Aloha gang.Ã, I've spent a good part of the afternoon working on this walkcycle, but there are a few things I can't seem to get right (the green ribbon, for starters).
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/The_Ivy/gif-dlwalk.gif)
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/The_Ivy/gif-dlwalk.gif)
Don't worry about the nitpicky stuff for now, I know there are a few odd pixels that need cleaning.Ã, I haven't worked on the skirt much, either.
All advice welcome :)
Cheers,
~The Ivy~
First thing I notice is that her upper body "bobs", but lower doesn't. That makes it a bit odd, I think. I'd suggest you to move everything above waist, including skirt (since it is attached above waist). Hope this helps.
I think the over-all motion is pretty good!
The green ribbon doesn't look bad to me either.
There is a frame where her right arm (as it's coming forward) the hands seem to be in the exact same location for a frame (or the right arm moves into the same place as the left moves out) Does that make sense? It throws off the smooth movement to my eyes. That's a simple fix!
The torso seems stock still. Just making those stripes move slightly would really sell the image!
I like the movement of the hair, at the bottoms. But the "sheen" on the hair could shift a bit to accent the movement and would look nice!
And since you commented on the skirt, I will not.
Great start! Keep up the good work!
You've done well with the general motion. Here is an edit to show you some areas that could be improved.
1. Toned down the extreme leg movement so her legs could be kept at the same length.
2. Made the legs a bit rounder and consistent.
3. Altered the motion of the dress to match the closest leg.
4. Made her move down with each low step rather than stay still.
5. Put in a slight torso sway and additional hair animation.
6. Made the arms curvier and more consistent.
(http://members.cox.net/progzmax/daywalk.gif)
The key with leg motion is consistency. You did a great job with the near arm but the legs vary in length and position so much that they weren't connecting to the body anymore. This is easy to do when you are dealing with obscured portions of the leg, since you can't see where they connect to the body directly. You've done a great job and hopefully this will help you to do even better.
Hi.
So not one to give advice ^^; but you mentioned the ribbon.
I thought if it was gauzy type stuff it might catch the wind a bit more so...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/gif-dlwalk.gif)
Anyway.
Hey The Ivy,
Great stuff!Ã, The new art style is working out nicely - it'll be great to see it in action.
As far as animation critique goes, there isn't much wrong with your work, and I can't really top ProgZmax's comments and edit (he is somewhat the animation king) so I'll just draw closer attention to two things he worked on:
1)Ã, The torso-and-waist sway / bob (which I think you caught nicely with the original Mortia animation) - important because people's whole bodies tend to move when they're walking, and if they're not animated in walk cycles (which I can understand, because it's a pain in the artichoke to do) it risks making the sprite look a bit puppet-like.
2)Ã, The closing up of the legs and arms, particularly because there are parts in your original anim where the front / back arms / legs cross over each other's position, and it becomes temporarily disorientating because it looks like they've swapped places.Ã, (In particular there are two frames in a row where the near hand and the far hand are in exactly the same place, which looks odd.)
The only thing I'm not fond of in ProgZmax's edit is the ribbon - I quite like theeph's edit on that one, it has a more regular dynamic to it.
Oh, also also - I like Darth's idea about the hair sheen staying in place as her head bobs up and down (as it would if she was moving through light).
Anyway, I realise these are somewhat nitpicky things, which is precisely what you didn't want, but really the animation is of good quality already, so nitpicking is all that's left :)
Yes, the bob problem is actually becuase in you animation her legs are effectively growing longer as they go out in front and shorter when vertical becuase her hips are not moving. Although plugging my walkcycle generator sucks, it does actually use bones of fixed lengths to work out the animation and so doesn't have this problem. It may be worth just giving it try as a reference....
While there's a leg length problem in the original too, in ProgZMax's edit it looks like the legs are shorter when they are back than when they are forward.
Thanks for all the advice...I'll try to include the best of everything and have something to show for it by tomorrow. ProgZ, your edit is spectacular...I didn't really notice that her legs were inconsistent in length, but that's something I can work on now. I keep noticing more details, actually...the earring sway is something I didn't even think of. :)
And Theeph, I'm really liking what you did with the ribbon. It looks a lot more flowy, which is what I was going for.