Hi all. Having some drama with a walk cycle for a character.
Trying to make it "sashay" as it walks.
I usually have a pain with the intermediary steps, because it seems counter intuative... no matter how many movies of walking I watch I can never seem to get it down pat. Anyway, I have the extremes here, and I'm just looking for some ideas to shoe horn in between.
Thanks.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/amywalkforward2.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/amywalkforward1.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/amywalkforward3.png)
It'd be easier to tell what transitions were needed if it were an animated gif. Do you have that capability? If not, I can throw it together for you...
Thanks for replying.
I am really ashamed of this anim. It makes me seasick... but anyway. Apoligies.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/SHAME.gif)
I think you might be trying to go too far too quick with this one. I think the way her left hand bounces around is pretty distracting as is. Simplify the shoulder/hips/breasts some. Too many things are hopping around.
It's a good attempt, so don't get discouraged!
Dont mind me, it's the first thing that came to mind but...
Is she doing the riverdance?
The thing I've noticed with my own animations, is that it is easier to start at one extreme and move to the other (IE tween as you go, even though technically you aren't tweening) this actually helps make the animation smoother than trying to make a animation start at one point, and end at another while both the start and stop animations are already finished.
Thanks for replies.
@ Penguinx - Cheers for encouragement. Will simplify first and get the annimation happening. Hopefully won't have to take all the detail out cause I like it :) and also I have all sorts of funky kung fu already animated... we shall see.
@ Alynn - lol. Riverdance. Actually, I was playing Nine Inch Nails at the time, and she danced to that too. I think maybe I'll release it as some sort of incipid, epilepsy inducing eye toy. Heh. Anyway - will start from scratch, simplyfying like Penguinx said, and follow your annimation approach. I know it isn't tweening too, but I couldn't think of a better blanket term. "Interim frames" sounds... bleah.
Cheers again.
Actually, you were right the first time. Tweening comes from inbetweening and is an old school, traditional animation term. Newer programs that do automatic tweening have adopted the term, sure, but it existed well before the likes of 3D and vector animation programs.
I didn't mean you needed to simplify the design (though simpler designs and smaller resolutions tend to help, really). I just meant the amount of objects bouncing around during the walkcycle could be toned down till you get your basic stride figured out. Start with the sticks, lay the pixels over. That sort of thing.
You can draw in the style you're aiming for well enough; it's just a matter of getting the animation right first and throwing the art at it second, I think. Doing both at once might be biting off more than one can chew.
Ahh cheers for the clarification and response Penguinx. Hmm. Cool to be (somewhat accidentally) right about tweening.
I mucked about a bit more and I'm a fraction happier with the result. Ie, not too embarassed to post it. :P
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/alittlebetter.gif)
Yup. More than I can chew, that's my issue all over. Anyway that's a last ditch effort for some improvement tonight before I retire. I'll get to it fresh tomorrow, and strip it back to teh sticks. Thanks again for crit and help!
Definitely looking better! There's a slight pause when she brings her right foot forward. Is that just the way the gif was saved? Eliminating that pause would help it flow a lot better.
Keep in mind that during a walk cycle, both feet should never be flat on the ground at the same time.
Aha!
6 frames, deleted the 2 standing frames and the repeated first frame at the end.
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/The_Ivy/morebetter.gif)
She's starting to look like she's walking, although there are a few things that could be a bit more consistent. The size of her belt buckle changes a lot, for example. Also, too much of her jeans show overtop of her hands on the extremes. I also think her head moves too much from side to side. Think of a model on the runway...they look very determined (and scary), and the only head movement is up and down.
Otherwise, I think it's a perfectly functional animation. I'd like to see some hair bounce, too, like it moves up when she's stepping down and down when she's stepping up (does that make sense?).
Good luck!
Thanks all for the great responses! ;D
@ Penguinx - Thanks and yep. That was my 2 in the morning idiocy that saved it incorrectly.
@ Candall - Cheers, will remember it. I usually fall into that hole, and given Ivy's edit, I see it makes it look teh suck.
@ The Ivy - Thank you stacks for the edit. Actually starting to look like what I want. I shall work on consistancy. I think part of the problem was I made the sprite from a seeries of sketches on different bits of paper. I'll do them all together next time. And yeah, I agree about the head. I was working from a runway reference movie I nabbed from YouTube, but at that hour last night the lazy-flip-and-reshade option sounded a whole lot more attractive.
I'll hit this in an hour or so and post my results. Thanks again all.
EDIT: Ok, not too major. Lotsa problems still there, but I fixed the head wavy thing, made one of the arms swing wider and look less noodle-like, redid the crazed "Breast Explosion" on some of the frames, and cleaned up the hip part a tiny bit. Have plans for the hair and finer details but I want it to get more... walky first...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/gettin-there.gif)
Does she ever open her legs when she walks? I bet she chaffs like crazy.
