Today, I wanted to animate a character hitting a punching bag...and found a clip off Youtube.
Great right? For animators it should be a breeze to gather reference-yeah? Just surf through clips (possibly hack them together) and voila! Reference material is made!
Of course now this is obvious--but not all reference material is good to use. Personally, if the feet are hidden in the shot and I am animating a character running, walking, or anything not focusing on expressions--it's not helpful. In anyway. Period. Since I don't enjoy being on a camera, it's hard for me to "act it out" especially in fear someone will walk in. Sometimes desperate times...call for desperate measures. So--record yourself.
Act it out in front of a mirror.
Watching the video and sketching out poses or posing your character is one thing. But "feeling" the transfer of weight or training your eye to notice certain mechanics of the body is extremely helpful.
I made a few mistakes today and didn't do all the above like I should have. My result:
Sometimes there will be a rig that will present some problems and you find yourself "counter animating"--that's not fun either. I'll save that for another day.
Happy animating.
I'm not an animator, but I'll help drive some traffic here for you :) My work always suffers when I don't use reference. It's nice to hear that reference gathering is critical for other disciplines as well in the world of production arts. Don't be afraid of the camera!
ReplyDeleteHey Caleb! Thanks for stopping by and checking it out!
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