check your shot from multiple angles

One thing I’ve learned: it’s important to watch your animation in several camera angles (front, side, render camera, etc). If it reads well in multiple camera angles, then you know you’re nailing the proper body mechanics.

Here’s a short post by Wayne Gilbert:
Do Animators Use Camera Angles to Hide Animation Flaws?

Class 1 tid bit – personality walks

I posted this inside of AM for class 1 — someone asked me to repost it here, since comments get cleared. So here you guys go!

Got some tips for personality walks!

What I suggest: record yourself just walking normal and think about how it feels. After, walk again changing one aspect of your walk — perhaps how fast you swing you leg forward. Then again, changing one thing, perhaps how high or forward you rotate your hips. Keep doing this…then think about what kind of emotion the new walk you just did conveys. By physically doing it, you’ll better understand what parts of a walk are changed in order to sell a certain personality/emotion.

Here’s an image by Preston Blair:

Also, here’s a resource that describes what I’m talking about:

http://flylib.com/books/en/2.750.1.36/1/

Tip for cleaning up arcs

I need to note this. (mostly for class 2 and 1, those working with Ballie)

when cleaning up arcs: a trick I found useful is to watch the edge of the control curve. If you frame by frame it, hop to each key frame (with “.” and “,”), you can better see pops in the animation by just watching tips of the corners. For example, Ballie’s main body control curve is a triangle…if you see one of the corners of the triangle pop up in a direction, you can easily see the axis that the pop is on.

You also have the arc tracker tool — my note is good for really small or specific spots.