Jon gave me some great critique regarding the 'stamping' in my walk cycle, suggesting that I drop the leg on the passing positions in order to give a more subtle step. First are a couple of attempts I made to correct the issue beforehand, then are the ones following his feedback where I tried to integrate his advice - all with varying success, but things that don't work are just as important as those that do. So here we go.
Let's blast through this:
Version 27
First, here's the default version, just so you can see what I'm trying to correct. I've made some slight alterations since V25 - couple of things regarding the arms, just to loosen them up a tad. The legs do look pretty off in comparison to the otherwise fairly casual arms. His legs have a definite 'kick' to them.
Version 28
Here, all I'd done is very slightly adjust the foot roll on the up position, trying to bring it a little lower and closer to the contact pose. It's only a very subtle change and it does appear to have smoothed things out by a fraction - but not really enough to be noticeable to anybody that hasn't been staring at it for 4 million hours.
Version 29
First attempt following Jon's feedback where I tried dropping both the legs on the contact pose and also bringing the leg on the contact a little closer to the up position. It didn't exactly work; the issue I'm having is that dropping the leg of the passing position, the foot scrapes or goes straight through the floor. I can adjust the foot roll to try and bring it back up but rotating it back too far (in favour of the previous pose) causes it to twist uncomfortably, and also raises the knee again - which puts me straight back to square one. Rotating it forward lessens the height of the knee but this is problematic in that the foot, rather than delaying and dragging, then looks very robotic as we can see above. It needs to drag a little for flexibility. It also means that the space between the trailing leg on the down and passing positions is very small, causing the leg to delay at the crossover.
I also had to adjust the bend in the trailing leg on the down position to compensate for the lower passing position - otherwise the knee and leg were bent more on the down position, causing a bit of a jump/'pop' as it tried to interpolate the two keys. Unfortunately lessening the bend in the knee now means there's too little movement to stretch equally across the frames - as a result the knees on both legs start to bend at exactly the same time and move almost in perfect synch, which looks a little peculiar and quite robotic to me?
It may also be me but I kind of think that dropping the leg looks a bit like he doesn't bring it up far enough - the walk just seems to lose a lot of the feeling of weight?
I'm actually wondering if the stamping is actually more to do with the large gap between the legs on the up and contact keys - closely observing it, I can see it almost looks as if he's kicking his leg out. I think perhaps I just need to alter those positions so that the legs are just a little closer together in terms of posing so that it's a bit smoother?
Version 31
All of these captures look exactly the same... it must look like I haven't changed anything! I guess it's one of those things; when you've been staring at something frame-by-frame for so long you can pinpoint every tiny little thing in each frame. Things that nobody else in their right mind would ever notice.
Anyway, here I just tried adjusting the contact pose very slightly so that the step was a little less wide, allowing the leg enough time to travel smoothly from one pose to the next. It seems to have gone some way to removing that 'kick,' but it also plops me back to square one where my step wasn't quite wide enough. I think that, really, it's the up position that needs to change more than anything. If I can just tinker with the foot roll and leg position I might be able to figure out a way to smooth it out a little.
Showing posts with label walk cycle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walk cycle. Show all posts
Friday, 20 April 2012
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.
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Moom walk cycle V25
Version 25
Side
Perspective
A slight attempt at some head movement and some wrist overlap! I actually did it as a bit of a joke, was mostly just fooling around. To my great surprise I actually really liked the way it looked! I think it's a bit too over-exaggerated though, so I'll definitely tone it down a little. I think it looks a little at odds with the rest of the arms - they're not quite so loose. I think I need to offset the forearms slightly, then it might look a touch better.
Not sure about the head movement at the moment. I didn't really know what it should be doing, so I just kind of made an educated guess and I have no idea whether it looks correct or not.
The more I look at the legs, the more they bother me. Again I think it's mostly going to be a case of timing adjustment and offsetting bits and pieces to get some nice drag going on the limbs. I think it's coming together... slowly...
