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[Weekly Theme 3] Kick Attack

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This weeks theme. A kick attack.

Some people have been posting some animations they`ve already done, that just happen to work with the theme. But let's try and do new anims, everyone! More practice!! It's the whole point of the themes. :)

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Replies

  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    slow sunday night... with "All You Need is Kill" in the background
    1.5 hrs block-in. basically chun-li's rising air kick
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEBhW60eCEU[/ame]

    syncsketch
    http://www.syncsketch.com/playground/074b12394e004a85ab1bacea62593b50#40521
  • Denny
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    Denny polycounter lvl 14
    Hito: First pass looks good. A bit hard to see during playback, but the syncsketch helped. I'm not certain if breaking her hip on frame 009 for the kick will work well in the end, but perhaps its exaggeration is needed for the next pass.

    I decided to go with a basic low kick as I need to work on getting better with basic movements. One hour so far using my own template character and rig.
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KhHVmepZaI[/ame]
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    @Denny, Cool, keepin it simple and to the point! I'd speed up the whole thing much more. As it stands, it's too much like a straight cleaned mocap of someone who isn't a martial artist. Lacks any feeling of power in the kick.

    0-8, torso rotates to left while hips rotate to right and shift weight toward rear leg.
    8-10, torso rotates to right while hips rotate to left toward target. push off the rear foot
    10-13, torso hits impact pose, hips hits impact pose, kicking foot leaves ground at 10 or 11, impacts @ 13.
    14-20, settle to new right foot leading ready pose, right foot direct infront of left, parallel to it.



    Mine @ 3hr mark, splining out and refining the poses and transitions.
    http://syncsketch.com/playground/c765504d1fe448a49b772aebcb58cf34#40667
  • Denny
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    Denny polycounter lvl 14
    Hito: If I understand your feedback correctly, my animation lacks "oomph"/exaggeration and is not necessarily wrong in its performance? I know I have this tendency to do things in slight slow motion, so I'll do a second pass to aim for power and exaggerate the poses.

    Now that I think of it, I've had the mocap-comparison made to my animations a couple of times before. I wonder if that is a fundamentally bad thing or not. :poly136:

    I added a couple of comments on your sync sketch. There is be a bit of disconnect between the anticipation, rise and fall segments of the animation, which I think could be improved by focusing on the path of motion for the body during the transitions. Otherwise I think the individual segments are on the right track.
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    Thanks for the comments! They're spot on. Things to work on over the rest of the week.

    as far as looking like mocap... it depends. You get good mechanics typically from mocap, but unless you are mocapping someone super athletic you won't get enough snappiness you need for the action to "feel" right.

    Going back to the kick, I looked up some muy thai low kick videos and counted frames. The kick take roughly 7 frames from when the rear foot leaves the ground to impact. Big difference is that the kicking foot is traveling through about twice the distance your foot is. Another difference is the hip is leading the thigh and foot all the way through the kick, where as your animation has the thigh pass the hip and lead about half way through the kick. And one more major difference is the leading foot lands with toes pointing out to the side instead of forward, it is basically in the final position before the kick starts. where in your action, the leading foot lands pointing forward, and pivots along with the kick, and it makes the kick feel very light.
  • Arturow
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    Arturow polycounter
    @ Denny : cool start! it reminds me when I trained long time ago haha , but yeah Hito give you an awesome crit :p.

    @ Hito : that reminds me of Kyo from king of fighter fly kick :p amazing start , looking forward for more poses to drop feedback :)

    Found a video that might interest someone :)!

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAjhv35-q80[/ame]
  • derphouse
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    derphouse polycounter lvl 4
    @Denny: Cool basic move! I'd say what I notice the most is that your poses hit their keyframes simultaneously. I think if there was just a slight delay on the arms after the kick happens, and maybe between each arm as well, that would give much more dynamic. I understand how in martial arts keeping your weight in sync is important, but there's always a slight amount of human error I'd say :D

    @Arturow: Awesome reference! Wasn't sure what to cook up for this one, but I'll definetely be trying to use a kick from that video! Thanks :)
  • Ankheilw
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    Ankheilw polycounter lvl 13
    Great work guys. Will add comments soon, but these are great starts. I just blocked a kick in last night. Lots of work to do but the major actions seem solid. This is more of a "stylized" take on the kick than an accurate depiction of the style. Just having fun with it.

