[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Daniel Lim

asphaltcowboy

Hello! Just a placeholder for now, but I'm intending to enter  

I'll be streaming my progress on Twitch. I don't have a set schedule, so please follow if you'd like to know when I'm live!



LATEST: Run is mostly done - trying to get the Ultimate finished in time!

asphaltcowboy

Tempted to use this bad boy for my animation. Although I'm very aware I'll be tripling my workload It's the AgentZ rig from m_rigs (http://mrigs.squarespace.com). Going to do some pose exploration first to see if any ideas strike me.

Zimuus

That would be a sick rig to see used, hopefully you can do something with it!

ChristianOrellana

This looks daunting! But I'm sure you can handle it. Can't wait to see your process. 

asphaltcowboy

ChristianOrellana said:

This looks daunting! But I'm sure you can handle it. Can't wait to see your process. 

 Hehe, thanks! Not confirmed yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to get online this evening and start exploring!

Bansheesix

if ever there are too many arms, you can hide 2 or 4 hehe, that's what I did when i used it. I liked the shape but didn't want to use all the arms but ya, you can handle it. 

Huski

that thing looks bonkers to animate, but really cool design. gonna be badass animations tho

ajramsey28

I've seen that rig before! It will be really cool to see what you can do with it.

Astarin

Come on Dan! Accept the 30 finger challenge  

asphaltcowboy

Well, I just had an awful stream! Took a look at the rig for the first time, hoping to do some poses, but it's just not what I was expecting.

I've got a couple of versions: I can either use the old one that is more fully featured, but kinda broken, or the newer one that is less broken but has reduced features It doesn't have stretchy limbs for example! Which for a Riot Games competition, is kind of a big deal!

It's thrown my whole idea into a bit of chaos. I'm going to have to take a long look at this and work out what I'm going to do. Might need a totally new idea tbh //

ChristianOrellana

No stretch? Really?  Thats a bummer. 

asphaltcowboy

Ok, so I've had another look at the rigs. I don't think I can use them right now. I've emailed @DerDude about it. Back to the drawing board!

Maccam

I know what you mean...
It was my intention to use agentH from the same rigger, but I soon discovered I could not stretch it... same situation as yours

Still, i found another rig quickly enough, and I'm sure you will too. keep it up!

asphaltcowboy

Ok, new plan! Hoping to do a combo piece involving these guys:





Now, I had intended to do something involving detaching his arms for punching, but I see @Arturow is doing something quite similar so I might change it up. To be decided!

KielFiggins

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!  Enjoy the rigs

asphaltcowboy

KielFiggins said:

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!  Enjoy the rigs

Thanks Kiel!

ChristianOrellana

Oh, a nice double team! excited to see what you dish out.

asphaltcowboy

Just messing with a few poses and checking them out from something approximating the game camera (right side). I definitely like the first one as a potential idle pose. I like the idea of the little bot being on his back (like pic 3) when moving though - should provide some nice opportunities for overlapping, secondary motion.

The current plan is to do a character who is cocky, but a little too sure of himself (so I'm thinking Space Dandy, Dan Hibiki from Streetfighter, Peter Quill/Starlord). I like the idea that he has a little, long-suffering robot helper.

Next thing to do is find or shoot some video reference for the run cycle and see if I can convey some of that character!

KielFiggins

Now that's a fun pairing! I like size relationship and the pose in the first one.  Though seeing him having his little feet on the finger tips is a nice visual.

Egyptian Penguin

Definitely like the pose work there.

asphaltcowboy

Some more pose exploration:





Not sure if on the back will work or whether he'll have to be on the floor, running alongside. But I won't know til I try!

Huski

ah man, the emote/recall anims for these two are gonna be a lot of fun. cool choice daniel!

LiamReynolds

loving the poses! I've caught some of your streams but will you post gifs/videos onto here of the progress you make?

Liam

asphaltcowboy

LiamReynolds said:

loving the poses! I've caught some of your streams but will you post gifs/videos onto here of the progress you make?

Liam

Thanks man! Yes, I've been meaning to do that - I will try and sort something out this evening

asphaltcowboy

Here's the latest on my run cycle - ignore the left arm


Still need to work out what I'm doing with the red bot!

len_anim

Excellent!!! I like that you pushed the poses more than in the first explorations you did a week ago.

ChristianOrellana

That run! I love it! Will you still be using the little robot as a sidekick?

Huski

digging his root motion. is that little guy gonna be barely hanging on? or is he gonna lead the charge?

asphaltcowboy

Thanks all! Still going a bit slowly, but getting there!

Huski said:

digging his root motion. is that little guy gonna be barely hanging on? or is he gonna lead the charge?

