Sexy gunshoot & reload animation
polycounter lvl 8
Hullo Polycount! I'm revisiting an animation project I started back in July and I need some outsider input, since my eyes are having trouble spotting what needs to be done. Long story short, I was having back pain issues and had to stop working at the computer for a while, and now that I'm doing a bit better and trying to get work done again, I've lost my flow and am having trouble getting back into it.
I know it's still very very very rough and needs a lot of work, but I'm having trouble seeing what I need to fix/change/improve/etc. I'm hoping posting it now will help me get back into it. Any and all critiques at this point are very much appreciated!!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CDNwcO6miQ[/ame]
Thanks for looking!
I know it's still very very very rough and needs a lot of work, but I'm having trouble seeing what I need to fix/change/improve/etc. I'm hoping posting it now will help me get back into it. Any and all critiques at this point are very much appreciated!!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CDNwcO6miQ[/ame]Thanks for looking!
Replies
Fixed up the beginning walk and a few other bits along the way. Still a lot of rough areas, but I'm going to get to those still.
Any comments or critiques appreciated!
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And there are tons of them on that web
First, can you post .movs via dropbox.com when showing your work? it will make it easier to crit cause we can scrub through. the thread isnt as pretty, since its just links, but, you can post the youtube as well as the dropbox link?
anyways, as for the animation
- the characters right arm pops/twitches a bit just before pulling out her gun. around that second step.
- the hips. if you are going for a sexy walk, the hips would have more of a rolling feel to them. right now, when all the weight is on the left leg, the right hip is up, but for sexy female walks, when the left foot contacts the ground, the left hip is forward and down, but once all the weight is put onto that foot (the passing pose with the right leg in the air), the left hip will be up. right now you have the right hip lifting up with the leg, which is usually how it goes, just not for a sexy walk. check out some runwalk walks to see an example of this.
- during the shooting, it would be nice to see some overset in the movement / kickback in the body. its moving with the pistol, but really it should be a frame or 2 after. And the front foot could use some movement in it as well. maybe lift the heel slightly?
+loving when she whips out the pistol though
keep it up! cant wait to see more
Little out of order, but here are the thumb sketches I did for this anim to sorta show my train of thought (excuse the other pages of my sketchbook showing through):
Alex3d -- Thanks! I've actually acted this one out quite a bit, and I've found as long as my legs swivel into place right, it feels rather steady. It might be a bit awkward, but I think at this point I'm fairly commited to that pose. Also, you mention tiptoeing would be a problem, but she's actually supposed to be in heels. I modeled in some stilletoes on the ends of the biped's feet, but that may not be clear.
slipsius -- Thanks a lot, I'll try to get the dropbox movie going for my next update.
Yeah, the hips have been confusing me! Thanks for clarifying that they're different for a sexy walk. I'll work on that for the next update.
The area where she shoots the gun is actually one of the rough areas I haven't touched much. I'll keep all this in mind as I continue to work on it though! I also thought there was still something funky with that hand before it grabs the gun, and I totally see that twitch you're talking about. Augh! Will try to fix that up too...
There's two ways of disengaging the slide lock on most pistols, you can push the slide release, or you can pull the slide back and release it, and the slide will move all the way forward into the ready position.
If you're going for a sexy reload, it could be quite nice, once she has put the spent magazine into her pouch, she presses the slide release, and the slide jumps forward into position, bringing a nice finality to the scene.
the animations on your site tells me you know how to animate and hopefully you'll take this up to the same level that you've got for most of the stuff on there!
the walk to me is fairly weirdly paced and has lots of twitches going on on the arm and later on the hand right before grabbing the gun. either you're trying to add some tiny motion to the hand, but it just reads as noise to me atm.
the problem I have with the arm before grabbing the gun, while in the walk is the part where it breaks the rules that we got taught in anim survival kit..sure, fuck that book and all, let's just animate, but I'd still like to see some follow trough on the lower arm when swinging back and forth instead of the compression you've got going..feels like IK...did you just IK the arms swinging boy?!?! fk dat shit!
EDIT: actually, I see you're going for a kind of cat-walk walk.. the only problem I have with the arm then is when it's swinging forward.
the anim where the gun gets drawn out of the holster is lacking some punch and it just glides into her hands, clipping through the holster like it ain't no thang.
you'd probably want her left hand to grab the gun a few frames earlier as well, a tad snappier.
don't know what style you're going for with the shooting. maybe you're happy with it as it is. but when I animate recoils I have frame 1 where the gun actually shoots, the frame right after has the gun move backwards as well as rotate down quite a bit. then perhaps 2-3 frames later, you've got the actual up rotation and have the recoil move through the rest of the arm..