Side
Perspective
A slight attempt at some head movement and some wrist overlap! I actually did it as a bit of a joke, was mostly just fooling around. To my great surprise I actually really liked the way it looked! I think it's a bit too over-exaggerated though, so I'll definitely tone it down a little. I think it looks a little at odds with the rest of the arms - they're not quite so loose. I think I need to offset the forearms slightly, then it might look a touch better.
Not sure about the head movement at the moment. I didn't really know what it should be doing, so I just kind of made an educated guess and I have no idea whether it looks correct or not.
The more I look at the legs, the more they bother me. Again I think it's mostly going to be a case of timing adjustment and offsetting bits and pieces to get some nice drag going on the limbs. I think it's coming together... slowly...
Moom walk cycle [upper block] V17 & V22
I was really scratching my head over my previously posted capture - no matter what I did I simply could not nail it and the arm just looked utterly wrong. I am ashamed to admit how long it took me to spot the mistake, and rest assured my face glowed like the setting sun once I'd clocked it.
I had the arm swinging with the wrong leg. I got it backwards. Amateur mistake.
As soon as I'd finished bashing my head against the wall for not spotting it sooner, I flipped it to the other side and it instantly looked a billion times better:
Version 17
More to the point, it was much easier to "read" for mistakes. It's still very much a work in progress, but simply fixing that arm has made one hell of a difference.
What followed was a series of tedious and very samey captures that I can't really talk much about aside from saying "the arm is too far forward," or "his shoulder pops here." I don't know, maybe that's valuable, but I talk too much as it is. I find it much easier to reflect/critique this stuff when there're more changes, so I'm just going to jump ahead a few versions.
Version 22
Lots of minor tweaks to the position of the arm here. The biggest change in this version is the shoulder - I wiped all previous keyframes and approached it in a much more straightforward manner. Before, I keyframed almost every aspect of it by hand which led to a slew of inconsistencies in speed and spacing that I believe may have contributed to some of the random limb popping and slight jerkiness in the previous versions. All I did this time is slap a couple of keyframes at the furthest points of its swing, then added a one to the first contact pose to have it move in a slightly smaller increment before it swung forward, giving it a little delay. I think it looks much, much better now, and the arc of the arm is clearly visible.
I think it's safe to say that the blocking of the arm is done at this stage. It's still not perfect, of course, but I think I'm ready to add in the opposing arm swing and also start looking at fine-tuning the timings and getting some wrist movement in there. The head is too static, too, so I'd like to get a bit of follow through going on that. I may also return to the legs a bit later as well and see if I can do anything to improve those.
I had the arm swinging with the wrong leg. I got it backwards. Amateur mistake.
As soon as I'd finished bashing my head against the wall for not spotting it sooner, I flipped it to the other side and it instantly looked a billion times better:
Version 17
More to the point, it was much easier to "read" for mistakes. It's still very much a work in progress, but simply fixing that arm has made one hell of a difference.
What followed was a series of tedious and very samey captures that I can't really talk much about aside from saying "the arm is too far forward," or "his shoulder pops here." I don't know, maybe that's valuable, but I talk too much as it is. I find it much easier to reflect/critique this stuff when there're more changes, so I'm just going to jump ahead a few versions.
Version 22
Lots of minor tweaks to the position of the arm here. The biggest change in this version is the shoulder - I wiped all previous keyframes and approached it in a much more straightforward manner. Before, I keyframed almost every aspect of it by hand which led to a slew of inconsistencies in speed and spacing that I believe may have contributed to some of the random limb popping and slight jerkiness in the previous versions. All I did this time is slap a couple of keyframes at the furthest points of its swing, then added a one to the first contact pose to have it move in a slightly smaller increment before it swung forward, giving it a little delay. I think it looks much, much better now, and the arc of the arm is clearly visible.
I think it's safe to say that the blocking of the arm is done at this stage. It's still not perfect, of course, but I think I'm ready to add in the opposing arm swing and also start looking at fine-tuning the timings and getting some wrist movement in there. The head is too static, too, so I'd like to get a bit of follow through going on that. I may also return to the legs a bit later as well and see if I can do anything to improve those.
