Hey all, I've spent that last 2 weeks modeling my character and now it's time to rig and animation. Phew! Here's one of the concept sketches I did, and two perspective view of the model as it stands. From here I'm going to segment the model and attach it to a rig (save skinning for later) and get to the animating. As in, get to the real reason this portion of the contest exists - Animation.
Hey all, Here's my first roughed in idea for a run. (Oh, and I tossed on some colors just to help the animation read - gray on gray = not so good.) Ultimately, I don't like it. The game camera doesn't really lend itself to having him have his hand on the sword. His silhouette gets sort of lost. My next attempt will be a run with both hands on the sword, while still trying to use his left arm armor as a shield.
Very interesting character. He has a lot of armour and protection on his left side, so I thought maybe rotate it bit forward and bend it in elbow as if armour on it serves like a shield, or kind of. And it may help with more interesting silhouette. But I do like this character very much.
Really dig the character design and the armored arm blocking like a shield. Fun idea. Only note would be to watch how much circular motion is happening on the armored clavicle, it's making it look a bit swimmy. Also, maybe grip the sword to the wrist is move vertical instead of aligned with the handle, might help with the side view.
Thanks for the feedback, guys! @Pilgrim1987 I believe I will achieve the change you suggest once I put both hands on the sword. I wan't him to have a look like he is charging into the fray and no one would really do that with their sword still sheathed. :-p
@KielFiggins the character has a host of secondary bones to drive the armor plates and straps about his person. I'll definitely do a pass on the chunky pieces once I'm happy with the main body animation to weed out the swimmy motion you see.
Further progress on the run cycle. Both hands on the sword now. Multiple strides to make up the entire loop - to add variety to the motion. And a pass on locking the feet down. Upper body needs a lot of love still (like that ik-popping left arm.) Still a ways to go.
Updated. Addressed the IK popping left arm, toned down his jerky head motion, got his shoulder armor under control, and started adding some secondary jingle-jangle animation to his armor and outfit. I need to skin this guy before long. That's starting to bother me, heh. I would like to be on to his emote by next week.
A few more details to be done and the run cycle will be final. I feel like I'm running out of time! I'm going to have to crank out that emote with the time I have left. I would still like to skin this model and do a normal pass (many normals are hard-edged, something I never addressed in my haste to get this guy up and running.)
This is looking really cool! Love the castle pauldron and I feel like the weight of the character is very believable. I can't imagine trying to carry all that armor on one arm
January has not been a good month to get anything done. But here's the blocking so far for my emote. The idea at the end is that he'll foot stomp his sword back out of the ground, catch it in mid air and return to idle position. Not much time left!....
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I've spent that last 2 weeks modeling my character and now it's time to rig and animation. Phew! Here's one of the concept sketches I did, and two perspective view of the model as it stands. From here I'm going to segment the model and attach it to a rig (save skinning for later) and get to the animating. As in, get to the real reason this portion of the contest exists - Animation.
Here's my first roughed in idea for a run. (Oh, and I tossed on some colors just to help the animation read - gray on gray = not so good.) Ultimately, I don't like it. The game camera doesn't really lend itself to having him have his hand on the sword. His silhouette gets sort of lost. My next attempt will be a run with both hands on the sword, while still trying to use his left arm armor as a shield.
Edit: Should loop forever now. Derp!
But I do like this character very much.
Looking forward to seeing your run
@KielFiggins the character has a host of secondary bones to drive the armor plates and straps about his person. I'll definitely do a pass on the chunky pieces once I'm happy with the main body animation to weed out the swimmy motion you see.
I hope you will finish your second animation in time. The run cycle is pretty cool
https://youtu.be/1oRAfYaOklk