I’m taking a shot at the monthly contest at 10 second club. Most of the winners have been 3D, but I like the challenge and the files they offer.
my character is a kid getting ready to give a presentation, so he’s walking up the aisle away from us. Overall I feel pretty good about it, and wanted a 70’s style “pimp” walk, even though the kid is maybe ten years old.
My students say I should put his arms in front so it doesn’t look like he’s hitting himself in the butt. What do you think?
http://cartoonthunder.com/various/pwalk01.swf
Hi Rob,
I think the fact that you go from an arm that you see from behind to an arm that you see from the front might confuse people out. It might just be me but it took me a while to realize that he wasn’t waving around his arms from side to side but actually from front to back. Also his arms get too near his butt in a very short time so that might explain why your student thought the caracter was hitting his butt.
I would personnally make the caracter swing his arms in front off him too. It would seem more natural. Having a full swing from front to back would necessit allot of in between so you can feel there is an actual 3D movement. You might also want to synchronize your arms movement with your feet movement so it seem more natural. The footwork is very good, I guess its just a problem of arms.
Hopefully my comments can help you out make your animation smoother (and even make you win the contest).
Ugo
P.S. When your arm is up try to put it behind the T-Shirt it might give a better illusion about the arm being in front
hey rob, a great try 
it’s a really difficult angle and you managed to get it really smooth.
the only thing i would try to fix are the positions of the stand feet. they can’t swim as they carry the whole body load.
why, the last (or one before last) month’s winner was a 2d one
as i analysed the winners in the last two years i noticed that they like a good lip sync and an exaggerated anticipation/stretch at best.
cheers and good luck
rob
Thanks for the quick replies and good critiques!
The thing is sort of a mixture of cutout and frame by frame so far, with the legs being frame by frame and the upper body being cutout and pegged. I may just draw the arms frame by frame and use what I have there now as a reference.
I can edit a few frames of the legs to keep the feet from sliding.
I just modeled a classroom desk in Anim8or, either to use as a tracing image or to use in my background as is. I’ll keep you up to date on my efforts.
Did the arms frame by frame this morning… it’s better, but still not right somehow…
http://www.cartoonthunder.com/various/pwalk02.swf
rob,
now i scrutinized the whole guy thoroughly.
i think the problems with the slightly unnatural arms movements are due to the fact that if the right foot goes forwards, the same does the left hand, and not the right one.
you should swap the hand positions and then we’ll see further.
cheers,
rob
I agree, the arms feel opposite to the natural movement, not only compare to the legs but also to the body in my opinion. When the body tilt right the left arm should be forward.
The frame by frame does look good to me. It’s quite convincing.
Keep on the good work and good luck with the contest !
What a kucklehead mistake! ;D
I added a bit of up-down motion in this one:
http://www.cartoonthunder.com/various/pwalk03.swf
now it looks much better.
the feet slide a bit, but if you make it a method, it could be also convincing.
at 10secondclub try to practice exaggerated movements and a good lip-sync, if applied. they value a good timing.
good luck, anyway.
cheers,
rob