Wow, these are cool entries! Robertt’s was beautiful, but it seemed a little odd in the fact that her hips didn’t move through the beginning of the dance. So when she went on one leg, her hips weren’t centered over the leg that was supporting her.
DracoFodder’s was really fun, but their feet never lifted from the ground. I wonder if this was an NLA problem. I wonder at the need of the NLA in such short animations as these.
Marko’s was fun too. The music was pretty funny and it had good camera angles and cutting.
McSmiffy’s was pretty cool. I liked the timing and the idea was funny, and his animation was pretty solid (even though it was jerky in a couple spots). His is my favorite and gets my vote.
Thanks LGM for the comments. I determined after about 8 hours of fussing with the movements, that I really don’t understand the NLA editor at all.
But, I want to learn it (NLA) and this seemed like a good opportunity.
There were spots in mid-stride that the feet were posed off the ground, but when I animated, everything stuck to sliding.
I assumed the NLA (and Action Editor) would allow me to create an action that could be copied to a new frame. When I tried that idea the whole character position moved back to where it originally started.
ex: I was attempting to do a simple waltz. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, movements around the floor. I assumed, once I had the foot movement for the first two, it would translate to the new position on the ending of the third. Wouldn’t work for me, and best render was this sliding thing. If I tried copying the first action set, it kept jumping back to the beginning like I had just taken the first 30 frames and seqenced them together back to back. Not pretty.
So, I’m back to the documentation, and tutorials until I figure this out.
Yours, by the way, was very funny in both concept and the relative expressiveness of the characters.
Well thanks for your vote! I try. Actually, sketchy and I had a sort of double-challenge going for these last two, but he wasn’t able to finish his entry on time.
Dracofodder, I see what you were trying to do. A much easier way would be to duplicate the groups of keyframes for the 1,2,3 waltz step over and over again in the action editor rather than going into the NLA editor. Now, when the character moves back to his original position, you can just duplicate the new foot positions (from the 3 in the orignal 3 in the waltz step) and move those and his body forward to the 1, for the new set of 1,2,3 waltz steps. This makes it easier to adjust their positions and to keep their feet solidly on the floor.
i’m looking up the stride-tutorial again atm… hehe.
Actually, sketchy and I had a sort of double-challenge going for these last two, but he wasn’t able to finish his entry on time.