Quote from: [lgm] on Wed 12/07/2006 03:33:00
Does she ever open her legs when she walks? I bet she chaffs like crazy.
I bet it canes. But that's actually consistant with my reference vid. No legs apart at all.
Maybe my next task should be a Big Blue Cup item full of anesthetic cream.
Edited:
----------
Aiiet. No more chafing. Fixed silly shading. Got a little hair bobble. Looking a little bit more walksome.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/aiiiet.gif)
Hahaha, I like this!
A lot of improvement! You'll get there eventually!!
My crits:
- She's swaying like a mad dog. Try walking sexy yourself. I'm sure you won't sway your hips like that :=
As for her boobies. They bounce off to every corner very harsh! When walking like this boobies should smoothly bounce up and down and up and down...and....up.........and......sexy and...
/me faints
LOL n3tgraph.
There is no way I'm trying to emulate that walk myself. Although on the amusing side, I just asked my wife to, and she bounced a coke can off the back of my head. XD
But will try reducing sway and increasing the up-down. Gotcha.
Try to convince her to do it. Film it, and then rotoscope it. and apply that to the walkcycle.
Take these as an example:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Haddas/wonderful.gif)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Haddas/ROTOwonderful.gif)
They aren't of the best quality but they should get the point across nicely.
I used Adobe Imageready
Hi. I love the static images. LOVE. I think the exagerated-ness of her walk is absolutely fantastic - the way you've got bits going everywhere is really cool.
I just don't think it looks like she's walking that much. Bits are moving around, but we need some smoothness here. Seeing as I absolutely HATE doing walkcycles, and am a glutton for punishment, I decided to show you and example of what I mean. Note - I'm not claiming my version is better, I'm just giving out ideas of how smooth I think it should be.
Start off with Miss Basic Image. I'm not going for sexy here - just demonstration, so plain Jane should do this.
(http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/7917/s3gu.png)
Innocent, isn't she? Ok, so now we've got our image, lets get those legs moving!!!
(http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/7484/12jw.gif)
Beaut! Just what is needed for walking! Legs. Ok, so I'm feeling a bit silly. Stick with me!
(http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/192/27yu.gif)
Add "Chest Fluctuations" (that's not a proper term). This is a less exagerrated version, but still ...erm... bouncy...
(http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/9889/37ge1.gif)
Who could forget those hips? Mmm... hips... Not so innocent now, is she?
(http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8320/47tf.gif)
Now cross those legs over a bit, catwalk model style.
Here ends the example.
Yeah, I know she needs and extra frame. But I'm lazy and gave up doing more, because 5 steps is too many to have in a crappy example like this anyway! What was I thinking???
She's still not too smooth - more frames and faster animation will do that. But to tell you the truth, each example is only 3 frames - then those three flipped and copied, so it isn't that much drawing. Lemme know what you think.
And Haddas... wow. I'm gonna have to try animation like that one day. So smooth!
And yeah, n3tgraph is right. They are up and down and up and..... no I mean maybe a little less exagerated on the hips and chest side would help. But the exageration is still cool.
Peace.
Wow.
First thanks to Haddas for the rotoscoping tip. Having a little trouble doing it to the sashay because of the zoom factor. (Ie. chick walking towards me gets bigger but sprite needs to stay the same.) However I am totally using that technique for some of the other animations I've got hidden away for her and others. ^_^
A huge thanks to Ben304 for the amazingly helpful walking tute and crit. That is going to be wildly useful. I'm gonna take some time to animate the walk properly now. I've been playing around swapping torso and legs and getting some ok results so with your ideas I should be able to come up with something I'm happy with. *gives you the internet*
Anyway, here's another char I've been working on to stop myself from burning out trying to get Amy to get her walk on.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/samuel-orson-mags.gif)
Ok. Off to scribble some pencil versions of those new footsteps. A huge thank you to everyone once again. This is really helpful.
Glad you like it. Now that I come back and look at the animation, I realise I should have put a bit more effort in. But like I said, I'm lazy.
I couldn't imagine doing my animation on paper first. I do it all frame by frame in paint and then use the Windows picture viewer thing to view each frame, so I can click the next button repeatedly to get an idea of how its looking.
And perhaps if you wanted to solve the person getting closer problem, you might use a treadmill? Just a thought...
A treadmill. Now that's an awesome idea.
Unfortunatley, I don't own one and also we suffer the same ailment, that is - laziness.
Anyway, departed from excercise equipment I rocked out with my pixels out and here's the latest version:
*Fixed walk cycle to correspond to Ben304's stuff-that-makes-sense. *bows*
*Added cooler looking hair flick. The old stuff was too limp. Hopefully the new stuff isn't too extreme.
*Busted out my force equals mass times acceleration squared, and made boobies go up and down only.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/bouncebounce.gif)
Edit: Also for fun and giggles, here's a sample of a flip thing I'm working on. It was a five minute job to pixel because I drew it first. That's basically what sold me on it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/amyflipSUPAR.gif)
Ah! You are getting there indeed. That flip is pretty cool too.
