Jac unholstering gun

[East]

All the constructive criticism in my post with the 'hooker' firing a gun was very inspiring, so I started working on an animation of the main character, Jac, unholstering his gun. First I tried ad libbing it, as with the 'hooker', but the result was horrible, so I gave up after two hours.

Then I realised I could do some old fashioned motion-capture using my webcam, and since I just bought a nice USB 2.0 one that can handle 30 fps, I decided to have a go using this technique.

So after recording the short clip of me unholstering a Glock 17, I saved it as JPEGs. I got 57 frames, so I decided to cut down on that to make creating the sprites more manageable, and ended up with a nice 12 frames.

So after roughly 10 minutes I had made 4 rough frames (as many as I had made by hand before), and realised this is definitely the way to go when animating quasi-human motion.

Here's the result I've got so far (now presented without watermark):



The problems I have so far, that I know of, are as follows.

• Shape of the bottom of the jacket changes too much on frame 2.
• He pulls his weapon through the jacket. Supposed to move the jacket aside first to clear it. I didn't motion capture it as this, but I will record myself doing this, and fix it.
• The last frame has a bit too much of a skipping feel to it, it needs to be more fluid.
• I should probably add a little motion to the lower legs, even though there was none in my motion capture.
• Again.. I just realised that the animation really ends too abruptly.

[Ubel]

Wow wow wow! :o Another quality animation from you!

For critics:
The last frame looks a bit weird. Maybe move his right arm a bit forward.

[Alow]

What program do you use? Can you link me?

[Miez]

That motion blur is WICKED!

[Stefano]

Do you create a 3D animation before working with phtoshop (or wathever program you used)? The result is really cool. Enlighten us about your creative process.

Cheers,
Stefano

PS. About the gun recoil... (hahaha! Just bugging you, man).

[East]

Man, this was so tricky, adding the motion of pushing the jacket aside to clear the gun.. Alon, I use Adobe Photoshop for the drawing, and Adobe ImageReady for the animation. It's a bloody hassle most of the time, though, but I suppose I just need to learn how to work it properly..

But anyways. What I had to do was the following: I had to record myself pushing a jacket aside, and then pull out a gun. Then I had to match that footage up with what I already had, which meant scaling it, since it wasn't the same size.. Trying to squeeze that animation in at the beginning took 3 hours, which is the time it took to complete all of the WIP01..



As you can see he now actually moves the jacket aside before pulling the gun out. I added a little sway to the jacket as an end touch, to take the edge out of the harsh ending. Still not satisfied with it, though, so maybe I'll do some tweaking on it. Some colour flickering going on, on his right thigh, something that should also be corrected..

Stefano, I'll see what I can do to explain the process when I wake up Saturday. Been up 33.5 hours now, and I just can't keep up mich longer..

[DinghyDog]

What looks strange to me about that animation is the sudden increase in detail of the undershirt when he pulls back the jacket. Other than that, it's superb.

-DD

[The Ivy]

This is most excellent.  I just have a few nitpicky comments.  Jac's right hand seems to lack detail at the beginning of the animation, at least compared to the rest of the sprite.  Also, the starting facial expression makes him look a little confused; the eyebrow might be a pixel too low or too far forward or something. 

I don't think you need to add any movement to the legs, as it doesn't look "weird" without it. 

I love the little jacket sway at the end.  It's realistic and it adds to the aura of "cool" that this character has.  Now I'm wondering how a shootout with him and the "hooker" would end...

[baba]

Now I'm wondering how a shootout with him and the "hooker" would end...

Judging from the trajectory of the gun, I'd say it appears that he overpowers her, and tells her to "Get down on the floor b***ch!" 

This guy's knees also seem to bend a bit too far back. I am aware that the anatomy of the body allows the somewhat lean, athletic runner-type people to have legs shaped somewhat like that, but not bending so far back....

[stuh505]

This is good

[hedgefield]

My jaw literally fell open when I saw this sprite. Amazing work!

[skw]

Judging from the trajectory of the gun, I'd say it appears that he overpowers her, and tells her to "Get down on the floor b***ch!"

Or: "Keep the change, you filthy animal!"

Bloody good work, Kyraal.

[Mozesh]

Damn that is one high quality animation!

[Nacho]

Very very impressive... I only see that the left hand suddenly "teleports" in the first frame it moves. A similar "teleport" effect can be seen in the right hand by the increase of the detail from the static frame to the first moving one.

But it's 95% perfect IMHO!

[Stefano]

Well, if he used a footage as a base (great idea), I think it is probably what it really happens. If he added one more frame after the first frame, the movement would probably be slowered. Then he would have to increase the frame rate... and redraw the whole anim all over again! Irchk! 

Stefano, I'll see what I can do to explain the process when I wake up Saturday. Been up 33.5 hours now, and I just can't keep up mich longer.. Smiley

I think I didn't express myself properly. I was talking about the footage-as-base stuff, wich is quite clear to me now.

Cheers,
Stefano

[stuh505]

Well, if he used a footage as a base (great idea)

not a new idea by the way, rotoscoping has been around for ages since the early disney movies, and is still used today in movies like ROTK

[Abisso]

AMAZING!

And now, for some constructive crits:

-Where is the gun? It's in the jacket, or in the trousers / belt? Cause when the jacket is put aside, there's no gun at all, it just shows up in his hand!

-the left hand (last frame) seems a bit weird to me. Maybe it should be put under the other one, with the fingers visible over the right hand.

-I would add some lighting to the shoes.

[Haddas]

That thar is beautiful work!

I'd suggest you add some sort of grimace on his face as he thrusts his arm to retreive his gun. Kinda like but angry

[Moebius]

Oh man....
these shadows,
this "Cat's move",
wheeeeeeeee....
man, man, man...
amazing, beutiful!!!!!!!
Keep on truckin'

(I just haven't got remarks it's... //luck of words)

[Scummbuddy]

moebius, please, we know youre excited about the really nice animation, but:

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