    Combat_Kick.gif
  • k`vin
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    k`vin polycounter lvl 5
    My entry for this week theme.
    Ember rig by Andrew Helenek

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6YlW4fGQ-k[/ame]
  • _adamturnbull
    Still got a fair bit to do on it but here's my first pass

    [vv]137362799[/vv]

    Great work by everyone so far!

    @Ankheilw - Love it, he has a bit of a weird head wobble after the kick though.

    @k'vin - Really nice! Did you use reference for this?

    @Denny - Very cool but I agree with Hito about it looking like cleaned up mocap, that's not a bad thing though.
  • Ankheilw
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    Ankheilw polycounter lvl 13
    @_adamturnbull - Thanks man, I appreciate it. I was trying to accentuate the impact of the kick with the head movement but it might be a little too much.

    I love the first pass on the kick, Smooth progression and good timing. What I am missing is a bit of weight and motivation from the character. I think your poses could be a little stronger and more exaggerated as well. In the beginning, I can really him winding up before he launches up into the move. Try pushing the verticality of the root.

    Great work so far, keep it up.
  • Ankheilw
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    Ankheilw polycounter lvl 13
    @Denny, the motion that you have looks smooth but overall, the move itself seems pretty boring. Try amping it up with arm motion or more dynamic poses. The timing looks good, don't be afraid to push beyond the realism to capture the explosive nature of the kick.
  • k`vin
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    k`vin polycounter lvl 5
    @_adamturnbull: yah, I did use some taekwondo referece.
    your first pass already look really good :). Nice job
  • Ankheilw
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    Ankheilw polycounter lvl 13
    @k'vin love the speed and ferocity of the attack. Your first pass already is so close, great work. I think that my only critique would be that the combo could build up a bit more and the final attack could be a little bigger and more explosive. It depends on the use in game, I guess. For a dota2 character, I can see that this attack would work well because it is responsive and gets you back into rhythm quickly.

    If you want to push it for this forum, I would say give him a little more vertical movement in the final attack and make the last lead in kick a little more exaggerated in pose and timing. Hope that helps in some way. Great work.
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    another hr or so, polish and continuity in the poses, cleaning up arcs. first play @ 30fps, 2nd play @ 7.5fps
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Buywmd72s[/ame]

    @K'vin, timing feels very good, as are the poses. I'd put some variation in the "size" of the kicks... med kick, series of small fast kicks, BIG spinning kick. amp up the final 540 spinning kick with little more vertical and forward translation, and push the pose @ 58 to match. Follow through with the momentum of the final kick instead of stepping down and settling with the step backward like you have it now.

    @Ankheilw, yeah the chin thing. :) A tad much. I couldn't stop looking at it after noticing it after the 1st cycle. I would hold the kicking foot a frame or two behind the hips before starting the return, after that it will catch up and pass the hips to land. In order to return to the starting stance instead of following through to right foot leading, kicker has to push off the target after impact. Otherwise really great looking kick!

    @Adam, really cool action. The return feels awkward, the left foot seems to be pivoting around a point just past the tip of the toes instead of the ball of the foot. The kicking leg hangs forward too long before starting to come back to combat-ready idle. Kick-gun has similar kicks on youtube. I don't know if you used ref or not, but you can see the kicking leg following through the kick arc without any delay.
  • Ankheilw
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    Ankheilw polycounter lvl 13
    @Hito, thanks for the feedback, good stuff. It works out perfectly too. The current one is pose to pose so I am going to dig into the breakdown poses tonight. Thanks for the ideas.

    Love the work you did on your kick. After seeing the second half of the video with the slow frame rate, I almost want some more time in the animation to appreciate all the extra work you have in it. Something to push the timing, maybe keeping the kicks at the current speed, but slowing down the time in between a little and exaggerating the wind-ups so that you can see the separation in the kicks. Otherwise, it looks fantastic.

