Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Up Chuk Duck (Pilot)
progress post #06

This is how Up Chuk feels about the painfully slow process of traditional animation.
Something is going down in Up Chuk's living room. He runs to investigate. The idea here is that Up Chuk is running through his house, jumping, and then sliding into his living room:
The critiques all of you gave me for this initial run cycle really helped! I wanted to thank all of you again and encourage you guys to never be shy about critiquing these animated clips.

I will continue to post this same sequence in stages of progression, until it's final finished state. That way you can sort of see my process.

PS. this is not the only work that I have done since the last run cycle post. So don't worry ;)

19 comments:

Jack said...

So when do you think it will be finished?

James said...

I think that it's pretty good. The parts where the arms sway up looks a bit too slow (but still very fluid)

I think that maybe if you popped a few more frames out it would look better, but then again it might be the look that you are trying to get, and with the clean up it might lkook different.

That's all I'd really say, just mess around with that. Other than that what can I say? Perfect!

Can't wait for the whoooole dam thing!

James said...

Ohh and by the way... you, Dave, and Pedro might all finish your shorts around the same time, and that'd be cool.

One right after another!

Kevin Langley said...

Very cool. I like the way after he jumps he 'pushes' himself downward before making contact. Nice subtle change in momentum.

chrisallison said...

You doin it widescreen? I'm wondering what size you're doing your film (pixels x pixels), resolution (dpi) and framerate. Just curious.

Looks really cool, Ryan! Can't wait to see what's in that living room

Anonymous said...

The running looks a tad chopy, but overall there's no real problems with it. Keep going.

Anonymous said...

Ho-lee-crap!

My god Ryan. It's simply beautiful, even for a rough "sketch".

I can't wait.

Anonymous said...

wow ryan, very nice!
the shape consistency and everything is real great, you really did take into account how every limb would react to the jump!

my only crit is to fluff out the run a bit more, maybe rough some more detail in? it's great, but i know there's still more to it in comparison to the jump itself!

and on the recoil, i would keep it as cartoony and awesome as the jumping itself, it sort of looks like you're missing a pose or two of more zaniness on the recoil.
but everything else is great man! keep it up

Unknown said...

Gonna second james' crit - you should push the pose of him sliding a bit more and keep his arms on the right side of the screen a bit longer before they pop into their final pose. It looks a bit too smooth.

But it feels great. Clean up is gonna be such a bitch! You're fucking nuts!

C.B. Canga said...

kool blog here.

Ryan Khatam said...

hey everyone, thanks! i am taking all of these crits into consideration.

james: unfortunately my cartoon won't be done anywhere near the time pedro and david finish.

chris: 24fps at 820 x 400

edward: when you say 'recoil,' are you talking about when he lands..?

dustin:
Clean up is gonna be such a bitch! You're fucking nuts!

i know i know. i think i AM nuts (nuts for animation, that is! HAHAH), you should see the current scene that i am animating.. fuck..


EVERYONE THAT LIKES FUN CARTOONY ANIMATION, CHECK OUT DANNY OCHOA'S NEW CARTOON:

Gone Fishin'

-Ryan

Ryan Khatam said...

And here's a link to Danny's Blog so you can tell him how awesome his cartoon was! :)

bsleven said...

That clip is really awesome I like the weight and feeling in it.

:)

Cande* said...

Thanks for visiting my blog!^^ she looks so sad becouse i was really really sad when i draw her, jaja she was a kind of catharsis...
what a cool blog you got! the movements in this animation looks very fluid, congrats! it s not an easy thing.. i know it becouse i worked in a stop motion animation project.. that it s not all ready finished.. and man! it takes a lot of work and attention..
greets!

Danne8a said...

Very nice work as usual, ryan.
The spacing is great and adds such a fantastic dynamic to the timing of the jump.
Fun!

Anonymous said...

Whoa! nice animation and timing.I really wouldn't change any of that, it's perfect and ready to for the final ink IMO.
Make sure you always keep the rights to it, maybe enter it in a animation festival like Annecy.


I don't know much about this but apparently there is a Plug-In available where you can take the computer/wacom drawn roughs of Flash into Illustrator for inking then put them back to Flash for the final animation.
As Illustrator has a better brush tool and could save you a lot of time as inking in Flash is a real hassle.Im going to google it now as I need the Plug In too,I'll email you if I find it.

crsP said...

"...encourage you guys to never be shy about critiquing these animated clips."

What?! Is it just me or did you just offered me the position of Executive Producer of your show. Okay, I accept...

In the run cycle, I think you should have the right foot on a slightly higher plane. At the moment they both hit the same spots and if the foot further from the camera [his right] were to hit slightly higher it would give a better illusion of three-dimentiality [They're not real man, THEY'RE PUPPETS!] Your contact drawings seem to be using this, but the passing positions stay on the same plane. If we're following the Preston Blair method, then your contact position is a bit strange. You have the front leg outstretched, which would suggest a walk not a run, although a determined looking walk with long strides. if you take a look at that frame on it's own you'll see what I mean. It still works though. However I think it makes the body look too compressed, as it goes in for the second compression when you arch the back the opposite way. Also it's recommended for fast runs to keep the arms forward outstretched, as the motion is too fast to see the arm swings clearly. In your cycle there doesn't seem to be much arm movement aside from a slight down and up motion, which comes from the motion happening too fast and we're seeing the left just after the right etc.

I don't agree about the hands needing to be zippy. Stick with the ease in. What I do agree though, is that he should cycle that pose in around the 80's frame mark where he's leaning to the ground. Just to show the inertia of his run. Plus it looks cool. You could even have him sliding under a background object. But that's just more work [I take my Executive position seriously]. I think the recoil Edward refers to is just after he contacts the floor and pulling himself up. The problem there as I see it is how the weight is distributed. He anticipates the jump with both legs but mid air he sticks out his right foot for the landing. So far so good. But when he lands, even though his right leg takes all his weight [as it should], his recovery to the final pose causes his right foot to drag closer to the left. I think this foot, as it has all the weight, needs to be in the same position that it contacts. The left leg should be the one to drag up to the right. At the moment his left leg is looking a bit dead into the landing.

Finally I believe there's a slight problem with composition. A the height of his jump, most of his head goes missing. Then when he's at full stop, the background is too cramped around him. A solution would be to simply zoom out a bit to allow for the jump [I don't mean animate a zoom but zoom the overall scene out], and when doing the background, you'll have more space to keep the radio and chair from being so close. Also that frame is giving him 'horn head'. If you want to avoid the dead centre placement of Up Chuk, you could also have him stop at the left edge of the screen, then do a swift pan [with appropriate sound effect] to the left, so he ends up nearer the right of the screen. He seems to be looking at something that's going to take place towards the left.

I'll just point out that many of my suggestions are based without knowing the pacing of the scene or what comes before\after. So I'm doing a bit of guess work [plus I had to imagine a scrolling backdrop]. So most likely you wont have to change much. Except instead of a duck, he should be some kind of butterfly. Any breed. Your choice.

Ryan Khatam said...

crsp, i think you should take over! :D

david said...

hahaha nice! slick inbetweening too. after reading crsps comments it does make sense about how the leading foot should stay straight and the back foot bent for the slide. Like if a kid was going to slide into a homeplate the leading food would be straight to reach. yeah, but then you already did all the inbetweens for the the slide with the leading foot bent and it looks super smooth. so whichever works. i didn't notice it until he pointed it out. i say finish it up and move on. hahahaaha.