Animation Capstone - WIP thread
mod
Hey all,
So, in my final semester of school for my games course. We get to specialize, which i chose animation. So, for the capstone ive broken it up into 3 parts.
Obstacle Course
Cycles
Facial Animation
In this thread i will be posting my WIP for all in hopes to get a little extra feed back.
Here is what I have so far for my obstacle course.
This is the key pose phase. I havent done any break downs or timing yet. All this is, is one key pose every five frames. For the most part, its pretty final. The hands still need work as i didnt do much with the fingers. and im sure ill tweek some here and there.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48EDviMxOHU[/ame]
Feedback? (you`ll probably have to full screen it)
So, in my final semester of school for my games course. We get to specialize, which i chose animation. So, for the capstone ive broken it up into 3 parts.
Obstacle Course
Cycles
Facial Animation
In this thread i will be posting my WIP for all in hopes to get a little extra feed back.
Here is what I have so far for my obstacle course.
This is the key pose phase. I havent done any break downs or timing yet. All this is, is one key pose every five frames. For the most part, its pretty final. The hands still need work as i didnt do much with the fingers. and im sure ill tweek some here and there.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48EDviMxOHU[/ame]Feedback? (you`ll probably have to full screen it)
Replies
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Also, i was getting tired of working on this, so i took a break and did a walk cycle.
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However, there is something about the whole thing that was bugging me... and I think I know what it is. You seem to be neglecting moving her waist and shoulders areas. She seems to lack an "up and down" movement, when doing things like walking, and she doesn't seem to tilt her hips and shoulders from side to side during most movements. This is causing her to look quite stiff for a lot of the animation.
Good progression on this piece, hoping to see more soon.
I think you bit off more than you can chew with this long an animation. The run after the pole is a perfect example of this. A run has a lot of air time as your push yourself into the air with each leg. Your character's head stays almost as level as a walking animation. I'm sure if you'd just been doing a simple run cycle you'd have caught this in no time.
There are an equal amount of problems in all the animation. You're gonna have to do a LOT more than just adjust timing and curves to get this to work.
For the orc walk cycle, I'm liking it a lot. It shows you've got some animation chops when you concentrate on a smaller piece. I think the head bob is way too much right now. It'd be impossible to see where he was going with that much head movement. Make it much more subtle. I also think the hips could rotate to the right and left to support his legs in addition to just translating to the left and right.
I would suggest not slowing her down before jumping onto the pole. If you keep it like that then loosen the walk up some. The pole slide looks good and there is a nice sense of weight when she hits the ground, though i might bring her down a little more there.
Aesir covered that run. The jump-roll-swing looks great nice job. Keep her on that wall for alittle bit longer. You need another pose of her down and closer to the wall catching her weight before she jumps off. Hold the pose of her crouched when she lands for a while. I didn't even see it the first couple views.
The stairs portion works. I would suggest tilting the head up some so she's looking a little more forward. Also bring the arms down a small amount. Right you're now you're making it look like walking down stairs is a huge challenge. Bring her down more on the landing at the bottom of the stairs.
I'd make her jump for the pole earlier distance wise. You need a down before the jump and overall need to emphasis it more. The swings work pretty well.
I'm sure I missed some things. Good job so far though. If I seemed harsh I didn't mean to be. I'm liking where this is headed.
thanks for the crits guys!
the lack of tilting her hips and shoulders. I definitely have some in there, but for some reason its not showing up with that camera angle. When i put more in, then it looks bad from other angles, but i guess its more about the camera we`re looking through anyways. So, ill go back and see if i can make it more noticable!
the lack of up and down. For the short steps, i wanted it to be realistic, and really, when you take small steps, you really dont go up and down too much. but, for the running, i noticed it too, and ive been trying to fix it, but it just looks wrong. im not really sure what the issue is. ive been trying but cant figure it out. I think it might be a mix between timing (too fast), and not translating enough with each stride.
