Ace, looks really nice. First thing I notice is the swing of the hips doesn't quite seem to match the transferrance of weight from the legs. From what I have *cough observed, when a lady walks like that the hips kind of snap quickly to the next position at the moment weight is fully transferred, rather than slowly tweening like it does at the moment.
Other minor thing is maybe the head should have a little subtle motion. A while ago someone posted a cloth test with motion capture that had the head flopping all over the place and it looked pretty weird, but I think a little motion would be ok, to make her less robotic.
Anyway I'm still fairly new to animation so take it or leave it
It's almost a march due to (I think) the way her legs snaps forward at the knee. Needs more hip movement and as rooster pointed out the head is very stiff. The right hand looks really weird, when it moves back, it's almost like she's lifting it up instead of swining it. Could be the angle. Good start, but it's a little stiff, try loosing it up a bit more.
Yeah, it's good, but the legs definitely "snap" too much - when her leg goes backwards, the whole leg goes perfectly straight very rapidly. I think this is because you're rotating the pelvis while also moving the foot back and down... which is technically correct, but you've done it a little too early, or too high or something.
shoulers! move the shoulders!
We are confusing him guys. too many different tones.
Read what has been written here, admit where you've been wrong, and start fresh. Dont fix this.
also, her spine seems to only move up and down, like she's attached to an invisible wall on a rail that lets her move vertically. Your upper body sways when you shift your weight for each leg.
Looks nice so far.. Some more secondary movement would be a good touch.. The hands seem very stiff, almost as if they were in "splints".. they need the slightest sway to them.. I also agree on some of the earlier comments on the shoulders and the hips..
(Nice secondary movement (just ever so slight) for the braids and the breast bounce / jiggle) (Well, someone had to mention it..)
It's not bad, but it's very very stiff.
1.) Hips and shoulders should "counter Rotate" when she walks, so that when her right leg swings forward, her right hip should rotate (10 degrees on the Y in Maya, Z in Max) to the left so the right pint of the illac crest is forward. and the shoulders should be in the opposite direction, with the left on 10 degrees forward. At the "crossover", the hips should rotate so that they are higher on side of the leg supporting her weight, and the shoulders, conversely, should lower on that side, so that the "balance point" (a point between her ears) is moved back over her load bearing foot. Play with this to give her some swing in the hips.
2.) The boobs should have a more "subtle "jump" a frame or two after she plants her foot, rather than a slow sea like "bob".
3.) Her knees should not "snap" at any point in her walk. Popping your knees is painfull, so doing so looks uncomfortable. If you need, put more action into her ankles and balsof her feet, so that there's a roll,
4.) Arms.. reduce the movement a little and put moremovement in the wrists.
Otherwise its a good start. It's even and there is no limp.
I'm getting some great input. I see what you mean about the snap of the legs and the stiffness in the hands. I'm not sure I can add movement to the head, because I want her to be able to look around. I don't yet know how overlapping animations are going to work in UT. The hair is a rigid body system and the breasts are on spring controllers. Thanks for all the help.
Got the urge to make a wallpaper for my tablet PC. Does it seem too saturated? When I moved it from my tablet PC to my desktop computer it seemed darker and more saturated.
Fiona Walking -- looks like your knee-snap is due to excessive vertical pelvic translation at the peak of the weight transfer for each leg. try lowering the peak so the knee stays at least slightly bent. arms swings have a similar problem in that they seem to reach full extension, maybe keep a little more flex at the extreme of the backswing. head definitely needs some motion. the breast bounce needs some rebound and smoothing -- looks a bit too snappy as is. something odd-- her skirt seems to slide over the hips as it sways, rather than the hips carrying it. and try clipping a frame off the end of the loop -- looks like everything except her breasts have the same keys for beginning and end frames, causing a short but noticeable hitch in motion flow.
