Version 7
First attempt at some head and arm movement. The head was sort of cobbled together and it's nowhere near done, so please disregard how choppy that looks. It was just annoying me floating there doing nothing... probably should have left it alone. It's distracting.
The arm is... okay, I guess, and I think if there was a little wrist overlap it would be nice. I find it very static, though, very lifeless, it just sort of bobbles around and doesn't do much. It also goes kind of against what I've been seeing on other sneak cycles — the forearm, I think, should tuck against the body as he drops into the down pose and then come down as he leans back.
Posing the arm is tricky, though — I'm having a little difficulty figuring out which control objects to keyframe for maximum effect. I end up adjusting all sorts of pieces — up vectors, shoulders, arm effector — and get the pose right, but then when I keyframe the next one the pieces don't necessarily flow smoothly so it looks alright but then when you view it from another perspective the shoulder's going crazy and the elbow is flapping like some sort of demented chicken-man.
Version 12
Jumping ahead a bit (previous versions consisted of me getting immeasurably frustrated with things and not making much progress) I've tried to introduce a little more flexibility into the arm by using shoulder rotation and getting it to swing back and forth a bit.
I think the back swing is okay, but the arm coming forward makes absolutely no sense. It just looks... weird. I can't even figure out what needs to change, really, all I know is that it doesn't really make sense. Maybe it's because the arm doesn't really counter his weight — it should be used for balance, more than anything, I think, and if he was really leaning all his weight back like that, with his leg and arm outstretched, he'd probably topple over. It's just not a natural thing to do.
Version 13
Oh goodness this is even worse. It makes a tiny bit more sense... sort of... Other than the fact that the arm appears to counter the "wrong" leg, but I don't know if that makes too much difference. In some sneak cycles it seems like the arms move together in synch, almost.
I don't think this would be too bad but there's a bit of a jerk forward. Looks really peculiar. I think that the elbow should probably come backwards, rather than forwards, then the forearm should sort of come up towards the chest?... which answers my earlier question about the legs opposing the arms...!
Version 14
Side
Perspective
And here we have an attempt at the arm opposing the leg. There ain't much overlap right now; quite stiff and robotic. I was mostly just trying to really peg the shoulder movement more than anything. I think it's looking... slightly better, on reflection, but there's just something bothering me about it.
The arm seems to make a little more sense now, at least! I'm still not totally happy with it - looks to me a bit like it either goes back too far or doesn't come forward enough. I might also have got it backwards, again! I think maybe it needs to oppose the legs, but I don't know if that will look weird?! My brain is so tired I don't even know what I'm doing. Logical thought escapes me…!
The more I look at the body movement the less I'm happy with it. It seems to bump around all over the place and I really want to get more flexibility in his spine, but I'm not quite sure how to go about doing that, exactly. I think if I mess around with the curvature of the chest and hips I might be able to come up with something!
Version 15
Side
Perspective
I switched the arm so it opposes the leg and I don't really know what to make of it?! It kinda looks weird to me? I'm not sure why, but I kind of prefer the other version. I don't know if it makes sense. I'm very tired.
The arms are just completely baffling me at this stage. I'm really struggling to understand how they're supposed to work — I think my brain is fried, I keep trying to break it down and analyse it and act it out myself but it just doesn't seem to be going in...
What's confusing me most, I guess? The arms kind-of-sort-of oppose the legs, but they don't go very far forward at all. Contrary to a regular walk cycle they appear to be at their furthest extension on the contact pose when the body is leaning back. As the body comes forward on the down position, they move forward as well, and are drawn close to the chest. Then the body rises and the forearms come down and start to move back as the body leans back to balance for the contact.
... Wow, that actually makes a lot more sense now that I've typed it down. I must be making a mountain out of a molehill.
To the Batmobile!
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