Moom walk cycle [upper block] V16
Version 16
Redone from scratch yet again, this time getting the arm moving back from the top of its swing much sooner. I think it's looking much better now, for the most part, but I still have lots of issues with the back swing. It's looking alright, mostly, but I think that, again, I just need to have the arm going back in the opposite direction a touch sooner. It swings forward far too quickly.
Getting there slowly though...
Redone from scratch yet again, this time getting the arm moving back from the top of its swing much sooner. I think it's looking much better now, for the most part, but I still have lots of issues with the back swing. It's looking alright, mostly, but I think that, again, I just need to have the arm going back in the opposite direction a touch sooner. It swings forward far too quickly.
Getting there slowly though...
Walk cycle [upper block] V15
Version 15
Tweaking the positions of the arms a little more, trying to make it more of an arc - I think it's slowly getting there, but the arm definitely comes back too quickly (looks a bit like it's knocking against something) and there needs to be a bit more of a delay as it comes forward.
I need to get the wrist/bottom of the forearm moving in more of a "figure-8" type motion - I daren't draw on my laptop screen to check the arcs (this was expensive!!) but maybe I can use some Photoshop wizardry to try and nail the poses?
I was using the fcurve editor to help me fine-tune the position of the arms. It's much easier to control the limbs this way but the temptation is to start altering things like timing and whatnot, which I think is where I may have gone a bit wrong! Easy to get distracted...
I'm determined to get these arms done by today though. I'm still worrying about the refining stage and "character" walks...
Tweaking the positions of the arms a little more, trying to make it more of an arc - I think it's slowly getting there, but the arm definitely comes back too quickly (looks a bit like it's knocking against something) and there needs to be a bit more of a delay as it comes forward.
I need to get the wrist/bottom of the forearm moving in more of a "figure-8" type motion - I daren't draw on my laptop screen to check the arcs (this was expensive!!) but maybe I can use some Photoshop wizardry to try and nail the poses?
I was using the fcurve editor to help me fine-tune the position of the arms. It's much easier to control the limbs this way but the temptation is to start altering things like timing and whatnot, which I think is where I may have gone a bit wrong! Easy to get distracted...
I'm determined to get these arms done by today though. I'm still worrying about the refining stage and "character" walks...
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Moom walk cycle V11 - 14 [upper blocking]
Various attempts to start blocking in the remaining keyframes for the arms, none of which were particularly successful.
Version 11
I think this one could probably have worked had I tweaked it a little more; there's a bit of a kink in the arm when it comes forward on the down position. I tried to have it carry on forward, as in Richard Williams' cycle, but to be honest following his diagram for the arms has always given me issues. I find that the motion is a little too formulaic and robotic-looking. It's a great basis for the keyframes and understanding the principles of the movement, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that having the entire arm continue forward works too well. I think that for best effect only the forearm needs to continue forward - the upper arm could stay mostly still, or even have it start to come back already.
Version 12
In this attempt I tried to work some slight joint breaking into my key poses, thinking they were as 'key' to block out as the positions of the arms. With the way that Softimage interpolates keyframes, though, it probably wasn't the best idea. The arm wobbles about a bit weirdly - again, with some adjustments it could have worked, but I think it was just a bit too complex at this stage.
Most of the movement came from the shoulder in order to 'break' the joint - looking at the fcurves shows the problem:
They're all bumpy and uneven as Softimage tries to calculate the path of motion. With some manual tweaking to smooth them out it could possibly have worked but I don't really think the poses themselves were strong enough to really warrant the effort. Back to basics.
Version 13
Looking at this version after a break it doesn't look as bad as I'd initially thought. I should have kept the rear arm stationary - it's a bit distracting - but arguably I think I've sort of hit the key poses for the arm fairly well. I think the only thing is that perhaps it delays too much as it's forward; perhaps I should start moving the upper arm back a little sooner as the forearm continues forward. The weird bump issue with the up and down is still there; I really have no idea what's happened, as all the keyframes are exactly the same. I can only assume that something's gone wrong somewhere with the interpolation.
Even with Richard Williams' diagram I'm finding it very difficult to line the arms up correctly, particularly on the 'down' position. Walk cycles in any medium are difficult but I'm finding the whole thing compounded by Softimage's lack of an onion skin. Continuing the swing forward on the down position is tricky to align without it jerking about weirdly (as seen above) - at one stage I even started looking up some similar 'casual' walk cycles in an attempt to understand how they'd posed the arms on their own rigs and to see how the interpolation was working.