-- . \ . . / . . . ) . . . . . / . . . --
√ like that, but upside down I guess hehe
I'm not sure how much I like or dislike the reload animation, it feels floaty and stuff and I was gonna ask you to have some hold poses and just work on that part a bit more, but I don't know.....:poly141:
would like to see some follow through again on the right arm as she goes back to aiming after reloading.. maybe have her overshoot a bit before going back to a perfect aiming pose..
the lack of a real character, using biped, makes the final pose just look like she wants to blow her head of rather than blowing the smoke off the gun..
I'm sure you've got lots of stuff done already and most of my shit is probably redundant.. but we'll see in the next iteration
Got a bit busy and haven't gotten a lot done on it until yesterday and today, but I did address everything mentioned. And in the process have watched lots of youtube gun videos (bless Texans) and have learned a lot about pistols. The gun doesn't have any animations (er... I didn't model it to be animatable, should have thought that one through, cough cough...) but at least now she treats it as if it does.
I still see a bunch of little areas I want to smooth out, but I made changes along the entire animation, so I'll let you guys have at it first (that and my brain feels fried from working on it atm).
And by request, here's the dropbox link! (which hopefully works...): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16421322/SexyGunshoot_RenderTest04.mov
Annnnd the youtube for us lazy folk:
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Critique away!
So basically she will pull the slide back, but instead of pushing forward again, she will release the slide and her hand will either lift, or continue moving back, or a mixture of both.
Anthy9986 -- I have her doing it with both hands because she was already holding the gun with both hands. I think it may look weird to have her suddenly drop the other hand before doing this. I agree that the area could use some improvement though, so I'll still be fiddling with it more, thanks!
kaptainkernals -- Thanks again! Yeah, thinking back, I definitely remember watching a vid where they said you don't move it back cause that might cause a malfunction, just let it go. I'll become a gun expert eventually... Anyway, will fix that for the next version.
Impala88 -- I thought about that too, but decided I thought I'd prefer her doing it just before she fires. I might still change it, but I'm unsure at this point. Thanks though!
Another version coming up soon! (Hopefully)
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Like I said, only a smaller update so only bothered with the one view on this one. Keep the critiques coming though!!
Another small update:
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Been polishing up a few different areas. Found spots where I was missing anticipation (shame on me!), afraid there may be more to find... gonna work on the tempo more too as mentioned.
Please keep the crits coming though! You can nitpick! Or say it's amazing! Whatever you feel like!
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It's gotten to the point where I know I'm still making good changes, but I wonder if it's even noticeable to anyone else...
About ready to call this one done. Next version I'll post the different views again, more changes or no.
Any crits are still appreciated, thanks for looking!
Marshal Banana -- I'm a little confused what you mean by her leaning forward in the middle of the reload, because I don't see it myself. Where exactly?
Also, cool suggestion for the ending, but I think I have enough going on in the anim, I'd like to keep the ending simple.
Thanks for the crits!
Next update:
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Also a dropbox link!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16421322/SexyGunshoot_FullRender02.mov
Tinkered around with a bunch of different areas. Tried to smooth out the 'stomping' feel of her walk, but now I'm told it's less sexy... sigh. Will probably work on that more.
Anyway, the usual deal, please keep any and all crits coming!!
Anyway, I'm alright with where she does it, so I'm just gonna keep it as is and plan out the full gun reload better next time (when I'll know more about guns lol).
I apologize in advance for the excessive jiggling.
the best part is right in the beginning, when you can see the entire stride for several steps.
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SnaFuBar -- Thanks for the input, but I'm still not sure what I could add/change for this part that will work. This last update I only focused on the walk, so I'll think about the reload for the next one.
Anyway, here's the update!
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I would take the pose out that is inbetween her ejecting the magazine and pulling the new clip from the belt. It isn't necessary and makes her look like she is showing off.
I am serious when I say act it out. Record yourself acting it out and see how awkward it feels.
The pose is still completely unstable, her center mass falls on her bent left leg - tremendous stress for her quads. Right leg is on the same line as the left and points in the same direction - no side stability... If you still want her to lunge like that, place her right knee on the ground, so she would seem more stable and composed.
