Animations of Comforquest

[Nacho]

Here are some images of Comfort quest... I feel like I am showing too much, but I want it to be as closer to perfection, so I guess I'll have to give the surprise with the overal atmosphere and the storyline


A dog barking. The motion is quite good IMO, as I see that the bark is a violent movement. ProgZmax tried another softer one, just like a talk cycle, but I don't really preffer that one better than this, sorry. But I feel that there's something bad about the tecnique. If results into something nice I'll probably put it in resources, as I think we need more animal *VERB*cycles there.





And here is what I am getting with the walkcycles. Chest bouncing, slight and violent, I am not sure which to choose, I thin the one in the middle, but I might be wrong as for the AGSer's choice.

Thanks and sorry for the lamity I am reaching here, bombing you with Comfort Quest. Sorry for posting it so late here in CL, using GiP instead.

[Haddas]

I would go with the one in the middle. it's awesome.

[fovmester]

So you put boxers on him? 

Go for nbr 2, it's the best.

There's something that disturbs me about the dog though. It's that his front legs are not fixed to the ground. They're gliding backwards as he barks.

[Nacho]

I've seen pics of dogs for making the anim, the problem is that they are pics of the final frame. And the front legs are dramatically bended in the way I painted it. I haven't worked carefully in giving consistence to the colours, so the animation "shake" and it is not realistic. But I've made it now in my computer, adding some pixels to bend the legs, not just "teleport" them, as you see in the animation, and it is ok. The problem is that I think there is a problem about "frame choosing". I think there is a better way to sollute it.

As an example, I'll refer to the famous "ball bounce"

A CORRECT animation.


Before we dig into animating tecniques, we just to think that all the movements have the same distance ratio between frames. But then we see it looks just horrible if we do it in that way. A bouncing ball should become a circle moving up and down in a regular speed. I think there's a problem like that in my dog, but I don't have a dog, or a nice dog animation to see, and the barks I remember are too fast in my mind to conclude something positive.

Hope that explained my problem! 

[Spitfire]

I like the end one best. 

[aussie]

So he had to forfeit freedom in exchange for dignity! 

I like the first one. I feel the others bounce a tad too much.

Also, don't you think there's too much black in the upper body?

[SpacePirateCaine]

I had a quick crack at the barking animation, since you said you wanted to improve upon it a bit. There's a big dog living at one of the houses along my walk to school, and it has a habit of going psycho whenever I walk by, so I've had lots of chances to get a good look at a dog going agro from the safe side of the fence. One of the big things I noticed is that when that dog lets out one huge 'Worf!' at somebody, before it starts howling up a storm, it does so with such force that it usually knocks itself off balance - forelegs flying of to the side in a little mini-jump, so I incorporated that into the animation to make it look like so:


I also poked around moving a few pixels and so on. There's about twice as many frames now than there were before, but I hope it still looks alright to you, Farlander.

As for the walking animation, I agree with Aussie that number one is most suitable - your shoulders don't bounce that much unless you're doing it on purpose. At best they sway side to side - and as he's been likely beaten and disgraced by this point in the story, it's unlikely he'll have all that much spring in his step as to get his shoulders a-bouncin' as they are in 2 or 3.

[Krysis]

Animating a dog is a hard thing I guess but SpacePirateCaine's dog looks like its sneezing.

[LGM]

The first dog looks like it's coughing up mucus, the second looks like it's sneezing.

As for the man, I really like the last one.

[LilBlueSmurf]

A lot of dogs actually tilt their head up instead of sticking it out.  If you want a bark cycle longer than a single bark, say 3 or so, I'd move the head forward just a tad, and up a tad in the first "bark" then arc it's head back a bit more on each "bark" after.  Also, the reason I think the others look like sneezing or whatever, is that a ferocious bark is very rarely a single "bark".  And if it is just a kind of friendly barking, there is little more than a tiny head movement a chest puff.  I am around dogs a lot and have access to many dogs trained to do all kinds of tricks, so if people need a little feedback from me feel free to ask.

