acrobatics (animations) [update June 05]

[zdk1]

[updates]
June 05: second acro animation posted (middle of page 1)
[/updates]



greetings! I'm right now still working on animations focused on full body movement (will later migrate towards more subtle, emotive acting etc which I believe to be a greater challenge). I posted in FP a few of my previous efforts, mostly based on fighting. For the acrobatics sub series I'll post them here, all in one thread since they're going to be a bunch and I don't want to crowd the forums with a bunch of threads.

The animations I post are not going to be WIP, in the sense that I won't post anything that I can see fixable problems in, or incomplete animation. I would really appreciate feedback on what worked, what didn't . I will however, update animations if I feel there is a need based on my later observation or the comments made.

anyways, here's the first. Guy does a cartwheel. I wanted the first one to be a cartwheel since I attempted one a while ago and it came out miserably. This one came out much better. A bit short to critique fully I suppose, later installments should be a bit meatier. If you could comment not just on the cartwheel itself, but also the "idle" motions before and after I would be grateful.

~1mb mpeg4
www.princeton.edu/~ddkim/anims/cartwheel.mov

I'm really hoping to improve so rip away all you want.

I will post succesive animations in this thread so look out for those too.

[The_Warder]

I like the animation a lot.

[Icarus_]

Wow man, very nice. I really like it . The 'idle' animation in the beginning is very good. Very 'natural'- the only thing I can see that needs work is the step right before he flips. It's more of a 'slide' than an actual step. Great job though .

[Caius]

What's with the defensive 'fighter' pose for his right arm at the beginning?

And why does he slide through his steps? You can't get up the kind of momentum he has in his - incredibly fast - cartwheel by sliding. He needs to run/jump into it. Look at, for instance, the first step to see what I mean.

And again, right before the cartwheel - he needs to have some kind of 'spring' to his legs. Right now he seems to be falling into it, which would not be enough to move him through a full cartwheel.

Great job on collapsing his supporting arm during the cartwheel. Tune that down a bit, maybe (depends on the character's strength) - because the less his arm collapses, the more impressive the cartwheel, and the more believable the speed with which he goes through it. Which looks really cool, by the way.

Finally, when landing after he does his cartwheel, his knees need to bend a bit. Remember that the momentum will still be there, so we shouldn't see him standing straight right after it.

Great job though! I'm amazed that you'd attempt something like this. I can't wait to see the rest of your animations!

[zdk1]

Caius:

Hi, thanks for the critiques. Glad that you like it . Heh, the "defensive" stance is probably because all my previous animations have been about fighting, and I guess I just naturally put him in that pose out of habit :P

I changed the slide into more of a sidestep, and he steps a little bit further, and it does look better. I don't think he needs to take a forward running step. I just tried it myself and a sidestep to short hop gives enough momentum for a one-handed cartwheel of that speed IMO. I don't know if thats the normal way to do it, its just the way I've always done it (I can't seem to do it out of a normal running start, I have to sidestep into it).

I also added a bit of "spring" as you say to when he comes out of the cartwheel and it does help give more weight to the motion, although it looks a bit awkward in my five minute fix. I'll post another version soon.

Warder/Icarus:
thanks for the supportive comments. I changed the slide slightly like I mentioned above.


the next animation involves a few more moves. same sidestep forward, to one-handed roundoff, to half a back handspring landing in a handstand on the edge of a drop. that part is animated already. The next part is him dropping so that he's hanging from the ledge, and kicks off into a backfilp and then rolls as he hits the ground. ambitious no?
I'll post the first part of that the same time I post the updated cartwheel.

[zdk1]

Hi, I think I'll leave off posting the updated cartwheel and just post the new one. The setup is copied with minor modifications from the cartwheel, sorry if that seems lazy to anybody, I was just anxious to get to the interesting part and the setups probably would have been similar anyways.

one handed roundoff instead of a cartwheel, which leads to half a backhandspring which lands in a handstand at the edge of a cliff.

www.princeton.edu/~ddkim/anims/acro2.mov

also, a side view that shows just the armature:

www.princeton.edu/~ddkim/anims/acro2skel.mov

both ~ 1MB


like I said before the plan is to have him swing down so hes hanging off the ledge, kick off into a backflip, and roll upon landing.
I know I said I wouldn't post "incomplete" animation, but technically the first part could stand on its own and this is a bit lengthier than my original plan and I would like to see if anyone spots anything.

My main concerns I think include the preparation for the backflip and how he catches himself landing in the handstand. I'm not getting the feeling that he's actually catching the full weight of his body as he should.

[argunda]

wow you have some great animating talent

I sent you a PM

[javawocky]

Great anim skills.

I think its great except for the run up which seams strange. In particular it looks like his left are is dead or he is trying to hold something in it. It may appear more natural if he puts more recoil into it. Still very nice.