nice sketches,
but i don't get the feeling that the bunny is jumping (bouncing).
i think the animation should follow a curve path to get the feeling that the bunny is in the air.
I like the bunny design, and he moves very well....to me the ears especially are a good example of an overlapping action for something that is soft yet also more rigid in real life. He's not Bugs Bunny, he's a real bunny, so I'm glad that the attention to detail is that appropriate.
I think he runs fine if a run is what you're after; the only thing I'd change (and as an experiment, most likely it has no place in your flit-flit pace run cycle) is that there's no frame where he feels like he's settling from hitting the ground...it might be more natural if you added that....for the most part it doesn't seem as if his body is reacting to the small momentum it might have in carrying him back to the ground (I should say "being carried" what with gravity and all)....Almost like before his first jump has ended and fully landed he's already in the air for the second one, powered by the springiness of their design, me thinks =) .....like I said, it's not necessary, it's well-draughted and obvious and sharp-looking, but if you decided to go for it you'd only need one more drawing........but maybe loose isn't the thing. I'm just learning all this so consider the source hehe
I understand what you're saying about the impact. It doesn't seem to be there almost...if at all. I'm also not certain if in real life a rabbit would squash as much as a hippopotomus either. That's why I chose not to go overboard on an impacting frame. As is, the cycle is only 7 drawings. I wanted the rabbit to practically "fly" as he rans, so if that's any explaination or excuse for the lack of a noticable impact, blame me.
Do others feel this way about the run?
Let me know:)
i'm no bunny expert but i think you captured the rabbit in motion perfectly. in fact, seems to moi you have a little more bounce than racing rabbits actually have. to the nekked eye, a field bunny does a greyhound stretch - even closer to the ground than you've got him - and 'at impact' almost pivots.
i've got a bunny squash for you to try (as long as people are recommending experiments :)) - i turned down our lane in Suffolk, England (so it was probably a hare) and there was some bunny road kill - perfectly squashed, indeed. Well, except for the ears, standing straight at attention.
I will tell you what is a tad disturbing in this piece, Madman. In a run cycle such as this, it is a bit weird to have the bunny moving back and forth on the screen as he runs. He should be running on the spot, bouncing up and down only, not left and right. It would just take some re-pegging (or in this case, re-registering) of your drawings (images). your first post had the cycle working well.
Now someone mentioned something about his weight on impact. Being a bunny, there would not be very much squash on his impact at all, as you have said. The squash would be more in the "loading of the spring", if you will, where his body would bunch up, ready to take another stride (hop). Bunnies do not jump very high either when they run, so you have that right on as well.
I think your drawings have the action pretty well nailed though, but you have too many drawings, or your frame rate is a bit slow. Bunnies move quickly. If he moves quicker, then your squash/stretch comments will be no more. As I said, I think it is all there, and just needs to be sped up.
Watch the volumes on his head though (I know you are animating with a tablet, and it is not always esay to nail volumes drawing with it), as it is popping around like a rag doll.
Cjaye... You are in the UK?!?! Your profile says "beautiful Santa Barbera", which, if I a not mistaken, is in California. So where are you now? UK, or US? Just curious.
Cheers
—
"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon
weird to have the bunny moving back and forth on the screen as he runs.
How do you see that? I'm really interested, because when the 2nd bunny made his appearance, I thought it was the same cycle but the addition of a shadow alone had fixed its position - relative to that ground what ground. I was happily under the impression that if madaman had just - for instance - moved his ground up a notch or 5 pixels, the bunny would've further appeared to be rocketing along even closer to ... well, i guess what i'm really asking is, can you not cheat? can you really not use those cues about position and plane to help the movement or will people always be able to detect it.
i do live in Santa Barbara- 'the american riviera' - but before here, i lived a few yrs in the UK (in London and Bury St. Edmunds), and a few yrs. in Budapest before that (my favorite) and Hollywood (hm. okay, maybe THAT was my favorite) before that. and other places. oh yes, i've seen a WHOLE LOT of the world's bunnies ...
I agree with wade. Generally a pan cycle like this the character is camera center.Maybe you lose a sense of speed by having go back as if he rested on a treadmill. I know what you're saying though; that when he contacts with the ground he's not moving forward. So experiement ;as he contacts the ground stop pan and resume when he hops. Or see how it looks if the bg pan continues yet he is center. It might look skatey but then might look as though he's so fast he's still moving (skidding)
Rabbits do indeed dash as you attempted but I think they are faster and still bound on an arc. By my observation they always hop even if it is a "walk"
Very nice drawing and anatomy
First of all, I hafta reiterate that everyone here is my senior in the comment and knowledge department, so what I made are suggestions that, say, someone between Casual Viewer That Might Be Seeing Your Animation and Animator...