The best solution for you I think would be to have a more than one animation.  Have a starting to bark, in which he gets into position (head out a bit, possibly tilted up slightly, tail out, fur up, etc) ; a barking animation, basically just cycles through the mouth and head movement with possibly a tad bit of body "puff" or tail twitch (though most dogs keep a very stiff tail when barking) ; then a done barking animation that brings it back to the standing or walking cycles.  For any single fierce bark I think it will always have a "sneeze" look to it and Space's is probably about the best you can get.  Imagine if you had a yelling animation for a person that went from calm to angry repeatedly, it is pretty much the same thing.

[Haddas]

a dog of that size would probably stretch out and "dig" through the air with it's jaw.

[Kweepa]

Wow, talk about over analysing.
The original dog bark animation is fine, as long as it's not looped. Stick the appropriate sound effect in and it's perfectly convincing.
For the walk cycle, I think the first is best as it has the least distracting bounce.

[Candle]

Just amazed at what you guys can do . all looks great to me .

[mätzyboy]

I agree with Steve McCrea on the barking. It shouldn't be looped, otherwise the animation is great.

As for walking animation, nr 3 is the best in my opinion. He is a bit bouncy, especially his hair when he set's his right foot down. Id keep that down a bit. I like however that the arms aren't static. Nr 2 just gives a too rubbery feel to me.

And, by the way, his feet are huge! Bigfoot, a relative of his, is he? I'd like to see them a bit thinner, but I also know that feet are really hard buggers to draw...

[Anarcho]

I think the third one is the best, though the second one would be great except that his shoulders heave a bit too much.  The first one's abs look like they're floating apart from his body.

That's a great dog though.  Awesome animation!

[big brother]

The prisoner's shading looks pretty inconsistent. His top half uses more shades than his legs do (notice the interior black outlines on his sides). I think I would tone down the contrast on his chest so it doesn't stick out as much.

Of the three walkcycles, I prefer the first one, although his pecs do something weird when they move down into his ribs. Like I said in the GIP thread, adding a chain swaying (side to side) between his manacles would add a lot of depth to the anim.

EDIT:

I tried to make it more uniform. Probably reduced the color count by 3 or 4, too (it's now 7, not counting the background color). Also added the chain.
2x zoom

[Kinoko]

I have to go with #1 myself. The guy in the second animation is seriously gettin' down, baby. If he was MC Hammer, I'd say go for it. #3 looks good if the style you're going for is over-exagerrated Disney animation. Mre realistic, go for #1.

The dog is FINE. Even if it's looped, it still looks fine to me.

[Nacho]

What I got thanks to BB's image.



Honestly, I was working on the second version, making the overall feeling of the tone of the legs darker, adding pixels here and there. But then it came BB, and saved my live. This new spite will save me of a great ass pain when doing the rest of animations.

I was expecting to flip the first 4 frames, and just paste the hair, but the arms are not simetricall as well.

I discovered it when flipping, and I thought, oh! this arse (sorry BBÃ,  )Ã,  is going to make me cut torsos and paste on the flipped images! But then I saw it again, and I like what the arms do when moving, quite realistic, IMO.

What do you think?

[Nikolas]

I think that I've said it before, but I'll try again. If no one seems to take notice of that then it's my fault and I'll shut up!

I think that his paces are too big. If most of the time, he's locked up in a small cell, he wouldn't be doing these gigantic steps, would he? It seems most unrealistic to me. The more I see him, the more I get the impression that he's walking miles. If you put him in a cell he might finish the ride before the wackcycle is done...

I don't know, just an observation

[Nacho]

I think that I've said it before, but I'll try again. If no one seems to take notice of that then it's my fault and I'll shut up!

[joke] [annoyed tone]Yeeeees, silly boy!!!11  But I am too lazy to make the walkcycle again!!!1  (Or to demmand ProgZmax to do them again...)  [/annoyed tone] [/joke]