Exercise 5: Take A Walk

[Rodney]

First: When trying to get the vertical and horizontal guides to show up, I discovered that I can't get the rulers to appear. I have gone to [TOOLS] [OPTIONS] and chosen the "Action" Tab. I check the "Display Rulers" box and hit ok. No rulers. I restart the software and still no rulers. Bug? See my sig. for my specs and software version.

 

This may be graphics card related.

Try adjusting your window and/or A:M's program window to a smaller size.

I seem to recall maximized windows caused problems with some graphics cards way way back when.

An update to your video graphics card driver might help too.

 

Second: I'm getting alot of duplicate 'Actors' and folders in my Library. I have gone to [TOOLS] [OPTIONS] and chosen the "Folders" Tab. I go into the pull down menu to Libraries. Here's what's there:

 

C:\Docs and Settings\David\Application Data\Hash Inc\Libraries

C:\Program Files\Hash Inc\V12.0\data\Libraries

C:\Docs and Settings\David\Application Data\Hash Inc\Libraries

C:\Program Files\Hash Inc\V12.0\data\Libraries

C:\Program Files\Hash Inc\V12.0\Libraries

 

When I try and delete the duplicates, they just come back when I restart. Why? How is this fixed? When I installed the software I did tell it to load everything from the CD. I forget the exact way that is stated.

 

Look in the actual folder (in your case: C:\Docs and Settings\David\Application Data\Hash Inc\) and delete duplicate .LIB files. If you are worried about deleting something important just move it to a temporary directory and then delete it later if all is well.

 

Deleting the line in TOOLS/Options should keep it gone but its possible that if you didn't save anything during that session the changes might not take effect. Thats probably a bad guess there. They should disappear.

[RoVino]

Name: Ronn Trevino

Exercises Completed: Exercises 5

Date Completed: 05.03.06

Instructor: Web tutorials

 

I redid this a couple of times. adding the Blink as well.. but If I would have made my changes in my original building phase.. I think it would have come out a lot better.. having to go back and edit KeyFrames into an action caused some wierdness in the feet, I cant seem to correct..

 

Ex5.mov

[thumperness]

Name: F. David Puthuff

Exercises Completed: Exercises 5

Date Completed: 05.09.06

Instructor: TAoAM Manual

 

Walk cycles seem like they will always be the bain of my animation life. Each time I try one though I learn a little more. The feet slip all over the place but I believe this is because I don't keep them steadily moving the whole time. I tried to add some secondary actions to the tail and ears. I didn't try to do anything with the eyes.

 

Exercise # 5

[Rodney]

Walk cycles seem like they will always be the bain of my animation life. Each time I try one though I learn a little more. The feet slip all over the place but I believe this is because I don't keep them steadily moving the whole time.

 

David,

I imagine you could gain a lot from a small adjustment in Stride Length.

That'd do wonders for that slippage.

 

Still, I think your rabbit has more sense of weight to him than most animations posted for this exercise.

It's almost as if he's making deliberate steps because he knows we are watching. I like it.

 

Ronn,

Hee HEE! You've definitely got the blinks in there.

Now to work on the timing. To successfully animate that you might have to act out the scene.

If you were rabbit when would you blink... might it be on every other step... left foot only.... I'm not sure but thats why they call it animation.

 

Way to go the extra mile.

[Joe Gamblin]

Here's the walkcycle for take a walk, but when it came time to put it to a path, I did something else. The new walk in the path is in the next post.

 

Here's the second 'walk'. Getting the stride length right with that jump was murder.

Walksample.mov

Bunnyhop.mov

[Leo73]

Good job Achilles, I would have liked to see a bigger version of the bunny hop though. I had to watch it a few times in order to really get a good read on it. Other wise keep up the good work.

[ytsorf7]

Name: Bruce Winn

 

Exercises completed: 5

 

Date completed: July 6, 06

 

Here's a link to my Exercise 5 file. He's walking a little fast, but he had a lot of distance to cover. The file would have been even bigger if I had slowed him down more (I think). He's rendered in "shaded" rather than "final".

