Yep. But now that I’ve got a laptop to free me from my desktop PC, I can sit in the living room and watch the football game.
Steve S
thanks for the input I work on this wip when I can, I thought I had the side to side and I gave the legs more up and down but I think the body should probably drop more as it walks as well. wish I had more time to get it worked out.
The head is tilting to the side a bit, but it needs to have the entire upper body swaying. Think about how gravity affects it. If it’s standing straight up and it lifts its left leg, it’s going to fall to the left. The upper body needs to shift over the right leg to compensate for this. One thing you can do is to taper the legs inward toward the center line. This reduces the amount of side-to-side sway that is needed.
In the pic below, the blue line is the center line…
Steve S
yes mine looks the same at the front view and is also leaning as well, I think that the problem may be that it’s not doing it enough, or the angle from which I’m shooting isn’t that good, in the second animation there was the step and pull action that throws the look off as well, when I get back next week, I’ll try a correction on it, the hips of it are very different as well so the walk will not be identicle to the star wars reproduction, however I do want to make it close just because that is the kind of function a vehicle like that should have.
I don’t want to make it seem like I’m saying it has to look just like mine. But I think it’s important that the mecha look like it’s obeying the laws of physics.
Hi all, sorry I’m late to the party!
@wilmaciii sorry I haven’t been in touch, been a bit busy. IIRC, there was a bug I still wanted to fix on this rig.
I’ve read this whole thread, and the discussion about shifting weight as the mech walks was interesting, and something I hadn’t really thought about when I rigged this. Now I am wondering if there is a way I could make the rig automatically shift it’s weight as a foot is lifted from the ground…
Steve S, how did you rig the mech you animated? Was it a simple bone design and you animated each bone, or was it more advanced than that? I’m interested in rigging mechs.
A good first animations here, and if you want to zoom in and out on the mech with a simple floor, maybe consider adding a sort of grid to the floor for basic renderings like these. That way there is a frame of reference and it wouldn’t appear as the feet are sliding.
I want to see more!
Randy
good to hear from ya, I was beggining to wonder. I was thinking of using a grid and will try to do so on the next animation, I have a few other things to iron out as well with it. I should have something out this coming week, not at home right now.
I’m pretty sure I used the Ludwig armature. I deleted the parts I didn’t need and reworked the leg. I added a bone to the leg because there are three segments to it.
http://jasonpierce.animadillo.com/resource/ludwig/ludwig.html
Steve S
I agree, I just think that the problem lays in the gate of it’s walk, I will work it out one way or the other. I’m thankful for the advice and the help I’ve received on this project, it’s helped me learn how to rig (a little anyways). this is part of a larger project I have in mind for later. If I could only find the time…
IMHO The Mech looks too animal. From what I’ve seen it seems to have emotions such a shock/fear. In reality, a mech would be robotic and mechanical, when I see this, it reminds me more of an ostrich than a vehicle. Good work on the model however, keep it up.
Add something in the background for reference, even a floor would do, otherwise zooming in looks like the mech is flying!
Hope this helps,
EvilGenius:evilgrin:
lol, glad ya took the time to read the thread…
before I make any modifications, I thought I would post a front view of the walk motion.
As I mentioned before, the head is tilting but the body is staying directly on the center line. There’s no side to side motion.
Steve S
I see what your saying, I’m just not sure where to put the movement in the body itself, legs or hips. the hips have alot going on already. I’ll look at several ways when i go to make the adjustments.
before redoing the whole thing I tried from the hips and i think that after I redo it this may have it.
okay here’s a new entry, I’ve completely reanimated. hopefully this tackles some of the issues, I’m still not tickeled about the camera movement but, for now I guess I’ll deal with it.
The lean should be toward the leg that’s on the ground. And the pause in the middle looks a little awkward. A smooth sine curve might look better. That can all be adjusted quickly in the curves editor. There’s no need to redo the entire animation.
I don’t even know where to begin with something like that, “sine curve”? I’m getting ready to post another from a average view, I think I need to make some corrections in the feet as it’s moving. I leaned in the opposite of what you are talking about, I don’t mind reanimating, it’s good pratice but I am interested in this “smooth sine curve” thanks.
The head is allways in one height. That doesn’t really happen when walking. When a person/character steps forward his height get lower.