Version 5
Side
Perspective
Aggh. I actually prefer the previous version over this one. I tried getting a bit too involved with it, I think - tried changing too much at once without checking each stage. Lesson learned.
I altered the height of the down, passing and up positions to try and smooth out the bounce and I think it looks better, but the legs, I feel, are much worse. I tried to sort out the leg's popping by altering the passing and up legs - it sort of worked, I think, but now the leg very suddenly comes to a stop on the contact pose when it should probably keep moving backwards. In retrospect I think I may be able to fix that by dropping the height of the contact pose slightly and moving his leg back a bit more but I'm concerned that will mess up the rest of the poses in some way.
I did also end up extending the front leg a little more on each contact pose and I'm not keen on the way it looks. I think the stride is a bit wide now. Sort of looks like he's marching!
I did try to do something a little funkier with the feet on the 'up' position as well by rotating the toes so they were flat on the floor and the heel was up, giving a bit more of a push, but due to the automated keyframes it sort of bumps up and down rather than sliding and moving smoothly. I'd probably have to alter each frame by hand to fix that, so I think I'll revert it and just leave it as it was. There'll be time to refine these things later. It's more important to get a solid block done at this point.
I'm actually wondering if it is at all possible to fix the leg popping using so few keyframes. It seems, again, like something you'd need to manually tweak or with the fcurves. I'll give it another shot but I might need to ask Jon for some advice on that one; I don't seem to be able to fix it no matter what I do!
I'll probably go back to version 4, which I feel was overall a little better, and make some slight height adjustments to that one to see if I can smooth out the bouncing. Then I'll look at tweaking the legs a little more.
Showing posts with label blocking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blocking. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Moom walk cycle [lower block] V4
Version 4
Side
Perspective
Here I've mostly just tried to sort out the stampy feet a little more by bringing the knee forward on the passing position so there's more change between keys. I think it's looking better, although there's a bit of popping with the back leg and I think the up and down movement might be a little bit bumpy? He does seem to rise up quite high on the 'up' pose so maybe dropping the height slightly would rectify that, although that would make the knee bend, which would mean I need to bring the leg further back to straighten it, which may then cause problems with the contact pose - the contact pose's back leg is already stretched almost as far as it will go without popping out of place so I'm not sure what else I can do.
The popping, I think, may be caused by the spacing of the leg between the passing and contact poses. I could try bringing the leg of the passing and up positions forward so that there's more change between them.
Really, though, I think that the problem is the contact pose? Maybe he's up too high. If I lower him slightly I might be able to extend the back leg a little more. I'm wary of lengthening the stride too much... don't want it too exagerrated.
Side
Perspective
Here I've mostly just tried to sort out the stampy feet a little more by bringing the knee forward on the passing position so there's more change between keys. I think it's looking better, although there's a bit of popping with the back leg and I think the up and down movement might be a little bit bumpy? He does seem to rise up quite high on the 'up' pose so maybe dropping the height slightly would rectify that, although that would make the knee bend, which would mean I need to bring the leg further back to straighten it, which may then cause problems with the contact pose - the contact pose's back leg is already stretched almost as far as it will go without popping out of place so I'm not sure what else I can do.
The popping, I think, may be caused by the spacing of the leg between the passing and contact poses. I could try bringing the leg of the passing and up positions forward so that there's more change between them.
Really, though, I think that the problem is the contact pose? Maybe he's up too high. If I lower him slightly I might be able to extend the back leg a little more. I'm wary of lengthening the stride too much... don't want it too exagerrated.
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Walk cycle [lower block] V1
Kicking off into the second component of Digital Skills, we're beginning to look at walk cycles. Starting very simply with a plain vanilla walk, we began to "block" the animation of the lower half using an extended version of Richard Williams' tried-n-tested walk cycle formula:
Similar to the superhero posing, we set the diagram as a rotoscopy image within Softimage. We set keyframes and posed the character according to the diagram.
It all sounds deceptively simple on paper, but it's not quite as straightforward as you'd originally think. Though the principles remain the same, lots of things that work in 2D animation don't translate well into 3D - exaggerated or stretched limbs, for example. Depending on your rig, pushing a pose too far can cause the character's limbs to 'pop.'
The process of actually posing your character is a challenge as well. Especially in the case of something like a walk cycle where you need to keep the position of limbs relatively consistent. Even after rounding them up or down, I got very confused trying to remember the numeric parameters for each rig control and kept losing track of which leg needed to move and by how much. The lack of a real onion skin is also problematic; it's a bit tricky trying to keep track of your arcs and make sure Mr Moom isn't going up or down too far. I think a lot of it will come with time and practice, though!
Version 1
Side
Perspective
My own first attempt; he's walking, at least, and it sort of works, but immediately it's apparent that there are some slight posing issues to be ironed out. There's a slight 'popping' of my character's leg between the up and contact poses - I think I need to slacken the up pose slightly as his leg is pushed quite far. There's also a noticeable 'stamp' as he brings his foot down, and I think that's caused by the crossover of the legs at the passing position. They don't move forward quite enough, so it doesn't really allow enough frames/time for the leg to come down smoothly, so it sort of snaps straight down to the floor. If that makes sense.
There are some issues with the foot roll as well. It's not quite as flexible as I'd like and it sort of floats off the floor whilst it's rolling, which looks a bit peculiar. I need to keep it stuck to the ground as it rolls and only lift it when he starts to move his leg. I think I'd like to tilt the foot backwards on the passing position, to give it a bit of a drag.
I'm not too sure on the hip movement. I didn't want to exaggerate it so much that he was mincing, but looking at it now I think it might be just a little too subtle, so I might look at increasing it slightly.
Similar to the superhero posing, we set the diagram as a rotoscopy image within Softimage. We set keyframes and posed the character according to the diagram.
It all sounds deceptively simple on paper, but it's not quite as straightforward as you'd originally think. Though the principles remain the same, lots of things that work in 2D animation don't translate well into 3D - exaggerated or stretched limbs, for example. Depending on your rig, pushing a pose too far can cause the character's limbs to 'pop.'
The process of actually posing your character is a challenge as well. Especially in the case of something like a walk cycle where you need to keep the position of limbs relatively consistent. Even after rounding them up or down, I got very confused trying to remember the numeric parameters for each rig control and kept losing track of which leg needed to move and by how much. The lack of a real onion skin is also problematic; it's a bit tricky trying to keep track of your arcs and make sure Mr Moom isn't going up or down too far. I think a lot of it will come with time and practice, though!
Version 1
Side
Perspective
My own first attempt; he's walking, at least, and it sort of works, but immediately it's apparent that there are some slight posing issues to be ironed out. There's a slight 'popping' of my character's leg between the up and contact poses - I think I need to slacken the up pose slightly as his leg is pushed quite far. There's also a noticeable 'stamp' as he brings his foot down, and I think that's caused by the crossover of the legs at the passing position. They don't move forward quite enough, so it doesn't really allow enough frames/time for the leg to come down smoothly, so it sort of snaps straight down to the floor. If that makes sense.
There are some issues with the foot roll as well. It's not quite as flexible as I'd like and it sort of floats off the floor whilst it's rolling, which looks a bit peculiar. I need to keep it stuck to the ground as it rolls and only lift it when he starts to move his leg. I think I'd like to tilt the foot backwards on the passing position, to give it a bit of a drag.
I'm not too sure on the hip movement. I didn't want to exaggerate it so much that he was mincing, but looking at it now I think it might be just a little too subtle, so I might look at increasing it slightly.
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