First try at a walk animation

[Hueij]

In the sprite thread I made a sprite of Bettie Page and I wondered if I could animate a character like that. Well... it looks like it is much harder than I first anticipated but finally I got something.

This is my first try at animation and I know there is a lot of tweaking to do. The bobbing of the head looks awful and there should be some inbetween frames. But all in all it could be worse

[Questionable]

I don't think that the bobbing of the head looks awful, but I think it need a bit of sway/torsion. The way that she's walking is only how someone would walk if they wanted to walk like that, and the reason that I say that is that her legs move too close together, her arms don't swing and the body roll is very controlled. It's a calculated walk, the walk someone would walk if they want to appear seductive, that doesn't mean it's a bad walk.

I would imagine this in scenarios such as:

A girl on a runway/catwalk
A girl coming to bed in some lingerie being coy with her mate
A girl at a club/bar trying to get attention (better tips!)


Currently, I'm in the process of animating a woman with a natural grace about her, I want her to walk sexy (though not overtly) and I keep hitting walls... too seductive, too calculated, too plain, too caricature.

I think you might be right about a few more frames but sometimes when you add details the stuttering disappears (sometimes it exacerbates the stuttering, however.)  Overall I give it an 8/10 depending on what you were going for, if this is her running from a monster you only get 4/10 if this is her trying to be sexy you get a 9/10!

YAY FOR POINT SYSTEMS!

[Hueij]

Well, I'm thinking about a noir game and she will be the femme fatale in it. I am trying for the sexy, seductive look, so yeah, I'm all for point systems. 

[Questionable]

Well, I'm thinking about a noir game and she will be the femme fatale in it. I am trying for the sexy, seductive look, so yeah, I'm all for point systems.  

First Calin, now you... seems like everyone will have a noir game before I finish mine.

=' [    I.R. Fail



P.S.  I love it, then!

P.P.S. You're animation, BTW; not my failing as a man...

P.P.P.S. Now, add some meat to those bones!

[Ali]

The bob looks good overall, but I notice that her waist remains at the same height. Other than that it's a great start!

[Hueij]

You are right. Somehow I never noticed that. Thanks, that gives me something to do next weekend

[Hueij]

I made some changes after the remarks of Questionable and Ali. There is more sway in the upper body and her waist doesn't look like it's made of stone anymore I also made her lift her feet some more but I'm still not convinced about how she moves her legs.



Still have a long way to go (getting this one acceptable, up-view, side-view, dressing her up...). Questionable, I don't think you have to worry about my game being ready before yours. 

[Pandaramaster]

It's much better than my effort.

[Snarky]

I think Ali's point about the waist is that the bobbing of the head should come from the hips.

In your walkcycle, the crotch, the waist and the shoulders all stay at a fixed height (disregarding the dipping or twisting from side-to-side), while the neck and head seem to be bouncing up and down on the shoulders.

This is not what actually happens when people walk. In reality, as you bend and straighten your legs, your hips go up and down, and because your spine is mostly rigid, your waist, torso, shoulders, neck, and head go up and down with them. That's the basic source of the head bob, not any stretching or compression or bending or twisting of your upper body. Sure, those things happen as well (neck-bouncing not so much), but they're secondary. (This is probably the clearest expression of what I'm talking about. Notice how there's always a constant distance between the head and the hips.)

So for an anatomically realistic movement, the crotch and waist and shoulders should be bobbing up and down along with the head, in the same rhythm and by the same amount.

I think it's a very good-looking walkcycle, and the "cheat" isn't particularly noticeable unless you're looking for it--and if you start bouncing the hips up and down too much you might lose some of the attitude--but it's something that might help with the overall impression.

[Hueij]

You are absolutely right of course. Rereading Ali's post it seems obvious, I don't know why I misunderstood it the first time. And what is even more embarrassing is the fact that I used the exact same image that you link to as one of my references  I totally missed the up and down movement of the hips.

Thanks a lot, I guess it's back to the drawing board for me.