Fiona Running (RunF) -- more of a prance or heavy-duty skip than a classic run due to a serious imbalance between air and ground time. i suggest extending the time her feet make contact and the knees absorb the impact, flex and launch the next stride. the lateral arm swing may be in character but it looks excessive. and man, those boots aren't made for runnin', nor the breasts, which, if you're gonna make 'em flounce realistically, need both lateral reaction and rebound, which means they're gonna jiggle not just bounce in synch with the vertical translation. get her a sports bra, maybe? and yeah, pitch the whole rig forward -- running is a series of controlled falls forward, not up & down leaps with translation.
in both anims, the hands could use some subtle motion at the wrists on more axes, they seem stiff (as mentioned). if the fingers are boned, they could use some animated flex also.
overall a good model (except for the bovine mammaries, imo, which seem to lack aureole, but maybe they're just tiny & oddly positioned), but she seems to be missing the neck muscles (sterno-cleido mastoids).
one note about UT2K4 -- before taking this model much further, do a test export to insure that all your hard work on the rigid body/spring system stuff actually translates into the game -- i doubt it will, as it isn't true skeletal animation, but a form of vertex animation, and i'm pretty sure you can't use both in the same model for UT2K4.
what's your polygon count, btw? she seem pretty heavily smoothed for a UT2K4 character but that may just be the rendering.
One thing that I notice that makes the arm swing look weird is that the arms seem to be speeding up during the back swing which makes it look like she's throwing them back rather than having them move backwards naturally. Usually your arms swing in sync with the opposite leg. At the moment your hands are moving too fast so they're not in sync
Replies
Other minor thing is maybe the head should have a little subtle motion. A while ago someone posted a cloth test with motion capture that had the head flopping all over the place and it looked pretty weird, but I think a little motion would be ok, to make her less robotic.
Anyway I'm still fairly new to animation so take it or leave it
We are confusing him guys. too many different tones.
Read what has been written here, admit where you've been wrong, and start fresh. Dont fix this.
(Nice secondary movement (just ever so slight) for the braids and the breast bounce / jiggle) (Well, someone had to mention it..)
1.) Hips and shoulders should "counter Rotate" when she walks, so that when her right leg swings forward, her right hip should rotate (10 degrees on the Y in Maya, Z in Max) to the left so the right pint of the illac crest is forward. and the shoulders should be in the opposite direction, with the left on 10 degrees forward. At the "crossover", the hips should rotate so that they are higher on side of the leg supporting her weight, and the shoulders, conversely, should lower on that side, so that the "balance point" (a point between her ears) is moved back over her load bearing foot. Play with this to give her some swing in the hips.
2.) The boobs should have a more "subtle "jump" a frame or two after she plants her foot, rather than a slow sea like "bob".
3.) Her knees should not "snap" at any point in her walk. Popping your knees is painfull, so doing so looks uncomfortable. If you need, put more action into her ankles and balsof her feet, so that there's a roll,
4.) Arms.. reduce the movement a little and put moremovement in the wrists.
Otherwise its a good start. It's even and there is no limp.
Scott
Heh yay for gravity-defying breasts!
Set your player to loop.
Sorry.
Pitch the torso forward.
I think she looks good, mesh and texture-wise.
Fiona Running (RunF) -- more of a prance or heavy-duty skip than a classic run due to a serious imbalance between air and ground time. i suggest extending the time her feet make contact and the knees absorb the impact, flex and launch the next stride. the lateral arm swing may be in character but it looks excessive. and man, those boots aren't made for runnin', nor the breasts, which, if you're gonna make 'em flounce realistically, need both lateral reaction and rebound, which means they're gonna jiggle not just bounce in synch with the vertical translation. get her a sports bra, maybe? and yeah, pitch the whole rig forward -- running is a series of controlled falls forward, not up & down leaps with translation.
in both anims, the hands could use some subtle motion at the wrists on more axes, they seem stiff (as mentioned). if the fingers are boned, they could use some animated flex also.
overall a good model (except for the bovine mammaries, imo, which seem to lack aureole, but maybe they're just tiny & oddly positioned), but she seems to be missing the neck muscles (sterno-cleido mastoids).
one note about UT2K4 -- before taking this model much further, do a test export to insure that all your hard work on the rigid body/spring system stuff actually translates into the game -- i doubt it will, as it isn't true skeletal animation, but a form of vertex animation, and i'm pretty sure you can't use both in the same model for UT2K4.
what's your polygon count, btw? she seem pretty heavily smoothed for a UT2K4 character but that may just be the rendering.