[Weekly Theme 1] Idles
mod
A start to something great! Weekly themes, as suggested by "_adamturnbull".
It's real simple! Every week we will start a new thread with a "theme". You have the week to complete it (you can take longer if you want, but the thread won't be stickied anymore). Themes will be something easy that can be completed in a decent amount of time, so that those who can only animate on their lunches can also participate. It will also make it easier for newer animators to join in on the fun without feeling to overwhelmed.
Post all WIP and finished shots in this thread only, please.
You can use any rig you want. Creature, humanoid, mechanical. Whatever you want. Any rig. Any animation program. Here is a list of rigs if you haven't already seen the thread.
Please try to avoid using GIFs to share your work. Too many and the thread becomes very slow to load. Here are some tips for sharing your work on the forums. Vimeo and youtube, or dropbox. That thread tells you have to embed properly.
So what are you waiting for? Get animating!! This weeks theme? an Idle loop animation. Basically, someone breathing in one spot. Think of a game character when you don't touch the controller. They just stand there breathing.
It's real simple! Every week we will start a new thread with a "theme". You have the week to complete it (you can take longer if you want, but the thread won't be stickied anymore). Themes will be something easy that can be completed in a decent amount of time, so that those who can only animate on their lunches can also participate. It will also make it easier for newer animators to join in on the fun without feeling to overwhelmed.
Post all WIP and finished shots in this thread only, please.
You can use any rig you want. Creature, humanoid, mechanical. Whatever you want. Any rig. Any animation program. Here is a list of rigs if you haven't already seen the thread.
Please try to avoid using GIFs to share your work. Too many and the thread becomes very slow to load. Here are some tips for sharing your work on the forums. Vimeo and youtube, or dropbox. That thread tells you have to embed properly.
So what are you waiting for? Get animating!! This weeks theme? an Idle loop animation. Basically, someone breathing in one spot. Think of a game character when you don't touch the controller. They just stand there breathing.
Replies
any way to turn off Maya's auto triangulate thing? can see it in the cape texture when the triangulation flips
Due to the rig being a squirrel, I went for a strong smelling scent and he's transfixed by it.
I need to add overlap to the arms, work on the tail because it doesn't feel right and I think there's a pop in the nose twitch not sure.
@Hito I agree with slipsius, the hand/arm could be toned down just a little unless you're going for the come here vibe.
Pushed the poses further and tweaked the tail a bit
@Lee - Like it! I feel the body would have more movement, some up and down; as well as side to side swaying. A sideways figure 8 when viewed from the front. Can push the torso over forward more and tilt head up a little more, the arm would hang down and hands would be closer to the ground. alternatively the torso could be more upright, hands clasp together near the chest similar to a prayer position.
@Forty - cool, very nice! The looping is a little uneven, she's coming out the left pose a little faster than the right...by only a frame or two I think. There's a soft "bump" in her left shoulder to smooth out. I like what you did with her left fingers, but it's uneven (x1 on the left pose; and x2 on the right pose). Can't tell if that's intended.
look forward to seeing more!
@Hito - Looks great, the only thing I noticed was the left leg seems to snap back and forth when it straightens and looks a little unnatural, also the cape comes away from the arm making it look more rigid than it should when it might look better for it to flow over the arm and move with it (if the rig allows that)
@Lee - Good start, maybe have more movement happening from the lower part of the tail so it moves in more of a wave motion rather than just up and down?
@Forty - Love it so far, especially the pose and the hip movement but maybe exaggerate the figure of 8 movement a little more and offset some of the other movements (Eg. so the neck movement is slightly offset to the hip movement)
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Hito - That looks much better! the tip of the cape needs to be offset though. It looks like the tip is driving the rest of it, as opposed to the tip following the rest of it.
Lee - Same deal as hito's cape for your tail. the tip seems to be the driving force. Here's a pic to kind of show how the tail should move.
Forty - Great start! But right now it's very pose to pose. Every piece of your body seems to change direction at the same time. If you offset your body parts, it will make a world of difference!
Nah I haven't touched the fingers yet other than to pose them, will post a new update tomorrow!
