Thankyou guys! I am flattered that you consider this an above averagefirst start. I am not new to blender but this is the first time thatI try to do an animation (or something complete), also first timedoing a walk cycle rigging the weight paint thing was crazy. At firstI tried to find a dog rig that I could use but I found none thereforeI did my own, it was like pulling my own teeth out. This is not whatI do for a living I´m an engineer but I have always wanted to doan animation (I am currently unemployed so it was a dont kill myselfactivity). Nevertheless I did like the process and I learned a lot.
Iam going to improve it, although its a hobby I fee like its what Ishould do instead of refineries…
@BlenderArien
Forinstance, the top angle shot would have been justified had theanimation told us more about the character of the dog. Currently, itonly tells us about character going from one location to another.
Iagree, at first I thought about that and got rid of the top view, butsomehow I felt it was a stretch of imagination to expect the viewer to suddenly see the character near the house, also for some reason Ithought it was important to show the angry dog walking cautiously incontra position to the blue dog running happily to its doom…
Regardingquadruped animation, i see you are using a walk cycle for all theshots, in the last few shots when the dogs take a step and come to astop it would have been easier to animate a few steps and coming to astop. You wouldn’t have gotten the sliding of the paws either.
Idid use the same walk cycle, I never expected to devote more time toit . Overall it haves a lot sliding, also since I used Freestyle itsmore obvious how the paws cross the ground. Nevertheless I will fixthat part.
Lastlyif you are looking for a critique on the walk cycle of the dogs,posting a front, side (or 3/4th) and top angle open gl render of theanimation would help in seeing the problem. Currently, about theopening shot of the blue dog, the body and the legs can feel morelike a unit if you add more bounce to the body. Do you have acontroller for the shoulders? The tail also would be equallyexcitedly wagging.
Letme tell you that half way through I thought “WTF I am doing! thisis very difficult!”. I somehow understand the idea behind “weight”I am guessing that I have to animate the spine (or tailbone? Thewhole spine?) up and down. I am using IK and that is why every bonefeels like its hanging in the air, to be honest I dont know how to doFK… shame… Regarding the tail that was the worst part, it neverfelt right, (fortunately angry dog only shows its face) overall theblue dog was very challenging.
Thanks a lot for your input!
Cheers!
Eliut