Monkey walkcycle

[Mats Berglinn]

I've done a walkcycle for one of the importaint characters of Caribbean Mysteries, Crispy the Monkey. He is the pet of Torleif Shufflefoot and he's very smart. Unlike his master he can play a tuba the right way and the only thing that distracts him is bananas. Anyway, here's a walkcycle of him plus a frame of his regular veiw (to the right):



I know that monkeys regularly don't walk on their hindlegs but since CM is a cartoony game and that Crispy is smart and is a pet I don't want him to walk on all four like real monkeys do.

I'm not entirely sure if the tail wags the right way when he walks (I don't want it to look so stiff so that's why it's wagging while he's walking. I'm not sure if monkeys tails do wag when they walk or not, though.).

Sorry about the unneccesary white space. I promise to get rid of it.

[switcharoo]

Any chance of an animated version? It would be good to see him in full flow.
I think his arm in the still view (the last pose) should be closer to his body... it looks kinda odd at the moment.

Also, monkeys use their tails for balance when they're climbing trees etc but that's when they use all four limbs. I don't know how the tail would move with Crispy using two legs.

[Mats Berglinn]

Sure, I'll fix an animated version. I realized now that I had one more frame too much since it's meant to be a six frames so the last one is actually the first one (yes I know the tail is wrong here).

Also, monkeys use their tails for balance when they're climbing trees etc but that's when they use all four limbs. I don't know how the tail would move with Crispy using two legs.

I thought it might be something like that but didn't quite fully remember that.

[Renal Shutdown]

Sorry. My flipbook monitor is out of action for a while. I'll wait for the animation.

[switcharoo]

Hope you don't mind Mats...



There's a bit of a problem with his legs from frames 1 to 2 and frames 4 to 5 but other than that he's looking pretty good apart from the tail, but you already know about that.

[Erwin_Br]

I'd rather see the monkey move in a swinging way using its forearms, if you know what I mean. Like, lifting its body and swinging its legs forward, off the ground.

--Erwin

[Mats Berglinn]

dg: Thanks for animating it for me. I have Adobe ImageReady and it can only have animation files in psp files and you can't upload those on AGS Upload. Well, I'll see what I can do about the frames. And about the tail, I'm still not sure but I don't know exactly what's wrong with it or how to fix that.

Erwin: Sorry but I totally disagree with you because, that counts as Crispy walking on all four. If you missed what I said before, I will repeat:

I know that monkeys regularly don't walk on their hindlegs but since CM is a cartoony game and that Crispy is smart and is a pet I don't want him to walk on all four like real monkeys do.

[Erwin_Br]

dg: Thanks for animating it for me. I have Adobe ImageReady and it can only have animation files in psp files and you can't upload those on AGS Upload. Well, I'll see what I can do about the frames. And about the tail, I'm still not sure but I don't know exactly what's wrong with it or how to fix that.

Erwin: Sorry but I totally disagree with you because, that counts as Crispy walking on all four. If you missed what I said before, I will repeat:

I know that monkeys regularly don't walk on their hindlegs but since CM is a cartoony game and that Crispy is smart and is a pet I don't want him to walk on all four like real monkeys do.

Oh, okay... I missed that part Now that you explained this: The monkey does remind me of a Futurama episode.

Technically I don't have much to add to what's already been said, except a suggestion to shade the arm and leg in the background a little darker. That'll probably make the animation easier to watch. Other than that, great work! Keep it going

--Erwin

[switcharoo]

I have Adobe ImageReady and it can only have animation files in psp files

I used ImageReady to animate it. If you chose "Save Optimized As" (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S) instead of "Save As" then you can save as a gif.

And about the tail, I'm still not sure but I don't know exactly what's wrong with it or how to fix that.

I think there should be less movement in the tail, at the moment (in the animated version) it looks like it's going 'round in a circle. It would probably look better if it just kinda swayed from side to side in time with the footsteps.

[Mats Berglinn]

Erwin: Ok, I will make a darker shading. Maybe the darker color that I have now isn't dark enough to see any difference or maybe your screen is a bit too dark. By the way, I haven't seen so much Futurama so I don't know about the monkey from there but Crispy is 100 % from my mind.

dg: Thanks! I'm going to change that.

[Mats Berglinn]

Ok, now I have finished a new version and this time I managed to make it as an animation (thanks to dg for the help!):



* I have lowered the head on the 2:d, 4:th and 6:th frame make the head bob when he moves (thought it looked slightly stiff when his head was still).
* Changed the tail so it wags back and forth (it looks good to me but I don't know about you guys).
* Changed the feet in second and fifth frame.

I'm not sure about the feet but maybe it's just me. Tell me what you think.

[Khris]

There's a little problem with the feet (although it doesn't matter that much with the high res you're going to use):

Even the worst walkcycle looks good if the feet don't slide over the ground.
To achieve this, make sure that the feet move back the exact same number of pixels between frames as long as they're on the ground. (This number should equal the "Speed" in the Character Settings, btw.)

Apart from that and the head's wrong timed bobbing, it looks good.

[Mats Berglinn]

Apart from that and the head's wrong timed bobbing, it looks good.

Then in what frames should the bobs be then if not 2:nd, 4:th and 6:th frames?

[switcharoo]

dg: Thanks for animating it for me.

dg: Thanks! I'm going to change that.

thanks to dg for the help!

Glad I could help, Mats.

Just coz I had some free time today I thought I'd see what I could do with this walkcycle... Here's the result:



I played around with positions of his arms and legs in the original version but in the end just went with eight frames instead of six. I made a few other changes as well, he's a bit lighter brown now and I moved his ear forward a couple of pixels... maybe something else too but I can't remember.

It's not great but it's okay so I thought I'd share it.


Dave

[Ozwalled]

mats, on the front leg's back swing, I think it might be worthwhile to better outline the upper part of his leg, so that one can more easily follow it's movement. The way you have it now, I find it's just getting lost in his fur, and it muddies up the motion.

Also, dg's edit's motion on the backswing doesn't go nearly as far -- yours goes back a bit too far, IMO, making it look like he's REALLY shoving off to me.

[Floskfinger]

I like how dg changed the movment looks more natural now... the only thing now is that it moves like a person inside a monkey suit instead of a real monkey

[switcharoo]

I agree, Floskfinger he does look like a bloke in a suit. I think my version needs longer arms and more bend in his limbs. Mats asked me to loosen up the tail, which I did in this edit:



But he could deffinately use an injection of monkeyness.

[What a loser.]

DG: That would be 100% perfect if the monkey would blink, Great work guys! 

[Khris]

Then in what frames should the bobs be then if not 2:nd, 4:th and 6:th frames?

Look here:
http://idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

[switcharoo]

DG: That would be 100% perfect if the monkey would blink, Great work guys! 

Thanks. I think a blink in an eight frame walkcycle wouldbe too repetitive though, maybe for an idle animation...