I found some very nice examples:
Again, some really lovely overlap and the upper arms don't travel so much. Using the above as a guide I tried to roughly emulate (read: shamelessly copy) the positions to get an idea of where I might be going wrong.
Version 14
I managed to sort out the issue with the bumping at this stage; somehow, the fcurves got slightly altered on the hip object. I have no idea how but the curve was completely out of whack and had inverted itself; simply altering the slope of the handles to smooth it out fixed the problem.
The arm's pretty similar to V13. I think it's alright, though arguably I don't think I've hit the poses as well as before. The arc of the swing isn't really there - it kind of travels diagonally from its position on the down pose to the reverse contact, so I need to look at sorting that out.
The arm also remains mostly stationary on the down position, not really doing anything at all. As above I need to continue the forearm going up and maybe even start to move the upper arm backwards.
I'm going to mess around with it a little more and see if I can sort that arc out!
Version 11
I think this one could probably have worked had I tweaked it a little more; there's a bit of a kink in the arm when it comes forward on the down position. I tried to have it carry on forward, as in Richard Williams' cycle, but to be honest following his diagram for the arms has always given me issues. I find that the motion is a little too formulaic and robotic-looking. It's a great basis for the keyframes and understanding the principles of the movement, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that having the entire arm continue forward works too well. I think that for best effect only the forearm needs to continue forward - the upper arm could stay mostly still, or even have it start to come back already.
Version 12
In this attempt I tried to work some slight joint breaking into my key poses, thinking they were as 'key' to block out as the positions of the arms. With the way that Softimage interpolates keyframes, though, it probably wasn't the best idea. The arm wobbles about a bit weirdly - again, with some adjustments it could have worked, but I think it was just a bit too complex at this stage.
Most of the movement came from the shoulder in order to 'break' the joint - looking at the fcurves shows the problem:
They're all bumpy and uneven as Softimage tries to calculate the path of motion. With some manual tweaking to smooth them out it could possibly have worked but I don't really think the poses themselves were strong enough to really warrant the effort. Back to basics.
Version 13
Looking at this version after a break it doesn't look as bad as I'd initially thought. I should have kept the rear arm stationary - it's a bit distracting - but arguably I think I've sort of hit the key poses for the arm fairly well. I think the only thing is that perhaps it delays too much as it's forward; perhaps I should start moving the upper arm back a little sooner as the forearm continues forward. The weird bump issue with the up and down is still there; I really have no idea what's happened, as all the keyframes are exactly the same. I can only assume that something's gone wrong somewhere with the interpolation.
Even with Richard Williams' diagram I'm finding it very difficult to line the arms up correctly, particularly on the 'down' position. Walk cycles in any medium are difficult but I'm finding the whole thing compounded by Softimage's lack of an onion skin. Continuing the swing forward on the down position is tricky to align without it jerking about weirdly (as seen above) - at one stage I even started looking up some similar 'casual' walk cycles in an attempt to understand how they'd posed the arms on their own rigs and to see how the interpolation was working.
I found some very nice examples:
What's interesting about this one is that nearly all the movement is in the wrists and forearms; the biceps and shoulders don't go very far at all. It's a lovely, subtle movement.
Owing to our limited rig, though, something like the above might not be wholly possible. So I found something a little more 'typical' and similar to the Williams example.
Again, some really lovely overlap and the upper arms don't travel so much. Using the above as a guide I tried to roughly emulate (read: shamelessly copy) the positions to get an idea of where I might be going wrong.
Version 14
I managed to sort out the issue with the bumping at this stage; somehow, the fcurves got slightly altered on the hip object. I have no idea how but the curve was completely out of whack and had inverted itself; simply altering the slope of the handles to smooth it out fixed the problem.
The arm's pretty similar to V13. I think it's alright, though arguably I don't think I've hit the poses as well as before. The arc of the swing isn't really there - it kind of travels diagonally from its position on the down pose to the reverse contact, so I need to look at sorting that out.