 

http://www.thebeatnews.org/Exercise5.mov

[youngman]

Name:Jason Young

Exercercise Completed:Exercise 5 - Take a walk

Date Completed:7/6/2006

Instructor:The Manual + The forum

 

Remarks/Suggestions:Really enjoyed doing this one once i found out the joys of using the timeline especially

for the blinks(i know they are a little forced in this,but when i put it up the first time on putfile to test the final look you didn't actually see the blinks clearly) .

 

Hope you like it.

 

 

http://media.putfile.com/Exercise-5---Take-a-walk-24

 

P.s.Sorry about it being a bit on the dark side,i was experimenting with lighting on this.

[Robert-Jank]

Wow.....that was fabulouse!

[Rodney]

Must agree with Robert.

Excellent work. Both of you. (Bruce and Jason).

 

Color me impressed.

 

Bruce,

Nice gag there with the elephant at the end. Ooops... did I give anything away?

 

Jason,

Wow... if you make a movie for every exercise what are you going to do once you finish TAoA:M?

 

Very very nice guys.

[youngman]

Thanks for the encouragement guy's really appreciated.

 

 

Jason,

Wow... if you make a movie for every exercise what are you going to do once you finish TAoA:M?

 

 

Hello Rodney

Once i finnish the TAoA:M i hope to go on to the animation boot camp & then help out on T W O iF it's not finnished by then(also if i think i'm good enough).I then want to do a short film for which i have written a rough draft and put away until i'm good and ready.

 

Jay

[ytsorf7]

Looks really good, Jason. I like what you did with the lights.

 

Bruce

[Neu_Type]

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5

 

Date Completed: 22 July, 2006

 

Just a basic walk...

 

[attachmentid=18624]

Exercise_5.mov

[Rodney]

Hey thats nice. She walks a bit fast on my end but I think that is more file formatting than anything.

 

It looks like you've been playing with Simcloth too.

 

Good job!

 

and in other news... Jay said:

Hello Rodney

Once i finnish the TAoA:M i hope to go on to the animation boot camp & then help out on T W O iF it's not finnished by then(also if i think i'm good enough).I then want to do a short film for which i have written a rough draft and put away until i'm good and ready.

 

TWO is always in need of such talent.

With the knack for staging and lighting I'm seeing here that might be put to good use in TWO as well.

[LurkerAbove]

Name: Glen Clarkson

Exercise: 5. Take A Walk

Date Completed: 8/14/2006

 

Walking on...

[Rodney]

Oh yeah... He's movin' on all right.

Good job.

*tiny though... if you aren't using it you might try Sorensen 3 .MOV format on the render.

[snowdawg]

Name: Dennis Wheatley

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5 take a walk

 

Date Completed: August 15, 2006

 

Instructor: manual and online video tutorial

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Okay lesson learned about constantly saving your work. Had the walk cycle almost done when the system locked up. And I am not happy with the transition between the walk cycle and the wave. I think it has something to do with the path ease. I sure it will get better with practice.

my_walkandwave.zip

[jpappas]

Name: Jim Pappas

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5

 

Date Completed: Aug. 16

 

Instructor: AM forums, tutorials

 

Remarks: I thought it would be fun to see if I could do a balance beam walk, that was a learning experience.

 

There's a twitch on rabbit's arms as the cycle repeats, it was one of those things that wasn't as noticable in the realtime display, doh! The great thing about this exercise is it got me into the Timeline (THE place to deal with foot slippage). Other things I noticed, it's wise to follow the advice early in this thread to turn off AutoBalance, the rabbit was doing the twist when that was on.

walk3.mov

[Torak]

Name: Shane O'Sullivan

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5

 

 

Date Completed: August 19, 2006

 

Instructor: None / Manual and Online Video tutorial

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:

 

Exercise 5

[Tralfaz]

Here is exercise 5. I am uploading the project and action file in the hopes that someone can explain to me what I am doing wrong. I have tried numerous times to do the walk cycle, but always seem to have some slippage as the character walks.

 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I am using A:M version 12n.

 

Thanks in advance...

