Scene 06 Dog Walker Layer

Been having so many problems with the Dog Walker character in Scene 06 and would very much like some advice on the matter, if that's alright? All that I need to happen is have the Dog run by dragging his poor owner behind him, but I cannot for the life of my get it animated to look right. Something's off, but I don't know what. WHAT IS IT? It's a very quick scene, the whole thing is over in a second, but it feels slow. Why is that? If anyone can give me some pointers that would be DOSS, many thanks in advance!

x L

Scene 06 Girl, Dog and Ball Line Test

The wonderful Tara Vaughan-Smith has been kind enough to let us borrow her awesome creature animation skills for the Dog in our film!  Yesterday I stolez the layer she's been working on for scene 06, cleaned it up and added it to the line test along with the Girl and the bouncing ball.  Here's how it's looking with the original background:

Scene 06 Girl, Dog and Ball Line Test [Final Background] from Lynne M. Laurenson on Vimeo.

Here's the same line test, but this time with a more basic background so that you may see the action of the characters a little more clearly:

Scene 06 Girl, Dog and Ball Line Test [Plain Background] from Lynne M. Laurenson on Vimeo.

To make sure the scene isn't too busy, we're thinking about extending the Little Girl's pause as she looks in the bush until the dog has run off the screen.  This way the Girl gets our full attention, because right now, it's difficult to know where to look with both actions happening simultaneously.  The pace of the Dog's run cycle was taken straight from the animatic, which was quite roughly done.  We're starting to think it may be too quick, considering the dog will be dragging a full grown man behind him as he chases the ball.  This line test shows the dog at his original speed (played at 25 fps):

Scene 06 Dog Layer Final Inbetweens 25 FPS from Lynne M. Laurenson on Vimeo.

I've slowed down the following line test of the dog to 16fps for comparison:

Scene 06 Dog Layer Final Inbetweens 16 FPS from Lynne M. Laurenson on Vimeo.

Feedback for this would be awesome if you have a few minutes to spare!  Any comments are always welcome.  Just need to complete the debris and Dog Walker layers and this scene will be finished.  BOOM!

x L

Dog Run Cycles - Attempt 01

Animal run cycles - YEY!  Oh my, all the fun we can have when we give something four legs.  Working out a dog run cycle has been a challenge and a half, but I have learned so much today it has definitely been worth all the brain strain.

Started off by researching roughly how a dog's leg works, and what sort of basic shapes and movements I would need to tackle my own run cycle.  I've been using a wee supplement from ImagineFX on Anatomy, which I highly recommend everyone and anyone getting if you are interested in exactly how and why humans and animals move and look the way they do.  It's so in depth and explained everything to me perfectly.  I stole some of their drawings as notes and pinned them up behind my lightbox for reference, then got under way.

I've also enlisted the help of an old college buddy of mine, and second year animator Tara, who is a genius when it comes to animal cycles and, to be fair, animal art in general.  I went to her for advice on this dog cycle and twenty minutes later she's roughed out and line tested a seven frame cycle for me as a guide!

Legend.

So with my guide and anatomy notes I got to work and created this:

Which you can see has only two of it's four legs in place.  Then I added the final two legs, cleaned-up a wee bit and got this:

Not bad for a first attempt, don't you think?  Well, at the very least I have impressed myself.  I can see what needs changed and obviously there's still a lot to be added, but for a generic attempt at a four-legged run cycle I am very happy with today's work.  

This run cycle is also going to be used for clean-up tests when it's finished.  I'm hoping to try and work out exactly how I want it done, and ensure I get the look that I want with my final frames.  All in good time though, I still need to add ears to this wee furball yet.  That's going to be all the fun.

x L