Mourngrim

Love the detailing, great job

So, I've noticed a few things about transitions on my time hear on the forums, and i wanna see what u guys think. But first the main thing i learned about transitions on the forums.
IT DOESN'T MATTER
   Yeah, you heard me. What transitions u used in your animations doesn't really matter. I mean u could be @SKIBBZ who utilizes the Linear transition and clever placement to make his animations smooth. And then, take another guy. He uses transitions in a way that is easy for him and makes his animations smooth. Point is, it really doesn't matter on what transitions you use. Personally i use the sine and quadratic transitions (with a few others like the Back transitions for that special bobbing effect). It matters if your animations look good and is smooth. not what transitions you utilizes in your animations. (Although, realistic movement and good camera angles are keys to a good animation also, but that's for another topic)
   But, some people take from example.
 @KicksBrickster learned from SKIBBZ's animations and noticed how to work with the same transitions. Thus, he found a way to make his animations smooth and a way that is easy for him to use.
Basically, it doesn't matter what transitions you use. If u can make a animation smooth with the transitions or tactics you use then congrats. 
So that basically sums up my deal on transitions. Some of u may say "you got it all wrong" or something else about my statement, but I personally wanna hear your guys/girls opinions on this matter. 
  

Usually I use linear so yeah
sometimes I use ease in and out because i don't  feel like making all the keyframes just to make it smooth

Feedback appreciated! Tell me what you think!

It's been a while, I'm a bit rusty.

Very early in the process, just testing the set and basic lights in a render/export.
Constructive feedback always appreciated

It's been a while, I'm a bit rusty.

Very early in the process, just testing the set and basic lights in a render/export.
Constructive feedback always appreciated

A new weapon's pack I created. It currently includes a broadsword, a battle axe, and a mace. There are two textures for them. One is without blood, and the other has blood. Both are included in the .mproj file.


Not sure what is with the halo around the sword in the screenshots. It may be a texturing issue that I can try and fix later.
This pack includes a broadsword, a battle axe, and a mace. The blades have the appearance of being sharp.
I was going to make an animated presentation, but I have a paid design project I'm working on currently and simply don't have the time.
Please credit me and link to this forum thread if you use these. It would be greatly appreciated.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. I can add an update to this if I get enough interest and likes.
An update might include:
- Higher definition textures
- More detail
- More weapons
- Armor
- Any other suggestions I might get
Enjoy!
Download

Well, there are many ways. All MI rigs are created in Mineimator, but any textures and other things used are created in image editors. A very general way that people make rigs a lot is by making custom item sheets, because they're 3D and easy to texture or apply to anything. Other ways you can do it is just parenting colored and resized cubes to a character or whatever you want. Anything can be used in a rig. Many people edit their skins for player rigs, and we also edit block sheets item sheets for that and anything else. There are tons of techniques, but generally you just picture the rig in your head, and add things and try to make stuff look good when parented onto a character, or anything. The only limit.... IS YOUR IMAGINATION.. and beefiness of your computer but that would take away from the saying
also skill is a very important thing for making rigs but still again the saying is still true 
 

3D Model same as Rig, well I give you all advice. Go ask Blox. Maybe he can explain more better.
If you want to know how to model, just use the part of body. Use the folder to create the character. Or use the template. Like Dinocow that Blox created. He used Cow's texture. and parented them to be legs, jaws and parts of Dinocow. If you mean to make 3D Models, it's just same as rig. Use the same concept. 
If I'm explain something wrong or else, please don't complain. Ask expert.

Very good, well done!

Ok so the walking is really jittery. Try looking up some walking tutorials. They're pretty good. Don't bother with running tutorials, they all suck, so.. good luck with that. Also you don't need to stretch blocks to use as eyelids.. just.. actually just make a surface the has the color you want.

I'd say it's still a bit jerky, although it's hard to get a good look because the actual animation is such a small part of the whole timeline.

I would say that you want to go for fluidity if you can.  Each movement should not be done in isolation, but should consider how the rest of the body reacts to that movement.  When his left arm shoots out, the body should follow sympathetically, and it may even overshoot and have to come back again, but then only you know what you want the movement to look like.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Moving an arm doesn't just move the arm.  Try not to have frames where only one thing moves, and try not to have movements that only go from A to B.  The jerk is particularly apparent on the body bends.  Are you using a transition at all?  Try moving the body at the same time that you move the bend.  Moving the body 5, while bending -5 can make a difference, play around with it.

Zoom level is also mega important, the closer the camera to the object, the more scrutiny it gets for every detail.

Hope this helps.

Looking at the concept art he's basing his rig off, no. It shouldn't. The legs bend inward.

It shows.  At first I was like "Ooooh", and then I was "Hmmm, but there is no real illusion of depth", and then I was like "stop judging the whole thing and focus on the movements", and that was like "Nice".