Just additionally, all of the explanations (bunnies are tiny, bunnies are fast [the jackrabbit can hit 45mph], the "greyhound" bunny) make total sense, and help me understand why you made the design choices you have. I believe now that I was just under the old "do what the camera can't" which would over-emphasize the bounding -while-running effect of a bunny dash. But given that it would take away from the running illusion, only add more frames, and let's face it, it's a very analytical style of drawing, my idea would be along the lines of retarded =)
Wow,
I didn't expect to get this much tutoring on rabbit runs. I myself, aside from the movie SNATCH, cannot remember ever seeing a rabbit run.
I have 3 other animals that I am going to animate for this film: an elephant, a monkey, and a bird (which bird, I'm not sure yet). We'll see how I do on those next
I usually never animate a walk/run cycle in any other way than keeping the character in the middle of the frame. I wanted to try something different, and even if I'm not hitting all of the bunny physics of speed, do you guys BUY that this is a bunny running? I know it may seem more like a gallop which is probably not the bunny-run code of honor, but I will be taking all of your criticisms into account when I go forward with my characters. I just wanted to get the ball rolling, and when I have more characters animated, I plan to first do them WACOM style and avoid all essence of FLASH animation which is primarily, about 75 percent of the time that I see it, cookie cutter characters.
(BTW, you guys should see the XOMBIE flash animations. I thought they rocked. You can find the link on the show and tell board somewhere)
Again, thank you for helping me out. I have until the end of this month to have lots of presentation material for the Thesis commitee of SVA (School of Visual Arts) and I'll post more as I have it over the next couple of weeks.
Everyone who dropped a visit and dropped a line gets a big hug:)
Hope all of you are loving animation as much as I have:)
nice sketches,
but i don't get the feeling that the bunny is jumping (bouncing).
i think the animation should follow a curve path to get the feeling that the bunny is in the air.
Visit my site http://www.animdesk.com
Is this what you meant? There's no arc, but I had one in mind when I did this.
Adam
Atomcloud Animation
I like the bunny design, and he moves very well....to me the ears especially are a good example of an overlapping action for something that is soft yet also more rigid in real life. He's not Bugs Bunny, he's a real bunny, so I'm glad that the attention to detail is that appropriate.
I think he runs fine if a run is what you're after; the only thing I'd change (and as an experiment, most likely it has no place in your flit-flit pace run cycle) is that there's no frame where he feels like he's settling from hitting the ground...it might be more natural if you added that....for the most part it doesn't seem as if his body is reacting to the small momentum it might have in carrying him back to the ground (I should say "being carried" what with gravity and all)....Almost like before his first jump has ended and fully landed he's already in the air for the second one, powered by the springiness of their design, me thinks =) .....like I said, it's not necessary, it's well-draughted and obvious and sharp-looking, but if you decided to go for it you'd only need one more drawing........but maybe loose isn't the thing. I'm just learning all this so consider the source hehe
Keep rocking the casbah
Vince
I understand what you're saying about the impact. It doesn't seem to be there almost...if at all. I'm also not certain if in real life a rabbit would squash as much as a hippopotomus either. That's why I chose not to go overboard on an impacting frame. As is, the cycle is only 7 drawings. I wanted the rabbit to practically "fly" as he rans, so if that's any explaination or excuse for the lack of a noticable impact, blame me.
Do others feel this way about the run?
Let me know:)
Adam
Atomcloud Animation
i'm no bunny expert but i think you captured the rabbit in motion perfectly. in fact, seems to moi you have a little more bounce than racing rabbits actually have. to the nekked eye, a field bunny does a greyhound stretch - even closer to the ground than you've got him - and 'at impact' almost pivots.
i've got a bunny squash for you to try (as long as people are recommending experiments :)) - i turned down our lane in Suffolk, England (so it was probably a hare) and there was some bunny road kill - perfectly squashed, indeed. Well, except for the ears, standing straight at attention.
I want to know how that could possibly happen.
I will tell you what is a tad disturbing in this piece, Madman. In a run cycle such as this, it is a bit weird to have the bunny moving back and forth on the screen as he runs. He should be running on the spot, bouncing up and down only, not left and right. It would just take some re-pegging (or in this case, re-registering) of your drawings (images). your first post had the cycle working well.