Al

 

[attachmentid=20470]

 

Name: Al Dinelt

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5: Take A Walk

Date Completed: September 11, 2006

Instructor: TAoA:M

 

[attachmentid=20468]

exercise5.mov

exercise5_project.zip

[Lori Hiatt]

Name: Lori Hiatt

 

Exercise: Take a walk

 

Completed: 9/18/06

 

Used Manual and online tutorials

 

 

I had trouble with his foot going through he floor initially. I wonder why he is walking so slowly now.

Thanks in advance

Lori

5_Take_A_Walk.mov

[CRToonMike]

Great work everyone!

 

I'm trying to do this one, but am having problems...

 

First: the video version of ex 5 has a sound drop-off about 5 mins into it. It sounds like the microphone fell off or something like that. If it was a Quicktime movie, I could adjust yhe sound, But I don't know to do that with a SWF. I've tried maxing out my speakers, but that isn't working. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

The rabbit is jumping all over, I think that's my fault -- not setting keys right. I also have issues with feet/hips translation. Gonna start a new prj and see if that helps.

 

I may only have use of one hand, but that's not going to stop me!

 

Any suggestions or any help w/the tut's sound appreciated

 

thx

 

mike

[CRToonMike]

Name: Mike Rhodes

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5-- Take a Walk

Date Completed: Sept 22, 2006

Comments: Took me a few attempts, but now I know actions, key frames and cycles much better. There's still a bit of slipping and I just can't get rid of it. Even edited channels. Added a couple of blinks and a smile (as chor action),rendered and realised that the tail has no following action. Oh well.

 

I wanted to convey a bit of personality, think it looks good.

 

whachu think?

 

mike

ex05_rhodes_walk_3.mov

[Lori Hiatt]

Way to go Mike. I like the personality you added.

 

I just finished the Stuck Door and looking for where to post it!

 

Lori Hiatt

[Rodney]

That rabbit always make me laugh.

 

Great job Mike!

[Caroline]

Name: Caroline Begbie

Exercise: Exercise 5 - Take a Walk

Date Completed: 1st Oct 2006

 

Plain vanilla Rabbit walk. Thanks to luckbat for this great explanation of the Z translate curve to stop slippage:

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...amp;hl=slippage

 

[attachmentid=21006]

Exercise5.mov

[griffin]

EX5

 

Dave MacLean

 

Due to availible time (or lack thereof , I concentrated on the actual mechanics rather than perfecting the secondary motion and getting everything looking really pretty.

 

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j259/gri...lkTheRabbit.flv

[ldgilman]

I completed the work on the walk cycle on my laptop. I copied the project to my desktop via my home network and get an error that rabit.mdl can't be found. I did a search and there is no .mdl to be found on my laptop. Where would I find the my missing file???

[Neu_Type]

I completed the work on the walk cycle on my laptop. I copied the project to my desktop via my home network and get an error that rabit.mdl can't be found. I did a search and there is no .mdl to be found on my laptop. Where would I find the my missing file???

 

The rabbit model is on the CD, and you probably didn't copy the CD material to your laptop

Your desktop's CD drive is probably a different letter than on your laptop, so the file is pointing to the wrong place...

 

You should to find it on your HASH CD... and just point the project there when asked to find...

or if you copied the data to your desktop's hard drive, you should be able to find it there.

 

Hope this helps...

[Phobos]

Name: Peter Garrity

 

Exercise Completed: Exercise 5 Take a Walk

 

Date Completed: November 5th 2006 (11052006US)

 

Hi Rodney and all;

Heres my Exercise 5, I went a bit overboard with the sound, I especially made some sound effects , a song and little ditty ... I had to split the footstep sounds up into seperate parts so it would sync. I had some problems adding actions but I feel this works ok.. I'll be interested in using HAMR as this file is embarresingly big, sorry, 3Mb compressed. I'll have to invest in some webspace, AOL only give 2Mb free space.

 

 

[attachmentid=21985]

Ex5_Peter_Garrity_11052006US.zip

[Dhar]

Great job Peter. I think your reflection and fog? setting is what made your file so big. Nice work though.

[Rodney]

Peter,

What Dhar said on the settings... little touches like that sure add a lot to a scene but can add a lot to your animation. I'd guess sound was the biggest addition however.