Based off concept art? Hmm... Do you have Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar?
 
Also, neat test.

Animation is at your own pace really. I spent (roughly) 9 days making a 40 second animation. It made me wonder just exactly how do the big time studios do it and make animated cartoons or movies in such a short amount of time. Then I remember just how many people actually work on it, and how focused they are. These things, they take time.
If you do it as a hobby, never feel intimidated by anyone. That's how most people quit. This question usually spans from that. But keep at it. It took me 8 years to get where I was, and I don't feel like i'm done. I am not a common case though. Some people can animate well just after a year.
I have also seen many practice their craft with fine colors. It takes time and practice. How much either of those needed is not usually important.
You'll eventually get so clockwork at making walk cycles it becomes muscle memory. This shows that you are becoming more flexible. The best way to stay flexible is to try new things.

I normally spend about 4 to 5 hours on thrying to get the feet perfect

Maybe.

Hi, I'm Mourngrim, and I'm Scottish.  I'm new to all of this stuff, even though I'm really old.  I got into minecraft to help my six year old son, who is having a hard time reading and focusing on things.  From there it was a little step to try animating, after watching loads of Youtube content.  It led to my first (quite bad) animation, an adaptation of a story he came up with.  I'm currently tinkering and practicing, I might join in the odd collab here and there (I did the doors one), and will probably post in the WIP and Test areas, while I see if I can get good enough for some little projects I have in mind.

As I have the artistic talent of a broken toothbrush (which is partly why 3d is better for me), I might be asking for rig and scenery help when I feel ready to announce my plans.  I may even join or create a team if I can find some like minded people.  I've been very impressed with some of the talent on this and other minecraft related sites, from music, to programming, art, animation, sound.... lots of skill.

I will always try and give a fair comment when asked, but I won't always know what some of you younger members are talking about.  I watched the original Star Wars movies when they came out, I don't know any Pokemon, and I only play Minecraft on the Xbox.  I've also got t-shirts older than a lot of you guys.

Thank you so much for taking your time and commenting. Thanks for your advice, and I will sure take note of it. The thing that is amazing about your feedback is that you gave tips and other advice, which I very appreciate that. Thank you! 

Firstly, congratulations for getting an episode out there.  Many people, especially me, have lots of half started projects kicking around in their ideas pile.

Personally I found the villager sounds for voices to get very annoying, very quickly.  If you aren't going voice, then I would experiment with different sound combinations.  Maybe assign a different sound "voice" to each character, rather than having them all have the same sound.  Also maybe mix the sounds a bit, playing with pitch, speed, length, so that the voice has some range and variation.  Have a happy sound, a scared sound...  The rest of the audio was pretty good, however I personally feel that bad audio can be worse than no audio at all.

Put a camera on a tripod/desk/sofa and film yourself walking from different angles.  If you can do it somewhere that has horizontal stripes, even better.  Notice how different parts of your body move, the whole skeleton gets involved in walking, and the body moves in 3 dimensions, not just the direction of travel.  Also the walk changes depending on mood, so sad has a different walk from excited.  I also found it useful to pay attention to thinks like starting to walk, stopping, and opening doors etc.  See how your body does things.

Decide on an animation style, and work to that.  If you are going for a straight legged minecraft walk, do that all the time, and do it well.  If you want a more realistic knee bend, foot plant walk, then get good at that.  Consistency will be your friend.  I'm rather proud of my walk on the doors collab (https://youtu.be/Mtj7zUk3uBY), but that doesn't mean I won't keep trying to improve upon it.
Your falls/impacts are a bit flat, this comes down to style of animation, like walking.  Bodies and objects have physics when they hit things.  Body parts bounce and move around, at different rates depending on size, shape and weight.  Ignore it for a minecraft feel, or work on it for a more realistic approach.

If you are wanting to go down the director or writer type route, you should experiment with scenes that aren't directly related to the plot,  Character development stuff that gets in the way of telling the story in an A - B way, but does make the story and characters more rounded.  If your audience doesn't know who your character is, they wont care if they live or die.
 
There is probably loads more, but that should be enough for now.  Good job, keep it up, learn more, get better, work with others.

this is why you dont do drugs kids

It's not that bad. Pixel art is hard. I always get a foundation from miners need cool shoes or whatever that site is and edit it from there on my pc to my liking.

I knew I was a bad artist, but this is terrible!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7smsd4s2t891we5/orc2.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7it2bmht1dxh61i/orc.png
I'm going to need some help with this one I think.

Thanks for the feedback
Yeah it does seem a little fast. I planned on making this part of an opening animation for a video series so I needed it to be fast paced, but I think it's a little much. Took the tempo from 30 down to 26 and it's much more fluid and natural now. I love this program, so much fun.