John Henry Animation

[Cobalt]

Here's my first go with Maestro 2.0 and this character model I have recently shown in the WIP gallery.

Need to work and keeping the feet from sliding and need to learn how to constrain the right hand as it moves up and down the shaft of the hammer during the strike cycle.

This has been a fun experience and I have a new found respect for pro character animators that crank out 30 seconds or more of animation a day. But I also have even a great appreciation for how a good model and a good rig can make all the difference in a good animation.

More to come in a few days ...

[Ark_of_Kaos]

Nice model. I like it. He looks like one bad-a** dude :)

My suggestions for the animation:

1) Have character turn upper body a little more so the back shoulder comes out more forward. This will help relieve some of the collapsing of the arm and shoulder geometry. It will also give the feel that the character is putting some extra "oomph" into the swing.

2) pay attention to the trajectory of the hammer head. It seems that it does not swing in a planar arc, like you would expect.

3) there is a noticable pause in the swing motion. You should only need one set of keyframes at the apex of the swing. Extra keyframes will cause that hesitation. Try keying the initial position, ready-to-swing pose, swing apex pose and final pose only. This will help you hash out the timing of the swing. Then add an additional pose in between each of the original poses (but not centered, timewise) to add acceleration, deceleration to the swing. Look at the motion channels for each bone to see if you are getting smooth curves.

4) You need some constraints on the hands and feet, but I don't know how maestro works, so I can't help you out there.

Good work so far, keep us posted.

[JeffRutan]

Great model and animation looks pretty good - much better than the stuff in Hoodwinked! ;-)
-Jeff

[Ark_of_Kaos]

Great model and animation looks pretty good - much better than the stuff in Hoodwinked! ;-)
-Jeff

LOL...I watched that last week. Worst cg animated movie ever.