Well, I’ve been working on armature functionality since the last animation, and I’ve got it to the point where she can sit cross-legged without her knees flying through the back of her skull and clipping into infinity. Also, I’ve seperated the leg IK controls and the foot controls which–for sake of function–were too tightly integrated, resulting in the foot actually coming off sometimes. I managed to revise that too without sacrificing any usefulness.
All-in-all, I think the armature’s pretty much done, except for a couple loose ends.
That being said, there’s a nasty glitch regarding self-destructing shape-keys in the CVS I’m using (the latest from graphicall); which has since been updated and fixed, but without available binaries I’m still just mooning around with nothing to do.
So today I made this.
I have suspicions about what’s wrong and what’s right with the walk cycle, but hey, what do I know, eh? I’m probably biased. Anyway, even though this is just a test, I can always use improvements. In fact, I need 'em. So, hit me with what you’ve got. It’s predominantly a walk cycle test with a bit of secondary action layered over in the NLA.
Her tail does not move, no. Too much bother for too subtle an effect.
A friend of mine pointed out that her shoulders weren’t keyed at all. Thank you, Darren. XD Video updated. Also, I fixed a weird framerate problem that made it look jerkier than just regular bad animating. ;]
Thorwill: Yes, it does look a little stiff. If you have any ideas how to break it up, I’d be glad for your help.
'm not sure if the foot thing is there, though, it might be a frame drop, because the feet are just a walk cycle, nothing’s been changed.
cipix: There is some, but I didn’t want to make it too exaggerated for fear of it looking ridiculous. You know, cause sometimes you see these things and it looks like their body is strapped to a pogo stick.
The same thing applies for the second point. There is hip and shoulder swing, but obviously the guy wasn’t kidding when he said to exaggerate stuff. Next version up will bring those out a little more.
Regarding your last point: 1. that’s some biting sarcasm you got going there, /:] and 2. yes, she does, I was thinking of using shape keys though, because it’s not actually the torso tilting up and down like the cheap hack so often used. It’s more of expansion and compression, along with the movement of the diaphragm. Though now I think about it, it does alter the positions of some of the bones in her shoulders and back.
Well, reagrding the torso, the things that could be going on are:
the effects of rotation of hips and shoulders (both not only for/backwards, but also up/down) running through it
the spine working as suspension to lessen the impact of each step on the head
breathing
Never saw a (mostly) naked person walking on a straight line in good lighting on video, offering a chance to study these things
Regarding breathing, I wonder how to deal with it, if it should happen in straight walkcycle action but also in between without sudden jumps or pauses.
Breathing deeply while standing still, you will notice there’s quite far reaching motion. One could assume all those affects are there on normal/low breathing, too. I guess one has to tell a story/present some action to distract people from all the details that arn’t there
BlackBoe:
I’m not an expert on animation (I can safely say that I don’t know what I’m talking about), but I comment on your walk because I feel it’s almost there.
You have done the big things correctly but the little things are the ones that makes the animation work. A bit more torso and shoulders swing, more up and down motion, a little breathing, changing points of focus for the eyes, a bit of “purpose” for the character and you will have a winner.
I didn’t intended to be sarcastic, sorry about that.
As for your question about how to do it technically, I have no idea. But you should know that in Blender, “it only have to look right” so the “cheap hack” you mentioned could work.
I meant I was appreciative of your sarcasm (Or what I perceived as your sarcasm), sarcasm is great, it spices up life.
What do you mean by purpose? Cause this is primarily a walk cycle test. Anyway, the cheap hack is just gently bobbing the torso up and down while nodding the head slightly in the opposite movement. It looks crummy, notwithstanding the fact that it’s used a lot in video-games because they don’t have the real-time processing power to animate a ribcage. Anyway, I’m working on the animation, and I’ll try to fix a couple problems with head movement and add some eye movement. Shapekeys work now, though, so that’ll be my primary focus next. w007. Did you know that sculpt mode is the best way to edit facial shape keys ever?
Too much bother for too subtle an effect.