Critique for my runcycle plz

[adavies]

right , there are a few things you could do to improve this, but one of the things you could do that would make the most difference would be to animate the hips and the spine. Put a bit of twist in them - when the left leg is forwards the left hip should be forwards. when you're happy with that, put some twist in the spine so the shoulders are rotating the opposite way to the hips. that will add a bit of life to it.

if you're happy with that then try putting in a little side to side motion in his hips - not much but you want SOME as it will make him have a bit more weight. then, when this is sorted, you can start to play with the tilting of the hips - you can get different types of walks/runs depending on what way you tilt them, it's up to you. if you do it one way he will look big and lumbering (imagine how a baby waddles). if you tilt the the opposite way it will be more feminine (like a catwalk model). try tilting them at different times and different amounts - one thing that helps with this is if you imagine how the body is constructed underneath, how will the joints affect each other as they move - what happens to the hips when only one leg is on the floor? also, try splitting the body up into masses in your head - which are the heavy bits? it's a bit like a ragdoll dynamics simulation, imagnie him as a series of balls interconnected by joints that can rotate around, a bit like a crash-test dummy i suppose, and that will help you get a bit more flexibility into his spine and arms.

keep it up though, you're getting there. also, you might want to pay careful attention to your graph editor and the curves to make sure that everything loops correctlly.

good luck.

[Martin Andersen]

Thanks mann... :wip:

I tryed to put some in it... here is the newest version:

www.3d-designer.dk/temp/warrior_run_perspective_v33.avi

And a turnable version::wavey:
http://www.3d-designer.dk/temp/run32.html


What do you think of it, anything that can be improoved ???

:eek:

[Martin Andersen]

Newest version right here: :drool:

http://www.3d-designer.dk/temp/warrior_run_perspective_v34c.avi

[grury]

Hey Martin, i also agree with Andy, your character needs a bit more twisting and bending on the hips and spine, he's looking too stiff. i know that he's suposed to be a worrior but a bit overlaping bending on the spine would bring the character more alive. also think the hand thats carrying the sword could do with a bit of bending, he's holding a heavy sword and would be very dificult for someone to keep the hand completly still while running.

keep it up!

cheers

[adavies]

right martin, looking a lot better already! well done mate. I would still increase the twist on that spine though. it's been a wile since i used max, but all that stuff is pretty easy to ficx in the graph editor (cant remember what it's called in max - is it in the trackeditor or something? f-curve view? ) anyway, see if you can play the aniamtion back in the viewport and look at the curve that relates to the twist in the hips. try scaling the curve (or moving the points up and down ) where the twist occurs while the aniamtion is playing back. you will be able to see it update as you do it and you can addd a little more twist, or maybe take some off if you go too far. just keep doing it until it looks nice and smooth too! dont set too many keys or it will get jerky. when you are happy with that you can do it for the joints in the spine (work your way out from the hips as if you work the other way you will be constantly counter-animating what you have done).

when you're happy with that, I have noticed that he looks a bit like he's sneaking around, not like a big heavy, bounding warrior that's laden down with armour. you can get more weight in a number of ways. the first thing that's not helping is that the legs look a bit bent, yet if you pause it on the frame where the leg comes down to cantact the ground it is straight. the problem is, this is only 1 frame out of how ever many your cycle is so your eye doesn't read it roperly and it is a common problem with things like this so what you can do is make sure it is straight on the frame before. that extra fram will make a subtle difference and he will instantly stop looking like he is afraid of the ground because you will see a straight leg going to a bent leg and this contrast will look better than just bent all the time as it is now.

also, to make him even heavier, you can move him side to side more making sure that his weight is over the leg that's on the ground - DO NOT move his weight over a leg unless it is touching the ground, ready to support the weight! try it yourself, pick one leg up off the ground and lean over to that side - you will soon start to fall over - basic centre of gravity stuff.

you can also play around with the up and down motion - this has a BIG effect on how heavy your character looks. try some bouncing ball exercises, it's basically that. you can make it look really cool by going to the frame where the front leg is staright and has just contacted the ground for the first time. look at the hips and move them up or down to make sure that that leg is perfectly straight. a few frames later, push those hips down. try 3 frames later, and make that leg bent. try playing around with the number of frames and the distance they move down. aswell as the down, you need to have an UP. go to the frame where the trailing leg is JUST about to leave the ground (it is still touching though!) and push those hips up to make his leg straight - it'll look like he's pushing off harder and therefore it will look like his body weighs something rather than being mr floaty.

have a go at that and see how you get on. I usually just play around with the hips and feet and get those right before i go on to anything else becasue the hips affect everything in the upper body. if you get them worng, everything else is wrong. spend a little time on those and you can go on to do the rest bit by bit. i would normally do the spine next, taking note of any poses im am heading towards, but usually i just scrub through the timeline to see if the spine is being affected by the hips in the right way/how i want. when i've done that i have a go at the arms or maybe the head and then the whole thing should be done - break a big prbloem down into smaller ones and you can do each one better and soon ytou will see that you can get all the little details in there and make him look really realistic. you can get some REALLY subtle movement in there with this technique and i often work with the graph editor to adjust the smounts of twist/translation/whatever i put in there to get real subtlety.

hope it helps, it's hard to help without being there or without images, but if you want to look at some cartoony run cycles (you can use the same thing for real ones, just watch your poses) you can go to : http://www.freetoon.com/

[grury]

..unfortunatly there's no such things as f-curves on Character Studio... maybe on version 10 or so Descreet will realise that...bummer

[adavies]

oh yeah, i forgot about that. it's that quaternian?! rotation isn't it :/

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