The slow down up to the pole. I feel you are right about lengthening the strides of the walk. I want to keep the slow down because if she keeps going at a faster speed, then she wouldnt be able to swing around the pole like she is. her legs would swing out further, and i like the swing how it is. so ill fix the stride lengths. thanks for that tip
So, basically, aesir hit the nail on the head when he said i bit off more than i can chew. I was actually starting to think that last week. This is the first real non-animation cycle ive done, and it was pretty overwhelming. I didnt really know how to go about doing it, and, i didnt know some things when i started that would have made it easier. Such as, i didnt know you could bake a cycle, which is the route i would have gone with the run after the pole. im much better at cycles than longer animations. Really, this whole thing has been a learning experience, and i dont think ill be putting much of it on my reel at all. Though, im going to try and polish off certain parts. But, that being said, ill probably just do what i can for the assignment, take away what i learned and start something new. something smaller. Aesir, you say the cycle shows my animation chops, and i do agree, i think i have some. when doing cycles, i can do them good, and i keep getting better with each one. Just dont have practice with the longer things.
as for the head bobbing on my walk cycle. Personally, i like it. but, thats not the first time ive heard it, so im going to change it
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A bit to straight.
Very nice work on the rest and the ogre.
The run/shuffle after the first jump has next to no up and down motion on the center of mass or root node. It's like he moves in a straight line and the feet shuffle under her, a bit like a bug skittering. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
There doesn't seem to be any compression after the contact/recoil and there doesn't seem to be any big push up on the passing and high-point. You don't need squash and stretch to get the same idea across, you can do it with poses.
I think in general after she hits a big move she needs to recoil and settle, she hits her poses and bam she's off to the next one. If she pauses a bit here and there after some of the big moves she'll seem less robotic. Right now its like she's executing protocol 237 and all of it is pre-programed and she doesn't need to look at the course.
A good example of this is when she pole swings and wall drops down. The momentum needs to compress her into the wall a little bit for a few frames until she can overcome it and push back and pop off the wall.
Just like the walk cycle above you have a contact & recoil that need to be factored in. Right now its very contact to contact.
When she hits the ground she could settle for a min, she could be seeing this part of the the course for the first time and need a second to plan her next moves and to get her body ready. Right now she almost hits the ground running.
When she's going down the stairs I think she looks at the stairs a little too long she needs to be a little more forward thinking toward the bottom. You're eyes are always a few steps ahead of your feet.
It's a sign of confidence and agility when someone takes a flight of stairs without looking at each step. Likewise you can use the reverse to play up the anticipation and danger of a situation or make someone seem slow and unable to process more than one thing at a time.
Notice this guy (Marcel Duchamp) is looking about 1-2 steps beyond the one he's on. He's also very aware of what he's doing and actually posing a bit. I'm not sure if he's using himself as ref or reenacting his famous painting.
Quick Recap:
- More recoil and settle, account for momentum.
- More indications of forward thinking on the characters part.
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edit: DELETED VIDEOS. BAD RENDERS. SEE BELOW
Suggestion for the box lift animation. It think that he should stick his right leg out in front of him before he falls over as an attempt to balance himself up. That would also give anticipation.
The ladder fall is a fun idea. Theres two poses there that looks too similar, the first and the third. Also you need more movement in your moving holds, he kinda freezes when he hitting the poses.
Some kind reaction when he finfs the slot would be nice too.
Obstacle course looks cool.
Greetings, Slipsius, could you please tell me what version of Maya you are using and your computer specifications?
I'm having terrible problems with my Maya and hinders me from doing simple things even though I'm running a GTX 260, 1TB, 2.6 Quad core.
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here is a different render of the ladder fall. The impact needs work, that i know.
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Here are 2 new ones. two different attack cycles. I got the rig online, but I had to add the mace myself.
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for this one (below), i have a small tweek to make. he doesnt bring the mace up as smooth as i would like.
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edit: might have to wait for it to process :S
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try to look at the animation of a leopard geck or another small reptile to see how they walk.. its obviously more exaggerated when they're so small, but the main curve of the body should be similar..
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For some reason, the video is saying it isnt processed, but you can view it in my user profile page. so the link below, the first video is what you will want to look at.
http://www.youtube.com/user/StefanLipsius
The up/down motion seems to be pretty muted and the forward/back speed is pretty constant. It should ease in and out with the passing/high point poses. The faster the character the more constant the forward speed can be because there is a lot more momentum. With slower characters there isn't much momentum and they are dependent on each push to give them forward locomotion.