Whelp Animations

Bluemonday

Good day fellow Polycounters!

I'm a long time stalker, first time contributor. This place is a breeding ground for great art and artists and I look forward to learning as much as I can while posting here.

Today I'd like to revisit OrganizedChaos' lovely dragon whelp: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69069

She has been kind enough to allow me to rig and animate the whelp (in Maya) for a bit of practice. So far I've got an idle cycle, a forward motion cycle (hop), and two clips for easing in and out of the idle/hop.

After uploading on youtube I'm already picking out a few things that can use some work >.< , but I'm here for any and all critique!

3/4 view:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_omezByLTAk[/ame]

Side view:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69vxtkZFI7Y[/ame]

Rear view:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACs8l4Hf1OA[/ame]


Hopefully later this week if I have time I'll be able to add an attack cycle or something. This cute lil' bugger is plenty fun to work with

Sukotto

This is nice but there are a few things to change. I would delay one of his feet a little when he lands, having them land at the same time is a bit uncomfortable. But other than that its great

autokey

Welcome, Blue! You have a great start there My main critique would be with the landing in between hops. His upper body seems to recoil before he actually lands. This gives him sort of a weightless feeling as he hops along. The final landing is great, and if you could portray the same weight that you do there in the run cycle, I think it would add a lot

James9475

For me, the main reason the animation feels quite uniform and uncanny, is the spacing on the hips. Basically, it feels like the dragon is moving at the exact same speed at every point, ignoring the physics and body mechanics of the scenario.

This is really the No.1 thing holding it back by far, once you get that right, you can fix the lesser, but still important, stuff such as the feet not anticipating his landing and just floating off the ground rather than 'pushing' off the ground.

If you manage to get the hips and the feet right, you'll have a decent animation for sure.

KRider

I would try to add more air time and snap the landing. So basically increase the frames when he's in the air and decrease the frames as he's about to land. It would help give the animation a much more cartoony feel. Also play around more with the secondary animations such as the jaw and tail. Perhaps have the jaw open and close during the jumps.