Version 29
Side
Perspective
Yet another bold attempt to get that damn arm moving. This is probably one of my better attempts, but only by a margin.
I think the basic movement is actually getting there, and most importantly it actually looks alright from most angles. Obviously the biggest thing is that it's very stiff; definitely needs loosening up and I need to pose the hands a little more, get some overlap going.
It also seems to me like the arm should go forward a little more; it seems to stop very suddenly. I don't know, it just feels like it should have a little more reach.
Still, early days. Ish.
Showing posts with label sneak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sneak. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Sneak cycle arm breakdown and reference
I'm still not totally sure on the whole arm movement thing so I've been examining some other reference a little more closely. I found this lovely example on Youtube:
The flexibility is amazing and puts me to shame. My cycle looks like arse in comparison.
Ignoring my bruised ego, the arm movement is very nice! I promptly shoved it into Photoshop and brutally ripped it apart for the purposes of analysis.
The contact poses are interesting because of the forearm placement. They're poised up and ready rather than lowered, as I'd been toying with, which I think was giving me problems as it was making things a bit 'busy.' It's also a nice pose in general — having the arms almost tensed like that gives a much more cautious look to the character. The wrists are very nice too!
As the character drops into the down position the torso moves forward and the elbow follows. The forearm relaxes very slightly and comes down.
As the body starts to rise again the forearm is brought closer to the chest and the elbow, again, starts to come back. The character rises into the 'up' position and the forearm again lowers very slightly.
The second contact is slightly further forward than the first one, to counter the leg.
As previously observed most of the shoulder movement seems to come from the twisting of the chest.
That diagram is a bit cluttered, so it's probably easier to see with the body:
Serves to give a better idea of the shoulder and elbow in relation to the body.
It seems to have been helpful, though now I'm worried I've mucked my cycle up completely and that this method won't work. It's certainly given me something to toy around with, though, which can only be a good thing.
The flexibility is amazing and puts me to shame. My cycle looks like arse in comparison.
Ignoring my bruised ego, the arm movement is very nice! I promptly shoved it into Photoshop and brutally ripped it apart for the purposes of analysis.
I've done my best to identify where the key poses in the cycle are — not sure if I hit them 100% accurately but they seem to be roughly in the right place. Obviously there are differences in my cycle and this one — the torso here is much more flexible but in a way it's a good thing. Viewing a more exaggerated animation means it's much easier to examine how arms are following the body.
The contact poses are interesting because of the forearm placement. They're poised up and ready rather than lowered, as I'd been toying with, which I think was giving me problems as it was making things a bit 'busy.' It's also a nice pose in general — having the arms almost tensed like that gives a much more cautious look to the character. The wrists are very nice too!
As the character drops into the down position the torso moves forward and the elbow follows. The forearm relaxes very slightly and comes down.
As the body starts to rise again the forearm is brought closer to the chest and the elbow, again, starts to come back. The character rises into the 'up' position and the forearm again lowers very slightly.
The second contact is slightly further forward than the first one, to counter the leg.
As previously observed most of the shoulder movement seems to come from the twisting of the chest.
That diagram is a bit cluttered, so it's probably easier to see with the body:
Serves to give a better idea of the shoulder and elbow in relation to the body.
It seems to have been helpful, though now I'm worried I've mucked my cycle up completely and that this method won't work. It's certainly given me something to toy around with, though, which can only be a good thing.
Friday, 6 April 2012
Moom sneak cycle V7 — V15
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!
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!
Characterised walk cycle reference and planning
Taking a bit of a break from the standard walk cycle for a bit I decided to make a start with a more "characterised" walk cycle. I opted to do a "sneaky" style walk, because... well, I just did. There's plenty of reference already available too - The Animator's Survival Kit has quite a nice section that goes into the mechanics of sneaks fairly well:
It's not brilliant but it does serve to give you more of an idea about how the weight shifts in relation to the movement of the legs and so forth.
I also did a sketch of the key frames from the diagram - it's pretty much just a carbon copy but I found that having to draw the poses myself gave me a much better understanding of how the body was poised, how the hips were tilted, where the weight was, etc. Even if you're just copying it's always good to draw things yourself - it gets you actually thinking about the mechanics of what's going on.
Following these examples, I started blocking out the walk cycle using Softimage's "stepped" interpolation method. Being able to set up and view the key poses without Softimage's rather distracting automatic keyframes. It allows you to much more easily check the flow between each pose and quickly see where things don't align.
Getting the poses right was actually a lot trickier than I originally anticipated. Due to the way the rig is set up it's really tricky to try and get the curve in the spine just right — I tried all sorts of methods including some ridiculously over-complicated method involving translating his chest object to bring it in line with the hips, but it just looked weird. Ther doesn't seem to be any way to adjust how much he leans forward with this rig — tilting the hips and chest does not re-position his upper body at all, and translating his upper body control moves his entire body. As a result he doesn't lean forward quite as much as I'd like, but I think it's looking okay.
There are also some slight issues with the foot slipping around — his back leg goes back too far on what I think is the passing position, when he leans forward. It needs to stay stationary to give the impression that he's pushing himself forward.
Switching to splined interpolation allows us to see that his foot definitely slips back, and there's also a bit of a weird 'bump' in his torso around one of his contact positions. I think there's a stray translation keyframe in there somewhere that got left behind.
Similar to our conventional walk cycle, Richard Williams also provides us with a solid formula to work from:
I thought this would be an interesting kind of walk to attempt to emulate with the Moom character, especially with all the bending and twisting going on in the torso. I find the arms quite interesting too, I love the way they're posed almost timidly. They remind me of a little hamster! I think it would be possible to get some really nice head and wrist movement with this walk.
To save myself a great deal of stress, I decided to adapt this formula for my characterised walk cycle. Just copying the frames is no good by itself though, it doesn't really give you any indication of the timing or any real sense of the weight. Observing and performing the action yourself is always the best way to go.
There's a disappointing lack of reference footage online for this particular sneak, but I did find a short clip from the DVD set that kind of demonstrates it:
It's not brilliant but it does serve to give you more of an idea about how the weight shifts in relation to the movement of the legs and so forth.
I also did a sketch of the key frames from the diagram - it's pretty much just a carbon copy but I found that having to draw the poses myself gave me a much better understanding of how the body was poised, how the hips were tilted, where the weight was, etc. Even if you're just copying it's always good to draw things yourself - it gets you actually thinking about the mechanics of what's going on.
Following these examples, I started blocking out the walk cycle using Softimage's "stepped" interpolation method. Being able to set up and view the key poses without Softimage's rather distracting automatic keyframes. It allows you to much more easily check the flow between each pose and quickly see where things don't align.
Getting the poses right was actually a lot trickier than I originally anticipated. Due to the way the rig is set up it's really tricky to try and get the curve in the spine just right — I tried all sorts of methods including some ridiculously over-complicated method involving translating his chest object to bring it in line with the hips, but it just looked weird. Ther doesn't seem to be any way to adjust how much he leans forward with this rig — tilting the hips and chest does not re-position his upper body at all, and translating his upper body control moves his entire body. As a result he doesn't lean forward quite as much as I'd like, but I think it's looking okay.
There are also some slight issues with the foot slipping around — his back leg goes back too far on what I think is the passing position, when he leans forward. It needs to stay stationary to give the impression that he's pushing himself forward.
Switching to splined interpolation allows us to see that his foot definitely slips back, and there's also a bit of a weird 'bump' in his torso around one of his contact positions. I think there's a stray translation keyframe in there somewhere that got left behind.
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