However, I did act this out again just now with these points in mind. I do see what you mean about the stress on the left leg, but I think the reason I didn't notice while I was acting it out is because I had my legs a bit closer together than the biped. Otherwise, I don't think it feels horribly unnatural, though I admit it's not the most practical pose. I was going more for the sex appeal of it than practicality.
I'll try to bring the back leg closer in, and turn it away from the centre a bit more. Unfortunately, it's really too late at this point to do a complete overhaul of how she's going to shoot--after all the hours I've put into this, I really would just be better off starting a new anim.
Also, I like the pose you mentioned throwing out--I had in mind that she is showing off a bit.
Thanks for the comments, it's a lot of good things to keep in mind for my next gun animation.
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Mostly I added more polish throughout. I've smoothed out the walk, tweaked some areas that looked jolting to me, and fixed the second gun stance so the back leg is more bent.
I've decided to keep the shooting pose as is for this animation and just keep in mind more stable poses for the future. I've also decided to keep the slide lock part of the reload as is.
Really, it's just about damn time I call this piece done :P
Even still, if there's any off parts that are sticking out, please let me know before I call it done!
Thanks as always for looking!
There are some awkward poses as earlier mentioned. I wouldn't change them but instead do another animation where you earlier in your process either share your works here or with a close friend that can spot the awkwardness.
Buuuut before you call it done I have a request.
Do a small move and hold at the first shoot pose. (Her lower body kinda dies there)
Finally, keep rocking these animations! You're doing great!
Also, thank you thank you thank you for these last couple points! Especially the one before the first shooting pose. I made the changes, and it's already painful to see the same spot in the older versions. If you watch the update, I hope you'll agree.
Anyway, update!
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If no one points out any more tweaks, I'm gonna wrap this one up and call it done!
the aim, with the left hand grabbing the gun before actually hitting the aim pose looks good!
the whole reload part looks good!
I'm not a huge fan of the cocking (is that the correct word?..whatever).
Mainly because I don't like the idea, of her having to move over to do it, I'd rather see her cock the gun while in her reload pose. Don't like the swing she does to get to her cock-pose (oh lawd, sure is polycount in here) nor the way her right arm just locks into place like that. The whole cocking (god damn it..I hope I've got that right at least) is very stiff and IK'ish, feels rushed (I don't recall it being in the fist couple of versions?).
Going back to aim looks good!
Shooting looks good enough, not much one can do there really
Still not a fan of the blowing-off-head-pose at the end, but I'm sure you know what you're going for there!
I'm sure you wanna get this done and go on with other stuff, I think that's totally fine. My anal rants are just that I guess..
I'm kinda the same, even if there's lots of shit that I could do better in my animations, I'm not only too lazy to go back and fix them after a certain point, but I just wanna move on
GG, RE?
edit:
the only thing that I'd really like to see done to this, if we don't bother with my rant above.. I'd really like to see this mapped onto a proper character, to give the motion a clear context. For all we know, we're not watching a female character doing all this sexyness, for all we know (and this is more likely, seeing as we're still on polycount) that could be one sexy ass dude right there!
For the gun grab, it looks and feels like she is grabbing far down the handle towards the bottom, with her full hand, where as she the trigger finger should be over the trigger, straight, and inside of the thumb inline with the trigger, not as far down as it is currently, you draw a weapon to be ready to fire, the way she is currently she doesn't look ready. When she's shooting, it's all in the right position, and thats the position her hand should be when grabbing, except her trigger finger should be straight in a ready position.
As for the cocking of the gun after the reload, the current move forward and cock seems rather silly, and very boring, she moves forward, and cocks - and that is the only movement, I agree with thatanimator, rather have her cock it after the reload, while it's still pointing up, or even cock it while moving forward into her firing position.
I think it makes the update MUCH smoother:
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thatanimator -- Thanks a lot for your detailed comments, but I'm not sure about putting this on a model--the only appropriate one I have is an old model of mine from college. I might still try that out. Thanks a lot though!
kaptainkernals -- I fixed the beginning part, though I'm not sure how important it is to grab it exactly the same as you shoot, because she'll be twirling it first. Either way, I hope you notice the difference in the update. Thanks for the suggestions about the cocking, but it turns out I didn't need to worry about that at all. Woohoo!
If there is nothing else that people are gravely opposed to, I would love to call it DONE!
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So this biatch is DONE!!