 

All that said... Love your 'Take a Walk!'

 

The extra work you put into it paid off. Very nice.

[Phobos]

Peter,

What Dhar said on the settings... little touches like that sure add a lot to a scene but can add a lot to your animation. I'd guess sound was the biggest addition however.

 

All that said... Love your 'Take a Walk!'

 

The extra work you put into it paid off. Very nice.

 

Cheers for that! The sound probably was the big issue, I had some very high res sounds 192Khz 24bit, I knocked them down to 44Khz 16 bit , but they where Still PCM not compressed.

The unzipped file was 4.2Mb without sound ,6.62Mb with the sound track. So roughly 1/3 of the animation file size is sound.

As you might have seen in one of my previous exercises I used similar fog and reflection. I feel those settings add to the sense that its a flat ground surface and it helps me check the feet are touching the ground like there supposed to..

 

Thanks for the feedback Rodney and Dhar...

[Clinton Rocksmith]

AH, DAMN IT.

 

I've made my animation in the MAIN window, not in the ACTION window.... at least I'm getting an idea of how A:M is set up. But it still hurts.

 

Is there anyway to change this keyframed animation into an Action....hmmmm, can I copy the keyframes from each one and paste it in the Action window.....

 

YES, I CAN!!!

 

I love it when software is INTUITIVE... nice work.

 

Clinton

[Clinton Rocksmith]

Ok, so I've done that but now the ground plane bounces up and down.

 

Hmmmm.

 

When I look at the poor bunny he flies up into the air and it's a little disturbing.

 

What have I done?

 

Clinton

[Rodney]

What have I done?

 

What have you done!!!

 

You have just initiated a rip in the fabric of 3D spline interpolated continuity... thats all!!!

First gravity is negated... then Rabbits fly.

 

CHAOS WILL ENSUE!

 

Actually, I may be mistaken on this.

It is possible you just need to go into your timeline a correct the keyframes.

You'll probably see once you select the Ground plane in the Project Workspace that the timeline has the ground move over time. Deleting or Copy/Pasting keyframes will most likely bring it under control.

 

If just struggling with the Ground Plane you could probably Delete the shortcut to it in the Choreography window, go back to Frame 0 and drag and drop the ground plane back in. You might have to adjust it a little to get it where you want it... do that on Frame 0.

 

Let us know how you fare!

[Clinton Rocksmith]

hmmmm.

 

Can't seem to figure that one out...

 

I've attched my Walk cycle for you to look at it.

 

Cheers

 

Clinton

 

Nope,

 

here it is

 

[attachmentid=22249]

MyRabbitWalkCycle.zip

[Rodney]

Clinton,

 

The only file in the zip file is an action file.

We really need the whole thing in order to properly diagnose.

 

What I was reading above concerned the ground plane... (is that not part of the problem?)

 

Rodney

 

Okay... maybe I do see the problem.

 

If you grab the main body of your character (I've applied your action to Shaggy on my end) you want to bring the body down to force the feet not to float.

 

Looking some more...

[Rodney]

I've attached an edited version of your action file.

I've probably broke more than I fixed.

 

From what I could see the main culprit was that your Model's Root Bone had been animated (a lot).

In the end I just deleted all the translations, scaling etc. in the model bone and that seemed to work.

Its possible that while investigating I animated the Model Bone so need to go back and look at your action file again.

 

Other than breaking your walk cycles smoothness... see if this corrects the main problem.

MyRabbitWalkCycle2.zip

[jakerupert]

Hi all,

 

Here is my go on the walkcycle.

I used Shaggy in order that he can go to the stucked door.

 

Critics wellcome.

 

;>) Jake

 

....I dont get the use of the ease-channel.

Even the David Rogers description is not clear to me.

 

I just can alter the position of Shaggy on the path,

but how can I get him to walk slower?

 

?;>/ Jake

Shaggywalk151106.mov

Shaggywalk141106.mov

[Caroline]

There's a simple 3 minute video explaining how to combine two actions and use an ease adjustments at:

 

Its at:

http://www.hash.com/VM/ and is under Misc, Path Ease.

