Hey, thanks for your comment!
The problem is, the animation hast to be at least 3-4 seconds long (see http://durian.blender.org/news/background-character-sprint-details/ ) so it needs to be a longer action, but i see what you mean. Actually this is supposed to be a longer fight, maybe the vendor guy sold the other one bad stuff or something and now he gets really angry and begins to shout and swear at him… I just thought “How would I react to someone screwing me over” and then made the animation. Maybe I should make it more clear that it’s not just 3 separate poses one after the other but an angry monologue? The whole motion could be a bit more fluid.
I tried to improve my walkcycle, following Colin’s advices. Here is what I got :
http://vimeo.com/10568250
kiopaa, maybe more body movement up and down. and I think we are using stride bones…arent we? is easier to judge lateral movement with them…
Kiopaa: Nice stuff. I can really tell that he’s injured. The main thing that needs work is the rotation on the hips. At the moment they seem to only be rocking back and forwards. In reality the hips rotate on all 3 axes during a walk. This is an all important detail that is quite often missed, and is the reason why so many walk cycles don’t seem to have weight.
The other thing is the movement of the hands. They seem to be rotating around the body rather than swinging freely. Also, They are hitting their extremes at the same time as the feet, where they should be offset in time, hitting their extremes on the down position, or even the passing pos.
manaphun: it’s a good start. The main thing that stands out to me is a lack of balance, especially towards the end. To avoid this, try blocking out your poses in stepped mode (that is, set the interpolation mode of all your keys to constant). This will help you really focus on getting strong poses. Then, in the dopesheet, start playing with the timing of when these poses occur. Only when you are really happy with the poses and their timing should you turn curves into splines and start working with the spacing.
Harkyman: I really like the idea you’ve tried here. However, you have similar issues of balance as manaphun. Most of the poses on these guys seem to be a bit off balance, like they would fall over in reality. As well as that, in general, people don’t tend to stand with their legs quite so bent, as it actually takes a lot of energy to do this. People tend to bend their legs in anticipation of an action, like starting to walk, jump etc.
The only other comment is to do with clarity. When doing an action involving 2 characters, it is a good idea to have only one character at a time doing the main action. This is a convention in film that helps focus the eye on the important action in a shot, and makes it far more readable.
ParanoidAndroid: It’s good to see someone attempting this action, as it is an important one for the scene, and is actually a difficult move to pull off. At the moment I like the ideas you have there. However, I think you could work more on the basic physicality of the motion. Try shooting some reference of yourself performing this action in various ways. Then, make sketches from your reference, paying particular attention to the movement of the hips (especially rotation) and when the body goes in and out of balance. Also make notes about timing.
This will very much help you in achieving a convincing performance.
Nice start guys. Thanks a lot for your help, and I hope the work you’ve put in pays off when you see your animations fully rendered.
awaiting lover animation;
Thanks Freen, thanks PapaSmurf, I will try to improve my cycle with your feedback.
@freen: I will give it an complete overhaul, and will try a more professional approach regarding research an so on.
One question which rose during animating. Should the root-bone follow the person, or can it stay in the origin all the time? When it tried to change the timing of the animation the seperately moving root-bone resulted in a great amount of sliding, and it took very long to synchronize it again.
ParanoidAndroid
ParanoidAndroid: I tend to avoid animating the root bone entirely. I mainly use it for initial character placement. To move the character use the hip bone (remember, in a biped, almost all actions are led by the hips anyway), and then move any IK limbs afterwards.
Anyone knows where is the “offset bone” thing in Blender 2.5 (to make repeating walking steps offset in every iteration). Is perhaps used other method now?
Also, Colin: Is there some animation you want any more entry?
geartrooper: I reckon you need to work more on getting some weight into what you’re doing. The hips are the key here, but is also to do with overlap in the upper body and limbs. In general your animation seems to have no overlap at all, and that makes it look quite mechanical.
Good luck mate!
Bao2: One thing we need is people dodging out of the way of Sintel as she runs by.
Great, I will do.
freen: they’re doing a drug deal of some types and reading to run if someone notices. As for the action being simultaneous, aren’t all of these things in this thread meant to be background noise, i.e., not hero-focus animation?
I think the time the injured leg takes from touching ground to touching ground again must be greater to show more damage. With more time and more straight leg (moving the hip higher to supply that the leg can’t bend).
Grab your photo camera, put it in video mode and grab yourself doing that. In Blender 2.5 add a background image but instead of a image select the video. Then scale the video to match the rig and then go frame by frame moving bones. Rotoscoping is called.
I understand what’s going on, I was just making general comments about staging. Indeed, these are background characters, and if anyone is looking too closely at them when they’re watching the movie, then on some level, we’ve failed. So take these comments with a grain of salt.
I guess the main issue that needs fixing is to do with the balance of the poses.
I think whatever you do, all the community members who participate to the sprints will look closely at the backgrounds, trying to recognize their work 
Hi guys. Some great posts so far!
I decided to go with something really simple and manageable: a shopkeeper chopping meat etc.
Here is my latest WIP for critique:
I am thinking of fleshing it out by adding some variation on the chop cycle and a sweep and grab to make it more a production line kind of process. It all depends on time. I wanted to have something that was at least useful if I didn’t get time to complete the full thing.
Thanks to those who have already provided feedback via the #blenderdurian channel!
veefwoar: freakin sweet. I reckon some variation (like you mentioned) and polish on the timing and you’re there. One minor thing, if it’s not too much trouble, could you get him/her to put down the knife before bracing his back? Kinda looks like it might be painful, or at least dangerous.
Also, I know I suggested adding more overlap on IRC, but now it looks like it has a little too much. This is a very minor crit though, all up it’s looking great.
My opinion doesn’t count… but I like the latest rendition of your beggar, FWIW.
Thanks mate! I’ve done a little work on the stretch part of the sequence.
I probably wont have enough time to reanimate putting the knife down at this point…anyway, it just doesn’t seem like a place that has an occupational health and safety officer lurking behind every bush! :eyebrowlift:
I’m just getting to grips with the NLA and I’m finding it very powerful! I’ve worked up small clips of actions (chopping, stretching) then bring them into the NLA to give me a bit more flexibility in overall timing rather than just animating straight ahead or copying groups of keys. I’ve never really used it before but I can see myself using it more in future!
I will produce some variations to the chop cycles etc and throw those in before the deadline…hopefully!
Hi all,
awesome work with Durian so far. And I love the sprints, they give the community (and especially people who are not skilled enough to make a whole movie on their own, like me ;)) a possibility to contribute to something great!
Anyway, I tried my hands on some animations. Since these are among my very first attempts to animation, any comment on them is very welcome.
-
A juggler
http://www.blendswap.com/?p=2972
Somehow, that’s one of the first people that come to my mind when thinking of a medival-style market. -
A watchman
http://www.blendswap.com/?p=2998
Unfortunately, I noticed just now that the guardians are wearing helmets, so they won’t be scratching their cheeks ;).
I just noticed recently how to animate the fingers, so I’ll have to redo both animations. Does anyone if it’s possible to overwrite a file on blendswap with a newer version?