Now someone mentioned something about his weight on impact. Being a bunny, there would not be very much squash on his impact at all, as you have said. The squash would be more in the "loading of the spring", if you will, where his body would bunch up, ready to take another stride (hop). Bunnies do not jump very high either when they run, so you have that right on as well.
I think your drawings have the action pretty well nailed though, but you have too many drawings, or your frame rate is a bit slow. Bunnies move quickly. If he moves quicker, then your squash/stretch comments will be no more. As I said, I think it is all there, and just needs to be sped up.
Watch the volumes on his head though (I know you are animating with a tablet, and it is not always esay to nail volumes drawing with it), as it is popping around like a rag doll.
Cjaye... You are in the UK?!?! Your profile says "beautiful Santa Barbera", which, if I a not mistaken, is in California. So where are you now? UK, or US? Just curious.
Cheers
"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard" - Paul Simon
Wade you wrote:
How do you see that? I'm really interested, because when the 2nd bunny made his appearance, I thought it was the same cycle but the addition of a shadow alone had fixed its position - relative to that ground what ground. I was happily under the impression that if madaman had just - for instance - moved his ground up a notch or 5 pixels, the bunny would've further appeared to be rocketing along even closer to ... well, i guess what i'm really asking is, can you not cheat? can you really not use those cues about position and plane to help the movement or will people always be able to detect it.
i do live in Santa Barbara- 'the american riviera' - but before here, i lived a few yrs in the UK (in London and Bury St. Edmunds), and a few yrs. in Budapest before that (my favorite) and Hollywood (hm. okay, maybe THAT was my favorite) before that. and other places. oh yes, i've seen a WHOLE LOT of the world's bunnies ...
I agree with wade. Generally a pan cycle like this the character is camera center.Maybe you lose a sense of speed by having go back as if he rested on a treadmill. I know what you're saying though; that when he contacts with the ground he's not moving forward. So experiement ;as he contacts the ground stop pan and resume when he hops. Or see how it looks if the bg pan continues yet he is center. It might look skatey but then might look as though he's so fast he's still moving (skidding)
Rabbits do indeed dash as you attempted but I think they are faster and still bound on an arc. By my observation they always hop even if it is a "walk"
Very nice drawing and anatomy
First of all, I hafta reiterate that everyone here is my senior in the comment and knowledge department, so what I made are suggestions that, say, someone between Casual Viewer That Might Be Seeing Your Animation and Animator...
Just additionally, all of the explanations (bunnies are tiny, bunnies are fast [the jackrabbit can hit 45mph], the "greyhound" bunny) make total sense, and help me understand why you made the design choices you have. I believe now that I was just under the old "do what the camera can't" which would over-emphasize the bounding -while-running effect of a bunny dash. But given that it would take away from the running illusion, only add more frames, and let's face it, it's a very analytical style of drawing, my idea would be along the lines of retarded =)
Still, thanks for keeping an open mind...
Vinchenzo
Wow,
I didn't expect to get this much tutoring on rabbit runs. I myself, aside from the movie SNATCH, cannot remember ever seeing a rabbit run.
I have 3 other animals that I am going to animate for this film: an elephant, a monkey, and a bird (which bird, I'm not sure yet). We'll see how I do on those next
I usually never animate a walk/run cycle in any other way than keeping the character in the middle of the frame. I wanted to try something different, and even if I'm not hitting all of the bunny physics of speed, do you guys BUY that this is a bunny running? I know it may seem more like a gallop which is probably not the bunny-run code of honor, but I will be taking all of your criticisms into account when I go forward with my characters. I just wanted to get the ball rolling, and when I have more characters animated, I plan to first do them WACOM style and avoid all essence of FLASH animation which is primarily, about 75 percent of the time that I see it, cookie cutter characters.
(BTW, you guys should see the XOMBIE flash animations. I thought they rocked. You can find the link on the show and tell board somewhere)
Again, thank you for helping me out. I have until the end of this month to have lots of presentation material for the Thesis commitee of SVA (School of Visual Arts) and I'll post more as I have it over the next couple of weeks.
Everyone who dropped a visit and dropped a line gets a big hug:)
Hope all of you are loving animation as much as I have:)
L8r,
Adam
Atomcloud Animation
I bought it, because I called it a bunny and I called it in a run. You've got my vote =)
Kudos that you got into SVA and uber-kudos that you're doing well. Good luck!
Elephants, eh? Getting four knees to walk, now that should be fun...
For the love of it,
Vincent
Oh yah, by the way, you're right....Xombie:TAS is supertastic, and fun to watch too.. Xombified.com