The walk and wheel, and constraints and compensate videos on that page may also help.

 

To slow him down, look at the properties for the Walk Action (shortcut to MyRabbitWalk) and change the cycle length to more, like 10 secs, depending on the length of the path.

 

I don't know if you're making a study of walk cycles, but while searching, I came across Rodney's thread:

The 'annotated' Art of Animation:Master

and amongst other gems, it's got a great link to Walk Cycles (non A:M) The Walk and the Whip.

 

Now I must go and study that thread....

[Caroline]

Quick explanation of ease:

 

Each path constraint has an ease associated with it. By default, the ease goes from 0% at the beginning of the path, to 100% at the end of the path.

 

Let's say that you have a path cycle length of 10 seconds, and you've set that in the Action's Cycle Length property. It'll take 10 seconds for Shaggy to walk along the path. But if you want him to walk slowly for 8 seconds, and then walk really quickly for 2 seconds, then you can set your frame time to 8 seconds, and change the Ease % to 50% - you may have to change the 10 second Ease % to 100% too.

 

Now Shaggy is going to walk along 50% of the path in 8 seconds (ie slowly), and walk the other 50% in 2 seconds (ie quickly).

 

Try it and see - the hard part is locating Ease % - it's in the properties for Constrain to Path "Path1".

 

(But you don't need it for Exercise 5!)

[Chrury Sanson]

Name: Chris J

 

Exercise: Take a walk

 

Date completed: Dec. 30, 2006

 

Exercises completed: 1, 2 and 5

 

Instructor: TAoAM Yeti cover (I love that book)

 

Notes: LOL! I got carried away and finished this one before I realized I had skipped a couple exercises. I'll go back to #3 next.

Ex5Chrury.mov

Nothing fancy. A small bit of slide but pretty good. The only thing I would add would be an occasional blink as he walks in his circle.

 

Oh yeah. Happy New Year!

[Rodney]

That's really nice Chris.

You've got some nice sense of weight going into that. Secondary animation in the ears too.

 

If I have a favorite part its the feet as he walks away there at the end. The feeling of contact on the ground... just the look of it... I like.

[totlover]

Name: Caleb Gunby

 

Exercise Completed: Ex 5

 

Date Completed: Jan 4, 2006

 

Here is the link:

 

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h127/ret...rrent=Ex5-1.flv

[Leo73]

Caleb,

 

Good job on the walk. You do have a werid popping going on in the rabbit's right arm. Also, you might want to add some secondary motion to his upper body and head. You have great motion going with the ears but remember what would cause that. The head and upper body moving as well.

 

Hope that helps.

[totlover]

Leo,

 

yeah rabbits arms do not move very well and i didnt realize it at the time

 

[You have great motion going with the ears but remember what would cause that] what does that mean

 

i know that i can fix it but iis it good enough to be able to complete that excerise or should i do it again

[Leo73]

I just meant that the motion of the ears would be caused by the head and upper body moving as he walks. I think its good enough that you dont have to do it again. Like you said, you know how to fix and what you would fix. You could always fix if you want or you can just keep going. There's no right/wrong with these, its just to get you animating and thinking.

[totlover]

i think it is best for me (LEARNING) to do it again

 

do you have any tips on why his arm is really messed up when you move it

 

Could i use a different character?

[jmf3d3d]

Name: Jeremiah M. Faries

 

Exercise Completed: #5: Take a Walk

 

Date Completed: Jan 11, 2007

 

Instructor: none

 

Remarks: whew! I had this essentially complete a few days ago, but everytime I'd render I'd see something else that could be better... and I still see several things to fix... but, it's JUST ONE WALK CYCLE... and I must move on . Actually, more like a "strut" cycle. I still see a little lateral foot slippage as he rounds the corner... any tips on how to remedy this?

 

I don't know if I was s'posed to do this for exercise 5, but I had fun messing around with the channels to give a little spring to Rabbit's step and to adjust the timing of secondary actions... great and powerful stuff! For example, it was a terrific way to fine tune his gaze while looking through the camera view. Learned a lot.

 

 

exercise_5.mov