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@_adamturnbull I'm still seeing the single cycle video but maybe it takes a while to refresh.
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@slipsius - Loving the pose, looking forward to seeing what you do with the idle!
@Lee - The tail is looking better but like slipsius said, since the body movement is so subtle I'd tone it down, either that or add more movement to the body.
Adam, that's looking really damn good! Looking forward to seeing what you do with that tongue. But for the stomach, I wonder... Is it expanding at the wrong time? It feels like it expands as he releases his breath (when he translates down), and contracts when he breaths in. Is that the type of breathing you were going for? I think it could work both ways, but the way you have it feels more like a super tense, aggressive type of breathing. Not so much a passive idle.
Really? What did they say? What you had reads well from all around, good balance, shows a whole lot of character. I supoose you could say it's not an easy pose to hold for a long time by a regular person... but it's got six arms!
The plan is to make something with motion capture so that'll be a hoot.
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@ slipsius : I personally like the pose number 2 , with that pose it seems that its ready for everything !
_adamturnbull : that looks so sick!!
LeeMeredith : To me it seems that you can place the body a little back , I don't think the tail have that much weight in it to have the body that forward.
So I'm adding some pictures because Slip is a big fan of it... (sorry I'll make better renders soon!)
Found a motion capture clip of a dancer. In between the moves she talks with someone and just stands still which became the basis of the idle. Then I just modified it to retain the amount of jitter into my fighter pose thing.
this is fucking insane! love the character, love the pose!
impressed that you managed to pose everything so extremely good! people have a hard time finding a good fit for one set or arms and fingers!
the first one looks more like an idle, the second one more of a combat idle..
whatever you wanna go for I guess..
I hope you do more than just a world of warcraft breathing idle, maybe have it at least look around a bit, take a step back while looking 160 degrees back or something.. could be too repetative if you don't do quite a long idle ofc
I tend to make a wow-breather as a base, then add a layer with fun stuff on it
@Arturow - Good start! It would be cool to see more of the log on his back moving but it looks good!
@Cexar - Looks cool, is the jitter in the left hand meant to be there or is it something left over from the motion capture?
I didn't get much time today as I went out for lunch but added some tongue movement to my idle, its not perfect but its a start.
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What makes a good "Idle" cycle?
Lets be honest, no living creature ever idles in anything close to a typical game idle cycle... it's generally nearly 0 movement except for breathing, broken up with short periods of small movements, shifting weight, looking around, etc. so it's not really about realism.
What I typically see (presumably what gamers and designers expect) is a smooth looping loop 1 to 3 seconds long or some small repetitive motion around a base pose designed to show something about the character like it's baseline emotional state... benign, menacing, hyperactive, etc. To me it has to be not active enough to draw the eye while still active enough to keep the character alive in the player's peripheral vision. of course there are pretty broad variations to all this depending on the game type.
personally I don't put much thought into an idle cycle, as long as it's smooth and fits the character that's enough. Maybe I should change that approach after seeing some of you all's cycles so far.
And on that note, here's my boring breathing. haha. I only had about 15 minutes today, since I also went out for lunch. But I wanted to get SOMETHING going. I think i`ll give my other pose the same treatment tomorrow, and decide which i like best before i start polishing. As is right now, it is quite literally 2 poses.
I adjusted the pose a bit more last night before, so here's a pic. videos are links, since I dont feel like uploading WIP to vimeo. Plus, this way, you can scrub through.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14662692/Animations/Weekly_Themes/Week1_Idle/AgentZ_Idle_01_Front.mov
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14662692/Animations/Weekly_Themes/Week1_Idle/AgentZ_Idle_01_side.mov
Hito - An idle to me is just any kind of looping animation that shows off the personality / traits of a character in a discrete manner. Most of it is in the original pose in my opinion. Idle breaks are always great to make them more interesting.
I'll have to get in on this one.
_adamturnbull : Thanks
@ slipsius : that pose dude... ahaha looking great! just ( in my opinion ) I think that the screen upper right arm feels a bit disconnected from the other ones , maybe because its only going side by side? and not up and down like the rest
Here is my second revison , added another angle for the back. Going to work the face next and fix small things
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Edit:
This is it with the tail up for comparison :-
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From an animation standpoint the tail been up just looks nicer to me, maybe lower it a touch, right now it screams "Alert" at me while the face and body says "Mmm Nuts"
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Lee- I prefer the one in the air. Good stuff!
