Flight cycle-NEW and improved(?)

[Goon]

I'm not much of an animator, but it strikes me as wrong, both technically, and for this size of beast.
I don't see how a dragon could flap its wings that much. The strain on itself would be massive. So that kind of harms the believability. A glide, punctuated by wing beats would probably be more plausible. But even if you keep this wide range of movement, the consequent motion of the dragon's torso vertically should be greater.
another thing is that bird's wings do not travel merely up and down. They kind of move in an oval arc, that's a bit like a swimmer doing the butter fly stroke, though less exagerrated in the forward movement.
also, the easiest thing to fix would probably be the syncing up of the dragon's body's upward movement, and the downbeat of the wings, with a little delay. currently, the dragon reaches its pinnacle at the moment the wings are pointing upwards, precisely the moment it is least able to support itself. this might not be an issue if the dragon's upwards movement was motivated by its wings flapping, and the dragon was merely reaching the pinnacle of the consequent upwards motion. however, the consequence of the wing's downbeat is actually a downwards movement of the body. so maybe this sequence:
start pose = wings up, about to beat down, body arced upwards like a U
pose 1 = wings forwards, angled down slightly, body slowing its downward descent
pose 2 = wings down, the dragon has just exerted its force and is moving upwards
pose 3 = wings folding in slightly as dragon brings them up, body slowing its upwards movement, now in an upside down U
start pose

[adam-crockett]

Yeah, GOon's right. The wings should fold up a bit as he draws them up, then expand for the downward flap, and the motion of the downward thrust of the wings should push the dragon's body up. (and vice-versa)

A little gliding wouldn't hurt either.

[bugzilla]

I'm not much of an animator, but it strikes me as wrong, both technically, and for this size of beast.
I don't see how a dragon could flap its wings that much. The strain on itself would be massive. So that kind of harms the believability. A glide, punctuated by wing beats would probably be more plausible. But even if you keep this wide range of movement, the consequent motion of the dragon's torso vertically should be greater.
another thing is that bird's wings do not travel merely up and down. They kind of move in an oval arc, that's a bit like a swimmer doing the butter fly stroke, though less exagerrated in the forward movement.
also, the easiest thing to fix would probably be the syncing up of the dragon's body's upward movement, and the downbeat of the wings, with a little delay. currently, the dragon reaches its pinnacle at the moment the wings are pointing upwards, precisely the moment it is least able to support itself. this might not be an issue if the dragon's upwards movement was motivated by its wings flapping, and the dragon was merely reaching the pinnacle of the consequent upwards motion. however, the consequence of the wing's downbeat is actually a downwards movement of the body. so maybe this sequence:
start pose = wings up, about to beat down, body arced upwards like a U
pose 1 = wings forwards, angled down slightly, body slowing its downward descent
pose 2 = wings down, the dragon has just exerted its force and is moving upwards
pose 3 = wings folding in slightly as dragon brings them up, body slowing its upwards movement, now in an upside down U
start pose

I should have posted that this is a motion mixer cycle and the dragon is not going to fly like this all the time. I se birds flying over the bridge every day on the way home and notice that they beat their wings furiously a few times then glide for a while. This animation does not have the glide in it.

Thanks for your input. I agree with your critique and will fold the items you mentioned into future versions of the animation.

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