SDK Knight and Ninja Animations
polycounter lvl 7
Hello fellow polycounters. Recently i've been keeping myself busy while working on the Aura Tactics project i jumped on a few weeks ago by rigging and animating some of the models from Polycount's SDK sticky. Some of you may remember seeing a few of these videos in the WAYWO thread, or on my phone at the GDC PolyCount meetups at Lefty's 
To keep myself motivated to make/post frequent iterations, I decided to make this thread.
Currently the models I am working on SlipGateCentral's "Fatass Ninja Girl" and KillingPeople's "Knight"
both are rigged in 3ds Max, the knight with biped, the ninja with CAT.
As I continue to polish these animations up I would love feedback and critiques.
Much Obliged,
-B
Starting off, here is some early Blockout I did for the Knight awhile back. I will be revisiting all of these animations over the next week, bringing them up to par.
[vv]28783655[/vv]
slightly iterated Run cycle because the one in block out was super rough...
[vv]30821880[/vv]
Next we will take a look at the CAT rig for the ninja. Here is first iteration Walk cycle...
[vv]35712096[/vv]
and finally putting both characters together to have a bit of fun with swords and things...
[vv]36808354[/vv]
The first things I will be delving into will be the Knight's cycles for walking and running. Stay tuned for updates on that. Following that will be work on the Ninja's walk and run cycles. Culminating in a second iteration on both win-states of the assassination sequence
: )
To keep myself motivated to make/post frequent iterations, I decided to make this thread.
Currently the models I am working on SlipGateCentral's "Fatass Ninja Girl" and KillingPeople's "Knight"
both are rigged in 3ds Max, the knight with biped, the ninja with CAT.
As I continue to polish these animations up I would love feedback and critiques.
Much Obliged,
-B
Starting off, here is some early Blockout I did for the Knight awhile back. I will be revisiting all of these animations over the next week, bringing them up to par.
[vv]28783655[/vv]
slightly iterated Run cycle because the one in block out was super rough...
[vv]30821880[/vv]
Next we will take a look at the CAT rig for the ninja. Here is first iteration Walk cycle...
[vv]35712096[/vv]
and finally putting both characters together to have a bit of fun with swords and things...
[vv]36808354[/vv]
The first things I will be delving into will be the Knight's cycles for walking and running. Stay tuned for updates on that. Following that will be work on the Ninja's walk and run cycles. Culminating in a second iteration on both win-states of the assassination sequence
: )
Replies
-The first walk cycle blockout: from the front view, it looks fine except that I find the sword twitches side to side a bit strangely. From the side, the biggest problem is the bip01 isn't moving uniformly. You have it jutting back at a certain spot in your cycle, whereas you want the movement forward to look even and consistent. I've played around with moving that main biped piece ahead and back to make the movement consistent with the legs, and it always ends up looking akward. I'd say keep that Y axis the same.
Also, as the left legs moves forward, it seems to stiffly fall into place. Make sure it's following a curve. The right leg seems to go a bit too slowly as it moves back.
-The movement is nice on the sword swing up, however, the problem is the weight. Right now, it looks more like he sort of floats up as he jumps and lands again. You need to vary the spacing more. It should be quick up, hang time, then quick back down. Also, it could use more contrast of shapes--the legs should stay on the ground, then come up quickly and hold there. On the way down, a straight leg should contact the ground before bending as it takes the weight.
-I'll only crit the second run, as it's the improved one: From the front view, the sword is making too big a circle as it moves back and forth. It should be held much closer in, and therefore move around less. The left hand is moving around strangely--it needs to follow a curve (a figure 8 or what have you).
For the side view, see the walk crit about the movement of the main biped piece. It is very jarring at this angle. His torso also appears very stiff. Armour or no, you should still get some movement in there to loosen it up.
-For the ninja walk, she is incredibly stiff. You need to put much more movement into the torso. The sword hand is also moving too much--she should hold it in closer.
I also think you should consider the type of character doing this walk. If she is a ninja, and a woman, you should make that show. Right now the walk seems very generic, but it could be much more interesting. Try making the hips rotate more, bring the feet to the center, try giving her some swagger, or a bit of a sneak. Act it out, steal heels if you need to, and look up reference of the kind of walk you want her to have.
-I recall critiquing this last scene, possibly in the WAYWO? I'm not sure if you've tweaked it or not since, but I seem to recall saying her leg settled weirdly after she fell to the ground, and I don't see that now. I believe the rest of my critique still applies though, if you can find the place it was written :P
Hope to see more soon, and I hope this helped!
Keep it up