in something to indicate her mood, perhaps a look down with eyes closed, as if weary. These are just tweaks to a very accomplished piece. Keep up the good work.
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neomarz1
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Post by neomarz1 »

neeters_guy wrote:In the beginning of the clip, should the shadow of the wheelchair be cast away from the windows? Otherwise, Her movement in wheelchair is fairly convincing and the mood is excellent. I suggest having her look in the direction she's moving rather than looking (it appears) stage right. When she pauses slightly, add in something to indicate her mood, perhaps a look down with eyes closed, as if weary. These are just tweaks to a very accomplished piece. Keep up the good work.
True it should be, When I rigged the chair the shadow was part of the rig, so it was not planned for the association in the scene. Like the suggestion for the mood. see what I can do
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neomarz1
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Post by neomarz1 »

Danimal wrote:
neomarz1 wrote:I may work on a head turn rig
Please don't do that. Every last one of them looks horrible and it's an awful lot of work for a result that is usually comically bad.

Just have him walk to the left as it's in the scene but have his head turned to the right rather then just his eyes looking in that direction. Presto! The scene will work like a charm.

And again, PLEASE, your animation is to good to ruin it with a quirky, unrealistic head turn rig.
Funny you should say the same. I never liked those head riggs either. LOL. Ill see if the head turned looks good, if so I will use it.
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