Quadruped Trot to Gallop Transition Request Feedback

BradleyMAdams

Hey, I've been doing some quadruped animations lately and here's what I have so far for an animation vignette of a goat's transition from trot to gallop.

Any feedback/critic would be useful.

https://syncsketch.com/playground/1ee65a84749e4c8f90118ebf1bade9c2#126218

Forever

Hey, 

First thing I noticed is that I think you have a few frames too many on your gallop. There's a point where the lead leg will stay in the air for too long - and to straight and you'd be to make them a few short. I thought it was also too slow, but that might have just been me. I think you might be hampered by the fact that your trot doesn't build up enough speed. 

Onto the transition. From frames 40-44, one of the back legs hangs in the air making no movement at all. It's still and it makes the transition look awkward and uncomfortable. That's the biggest thing I noticed.

You also need anticipation on the end of the transition. He gets really high into the air with no real down momentum. The jump up to begin the transition starts from the a straight leg when it should go down first. So from frames 40-42, for example, you would bring the body down over the right front leg and make it a lot less straight. 

The last one real quick, I believe (I'm not one hundred percent) it looks like the knee hyper extends on the final contact frame of your run (for example: Frame 56-57)

Sidenote: I'm a sticky beak and looked at your animation showreel (without sound so I can't comment on the lipsync pieces) and I really liked it.

BradleyMAdams

Forever said:

Hey, 

First thing I noticed is that I think you have a few frames too many on your gallop. There's a point where the lead leg will stay in the air for too long - and to straight and you'd be to make them a few short. I thought it was also too slow, but that might have just been me. I think you might be hampered by the fact that your trot doesn't build up enough speed. 

Onto the transition. From frames 40-44, one of the back legs hangs in the air making no movement at all. It's still and it makes the transition look awkward and uncomfortable. That's the biggest thing I noticed.

You also need anticipation on the end of the transition. He gets really high into the air with no real down momentum. The jump up to begin the transition starts from the a straight leg when it should go down first. So from frames 40-42, for example, you would bring the body down over the right front leg and make it a lot less straight. 

The last one real quick, I believe (I'm not one hundred percent) it looks like the knee hyper extends on the final contact frame of your run (for example: Frame 56-57)

Sidenote: I'm a sticky beak and looked at your animation showreel (without sound so I can't comment on the lipsync pieces) and I really liked it.

Some very useful feedback, thank you very much.

Can I ask what you mean in regards to the knee hyper extends? You note frame 56-57, do you mean the rear legs? if so I see what you mean.

Thank you, do you yourself have a showreel I could see? I like to see other peoples work

Forever

No worries man, but I was actually talking about the front right leg. And I don't know if hyperextends is the right word. Because of how straight the leg and the leg muscle moving a bit slower, it looks like the knee moves in instead of out the way it should. Compare frame 57 to frame 78 where there is a bit of bend and the leg movement looks a lot smoother. It also comes back a lot further which makes the animation a bit nicer. 

The other thing I'm noticing now is on your front legs, mainly the front right because that's what I was focusing on, it goes up, goes straight forward and then goes down at a small angle. It needs a little bit more of an arc. It's fine as it is, but I would take a look and see if you can clean that up just a touch. 

The other other thing (sorry) that brings it back to the thing I mentioned early about the anticipation - I'd like to to see more extension on the back left leg on the takeoff. 

And no showreel just yet, I'm still working on a few more pieces that I'm really happy with before I can bring it all together.

slipsius

One thing that is throwing me off is your hind legs. the top and bottom of the leg seems to move independently of each other, which isnt the case. The legs should be very uniform. For a better visual, check this video out.  It's pretty impressive, and eye opening. 

https://www.facebook.com/Informativoequestre/videos/882597568526649/?pnref=story