My Robot "Robot-1"

[pixelmech]

I figured I would post him here, I'm going to try and get him as a workable character. This is my first real character (I scrapped the one I was working with during the tutorials).

 

The TSM rig works good, but you'll see some issues I have, notably with the foot in front on top not looking right. If you saw him in the other thread, you might notice shorter arms, thicker wrist, no neck and different feet.

 

This first one is a test walk. Some issues I have:

 

- His feet descend below ground level between keys. I'm not sure why. On all the keys his feet are on the line.

 

- He's got flat feet syndrome big time. I think this is a model and rig issue.

 

- Not really any follow through going on, he doesn't have much being a robot. I tried to 'flip' his hands a bit.

 

- Isn't there some trick right before the last frame of the cycle to smoothen out the walk?

 

I was pretty careful setting the keys but I didn't really do any tweaking yet, I wanted to get some feedback (and I'm really tired!) Note that I didn't shoot for a mechanical/robotic feel - although he is a bit stiff. Eventually my robot characters are for a show for children and I want the characters to be loose for the most part.

 

C&C welcome and needed...

 

EDIT: New walk file 2/2

Larger version of Walk3 at:

http://www.pixelmech.com/rev/walk3-bigger.mov

walk3.mov

Edited February 3, 2005 by pixelmech

[robcat2075]

First Tweak: straighten the on-the-ground leg when he's in the passing pose (when the off the ground leg is half way from back to front)

 

up down up down up down.......

 

the leg planted on the ground acts like a pole that vaults you up, over and down into the next step.

[Mr. Jaqe]

It looks an incy wincy bit like moonwalking... Beacause of his torso not moving fast enough forward with the feet.

[CreativeAustinYankee]

--His feet descend below ground level between keys. I'm not sure why. On all the keys his feet are on the line.--

 

Check your graph editor, specifically the Y translation for the foot bones, you'll see that the splines are curved which dips below the ground plane. To solve this problem, select the two keys, right click, and switch the interpolation to linear. That should take care of the problem.

 

Is there a reason he's walking with his knees bent?

 

Good luck with it. My robot... hovers so I didn't have to bother with a walk cycle...

 

Steve P.

[pixelmech]

Check your graph editor, specifically the Y translation for the foot bones, you'll see that the splines are curved which dips below the ground plane.  To solve this problem, select the two keys, right click, and switch the interpolation to linear.  That should take care of the problem.

 

Ahhh...I shall try that. Thanks

 

Is there a reason he's walking with his knees bent?

 

Hmm.. you mean other than the fact that I'm a bad animator? No. And I didn't fully realize it until you said it.

 

Good luck with it.  My robot... hovers so I didn't have to bother with a walk cycle...

 

Yeah...hovering....hmmm

[pixelmech]

Ok, I tried tweaking like you said but I'm not really getting what I need. Am I to be doing this to the IK foot control or the heel bone? See pic below. Also, am I in the right place?

 

Would I grab all of those keys and linear them? Or just the ones where it moves along the ground?

[luckbat]

I was about to say, "Don't set your entire curves to linear, or you'll wind up with really robotic movement--"

 

...And then I caught myself. Truthfully, though, you'll probably want your interpolations to be a mixture of 'spline' and 'zero-slope' whenever you do a walk cycle, with the occasional 'linear' whenever a foot hits the ground. Trial-and-error is the best way to develop an intuitive sense of what impact each curve shape is going to have on its corresponding limb.

 

By the way, I highly recommend playing with the BioMotionLab's customizable Walker demo: http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

 

I would not have been able to complete my first walk cycle without it.

[pixelmech]

By the way, I highly recommend playing with the BioMotionLab's customizable Walker demo: http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

WOW - what a tool! Thanks for the tip. I have to say that I am, at the moment, REAL unsure when working with the CPs in the timeline. I guess that comes with experience, but it's so much more intuitive to work with the model. But I can see why it is necessary and makes a big difference, so I am going to have to figure it out.

 

I'm still unsure though of WHAT bone/control to modify in the timeline (as stated above.) And I don't necessarily want him to be super robotic looking even though he is one.

 

T

[luckbat]

I'm still unsure though of WHAT bone/control to modify in the timeline (as stated above.)