 I haven't quite decided - going to test out how the silhouette will look with him clinging on, but may just have him weaving in and out of his feet or something?

LiamReynolds

Looks swish . The thing that sticks out to me is the push off pose could have more bend in the spine (reverse). I dont feel him change shape to match the effort of the run in terms of speed. The chest in the side view, is quite rigid and it feels likes its rotated forward throughout the run

its a minor thing really because the timing feels good

asphaltcowboy

LiamReynolds said:

Looks swish . The thing that sticks out to me is the push off pose could have more bend in the spine (reverse). I dont feel him change shape to match the effort of the run in terms of speed. The chest in the side view, is quite rigid and it feels likes its rotated forward throughout the run

its a minor thing really because the timing feels good

Thanks, I tried to put it in the compression frames (the downs) instead, but I'll take a look. Looking at it again today, I noticed that the trailing foot has a weird arc in the down pose as well, so I'll fix that later!

tiagosol

looking good asphaltcowboy! i like the weight on the run, he feels heavy! the arms i guess still on progress  on the side view i think the hips going back and forward is to distracting and i'm not sure for a game cycle  that motion could work. 

asphaltcowboy

tiagosol said:

looking good asphaltcowboy! i like the weight on the run, he feels heavy! the arms i guess still on progress  on the side view i think the hips going back and forward is to distracting and i'm not sure for a game cycle  that motion could work. 

Thanks - I realised I actually introduced a weird motion on the hips, so it was zigging and zagging weirdly - I've smoothed that out in my current version, so there's just a nice subtle bit of back and forth - it can definitely work in-game - if the root motion is translating linearly, a little bit of backwards and forwards is good!

asphaltcowboy

Here's the latest. I did calm the Z translation down a bit; it's still there but a bit more subtle, thanks @tiagosol. I've tried adjusting the timing a bit to provide a bit more interest. What do you think about the new rhythm?

asphaltcowboy

Woof! It's been a while! January is not a great time to run this competition Been super-busy with other stuff (life etc.) so no idea if I have time to finish this, but I'm going to try. Here's the run. It's basically done I think - I have a few things I want to tweak, but given that I haven't started the other animation, I need to focus on that:

KielFiggins

Look at'm go!  Love Lil Red Bot trying so hard to keep up.  Really nice work!

AnthonyAnimation

Why are all the previous videos removed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a WIP thread? Haha. Can't wait to see the next anim.

asphaltcowboy

AnthonyAnimation said:

Why are all the previous videos removed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a WIP thread? Haha. Can't wait to see the next anim.

You're right, I'll fix that now!

asphaltcowboy

KielFiggins said:

Look at'm go!  Love Lil Red Bot trying so hard to keep up.  Really nice work!

Thank you!

SpiritHide

This is so cool) I love it!!!!

asphaltcowboy

SpiritHide said:

This is so cool) I love it!!!!

Thanks!

I'm feeling ill and racing to finish my entry - Here's the blocking for the anime AF ultimate (on 4s, no timing):



No idea if I'll finish!

KielFiggins

Haha!  Good luck!

len_anim

Nice! 

Sotatsu

Seems to be a good idea for an ult
I hope you will finish it in time.
Good luck!

asphaltcowboy

asphaltcowboy

Working on timing, exaggerating poses, stretch frames. Pausing for some lunch!



Edit: not that visible in gif form, but there are definite stretch frames in there!

asphaltcowboy

Exaggeration!

AnthonyAnimation

Poor robot! I dig the idea. It's hard to tell what the robot is doing because he's small. Perhaps he could prop himself up like a golfball on a tee or launch himself and on the downward arc is when he's kicked.

Part of the issue I think is having the robot move closer to the guy, it's almost combining their silhouettes and making it hard to read. Instead of having the kick down one axis there could be a bit more of an outside arc similar to a golf swing. Good luck!

asphaltcowboy

AnthonyAnimation said:

Poor robot! I dig the idea. It's hard to tell what the robot is doing because he's small. Perhaps he could prop himself up like a golfball on a tee or launch himself and on the downward arc is when he's kicked.

Part of the issue I think is having the robot move closer to the guy, it's almost combining their silhouettes and making it hard to read. Instead of having the kick down one axis there could be a bit more of an outside arc similar to a golf swing. Good luck!

 Thanks - I've tried to move it out and forward a bit, as much as I can without having to change it significantly! Hopefully, it'll read ok. I'm leaving the robot animation til last once I know exactly where the main guy is going to be throughout.

asphaltcowboy

Splining under pressure.

somebody_kill_me.jpg

Sotatsu