Anton Brand - Rouler Des Mécaniques

- Anton Brand
- Rouler Des Mécaniques



Hi Anton,

You have a pretty successful piece here in terms of storytelling and shot selection, and are clearly knowledgable in the technical aspects of CG animation. In terms of character animation I think you have the 'bones' of the performance there, but some more work on the two intro shots of each character is needed to really bring them to life. If you haven't already, shoot some reference of yourself. It's a quick and easy way to come up with different acting ideas, and is invaluable when getting into the finer details of your animation.

Red driver:
15 secs to 18 secs.

This is a nice subtle character in contrast to the burly yellow driver. Subtle acting is always the most difficult as it's hard to create the illusion of life when they aren't doing much, and we have to rely a lot on the eyes which unfortunately are difficult to see due to the sunglasses. Maybe you could cheat and lighten his lenses a bit for this shot?

It might be nice if he strokes the steering wheel a little with his screen left hand as he daydreams. If you choose to try this make sure you keep it small and subtle, it shouldn't distract the viewers attention too much.

Yellow driver:
34 secs to 37 secs.

You have all the right pieces here, but the actions seem too disconnected and robotic as they are now. Try involving the whole body in each of the moves, for example never leave the torso completely static when moving the head or the arm, they are all connected to the same skeleton and your animation should illustrate this.

When he pulls his arm back from the steering wheel try and add more of an arc to the path the hand takes, at the moment it is very linear. Also make sure to give him a more natural hand pose after he lets go, never leave a hand looking like all the controls have been set to zero.

When he is 'rocking out' his body is pivoting around his chest which looks quite unnatural, make sure that he pivots from his waist so we feel the connection with the seat.

His head move at around 35 secs is a little ambiguous, what are you trying to communicate here? I think he is looking his opponent up and down, but it might be nice if he seemed even more confident. Maybe he could tilt his head down to look over the top of his sunglasses, revealing his eyes to his opponent and making him look more aggressive?

Break up his last gesture so that his arm move and facial expression change aren't happening at the same time. One should lead the other.

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