 

The foot control, but why don't you just try it? I'm not trying to be rude, it's just that going in and yanking stuff around to see what happens is the best way to learn how it all fits together. If you treat your CPs like they're fragile glass unicorns, it'll take you forever. Trust me, I speak from experience.

 

Try this workflow: Before you do something that you're not sure of, save your project, then jump in and start changing stuff. If it works, great. If not, close the file without saving, open it up and try something else.

[pixelmech]

You are absolutely right Mike and I have been saving like a lunatic so its not a big deal. Time to bust up me some glass unicorn...control points...or something...

[CreativeAustinYankee]

Yep, you're in the right spot.

 

As you can see between the keys at 00:20 and 00:25, the line is curved. Select those keys, right click, and switch the interpolation to linear.

 

Steve P.

[pixelmech]

Ok, uploaded a new version (link below here too). I think its a lot better but I'm still having an issue with my rig and bones either separating or floating. Going to see if Anzovin can help me.

 

I think I get the linear thing on the foot, it looks better.

 

Anyway, I've been reading Richard Williams' "The Animator's Survival Kit" and I just got to the walk section, and it really helped me understand some things. Instead of building this cycle the way the AM book does, I did it one way Williams does.

 

I did the 2 contact positions first (at 0 at 20) The the passing position at 10. Then I filled in the two other positions at 5 and 15. It was much easier this way. The wierd thing was I had a problem when I pasted my keyframe > mirrored keyframes. They didn't come out exactly the same, and it seemed to not paste all the keyframes of the bones.

 

Then when I tried to redo it, I couldn't figure out how to get back to 20 and get all the junk that was at 25. I'm going to redo it again, but any C&C on this one is appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Tom

w2s.mov

[luckbat]

Legs look great! There's some stride-length slippage, but you've got the rhythm down.

 

Strangely, the "jerk" his body makes whenever his right foot hits the ground seems to be absent when the left foot does the same. Perhaps this is due to the incomplete mirroring you mentioned.

 

The arms seem to be wiggling around like fish out of water, though. Try this: Leave the elbows (mostly) locked in position. Instead, have the arms swing from the shoulders.

 

You've come a long way since the first version! Looking forward to #3...

[pixelmech]

Thanks! It's funny, the first half of the walk looked a lot better before I began the mirroring, which was frustrating. I tried to add in what was missing but it obviously didn't work, so I know what you mean about the 'jerk' missing.

 

Agreed on the arms too, and it was so hard to move because the forearm disconnected from the upper arm when I moved them, going to post in Anzovin about that. I will try your suggestion though about the shoulders, good point about the elbows.

[pixelmech]

Here's a new version after days of trying to work out rigging problems. I think I have most of them worked out, but unfortunately I still have the keyframe not pasting issue, which is really frustrating.

 

Also, you'll notice the hands are *totally* screwed up. Why? NO Idea. They were just fine in the action. I built the chor, and lo and behold they were all messed up.

 

I can't seem to figure out how to fix the slippage, can anyone advise?

 

Larger version (1.82mb) at:

 

http://www.pixelmech.com/rev/walk3-bigger.mov

walk3.mov

[Mr. Jaqe]

Is it just me or... what happend to his fingers?

[pixelmech]

Yeah, if you look at my post, I noted that the fingers are all screwed up. I don't know what happened because they weren't like that in the action before I imported it into the Chor, I'm stumped on that one. If there is a problem out there right now, I seem to be experiencing it.

[Mr. Jaqe]

what AM version you using? I tend to have the same problem and Im using AM v 10.5. usually happends when I apply smartskin.

[pixelmech]

I'm in 11.1b - no smartskin. This is a TSM2 Rig

[Mr. Jaqe]

something just crossed my mind... did you remember to twist the bones in the right angle in the model-window?

[pixelmech]

I believe the bones are at the correct angles, I checked them all. When I play with them in the action, they bend the right way....

[CreativeAustinYankee]

Check your key frames, it's easy to add keyframes for more than the parts you wanted to. They may be interfearing.

 

Also if you scaled the model up in the chor, that could have affected it. I don't think that's the case here because your whole model would be affected.

 

Steve P.

[pixelmech]

Ill check the keys, but I did in fact do a LOT of scaling of the model in the chor - I could have happened then and I didn't notice it - I will be more careful about that in the future. Thanks for the tip.