Finished Centaur Animations

phoenixnight8

Hey there this is the tread to show off my finished centaur animations, i made a WIP thread for it which can be located here http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96649 if you want to see how the animation have changed but this is my final year project for university the idea is to combine motion capture and hand animation, id love for you guys to check it out and leave me some feedback, if you could comment on how the animation looks overall, if you think the motion capture and hand animation blends well and generally anything you want to say. thanks for looking and i look forward to seeing what you say. Thanks.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErvSnsazrQ"]FYP - Finished Centaur Animation - YouTube[/ame]

If you have any questions ill be happy to answer them.

Mezz

Hey there!

What is most apparent to me from watching the animations is a lack of understanding on your part on the principles of animation. When adjusting mocap data, especially for a character with an extra set of legs, it's important that you understand the movement so you can clean it up accordingly.
The biggest problem with this is how obvious the back leg animation was added on to the mocap data. It looks much less realistic and weightless.
The walk cycle is also a problem; a four-legged creature does not walk the same as a two-legged one. You need to understand how and why if you are to make the walk convincing.
Also, you need to act out and definitely get reference for the changes you're trying to make. In the death anim, for example, the way the back legs fall and crumple under him doesn't really make sense. Also, your rig appears to break here.

My suggestion is to go back to scratch and really learn how to animate, learning all the main principles of animation. Once you have all that, your animations and mocap will improve greatly.

Sorry for the harsh crit, but hopefully it encourages you to focus on really learning what you need to do to make good motion capture clean up. Keep going!

Donavonyoung

Also pull lots of reference when you are animating. The best animators not only have a solid understanding of the principles of animation, but also have reference they can look at to make sure their movements are timed right, and set right.

SuperSoupy

Heya,

Much of what Mezz says here is really true.

If you're setting up keyframed and mocap side by side, you MUST be understanding of how the principles of animation apply to BOTH techniques. The reason being that both types of animation move in their own ways, and when they're displayed side by side, it tends to show flaws in both by comparison. (for example, try watching 'Mortal Kombat Annihilation' for how not to do it!)

Trying to tie these 2 styles together, for the mocap I'd advise that you work some of the anim principles into it. For example, take the walking mocap, and keyframe some overlapping action into the arm movements, and build on the shoulder shifts to add weight. The idea is to add to the movement mocap gives you, which creates the animation. Not strip that initial movement away.

Meanwhile for the keyframed, you really need to look at some horse reference. Since you are working with mocap, the timing would also have to be similar to the source material to keep that realistic tone. Look at applying those principles and reference, and your work will benefit loads.

It's a tricky subject that you're taking on. But you have some great mocap data and a cool-looking rig to work with, I'm sure you can get some great results :-). All the best!

slipsius

I'm just gonna comment on your presentation of it all. You definitely do not need to show your mocap data so many times. Show it once, then move on to the finished rig. Ditch the proxy model entirely.

Also, if you`re going to show all the different views, either show them all at the same time, on one screen. Split it into 4 sections and they all play at the same time. Or, at the VERY LEAST, play the full animation before switching to a different view. The death, the animation doesn't even finish before you switch to the next view. Show the mocap once, then show the finished model from the front, side and 3/4 view (if you can get them all on one screen, it would be better)

phoenixnight8

just wanted to say thank you all for replying with your feedback

phoenixnight8

ok well guys based on some of the feedback ive redone some parts to the animation and redid the video, also ive put the animations into UDK so its easier to see the walk/run cycle loop so if you could check it out it would be awesome [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtqZ0xhYU14"]Final Year Project - Centaur Animation Video - Mo-cap and key frame animation combined - YouTube[/ame]

thanks

16bit

The knees on his hind legs don't bed at all during the walk cycle and it makes it look very strange.

Sukotto

Agreeing with 16bit. The walk cycle just looks weird. It looks like you took the legs from a human and slapped them on as the horses front legs which doesn't make sense. Horses don't walk at all like humans plus there's a lot of stretching going on at the hips

slipsius

Again, you need to work on presentation. You have 1:30minute video for essentially 15 seconds of animation (including the looping walk). Putting it in engine is cool, but record them all seperately, front, side, 3/4 view, then piece them together and have them all on screen at the same time.

phoenixnight8

yet again a big thank you for the feedback, for the video i know its long and id love to show all the different views of the animation at once however im stuck using windows live movie maker and its features are some what ... well limited so i can only really show one after another. the horse legs i know where a little weird at the back so ive improved them as for the front those legs are completely hand animated and based off horse legs no human legs were used to make them at all. so yeh here is the improved walk cycle, i think it looks better hope you guys think so aswell [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kiHbHw-ko"]new updated walk cycle based on feedback - YouTube[/ame]

16bit

4 legged animals legs do not walk in sync like you have animated. They alternate legs like "Front Left Leg, Rear Right Leg, Front Right Leg, Rear Left Leg" and repeats.

Here is a very good example that you can study
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC6kj0sqEjs"]horse walking 600fps - YouTube[/ame]

artstream

16bit's link is pretty much dead on. You need to animate the legs like you would a horse, since a centaur, from the waist down, is a horse. The human arms will come later, but you really need to get the legs good and proper before you continue.

phoenixnight8

gotta say a big thankyou for the feedback on the walk, i looked over the slowed down walk cycle and edited mine. i believe it looks alot more like a horse walking now. what do you guys think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F_7BBNjXp4&feature=youtu.be

cheers again for the feedback gonna help alot for my dissertation

16bit

The walk is much much better, but there seems to be a hitch in the cycling.