Arturow - Thanks for the crit! I like your idle! Though, you have a quick up, and a slow down, right now. I think I would personally swap those two. slow up, fast down. deep breath in, quick breath out.
Adam, good stuff!! I think the tongue ended up working against it though. It's a great anim, but with the added tongue movement going the same speed as everything else, it feels a bit uniform. I would love to see that tongue to be more controlled, rather than just hanging there. almost like he's grabbing flies out of the air, or something like that.
next week shall be locomotion. walk / run / crawl. Something of that sort.
@ slipsius: [FONT="]Thanks! I will fix that! I have a quick down and up in his hips but I think rotations are messing it up. Thanks again
[/FONT][/FONT] @_adamturnbull : I agree with slipsius, the tongue feels disconnected from the movement
@ LeeMeredith : I enjoy more the tail up pose
Ah man I would love to do a locomotion challenge!! I wanted to do one to update my reel for videogames
Here's the idle.
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@adamturnbull, sweet1 only thing I see is the right foot/ankle is very still. you got a little bit of roll there, I think it can use a little up/down pivoting off the ball. otherwise it feels like the foot is made of stone.
@Lee, tail up for sure. I see small movement like he's sniffing? Maybe instead of two small sniffs, do one big sniff with mouth closed that runs through the whole loop? Also could use a little finger movement
@Arturow, nice! One thing I can't tell is if it's a basic loop, or a "tired" loop. If it's basic loop, I'd smooth out the top and bottom ease in/outs; if it's "tired" I'd open the mouth slightly (if possible).
@slipsius, I can see it taking shape, looking forward to more polished versions
@Spuggs, the dragon's pretty good, but the rider isn't reacting to the mount's movements. Needs a little sway to counter balance the dragon's movements.
Sorry this is my first post and I don't know how to have a player in the reply.
I am a student at DAVE School and our last weeks projects was to do 3 animation cycles, one of which was an idle. We got the rig off the polycount forums and i came looking for more rigs, and saw this thread.
This was the idle animation I turned in and thought I would post it here for more critiques. Thank you for taking the time to look at the animation and for any critiques.
@kelly.shawn - Nice! The only thing I'd have added is maybe abit more sway on the barrel of the gun but thats just me. The cape looks very light too, like its made of paper.
@Hito - Looks good! I'd have offset the fingers and thumb a little more so they don't look like theyre moving in and out at the same time.
@Spugg - Very cool but like Hito said, the rider doesn't react with the movements of the dragon.
Thanks everyone with your feedback!
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@ Spuggs: Same as the comments about the rider , I think its better just to hide it if it dosn't have controls because that is costing you the rest of the amazing work :P. Also I think that the nose ring move to much , it seems to be visually heavy and currently seems lightweight ( just my opinion)
@ Hito: sick work man! maybe he is rotating too much backwards or I don't know , I may be crazy
@ kelly.shawn : nice Idle!! :O! , I suggest you delay a little bit to lift the pistol to show some weight in it. Because now is lifting it first and then his body is going up
@ Arturow - Wow, i didnt notice the tip of the gun changing direction before the body, i just saw the gun moving with it. I will go back and add a bit of drag in to fix that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DuiIbe4LZk&feature=youtu.be
It is a good start, but needs a lot more work! Good luck!
Pls polycount add embeded gyfcats =[
Smooth gfy :thumbup:
http://www.gfycat.com/ShallowHospitableEarwig
Choppy gif :thumbdown:
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Thanks to Giles Ruscoe for the model:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2160099&postcount=128
Also thanks to Sand for his take on the rigging:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2212562&postcount=138
@PenOr - Nice and smooth, looks great. It seems to stop falling too early though. His wings are still up in the air when he slows his fall which defies physics. Maybe just bring the wing flap in a couple of frames sooner?
@Kun - Looks awesome, maybe smooth out the tail slightly as it seems to move quite suddenly when it moves to the right.