alien walking

[studiomaxer3d]

update

http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk2.avi
2
http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk2b.avi

(http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk2.avi)

[Me109]

Hi ya.. got along way to go on this one yet.. a few suggestions... I usually animate animations from the point where all the power comes from.. in this case the Hips.. up and down movement with some twist as the leg follows through under the body..

forget about animating the upper part of the body until you get the legs and hips looking believable.. then animate your way up the bone chain... You reallllly need to get some reference for a walk cycle.. go out and watch people..

One thing that i do notice is that all the movement looks forced.. for example the leg should look likes its swinging with its own weight as you go to plant it.. same applies to the arms.. they all swing about under gravity.. anyhow.. tip is to work on the major movement first and then work your way along.. no point in fine tuning the animations until the basics work..

keep at it bro..

[studiomaxer3d]

ok.. i always seems to get side tracked and go do stuff with arms or something before everything is set.

[studiomaxer3d]

here is another update.. what do i need to do to make it look right??

http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk3.avi

[studiomaxer3d]

come on people.. I know this can be bashed.. now let me have it.

[Nurbguy]

The one thing that jumps out at me on that last update is the limited hip movement u got goin on there. Try putting in some twist and up n down movement in. If u already have it in then i think u might need to elaborate on it a lil more. Also as he brings the trailing foot up to the passing position, it looks like to me that maybe he pulls his knee a lil too far up with it. This is basically relating to the part of me109's crit where he says everything moves under gravity. So the weight of the foot should be helping to swing the leg through its arc. i recommend if u can get hold of it, buying the richard williams - animators survival kit book.

Richard williams - Animators survival kit (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0571202284/qid=1127254345/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-7979217-4588811?v=glance&s=books)

This covers all the points and rules that make up a walk and a whole lot more.

On a final note i would get rid of that upper body movement for now cos it distracts from being able to concentrate on ur leg movement. As me109 said worry bout that later :)

On the issue of leg snap i myself still have trouble with that, best i can offer in advice is to play with f curves a little in your graph editor to smooth the transition out. (save beforehand though :D)

I look forward to any more updates, keep it up!

(if u have any troubles understanding anythin i've said then drop me a PM and i will get back to ya)

[studiomaxer3d]

i canned all the upperbody keys.. basically im starting over. i have the richard williams book.. i have half of it read.. i guess i need to pull it out more..

well.. i pulled out the book and went straight from it.. and man.. the results are much much better.. i learned an important lesson.. this book needs to be with me at all times!

[studiomaxer3d]

is this a better start?

http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk4.mov

[Me109]

wow.. thats heaps better.. a big improvement all round... now you can start working on some of the finer movement ... with the leg movement it would be nice to see the leg almost completely straight just before foot plant.. and also straighten the leg as it passes under the body.. and that will probably be about it for the walk..

The arms could use a little more 'swinging' action in the forearm so that they don't appear so stiff.. just think how gravity affects the movement of the forearm and try replicate it.. its basically about making the arms move under gravity instead of being driven from the shoulder down.. I think the technique is called snapping of joints..

this can also be applied to the behaviour of the hand wrist under movement too...

nice one!

[studiomaxer3d]

here is another render of it..

http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk4.avi

The only problem i can see with this so far is how far apart the legs are.. no one walks like that.

like the strides are too big.

[Nurbguy]

definately looking better now. i dont think theres anything wrong with the strides. Remember he's an alien so maybe they take bigger strides on the planet zob or wherever he's from lol!

yeah that book is pretty much the bible on animation for me, helped countless times through university that did.

keep at it!

[studiomaxer3d]

here's a little arm movement.

http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk5.avi

im also thinking i need at least one more frame of the extending forward leg.

[studiomaxer3d]

ok its been a while.. but here is an update. make sure to loop playback!

http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk6-front.avi
http://www.justinneri.com/animations/alienwalk/alienwalk6-side.avi

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