Wednesday, May 23, 2012

"Debate Team" animation: Blocking 1



So I'm finally back to animating non-Flash stuff.  Which is a relief.

I made one blocking pass on each character.  I tried out making a keyframe every 10 frames, and then adding necessary poses in between those when needed.  This is the first piece I've heavily used video reference for, and even though it's in a step-keyed blocking phase, I think it's showing.  I used to have an issue with reference footage where I feel it's sort of cheating.  Well, I still do, but I've realized it's illogical and I need to get over it.  At least I shot the footage myself, so it's still all my own work.

Anyway, I'll be making second passes on both characters, to get a keyframe at least every 5 frames.  My last attempted project I jumped into polish far far too soon, and it ultimately killed the project for me.  I'm going to block the hell out of this one, probably making a 3rd pass to make sure there's poses ever 2-4 frames or so before I dig into polish.

Audio clip is from "Strangers With Candy," Season 1, Episode 7

2 comments:

  1. Nice! And funny! Just a thought, maybe there are one too many gestures by the man at the beginning. Maybe if you get rid of his first gesture and made it mostly face and head, then the other gestures would be stronger in juxtaposition.

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  2. As always, I'm mad impressed and love your work. The staging works nicely keeping them in profile so you can have some great silhouette-value. The poses and motion all feel very nice and natural and there are a lot of nice little touches to the actions.

    I wonder though, the intentions for the guy. His acting seems a bit disjointed in that, at the beginning his remarks/body language seem to say that he's just being an encouraging teacher and making the passing comment that she should join the debate team. Then when he turns back to her all of a sudden he's much more aggressive about the idea and at the end he seems almost perturbed that she would question his suggestion. Maybe to make the two parts work it's a matter of giving him a pose before he turns back to her where he's hearing and processing that she's disagreeing with him.

    With the girl, at the end is she confused at her sudden change of opinion? If so, I think that last pose could come sooner and maybe also include like a look down/inwardly, reflecting on herself realizing how easily she was manipulated. Then with that coming sooner, maybe (maybe not) a look back up at the guy surprised at his debate skill and ability to change her mind so easily.

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