robcat2075

Much of this is working well, but perhaps I can add a few comments -Move the camera closer. Don't leave so much unused space in a test like this. It makes it hard to examine. - I plotted the motion of the hips with dots on the pic attached. The vertical motion of the figure is generally well motivated by the action of the legs and the force of gravity. - However, the red dots are parts where the horizontal motion slows down without any application of force to explain it. Likewise, the green dots are places where it speeds up; again without a visible reason. You might perhaps explain this as a result of the center of gravity not really being in the hips, but still, it's an awkward visible result. - This makes for somewhat unnatural looking motion thru the peaks his hops, pointed at by (C ). - you also have a tendency to come to a halt at the bottom of your anticipations which seems to negate the action(B ). - related to that is the rather odd path for the first anticipation (A). A simple U-shaped motion probably would have served better. But overall, it's a promising test and I'm sure you have gained much from it.

Hey, it is immediately recognizable as an ape! So far, so good! Better splining, as mentioned above, will help greatly in furthering it.

Hi Zach, Interesting experiment. And a worthwhile one to not use a "cycle". It is exceedingly difficult to assess the motion from the camera angle we have. I've only done one run cycle. You've seen it. So I'm just brainstorming here: - Unless he's fifty feet tall (or on a low gravity planet) I think his gait is to slow. - His feet are very stiff. overlapping motion on the toes would add much here. - In fact ,I'm not sure his toes are even bending to avoid penetrating the ground on the push off. - The side to side distance between the feet is probably larger than a real runner might do. - My general feeling is that the faster we move, the smoother our repetitive motions become. It's an inertia thing. So I think the z-rotation on the hips is happening too suddenly, and lingering too long before it reverses. Likewise the torso. If those bone's channels resembled sine waves they would probably be closer to what they should be. - in some runs and many walks the hips can shift over the weight bearing foot, but I think it's happening too late in this case. (The "shift" may be an illusion caused by the sudden z rotation, now that I examine it closely. Hard to tell) - there is something weird going on with the hands. They seem to be turned a very unlikely angles.

I think I recall Victor saying somewhere that he had so little time to work on it that he took the material off line to avoid teasing people.

I like the new hair... very Louise Brooks! Louise Brooks' hairstyle seems to have been to the '20's what Farrah Hair was to the '70's.

I especially like the balcony. Maybe you could move the fences out a bit so there's room to get the lawnmower from the front to the back yard.

It looks real good. There's an unnatural brightness under some of the objects... what causes that?

Welcome to A:M! The program isn't based on any particular rig. They show you one possibility in "TAoA:M" because it happens to be pretty good yet is still do-able by a novice. Most of the stock models happen to use it also. Yes, you can adjust it to fit many other models. It's gotta be basic because a) most new users are starting from zero and b ) even users coming from other programs need to be introduced to the unique strategies that make A:M powerful. In theory, yes. In practice you will probably have further curiosity about specific tasks. THere are many more tuts available online (see this forum) that will take you to greater depths.

How odd! Next try progressively deleting chunks of the sub model until the problem disappears. Or try copying the geometry of the sub into a new model, swap it, and see if the problem is still there.

All-in-all I thought it was an amusing clip. I had never actually heard the Howard Dean speech before, i had only read about it. I suppose there are many things you might tweak about the animation, but 22 seconds is really alot of animation. Quite an ambitous piece. The "snap" the Keith Lango talks about has alot to do with "overlapping motion", an important element of all animation, cartoony or not. I see hints of it in your animation, but other times I see the hand and arm moving as a single unit which looks stiff. That would be the first thing you might investigate if you want to tweak this further. Funny Piece!

Is that the style they call "Queen Anne"? I wonder if she had clawed feet too. Nice furniture!

Both of you! Get thee to Keith Lango's world-class tut on SNAP. go to Tutorials then "Quick Tip: Snappy Cartoon Motion."

Hard to comment on the walks seen from the front because it's hard to coment on walks seen from the front. I quite like sidestep 7. Squash and stretch seems mistimed on hipwalk. For example the squash is starting before the contact pose (the impact is what would trigger squash). On bouncing ball with legs there are several instances where the squash has happened before the ball contacted the ground and/or it remained squashed after leaving the ground. In general the ball is on the ground too long at each bounce. 180 turn ends well, but the weight doesn't appear to be shifting right at the beginning. But those are fine tests. Keep doing more short bits like this that incorporate the same principles.

I'm sure that table will bounce off an awning or catch on a flag pole before it hurts anyone!

And it even has a compass! Enter that in the next "Mechanical" contest.

Don't stop now. Not when you've almost got it.

It's getting closer, but if we frame thru it we see that he actually jumps backward, then reverses direction to fly forward and then reverses direction again to move backwards into the landing. Not possible in a free jump. A parabolic trajectory will never change direction like that. From the moment he leaves the ground until he contacts it, his forward progress has to be rock steady. That would be the progress of his center of gravity. We could debate about exactly where his is, but I'm judging it to be about at his hips.

an observation of your animation, not of your comments. Not yet an arc.

A fine first project! I'll be looking forward to the next one!

V4 is quite improved over V2. A few things to make it even better: -The last pose with the feet still on the ground should be a straight leg pose. -a jumping character has to travel in an arc. (technically a parabola) Right now he's flying straight up to the apex then straight down to the landing. - you are correct that his vertical travel will decelerate on the way up and accelerate on the way down, however, his forward velocity can't decelerate and accelerate while he's on that ballistic path (unless he's somehow altering his path with some unseen rockets, which doesn't seem to be the case here.) His forward velocity will remain constant over a brief jump like this. You can actually fix both the arc and velocity issues in the curve editor without adding new keys. -as in the take off, the first frame where he contacts the ground for landing should be a straight leg pose. Have the back leg hit first, as Mr Jage suggests, then bend to allow the front one to hit (also straight). The timing of your landing follow thru is working well. -Are those middle legs really "arms"? Have them trail in the air as he's falling and you'll have an opportunity for even more follow thru action when he lands. Keep tuning this one. This would be a good shot for your "demo" reel when Oz starts looking for animators.

Oh I gotta disagree with that. The good ones were expertly paced. I just watched "It" (1926) and even though it's almost all about reactions (and had a fair number of title cards) I never felt anything was lingered on too long. Sure there are bad silent films, but don't use those as models.

I know this isn't "radiosity" you're using , but since there isn't a "lighting" forum you might put a post there and see if you can get Yves to weigh in on this.

Hey, that looks like a Delahaye! Put one of the showgirls on the turntable with the car. Have her gesture to the car like she's pointing to the grand prize on a game show. Or she could actually be in the car. And give her a dress other than red. White or yellow might be good with the red car.

Hey, those are cute!

Good looking character. When he looks up, don't just move the head, straighten his back up some with it.