    Would love to see your character have a really dynamic land too, to absorb the weight. Something over the top like Trinity in the matrix? Keep it up!
  • _adamturnbull
    @Hito - I've been using this as reference (1:32) - https://youtu.be/hXhZVh07Qxs?t=1m32s

    He does keep his leg hanging forward for a moment before bringing it back and he pivots on his toe rather than the ball of his foot. Unless you mean a different part of the animation to what I'm thinking? I do still need to polish those parts up either way.

    Slightly new update from me:

    [vv]137479179[/vv]
  • heboltz3
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    heboltz3 polycounter lvl 9
    hey adam! Nice stuff. The general kicking motion is killer, reads real well and smooth, but there is something about the landing that feels floaty at the moment.

    After checking out the reference, once he sticks the landing the momentum sort of ragdolls/jerks his upper body pretty harshly (If not in the 1:32 kick its readily apparent in the 1:30 kick), and right now there is a bit of that but it seems loose and way more controlled. I think adding in a bit more weight/impact into the animation once he sticks the landing will really help sell the piece. Keep it up man!
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    @Adam, I see what you mean, yeah you're right about the leg "hanging" in the ref though I think your interpretation of it isn't quite on mark. definitely an improvement on the landing part. I edited a syncsketch of the ref and your most recent clip side by side and noted the difference I see. Not trying to pick on you, I'm just approaching it as if I was animating it myself and thoroughly analyzing the motion, not just along the picture plane, but also in/out of the picture plane. The overall comment on the landing part is that in the ref, the poses are very "open" in the follow through. Leg is out, torso is out. Where in your animation, the poses fell very "closed", the leg is bent at the knee sharply, torso is curved and pulled in. Overall very good work man, very interesting and challenging action!

    http://www.syncsketch.com/playground/3da5dc84d3934982b882c1ee2c7fdfbe#40992
  • _adamturnbull
    Cheers guys, and that syncsketch feedback is great, Hito! Will definitely look into that stuff over tomorrow's lunch. I wasn't really trying to match the poses perfectly, just get the overall movement but I can see what you mean by certain parts of the animation and it definitely helps.
  • Denny
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    Denny polycounter lvl 14
    Hito: The transition looks a lot better now! I'm with Ankheilw regarding the landing, maybe something more dynamic on the landing would work better. Right now the body does a hard stop and the head does a quick hitch on the landing, it was the first thing I noticed when looking at this revision. It is possible the hitch having a leftwards motion instead of right or down is what makes it stand out so much, considering the landing direction is down + slightly right.
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    @ Denny and Ankheliw, yeah you're right. I think an extra 10 frames won't hurt "responsive" feel. slow day at work, few more hrs to spice up the landing finish, and added 1 frame to each kick anticipation, probably not noticeable. still rough round some edges but it's going in a good direction

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3gHs4aKWaM[/ame]
  • KeenanBushWhack
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    KeenanBushWhack polycounter lvl 2
    Hello Everyone, the name is BushWhack and It's my first post. I'm trying to get faster in animating cycles by doing challenges (Polycount, 11 sec club etc.) Please enjoy, but give me a hard hitting critique when you see something wrong. Thank ya'll for this opportunity.

    Sorry about just the link. The Vimeo Embed wasn't working... Do anybody know how to make it work, for future reference?

    https://vimeo.com/137567859
  • _adamturnbull
    @Hito - Looks good man, I'm not sure she needs the spin on the land, it seems a bit forced and as if she starts slowing her spin down then all of a sudden does a fast spin, maybe its just because she comes to such a sudden stop afterwards. It might look better if she just lands in a cool pose and you get the weight from her landing from such a height
  • Denny
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    Denny polycounter lvl 14
    Another 2 hours spent on the low kick. It is possible the arms are still too synced with each other. I think I have stared at this one for too long for today, starting to reach a point of diminishing results where every tweak just makes it worse.
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl84LMjH-Hg[/ame]

    I'll stop here with this one and maybe join the next weekly theme if I have time to spare. Thanks for the feedback everyone, it did help a lot.
  • _adamturnbull
    This will have to do for me since I won't get any more time this week! Any one got an idea for next weeks theme?

