[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Jake Loverso
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Hey Everyone this will be my first competition so I hope you all like what I've got to compete with. As for my submission I will be using a custom character that I made. I had a Technical Animator rig it, he has done an amazing job so a special thanks to Alastair Richardson.
Good Luck Everybody!
Good Luck Everybody!
Replies
In Gif (A) I Pushed the limping to an extreme to see what i could get away with but ended up pulling it back as shown in gifs (B,C and D). I still think I'll retract it a little bit or alternatively double the loop over and add a second version of the limp so that it doesn't get so repetitive. Unfortunately a walk cycle looking repetitive breaks the illusion of it looking natural so one of the two above alternatives will be necessary.
I do still have another polish pass to go on top of whats currently shown. Still have to clean up the arm swings and chest movement as well as add some secondary follow through to the chest, shoulders, hands, fingers and tail.
Let me know what you guys think.
(A) Initial Extreme Walk
(B) Perspective
(C) Front View
(D) Side View
First off - Personally I enjoy the extreme walk in GIF A more than the more subdued versions in B and C. I think the exaggerated movements suit the character and LoL better and I think you'll have a better end result if you work on making that version feel as heavy and fluid as you can. Obviously this decision is up to you - that's just my opinion.
From the front view it looks like his center of mass isn't moving much in the X translation (or Z depending on how you have him oriented), as a result, when his weight is on the left or right foot - his centre of mass is still between his legs, which would put him off-balance. I think you'll be able to sell the weight much better if you shift his C.O.M to reflect which foot all of his weight is on and keep it there until the opposing foot has contacted the ground.
If you check out the side-view and look at his head, you can see his chest shunts forward in Z rotation every other-step. This makes him feel as though he's limping. I'd check your curves and ensure they're symmetrical across each step. A little variation between the steps is great! When it's as sharp as it is in your current version - it looks as though the character is doing it intentionally (which can sometimes be really useful if you're trying to make a character looks injured).
In the front & side views it looks like your feet are easing-in on the contacts. If you want something to appear big and heavy, you probably want the Y trans on the feet to be sharp. I tend to break the tangents on the contact so the curve is a sharp acceleration as it approaches the ground and completely flat for the contact duration. Then you can have the Y trans ease-out to peel off the ground before sharply slamming down again. Rinse and repeat.
Finally it looks like a lot of your overlap in the wrist isn't being driven by the forearm/bicep. I'd take another pass at that and ensure the overlap travels down the arm hierarchy more naturally form Bicep > Forearm > Wrist. Similar to the issue with the chest, any part of the body that moves independent of the parts beneath it shows intention so rather than looking like his wrist is swinging with the motion of his arm, it looks like he's intentionally moving his wrist around.
Keep at it man! This is a great starting point!
This is truly great advice and you know what, I will go back to the cycle in GIF (A) and give it some more love.
Youve mentioned plenty of things for me to improve on so ill be sure to go back and adjust my cycles accordingly. Please come back and check on my update because youre advice is golden
Thanks buddy.
Right now I've just posed and timed my animation there's still plenty to be done but I had a lot of fun getting the spinning ball version of this character going and I think it adds a lot to the animation, gives plenty of speed and intensity which is where i wanted to go with it.
So here's the blocked animation. I understand there are some inefficiencies regarding his movement after transitioning out of his ball state. I may reevaluate and make some changes.
I made the ball by transferring the maps to a UVed sphere.
Modified the textures in photoshop to give it a nice spinning blur effect.
Rigged it up with some bones and lattice deformers. Allows me spin the ball and change its shape so I can get whatever I want out of it.
Help me out by giving me pointers wherever you see fit
Much appreciated
Only thing I'd say re: the ultimate is that the spinning and circling action looks really good and so does when he comes out of the ball. I just feel like the ground pound bit after is a bit 'added on'? It feels like two discrete moves because he stops after the circling. Is it not enough to just have him circle and then do that cool stop animation? Otherwise might be better to go from the spin, launch up (still in ball form) and then slam down as in one.
Great work though - very exciting!
Thanks for the advice man!
I hope you all like it.
Please come back to see my final run cycle (ditched the walk cycles you see in my older posts).
This is my final submission for the contest. Good luck to everyone competing I've seen some fantastic things come from this comp and cant wait to see the final results! Lot of talent in these threads
Thank you its been fun!