Ok, pretty much ignore the little things, deformations, etc, as this'll be shot from about 5 or so different angles, and heavily cut, cut, cut. Would like feedback on general action/interaction if you got a minute.
http://rebelhill.net/punch.mov
1.6Mb QT
muchas gracias in advance.
Overall, I would say that the action looks good, but it depends on what style you are going for. If you are looking for a more over-the-top cartoon sort of movement, you've got it. If you want a more realistic movement, then it needs to be toned down quite a bit.
Is the fat guy's movement after the first punch 3 coughs? And are his hands supposed to be tied?
Will you see the faces when you choose the angles? If so, it NEEDS some facial animation. It would add the extra "oomph" to the punches, and would add some emotional weight to them as well. The puncher could look a little angry, and the punchee could jerk in pain (and cough if that's what he's doing).
I'd say you have a good start. :)
Nathanael Fuller
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Online Portfolio: www.fulleranimation.com
Demo Reel: www.fulleranimation.com/video/Reel_Hi.mov
I like the low camera angle on this shot. It gives the scene tension and adds alittle drama to it.
As for the animation, there were a few things that I saw that could work better. Oh, but first, the guy doing the punching, has really small hands.
I'll just go in order, it's easier that way.
The first punch: I don't think he should be stepping back for his antic. It would be more effective if he just shifted his weight onto his back leg, and then right befor he starts to throw the punch, he steps forward with his lead leg. Think of a baseball batter swinging at a pitch. Also on the antic, if you rotated his upper body, it would sell the power of that punch more.
The guy on the grounds reaction to the punch seems off to me as well, but I'm not to sure what it is.
The second punch: This one is strange. It looks like he's throwing an upper cut, but why? The other guy is on his knees, so he has to bend way down to throw this punch which looks stange. It would be a much stronger action if he were to punch downward, almost right at the camera/viewer. The guy's reaction to this punch is the best in the whole animation, but he leans into the punch. If you got rid of that lean in, and changed the punch direction, you could keep that reaction, and it would feel way better.
The third punch: Of course if you changed the second punch, the third punch would be totally different. What you have looks good. The only thing would be to have him looking at what he is going to hit. Right now he's looking up into space.
The slaps: these all look weak. It doesn't even look like his hand is contacting the other guy's head. Actually, all the punches look this way as well. If you work on this and implement the other stuff, I think this will look really good, and you will really feel like the guy is getting beat down.
I think you are going about this the right way. Get crits while you are still blocking out the action. Get that down first and then work on all the little details. Good work Rebel.
Aloha,
The Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Yeah, there's a lot of work to do with facial and such like.
You're right Ape, the punches don't all ACTUALLY make contact, I've done this puposefully, as in live action, hits never connect properly. I'm going to shoot the action fit with this style.
Speaking of which, if you go back to the original link, you'll see I've updated the work with a rough camera block, and cut.
So, anything to add guys??
At the guy in green's first turn, (05 seconds) it might look more dynamic and threatening if instead of a full-front pose, his upper body was angled slightly. Look at martial arts stances to see what I mean. People rarely stand perfectly parallel to people, especially if they're about to sock em'. :) You might even want to apply this principle throughout. A slightly rotated pose is more interesting, and informs the audience of the threat. Your motion's looking pretty good though. Just don't get too dependent on the 'straight-on' poses, since they tend to look unnatural. Keep it up! edit: To really see this, look at 'tekken' gameplay or cutscenes. Rotation city.
In boxing you do tend to be straight on, only twisting to dodge and roll. No martial arts here. Plus the martial arts stace is a defensive one, here the victim is bound and gagged.
Watch some of the action in fight club, you'll see what I mean.
Also most of the action is from video reference of me taking potshots at my girlfriend, so the stances are pretty accurate.
The new camera blocking is very strange. The first shot you have the guy on his knees way over to screen right, with about half of the left screen empty, and on top of it, the character is facing to the right. Then in the next shot, the guy in green pops into frame waaaay over to screen left facing left. It looks like they have their backs facing eachother with this set up. I do like how you cut on the action moving from the second shot to the third to silhouette the first punch.
Then you cut to the coughing which is fine, but then break the plain when you cut back to the guy in the green. If you don't know, "breaking the plain" means to have the camera shooting on a couple's right, then moving the camera to shoot on the couples left. What this does is make it feel the the two characters traded spaces. Then cut to the hand coming up is good. Then he gives him an upper cut which is nice. But then for the second swing of the set, you cut back to the other side of the two guys and break the plain again right in the action and is disorenting as the viewer and creates a jump cut.
The cut on the punch to the hit and reaction of the purple guys is very nice, and very efective. I know what was bothering me with the reaction of the purple guy now. The punch is a right hand punch and the follow through is down and to his left, but the purple guy reacts almost straight back as if he was hit with a jab. His head should be whipped to his right and down into his shoulder, and moving his whole body towards his right.
We get lost again on the next on the cut where he slaps the guy. It looks like he is slapping us, but the cut is too late and his hand has passed the camera already, then cut to the guy getting slapped. This creates another jump cut. Same with the next slap. The cut is too late, so when we see the hand slapping purple guy's forehead, the slapping arms is starting to recoil already, so it looks like he just pet the guy on his head instead of slapping him. And again with the third slap. For this one, it would be nice to scoot the green guy over to screen left and follow his slapping hand, as it comes toward camera.
I hope this helps some.
Aloha,
The Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Yeah, I'm well aware that I'm crossing the line, ubt I do it with a camera swing first off. Once the camera has swung (4th shot I think). Maybe it works, maybe not. I'm gonna have to re-evaluate my shoot once the background is in place. Thanks for the ongoing crits though, it's all good.