So after some thought and researching through the huge host of League of Legends characters, I have decided to base my work for the competition around Wukong!
This guy is a staple character for the game but I'd like to attempt a different take on him in terms of character animation. In his current state his anims present him as very human-like and upright, however I plan to re-work his pose to see how Wukong would look with more primal, ape-like movements.
I've put together a quick CAT rig in max that i plan to animate with. Pretty simple stuff.:
I've also started looking at some reference videos/footage to get some ideas for the animations I plan to create.
@heboltz3 here I am to provide you with "More Monkey King"!
So i found a spare bit of time the other night to throw some thumbnail sketches down and start plotting out the sort of motion i was going for for my more primal take on Wu Kong (super sketchy stuff)
After this i spent a while experimenting with a walk/run cycle. After playing with different things this is what I have come up with so far:
very nice. Got the monkey attitude spot on! I'd like to suggest adding a little roll to the supporting wrist as it comes off the ground, that might make it feel like it's adding a little forward movement too. It seems like u have some of that going on in the first version but then the latest update it's not there or not so obvious?
Then a couple minor tweaks, check the knees and elbows for popping, especially the front ones. Plus the arc of the end of the staff closest to the head, maybe tone down the movement on it a bit too?
Just one thing I noticed: The fist on the ground goes up at almost the same time as the left foot. I would break/offset the timing there maybe a little. Just to remove that almost simultaneous movement. Keep it up man!
@Kuru Don't let me choosing a champion make you feel like you can't give it a go too! If Wu Kong is the one that inspires you to animate the most then go for it, would be more than happy to give you feedback once it gets posted up here
@MiALx I think you;re right, would look better with a slight (even 1 frame) offset as they leave contact with the ground. I'm still not quite happy with the way the fist makes contact either so I'll be tweaking that when I next get time to work on this
Right, been away for a while as I've been pretty busy at work and I've been playing over ideas for my take on Wukong's attack animation.
One interesting thing that he does a lot is stick his staff into the ground and that isn't utilised by his current ultimate attack. You can see this in his emotes here:
Thanks Cannonbreed I'm assuming you mean in the run cycle right? I haven't touched the tail in the attack blocking much yet.
Anyhoo, I managed to squeeze another hour in tonight after work.
I've started adding some breakdown poses for the first part of the attack. Going for a super stretchy look on the staff to try and tie into the super smeary league of legends aesthetic.
I'm wondering if you can cut out the pause when the staff extends or change up the pose? I don't feel the pose is very strong. Maybe try some kind of anticipation pose for him to start spinning up the pole? That's a cool idea so keep that in. But overall pretty sweet!
Okay here's tonight's progress, wish i had more time to devote to this!
Things are starting to come together now. Things left to do before submitting:
Add section at end transitioning from strike pose to idle pose
add secondary tail animation
unhide skirt bones and give secondary animation
Final polish pass of animation
possibly add some subtle animation to the environment (some jagged rocks as the staff hits the floor perhaps? or a bit of raised ground as it sticks into the floor)
Starting to get a point where I'm happy with this now. I've adjusted the hang-time of the fall before the strike along with lots of little tweaks. I've added the transition back to the idle pose at the end, secondary animation to the tail and started on the first part of the skirts. I'll be making my final tweaks on Friday night before submitting
Left to do:
Finish adding secondary animation to skirts
overall polish pass, check for nasty intersections or feet sinking through the ground
It has been a blast and really awesome to see a little community of animators helping one and other out here on polycount. It is something we should aim to continue!
Best of luck everyone, some really good work has been produced for this
Replies
This guy is a staple character for the game but I'd like to attempt a different take on him in terms of character animation. In his current state his anims present him as very human-like and upright, however I plan to re-work his pose to see how Wukong would look with more primal, ape-like movements.
I've put together a quick CAT rig in max that i plan to animate with. Pretty simple stuff.:
I've also started looking at some reference videos/footage to get some ideas for the animations I plan to create.
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Coming next, poses and thumbnail sketches!
More Monkey King please.
So i found a spare bit of time the other night to throw some thumbnail sketches down and start plotting out the sort of motion i was going for for my more primal take on Wu Kong (super sketchy stuff)
After this i spent a while experimenting with a walk/run cycle. After playing with different things this is what I have come up with so far:
Welcoming any feedback/crit at this point
Offsetting the hands/feet would really help to break this up.
I love the general idea of the thing however, keep it up.
The main changes I've made:
Feet feel much better, hand feels kind of punchy. Give it a little bit less punch, a little more float.
Keep it up dude.
Then a couple minor tweaks, check the knees and elbows for popping, especially the front ones. Plus the arc of the end of the staff closest to the head, maybe tone down the movement on it a bit too?
Awesome job so far!
Yours looking good and all the best.
Just one thing I noticed: The fist on the ground goes up at almost the same time as the left foot. I would break/offset the timing there maybe a little. Just to remove that almost simultaneous movement. Keep it up man!
@Evanescfan Agreed!
@MiALx I think you;re right, would look better with a slight (even 1 frame) offset as they leave contact with the ground. I'm still not quite happy with the way the fist makes contact either so I'll be tweaking that when I next get time to work on this
One interesting thing that he does a lot is stick his staff into the ground and that isn't utilised by his current ultimate attack. You can see this in his emotes here:
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So here is my first very rough pass of blocking poses trying to get the ideas out of my head and into keyframes!
More to come soon
Anyhoo, I managed to squeeze another hour in tonight after work.
I've started adding some breakdown poses for the first part of the attack. Going for a super stretchy look on the staff to try and tie into the super smeary league of legends aesthetic.
@Andy #2, After looking at my blocking poses again I'd have to agree and here is what I've gone for instead:
I've just noticed a bit of strangeness with the staff at this angle. Will look into that before my next upload.
Things are starting to come together now. Things left to do before submitting:
Left to do:
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It has been a blast and really awesome to see a little community of animators helping one and other out here on polycount. It is something we should aim to continue!
Best of luck everyone, some really good work has been produced for this