Lif Animation

[joelphilippage]

here is the walking animation for Lif. It looks a bit weird in the editor and I don't know why. How could I improve it.

[Renal Shutdown]

His legs don't seem to land in the right places, and it's not very smooth for starters.

What was it drawn in?  Considering the look of if it, I'd guess it was something Flash-esque.
If it was something like mspaint, then I'd suggest you try Flash, as it would suit your style and make things easier.

Anyhow, on to the walkcycle.  Start with 2 frames, with the legs at their further from each other.  IE, the legs make an inverted V shape.  Then make 2 more frames with one leg touching the floor, and the other in the air, moving forwards.  Then add in-betweens as you go, until it's smooth enough.  (If the software you use has an onion-skinning/light-table feature, then use it.  It's very handy).

For the process of explanation, I'll use this walkcycle I knocked up ages ago.  (It's simple, and I'm not a fan of paintovering).


Note the guy's left foot, and how it hits the ground in front of him and moves back at a relatively common pace.  Also note how his right foot does the same, but in opposition to the left.  If you looked at his foot prints, they'd be even spaced apart.  [left, gap, right, gap, left, gap, etc].

When looking at Lif's steps, his right foot reaches a lot further forward than his left.  His footprints would be spaced more as pairs. [left, 2x gap, right, gap, left, 2x gap, right, etc].  With some fiddling, it might be made to work if he had a left foot in a cast*, or a used a zimmer frame, but at the moment it's just looking odd.

The arms are moving in the correct directions, just a little jerky.  Personally, I'd put a little less movement into them, as it seems he's stuggling to move forwards, and is having to put more effort into each step.  IE, lunging, just walked for miles and is tired, or wading thru treacle.

As I've never tried animating something with a tail, I'm going to refrain from making a comment on the head/tail positions.  I'd have to have many attempts at it to figure out how they'd move.

Hopefully that should give you something to go on with for now.  Only other thing I can suggest, after practicing it, is googling for walkcycles, there's quite a few hints, tips and guides floating around on the web.

* This rings a bell for some reason, I've no idea why.

[joelphilippage]

Heres an update.
By the way I use Paint.net

[mouthuvmine]

Get that tail movin'. It looks like he's being followed.

[ManicMatt]

I agree about the tail.

That's a better walk animation! It needs speeding up in the editor though, I hope he doesn't walk that slowly in the game!

[joelphilippage]

I'm not sure how to animate a tail, should it go back and forth? I would assume that a tail would just drag behind like it is now. It looks ok in the game. Also, the animation is faster in the game.

[ManicMatt]

I'm not sure how it would drag to be honest, but it looks strange how it's completely still despite Lif moving about. It probably just needs to wobble a little bit.

[vertigoaddict]

My brother used to cut the tails off lizards for fun. As far as I can remember the tail doesn't move too much (only when they're moving really quick, which is most always but your reptile is walking at a moderate speed)

I suggest you at least make the tail look like it's connected to the body (fix where the tail meets the body cause...) right now it looks like he's rubbing a foreign object on his...behind...ahem.

Note: if he moves back, wouldn't the tail move back a little or curve as well? you've kept the tail stagnant because you don't know how it's supposed to move, but even little girl's pony tails move and those don't even have muscles.

[Daniel Thomas]

A quick example:
Try to make the key/extreme-frames first, The one I have in the animation are basicly those - but you could probably get away with less if you're good.


In my its like this. (8 frames)
#1 we have Contact- where the heel contacts the ground of the frontleg, it has been thrown infront to stop the fall.
#2 then the Down- Where most of the weight/mass gets transfered to the frontleg, causing it to bend a little(doesnt have to, looks good in animation though _imo_)
#3 the Passing- The leg is/is about to passing the center of gravity, the back leg has left the ground.
#4 the High- The body is about the fall forward and the leg on the ground is pushing away a little.
5#,#6,#7,#8 is just repeating but for the other leg.

There are endless of variations and none are more correct then the other I guess, this was probably the most basic one - It depends on what kind if character you want. The tail I just indicated a little that its swinging with the body's turning (badly).

things to notice is the head and body position, they turn a little when arms are swinging.

Hope its help a little, if you're really serious about it though - get a book (animators survival kit) which could teach you more then anyone here could or would have time to (I think)

[cat]

Try this link: http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/~rpyjp/a_notes/04_walkcycle_project.html
There is also a walkcycle of a dinosaur.

[joelphilippage]

I redid the animation, this time I pretty much followed Zyndikate's example and redrew each frame instead of just moving things around. I liked the Idea of him picking his tail up when he walked. Should I add anymore frames?

[Candall]

Wow, that one came quite a long way.  Personally, I don't feel that any more frames are necessary.  The way it's drawn has a Saturday Morning Cartoon feel and the slightly choppy animation adds to that.  You'd sacrifice character if you smoothed it.

That's just my opinion, though.

Either way, Zyndikate's template was really great!

[markbilly]

I think his belly disappears a little too much in the animation, maybe if it just moves around a bit, so it is always visible...?

Apart from that, it is very good. The sprite generally looks a lot cleaner.

[vertigoaddict]

here is the walking animation for Lif. It looks a bit weird in the editor and I don't know why. How could I improve it.

Now that looks great! no crittique here, just a compliment.

[OneDollar]

The stomach flashes yellow on one particular frame. Other than that its great!

[Cino]

Coming along nicely, but there are several inconsistencies you should pay your attention on, like his hand being bigger on some frames. I also suggest you make some jagged edges smoother, especially his knees when his bending them.

[Dualnames]

Great job. Looks way better...

EDIT: Doesn;t look smooth or perfect according to rules but still does the trick, try experimenting a little you might come up with something better..

[Daniel Thomas]

I hope you dont mind me asking, but what rules?