Animation: realistic running

[NikLG]

Why don't you buy a book on animation and do it yourself, instead of relying on software / mmo-cap or someone else to do it for you ?
Then you'll get exactly what you want.
Richard Williams "animators survival toolkit" is good, or the Preston Blair book ( both available from Amazon or any good book shops )

[Mahlon]

Robo_obi

It just takes time and practice to get a good run. It's one of the harder things to animate well. But once it falls into place, you really can move. NikLG is right. Books will help. I don't have any links to tutorials of hand, but you can just do a search on the various max sites. If your animation is not critical for something right now, I'd take some time out and really get the basics of walk and run cycles down.

On the other hand, if you're just starting animating with max (you didn't indicate if you had previous experience), then you might want to animate something besides runs or walks because it will give a better feel for how CS workflow goes without having to get caught up in cycles and the intricacies there.

Mahlon

[EricChadwick]

Good advice.

It might also help to examine the work of Eadweard Muybridge.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/anima/chronoph/motion/index.htm

If you stick one of these sequences in as a background image, and rotoscope animation to it, it could help you start to understand realistic motion.

[robo3687]

about the animation book........where I live resources are limited for 3d related books and such, there are only one or two that I have seen in any shop around her over the last few years.

And being 15 I have not gotten a job yet, and money is low for me at the moment, and I can't get stuff off the net :thumbsdow

Oh and by the way, I started doing animations about 3 days ago, I've had max 5 for a few months now and had only been doing modelling up until now.

[Stroker]

Gotta agree that you are moving a little too fast.
Mr. Comet has some good animation stuff to read about.
Comet Cartoons (http://www.comet-cartoons.com)
If you read his articles/tutorials about animation, you'll see what an art form it is.

You can't rush it.
Start simple.
Take it slow.

[Mahlon]

You can find LOADS of stuff on the internet that's just as informative as a book. Also, you can order books online. If you do that, make sure you ask around to see what people recommend. You can avoid some costly mistakes. Not all books are worth that $49.

I think Richard Williams' book has already been recommended, and that's a good one for raw-horsepower animation technique. Actually, I found the Inspired Character Animation book to be really good, with concrete advice for beginners over a broad range of technique. Another one is Ed Hooks Acting for Animators. This is an excellent one, but it's really not a 'how to'. It's a bit more esoteric and about the 'bringing-characters-to-life' end of things.

Good Luck,
Mahlon Bouldin

[Dare]

You can try this one http://www.spicycricket.com/SCA/SCA_anim.html

:thumbsup:

[robo3687]

thanx guys, i'll read through those sites and look into the books.

i have some school work to do for a few days so i'll try and do some animating in between tasks and i shoiuld have my first running test up in the next few days.

[robo3687]

Ok I had actually forgotten about doing the test so I did this one up about 20 mins ago, and then forgot to uplaod and post it about 5 mins ago, so now I'm here.

The test at the moment is compressed the same way as all the others (Sorenson 3), this one is about 1 second in length (probably shorter) and just has one basic run cycle , if you loop the movie in Quicktime you get a better idea of the animation.

Here it is:

Run test (95k) (http://www.angelfire.com/pro/robo_obi/runtest.mov)

And yes i know the body is extremely static at the moment........i will fix that....i just wasn't sure how to have it move, like just bob up and down slightly or what?

[NikLG]

Just had a look at your animation.
The arms should move opposite to the legs...ie when the left leg is forward, the left arm is back ( basically..it can get a bit more complex than that if you start doing overlapping action etc. but for the time being that is the biggest thing wrong with it ).
Other than than, not a bad start.
I won't comment on any body movement as you have said that you know it's a little static.....

Hope that helps a bit : )

[robo3687]

thanx

i did think at first that the arms went opposite to the legs.......but then i did half running pose sitting in my chair and thought.......nah it goes the other way

then after reading that, looking at my animation.......and taking a run down the hall and back....i realised i had done it wrong...

i'll fix that........

i'll add some slightly more articulate movements to the legs and arms tomorrow....as well as get the static-ness out of the body.....make that head move too.........i get it doing a run along like just a plane or something.......

[Rye]

This book is amazing:

http://www.freetoon.com/prestonblair/intro/frame.html

it gets into animation in the 2nd chapter
and best of all its FREE :)

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