ATST type walk animation crit

[Loulu79]

Okay. The walk cycle is very basic. Clean and basic. Good. How about giving the mecha some character...or to make it more interesting...make it act like an intelligent being...instead of just walking.

I hope that's good advice for your exercise.:)

[Animonster]

Ok, there are quite a few things I noticed that need to be fixed. First, your root movement is a little bit distracting - the body of the mech seems to almost pop into and out of its transitions. I could be mistaken, but from the viewing angle, it appears if the mech's root move most of the length of its step then drops almost straight down when planting its foot. Open up your curve editor and make sure all of the your translation curves are smooth with no pops. Second, there is no weight shift. I know it's a mech (and your rig may not allow for it right now), but the massive weight of this mech needs to shift over to the planted leg while the other is up in the air on each step - what you have going on now defies laws of physics and is not what viewers are used to seeing, thus making it a noticeable fault. Next, the feet need to rise up on to the ball of the foot before coming up off the ground (this isn't something that usually applies to robotics, but it appears your rig is built for it such movement and adds an extra element of believeability). While I am examing the foot/leg section, I see something else. The position of the lower leg looks a bit akward on each step. (Again, I know it's a mech, but natural bipedal mechs are usually based off of human movement.) As the leg steps down, the lower leg is still pointed slightly backwards - that usually only happens if a character can't bend his knee all the way for some reason or another. To clarify, as the mech steps down, its leg is planted too far beneath the body while it should be farther out in front. Moving the foot farther out on each step is going to make your steps significantly longer, however, and that brings other factors on to the table (i.e. will it fit in the scene with much longer steps). One last thing, it appears if the feet rotate up slightly on the pass then land flat. I would have the heel come down then allow the rest of the foot to slap down about 2-3 frames later. I hope this helps....keep up the good work

[Blot12345]

Thank you very very much for the crit. It is very hard get any feedback in my class, so your comments really help out. Im going to take a look at all of comments mentioned above tonight and try to apply them to my animation. In the meantime, any other crits are welcome.

Thanks again.

[OneSharpMarble]

Something you really need to do is instead of making him take steps you really need to just make him walk on spot. What I am saying is make him walk as if he is on a treadmill. You can watch him walk for as long as you like and this will really bring the flaws out easier than if he has to reset each time.

This is still pretty new so I wont critique it. You should watch star wars and robocop (with that big ED209 robot) those both have proffessional walks that you can compare and reference to your own.

Animonster: Please chop your paragraphs into smaller pieces, you hurt my eyes. :(

[Blot12345]

Im totally new to animation in Maya, so correct me if im wrong, however, if I animate my character moving in place, wouldn't I need to completely reanimate it if i want it to actually move? I had tried this before, but I couldn't get animate my mech actually move after I animated it in place. Any help would be appreciated.

[Animonster]

To make something walk in place and them move it later, you will need another node on top of the root node:

1)Select the root and group it to itself and name the new node your Rotate_ALL node. 2)Group that node to itself and name the new top node Scale_ALL.
3)Group that node to itself and name that one Translate_ALL.

With this 3 nodes in that order (translate on top, scale in middle, rotate on bottom) you can get a lot of extra movements out of your character. Now just animate your walk, then move the translate all node. This method isn't used in every case, but it is still a good practice to make the movement nodes above the root.

[OneSharpMarble]

That wasn't what I was getting at, I would reccomend making him walk in place first so you can get the feel of the walk down before actually moving him. You can watch it walk and get all the weight down and then do your scene.

I just find it much easier to critique when the character isn't moving through the scene but is indefinitly walking. Also it is much easier to make changes to walk cycles and give them whatever attitude you like.

Also when you are doing your scene you can use this walk cycle for reference later. A walk cycle is very important and if you make it good enough you can put it on a demo reel.

[Blot12345]

I do understand your reasoning for having my character walk in place, however I am sort of on a tight schedule so I would rather tweak what I have. Although I will start my next animation by having it walk in place to refine the walk cycle.

Animonster- I had started tweaking my animation keeping your crits in mind. However it seems that your crits would give my mech a smoother more fluid motion. Is that what you had in mind, or am I misunderstanding your comments. I was aiming to have my character a labored walk more like the ATST's in the old Star Wars. I will be watching Star Wars in the next few days so I can get some reference, but I would like to refine my animation as much as possible in the meantime.

Once again, thanks everyone for your comments, it is really helping me out.

[Loulu79]

All the others are saying basic nail-that-walk-cycle techniques...so what's really important is to nail the walk...as in ... the way it walks...plus observing other mechas like him is a very good suggestion....and I'm glad you're going to see that Star Wars.

And knowing deadlines...even still you've already finished it...in future you may want to do the following (and trust me, that was actually my homework!)

*When watching an animated 3D or 2D cartoon/clip/movie/whatever...make notes as to what you liked and dislike (yes please crit and learn away)

*When taking notes on paper, observe timing. Pause. Rewind. Forward it. Study it. You'll wind up being your best critique and best animator for you and future employers. It takes time but heck it works.

I've been there done all that. Just make sure you keep your work simple.

I'm waiting for the next clip, okay!:)

[Blot12345]

So following the advice of some of the people who have commented on this thread I watched Star Wars for some reference. It helped, however not as much as I liked because the AT-ST has a different foot setup than mine.

Anyways, I did take some things away from watching Star Wars. Most things are only slight tweaks here and there, but I made a new playblast to show the changes.

UPDATED Walk Cycle (http://art.uwstout.edu/%7Eengelmanna/mechwalk11-17.mov)
I smoothed out the foward motion, it seemed a little choppy, I also played around with the up and down bobbing of the body. Lastly, I smoothed out the foot animation a little bit.

Once again, your critiques are very welcomed.

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