Now, just to prove I'm a glutton for punishment, I thought "Wouldn't it be better to make an animation with that sprite, to demostrate something?" What that something is, I do not know. However, I thought I'd do it anyway. First thing I did was kill all detail in favour of good o'l black lines - this makes it a whole lot quicker to animate, and then you can colour her up afterwards. Note that this version doesn't have flowing hair or anything - I just wanted to show how I think (note - opinion present - not necessarily correct) things should move around, flow, etc, whatever...
I thought I would do it in the different stages, as before. (And hey, sorry the face ended up looking like some freak that was beaten with the ugly stick - I laughed so much when I saw this monster I had created that I just HAD to keep it!
Ok, Step 1. Nick picture of person on forums, trace basic outline in MSPaint (the only program to use!!!) and get rid of all colour.
(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7573/srd4.png)
Told you I made her ugly, didn't I?
(http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/8507/1fg0.gif)
Basic legs...
(http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/3884/2zy7.gif)
"Chest Fluctuations" (I love that term!!!)
(http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/1013/3vj4.gif)
Hips... mmm...
(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3149/47bc.png)
Now unfortunately, though I tried 3 times, this one would work as an animation - it didn't loop, just ran once, so I thought I'd just post the frames to finish up the legs and you should get the general idea.
Now I know there are still heaps of things to fix - arms especially (oh yeah, and face!!!) - but this took me 2 hours, so I'm kinda sick of mucking around. Could have probably done it quicker if I hadn't accidentally deleted one whole stage, making myself start again...
Lemme know what you think. If it helps, great. If not - well I love wasting time on any ol' thing that comes my way, so at least I've amused myself.
One little suggestion - try lightening the colour of the trousers, or making the outline in a lighter colour - with no clear outline, it can make it hard to tell which leg is in front.
I'm done. Peace.
Just... wow. Thanks a bucket load Ben304! I think I'm slowly getting it.
Comparing our two anims, I'm thinking that the top of mine looks like it's running a marathon and the bottom is doing some crazy moonwalk. I'd like to say it's because I want that effect, but I'm pretty sure it's a whole bunch of little lazies that squished together into one big squishy ball of mashed potato... of laziness.
It's gotta be said though... I heart your ugly-stick-face drawing. It's gigglesome.
Thank you so much for investing all this time... O_O it's really cool.
I'm going to go play with your final frames and spend some time getting it working. Stay tuned.
Also - yeah it's about time I changed the jeans colours. It was frustrating me when I was making corrections because I couldn't see what I was doing without adjusting my monitor contrast. Blast!
Cheers!
Glad you like it. Looking forward to the result. Now that I look at this after I have done it and come back to it, I of course hate it. This always seems to be the case. Hips need to wiggle more, chest should stay the same but breasts should bounce a little bit more... legs look crap (though I do wish I could see that final version moving for a more accurate idea), left side of her torso gets chunks taken out as she walks, arms and hands suck... you've got a bit of work ahead of you if you wanna fix this baby. Oh yeah - and face is still UGLY!!!
Good luck. I may not see the result for a while (going away for a week or two) but will look for it when I get back. Happy pixelling!
Huff puff.
Ok some big changes. Anyway I pretty much painted over Ben304's edit. I rearranged things a bit, but not too major. Changed the trouser colour... lets the shading show up better which makes the legs look better I think. Taking a short break from this one now to go make guis :P
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/theeph/ben304s-edit.gif)
Your walk cycle is really coming along. I really like the character you designed, you made yourself a quality sprite to animate.
There are certain things that don't look 'normal', though.
I just tried the walk out myself and noticed a few things about the movement.
-The hips 'pop' out the most on the PASSING of the opposite foot (because that's when the leg has the most weight on it), not on the CONTACT (when the foot hits the ground) of the opposite foot.
-The torso rotates slightly in the direction of the hip going up.
-The shoulders slightly tilt the opposite direction of the hips.
-Her chest should be moving all the time, not just jerk on one frame. Her chest should bounce when a foot comes in contact with the ground.
--Other things--
-her hair should move more fluidly. I don't think her hair would move that far out unless she were running, just a one or two pixel movement should do it.
-her right (our left) arm is constantly changing sizes, same with her shirt sleeves.
-the shadowing on her pants isn't consistent.
-----
You should try walking this way and try to feel how she's walking. You'll make a better animation because of it.
Cool. Thanks Drawken!
It's gonna be really helpful to have an itemised list of stuff to fix/implement. Thanks for the compliment too. I shall have a bash at the changes and see what I can come up with.
I also just noticed how revoltingly inconsistant the leg shadows are too. >_< *headdesk*
Thanks again!
Oh, and it amused (and complimented) me to know that somewhere, halfway around the world, you were trying the walk out! :) I'm glad you didn't try the walk from my first version... I might have had to pay for damages.
Cheers.