Wolf RUn Cycle- PLEASE CRITIQUE

[Frogman]

The run feels very wrong.. it looks like you have 4 poses repeating and its pretty linear.

In the contact pose, it looks as though the dog is breaking his back.. actually he would be. They're just not that flexible. When a dog or wolf runs, they're never looking up -- the look where they are going.

Try looking at page 330 of the Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. There is a cat run cycle showing how cats (and dogs in your case) fold and unfold with their body poses during a run.. there is a dog walk cycle there too which I'm sure you could streach the posing for, add some lift to the extremes, and speed up the inbetweens. Should yield a run or something close enough to work with.

Here are some quick googles of reference images and even a short video.

http://www.fotosearch.com/CRT600/00066scf/

http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/coverage_2005/photos_05_p2_wang.html

http://www.proballinc.com/images/dogs_iso_running_hr.jpg

and a muybridge horse run -- they have similar skeletal setups as far as the legs go so you should be able to tweak the posing and get something similar to what you're looking for.

http://profs.eivd.ch/burki/c3/p00/p00_c314.jpg

Study the runs in the movies White Fang, Dances with Wolves, and the Hunted -- wolves run in all of them.

Hope some of this helps.

[mberrynk]

i agree with that, i think you just need to study some reference footage. You might be going for a stylized run, but even so this looks a little awkward. Definitely pull back on that head rise, it adds a snap to what should otherwise be a smooth animation. Animals are pretty graceful when they run, especially wolves, etc. because they're geared towards spead and efficiency. One other big tweak to make is having both his front feet make contact at the same time, and his rear two as well. It looks almost like a rabbit jump. The feet should alternate front right, back left. Change these and look at those clips and i think you'll be able to make fix it.

[SHEPEIRO]

the head rises too far it looks a little playfull, dogs run fast with head quite low , but still bobbing.

[nomadicrain]

The dog is in a completly incorrect pose at the contact position. Dogs and cats when in the contact pose arch their backs...they are coiling up getting ready to spring into the next stride, your dogs back is in a completely powerless pose, if the back ever comes close to that position it is when the dog is in full stride with no feet on the ground - and at this point the back is flat not arched. think of the run like a spring coiling and uncoiling. the back goes arched up - flat - arched up - flat. Try for that and I think you will be getting somewhere.

Also as frogman said - the head stays focused on the target with some bob, but not a change in where the dog is looking, just a change in the elevation of the head.

Just my 2c.

[alex_rial]

I changed it a bit, taking into consideration what you all said. Its still a work in progress so any more crit is very welcome. I like that you were all so honest, thats what I need to improve. I want this animation to be good enough for my reel, becuase I would like to move into more creature based animation eventually.

Well here is the new reworked piece. tell me what you think, and any suggestions on the movement and where I can find some good clear reference.

http://www.rial3d.com/DogRun011.mov

Thanks
Alex

[alex_rial]

Woah, I finally found my Richard Williams book, (I moved recently) and Now I see what you meant. Thanks for the tip, it made me seek out hte book,. I am now going to make some new changes.

But still go ahead and critique the one I just put up.

Thanks

[nomadicrain]

It looks much better than before. But there are still some problems. First what I am noticing is that the wolf's back is uncoiling before reching the contact pose. The back should be just getting fully coiled at the contact pose and then exploding out of the contact pose. Also your wolf would be running pretty slowly because it is using so much energy going upwards instead of forwards after the contact pose. it looks almost like the wolf is trying to jump something. Try to keep the bob more horizontal. I am also noticing that on the first and third contacts it looks almost like the wolfs front right leg breaks. Also something to keep in mind for the vertical motion is the dogs spine will stay on an almost perfectly horizontal trajectory and just arch around it. So the hips and shoulders stay at about the same level from the ground. But it is much improved over where your last animation was. Keep it up. I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[studiomaxer3d]

Where is a good place for animal run cycle reference clips?

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