Week 4 31/01/13
On this week we started to do a walk cycle with the ball and legs rig below.
Here is the ball walking without any other movement added to it, such as movement of the hips etc. I followed the tutorial we were given and used the graph editor to smooth the walk a little more. I worked well to give a smoother transition between contact points.
Above, I added hip movement, however it looks as if it has a double bounce to the walk, but that may have been down to a mistake on my part as I adjusted it. There must've been a stray keyframe I didn't remove.
Above I added some hip movement and then went on to add squash to give the ball a bit more life as it walked. I believe it still looks quite awkward as the ball moves a bit weirdly as the legs move.
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Above are good examples of walk references. The first video especially shows a selection of different walks of many characters and types. The channel 'endless reference' has a good selection of animation references, especially walking references. Unfortunately, I looked at these before I did the above tests, these references would have probably helped a lot with hip placement.
Digital Tutorials Walk Cycle
We were also told to try out the Digital Tutorial walk cycle.
Below is the Digital Tutorials rig, Animo, what we use for the tutorial.
Below is the Digital Tutorials rig, Animo, what we use for the tutorial.
Below I had followed the first quarter of the tutorials to make the legs move. It showed the basic positioning and contact points of the walk as well as how to use the graph editor to properly adjust the little things.
Below, I got to the point where the hips were slightly edited to give a bit more weight by using the graph editor to affect the necessary tangents. There was a lot of flattening the tangents which I didn't know before, but found useful. Below, I was also shown to very slightly move the leg in to help with the balance and so the legs didn't look as robotic. Nobody walks like that.
Below I was finally shown the arm and wrist movement. As moves, the elbow, wrist and fingers all bend and move separately to help create follow through. The arms move out and in depending on whether behind, at the side or in front of the body. Also, the wrists must follow back or forward to look more natural for the follow through.
Here is the complete tutorial outcome of the walk. From this angle of the walk, you cannot see that there is slight clipping of the thumb by the hips. But the tutorial stressed that it was always best to animate to the angle. If you are not seeing the actual clipping at the angle you want, it is still a usable scene. I thought that was quite cheeky, but it did make sense as it saves time and if you aren't seeing the clipping yet it still looks believable, it shouldn't really be a problem.
Below I used the final outcome of the walk and showed it actually moving across the screen.
Evaluation
The walk cycle part of the term was actually the most enjoyable. Especially doing the digital tutorials rig and getting to manipulate all of its handles. I thought the actual tutorial would be daunting and hard, but as I was doing it, I learnt a lot of different techniques and tidbits to help me animate in the future.
The ball and leg rig could have been more successful, however I think I learnt a lot more from the digital tutorials, that if I went back to the ball and leg rig, I could do a better job.
The digital tutorial was very detailed and the fact I could rewind or pause the video helped me get to grips with anything that was said. It also felt very rewarding when I finished it despite how long it took me. The walk in the end turned out very well.
The main thing I learnt from the tutorial was using the graph editor and flattening the first and last tangents so they flow nicely into the next motion. And because the tutorial was broken into contact points, I learnt more about the contact points and what goes where. I think the rig is really good for manipulations and fun to use.
The ball and leg rig could have been more successful, however I think I learnt a lot more from the digital tutorials, that if I went back to the ball and leg rig, I could do a better job.
The digital tutorial was very detailed and the fact I could rewind or pause the video helped me get to grips with anything that was said. It also felt very rewarding when I finished it despite how long it took me. The walk in the end turned out very well.
The main thing I learnt from the tutorial was using the graph editor and flattening the first and last tangents so they flow nicely into the next motion. And because the tutorial was broken into contact points, I learnt more about the contact points and what goes where. I think the rig is really good for manipulations and fun to use.