The arm also remains mostly stationary on the down position, not really doing anything at all. As above I need to continue the forearm going up and maybe even start to move the upper arm backwards.
I'm going to mess around with it a little more and see if I can sort that arc out!
Moom walk cycle V10 [upper block]
Version 10
Simply blocking in the arms using just a few key frames on the contacts and passing positions. It's already passable as an arm swing, but it needs a lot of tweaking and refining to really get the flexibility in there. Once I've blocked in the rest of the keys and got them looking smooth I'll probably look at trying to overlap sections and get some nice shoulder rotation in there.
I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to go about posing the arms for maximum overlapability (that is totally a word!) - Moom lacks individual controls for each limb segment, as I've mentioned before, so precisely controlling the position of his arms is going to be quite tricky. Not entirely sure how to find a way around that.
Looking at it again I also see that something weird has happened to his up and down positions; there's a very sudden jerk downwards after the second 'up' pose and I have no idea where that's come from. The key frames are identical so I can only assume Softimage is doing something weird with the interpolation?
Simply blocking in the arms using just a few key frames on the contacts and passing positions. It's already passable as an arm swing, but it needs a lot of tweaking and refining to really get the flexibility in there. Once I've blocked in the rest of the keys and got them looking smooth I'll probably look at trying to overlap sections and get some nice shoulder rotation in there.
I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to go about posing the arms for maximum overlapability (that is totally a word!) - Moom lacks individual controls for each limb segment, as I've mentioned before, so precisely controlling the position of his arms is going to be quite tricky. Not entirely sure how to find a way around that.
Looking at it again I also see that something weird has happened to his up and down positions; there's a very sudden jerk downwards after the second 'up' pose and I have no idea where that's come from. The key frames are identical so I can only assume Softimage is doing something weird with the interpolation?
Moom walk cycle [lower block] V9
Version 9
I fixed the stamp (I hope) by tweaking the positions of the legs and have been given the go-ahead by Jon to start with the arms. I also lessened the angle of the feet on the contacts as well - they were a little extreme before, which may have been contributing to the stamping.
That's all I have to say. Rubbish post?
I fixed the stamp (I hope) by tweaking the positions of the legs and have been given the go-ahead by Jon to start with the arms. I also lessened the angle of the feet on the contacts as well - they were a little extreme before, which may have been contributing to the stamping.
That's all I have to say. Rubbish post?
Moom walk cycle [lower block] V8
Version 8
The fruits of my labour; a much better step length, no weird bump issues on the ups and downs and the legs move pretty smoothly.
He's got a bit of a stamp, though, and Jon suggested that it can be caused by the legs on the passing and up positions being too high and/or too close together. To the Batmobile!
The fruits of my labour; a much better step length, no weird bump issues on the ups and downs and the legs move pretty smoothly.
He's got a bit of a stamp, though, and Jon suggested that it can be caused by the legs on the passing and up positions being too high and/or too close together. To the Batmobile!
Moom walk cycle [lower block] V6 & V7
Version 6
Version 7
These two versions are pretty much identical so I'll talk about them together!
I reverted back to V5 and attempted to sort the leg popping and spacing issues, but I wound up getting very confused over the whole thing. Again, still trying to modify those poses to get the leg to stop popping and to slide smoothly. It's still looking okay but somehow I've managed to make the popping more noticeable.
At this stage I was also thinking that the step wasn't quite wide enough. I may just go back and start again from scratch. Sometimes that's much easier than trying to edit what you already have - you don't make the same mistakes that got you into trouble in the first place!
Version 7
These two versions are pretty much identical so I'll talk about them together!
I reverted back to V5 and attempted to sort the leg popping and spacing issues, but I wound up getting very confused over the whole thing. Again, still trying to modify those poses to get the leg to stop popping and to slide smoothly. It's still looking okay but somehow I've managed to make the popping more noticeable.
At this stage I was also thinking that the step wasn't quite wide enough. I may just go back and start again from scratch. Sometimes that's much easier than trying to edit what you already have - you don't make the same mistakes that got you into trouble in the first place!
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Moom walk [lower block] V5
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.
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.
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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