Character Animation

It might be too early to declare this, but I hate character animation.  I just don't have the patience or attention span for it.  Maybe it's the tools I'm using, or maybe it's my limited knowledge in the tools (very possible).  I think that if I had some sort of moderately reliable motion capture system then I would probably like it, but I don't.

I'm right at the point where some character animation is necessary in my animated short film Tron: Defiance and it's slow progress.  Every time I try to do it, it sucks so I back out some complexity, then it still sucks, so I backout even more complexity, and then even more.  Now it's just a static model that morphs between two positions and I'm going to position the cameras and the scenes so that it won't be noticeable.

I have some basic animation presets like running, standing, one-knee, etc.  But some of the scenes require non-standard animation, like mounting a motorcycle, or grabbing the disc off of their back.  Hopefully with some clever trickery I might be able to cheat my way around having to do complex character animation.

Other than these obstacles, so far this is coming along very nicely.  I've already completed the End Credits sequence which is modelled and animated just like the movie, and I'm going to put in some behind the scenes stuff after the credits to help fill in the awesome music.