new to animation - help needed

[porkchopexpress]

What frame rate is the walk cycle rendered at? For 3D it looks a little stop motion like.

[norman365]

hey, I think one of your problems when I watch it is that the arms don't seem to follow though
when they go back. either that or there's a problem with your arcs.

do you have an old-fashioned 'chunky' monitor at all? if you do, I suggest picking up a chinagraph so you can draw you poses, spaces etc. onto it as a handy reference.

hiope this helps.

[DigitalToon2]

Hey italyg nice start. A couple things though, in the full stride position you have the front leg bent when it should be a straight leg because right now you have the front leg kick out but than come down in a linear motion where it should kick out and continue foward as it comes down, thus the straight leg because he has to catch himself with that leg so he doesn't fall and than when that leg takes the weight it goes from being straight to bent. Each time the right leg comes forward it moves out to the side which is kind of strange looking . Also don't forget to think about the rotation in the hips because right now it looks like you have the forward rotation but not the up and down rotation where the leg that takes the weight, hip angle goes up. Your timing is very even and your leg should come down faster and from the point when the heel touchs the ground you have it taking about 5 frames for the rest of the foot to come down, but really the foot should be fully planted within the next frame or two after that because his weight is coming down on it.

I also agree with norman365 about your arms they down't go past your hips when they go back and it sort of feels like their punching when they go foward.

Well I hope this is some help to you, good luck.

[itayg]

porkchopexpress: the cycle is rendered at 25fps and i exported the images to AfterFX where i rendered the .mov file. i agree with it looking a bit like stop motion. maybe its because the walk needs to take more frames (and be slower) like i wrote before. i'll render a slower version of the walk and we'll see how it turns out.

norman365: i dont understand what you mean...do you mean drawing on the screen with a pencil?

DigitalToon2: first of all thank you for your many great tips! they are very helpfull, i'm working now on the movment of the arms i've decided to delete the arm keys and start over from the begining. i'll post the fixed cycle later today.


thanks guys :buttrock:
itay

[norman365]

yep, sorry about that I meant to write 'pencil' in the earlier post. they're pencils you can use for drawing on glass, wipes off easy with a cloth. that way you can draw your poses, arcs etc. onto the screen and set your model upto them. I find it very useful.

you can't use them on LCD screens though. over here in Britain you can pick them up pretty cheap from a hobby/art & crafts/stationary shop.

I think you can also get an electric one. I saw the 2D Disney Animators using one for animating chicken little in a programme over here, but no idea where you could get one from, how much etc.

[itayg]

norman365: ok thanks i'll try and see if i can find somthing like that.

i have kind of a newbie question i hope you guys can help me: when i'm working with a rig that has IK in his hands (like this IK-joe has) i need to turn it off when i'm working on a walkcycle right?
but it seems like i can't turn it off in IK-joe it destroys the whole rig and givs me some Maxscript errors so i'm trying to animate him with the arms having IK turned on. can that be what makes this cycle harder for me to create? :cry:

[norman365]

yeah, definitely. to be honest, I'm having the same problem with my cat animation at the mo, the IK was working fine until I reloaded the scene and for some reason the legs have turn inwards with the IK on.

[itayg]

i think i'll just use a different rig. this IK-joe is just too hard to control as long as i cant turn off IK for the arms. i'll try to find a different rig or maybe i'll creat a simple rig myself to practice on. thanks norman365 i hope you'll fix your cat's legs :wip: . i try to post some more work for crits soon.

[itayg]

here is a new walk (the model is by ILA SOLEIMANI (http://www.ilasolomon.com/) - great rig to work with)
i've decided to leave the front leg bent at the full stride position cause it makes the robot look heavier. tell me what you guys think


*deleted*

thanks
itay

[porkchopexpress]

You have a lot of improvement in such a short amount of time! I think you may have an issue with your in/out on your key frames. The character appears to be walking on a piece of paper that appears to be pulled back after a full cycle. So there is this weird forwards and back kind of thing going on.

[itayg]

hey porkchopexpress thank you, i really feel this one is much better then the first one. i've learned a lot from all the mistakes i made there. btw you have a very good eye that you spoted that in/out issue! the thing is, i've linked the hips and legs to a box and animated the box sliding back in order to creat a walk-in-place cycle. and the box had a ease in/out in its movment and i forgot to change it to linear. here it is fixed:

http://www.itayg.com/walk_robot03.rar

i'm going to try some other animations with this robot. maybe make him jump or picking up somthing heavy. i'll update soon.

itay

[itayg]

well i didnt get many comments about the walkcycle . so here is something a bit less boring. its a 5 sec animation using the same robot. i need some c&c so i'll learn how to improve my animations.:shrug: thanks

http://www.itayg.com/robot_hat03.mov


itay

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