    [vv]137606599[/vv]
  • slipsius
    Im thinking a flip for next weeks. front/back/cartwheel.
  • JennyS
    WOW, so much good stuff this week! I had a little bit of time to do a 1st pass on a real basic kick. I'm gonna have to find a moment to do some over the weekend too!

    [vv]137546646[/vv]

    @ _adamturnbull Hey, this is looking awesome! I really love the whipping movement of the arm as he spins his body into the kick, that feels really good. Nice work!

    @ Denny Nice, this is a big improvement, doesn't feel so mocappy anymore. I think the kick itself still feels like there isn't much force behind it, and I think maybe part of it is that the kicking foot is in a fairly straight line with the supporting foot (the yellow line)

    crit_zpsfcds56gw.jpg

    I think maybe if the foot extended out past that, like the green line, with the body twisting a bit more into the movement, it would have more of the power you were looking for. A lot of martial arts use the knee to aim a kick, so if your knee is pointing past your target instead of in line with it, the foot will follow and really drive force through the target.

    You still did really good work on this. I know that feeling of noodling around with an animation until you just totally lose the ability to 'see' it properly!

    @ hito Haha, this is so cool. I still think she could use 1 more frame of antic, or maybe holding her foot back in the spacing especially on the 3rd kick where it's noticeably smoother and her foot doesn't whip out so much. I also agree with Adam that the spin is not quite coming across, and it might be better to do a solid landing pose instead.

    I also wanted to show you all this tool: http://anilyzer.com It'll let you play videos from Youtube and Vimeo frame by frame, though it's limited to Chrome at the moment. Still, might be useful!
  • KeenanBushWhack
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    KeenanBushWhack polycounter lvl 2
    Trying to get faster at animating. This Combo took me like 4 days on and off. I mainly focus on cycle animations for games. Hard hitting critiques are very much welcome.

    Couldn't find out how to properly embed the video. But here's the link. https://vimeo.com/137567859
  • 13randO
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    13randO polycounter lvl 3
    Hey everyone! I've been reading these forums for a few months now, as I read up and practised 3D animation throughout the summer. Currently, I'm going into the last year of my game development program in uni and I long to become a 3D animator at some point in life(though I still have a lot of work to do). Since I came across this week's challenge, I just had to try one. I'm in the process of my first pass with this one, though I still need to fix a few things and the timing, offset some of the limbs at certain parts of the animation, to create some overlapping action, tilt the head when she comes down from the kick, things like that. Besides that, I'd love to get some feedback on what I have so far. The work on here looks fantastic already. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2mbycabjovtnnyt/MeryRHKVers1.avi?dl=0
  • Hito
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    Hito interpolator
    Another hr today. the spin before definitely feels forced. Split more of it into the falling part and it feels more natural now. Added simple FX. Another hr later today or tomorrow for another timing tweak and overlapping bits and call it done.
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK5RZRu4iGg[/ame]

    @Denny, big improvement I think. The small step in the back foot is a nice touch. I think it just needs a little more time on the impact moving hold before settling into finish, 2 maybe 3 frames.

    @Adam, looking great. The top kick has much more snap now. landing feels better as well.

    @JennyS, Feels really good. I think the torso could use a little loosening up in the follow through/landing, and the leading foot turn could use a little smoothing out as it lands. Otherwise really great stuff!

    @Keenan, Not a bad combo. but I think it's a little more than you can chew for "on and off" in 4 days. ~200 frames is a lot to do in 4 full days for even an experienced animator. I'd focus on just a small chunk of it and spend a week on just 60~90 frames. Find lots of reference for the motion and analyze it frame by frame before jumping into the 3d tool.
  • KeenanBushWhack
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    KeenanBushWhack polycounter lvl 2
    @Hito, Yeah I always go big. Even in school I always tried to push myself to stand out. Sometimes it works out and most times it doesn't lol.
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