Thom Walk =^.^=

[nyahkitty]

I've started to explore walk cycles, in preperation for a project I may get to work on.

This was created all in one day and is six or seven actions all layered over each other.

 

I forget where the music comes from, but that's only there temporarily for entertainment value.

 

Thom Walk

 

Enjoy!

[Rodney]

hehe. Looks like you are having fun.

 

Sounds like 'Talking Heads' to me.

[Fishman]

I agree it sounds like Talking Heads or maybe its Walking Heads?

 

I would have liked to seen a shot showing him head to toe to appreciate the full effect. If you are going to submit that as demo reel stuff, they will probably want to see the whole character to appreciate what you are doing with the legs and the feet.

 

They are definitely nice looking walks with good transitions. Nice work!

 

Scott

[ZachBG]

Couldn't see it... what codec did you use?

[zion42]

Couldn't see it... what codec did you use?

Use VLC, it works great for those weird avi files.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

[nyahkitty]

The codec is Windows AVI MPEG4.

 

Thanks everybody.

I had a challenge with a smooth transition from one walk action to another. After much digging I discovered the answer:

 

-set all walk actions to blend

 

-when transitioning between two actions, set keyframes for the blend percent of the action you are transitioning into. That next action will take over completely at 100%.

 

-Do not set keyframes for both actions where they overlap, as if to crossfade them (Thom went all wonky when I did).

 

 

So, I did not need to use a new CHOR action inbetween the two actions I wanted to transition. Of course, part of that may have been that they overlap each other.

 

This was a skit for fun after spending several hours dinking with walk cycles. But it is correct that I would want full-figured framing of the action if I were to make a presentation to a client.

[CreativeAustinYankee]

Interesting walk, I like it, alot of character.

 

The music most likely came as a sample with Windows Media Player.

 

It is "Like Human's Do" by David Byrne from his album Look Into The Eyeball.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Steve P.

[nyahkitty]

Here's something curious.

 

I've built some more cylces and layered them in a CHOR.

I've used the same technique for transitioning between actions.

I notice intermitant popping with some CP's and some bones.

I have yet to spot a pattern.

 

Can anyone tell why this is happening?

 

File attached to this post.

The WAV file is not included, so it is not neccesary to link the CHOR to that.

THOM_WALK.zip

[nyahkitty]

Very curious.

 

I decided to try mixing actions with a different model. So I used Dodger the Squirrel. The transition was completely smooth. Is Thom known for having issues? I got him off of the 2004 CD. If it's just the model at fault, then I may be able to continue practicing without a problem. I'll just use a different model.

 

Hmmm... I wonder if I should strip out Thom's old skeleton and add TSM 2.0 rig to him instead. That might be cool.

[nyahkitty]

Hello,

 

This might be day three of making humanoid walk cycles. I've found good results with Anzovin's most current sample Rigged Guy.

 

However, I still pine for the days of Thom. So I changed the surface color. What once was Rigged Guy is now officially.......... Pseudo Thom! He's faster. He's stronger. He juleanne's. Thank you Anzovin people!

 

Current project stats:

 

2 days = 16 hours

I think there's 6 regular actions and two chor actions layered together

 

Mpeg4 video file Attached.

PSEUDO_THOM_WALK.zip

[nyahkitty]

Here's the next update:

 

Psuedo Thom Walk

 

The first twenty seconds are quite nice. After that, it gets a bit dodgy, particulary with the hands. The make-hand-into-fist pose sliders are no longer responding past the first 20 seconds.

 

With the chor containing over twelve actions, I think I overdid it too soon. I'll probably need to scale back a bit to experimenting with just a few actions in order to see how they behave.

[bobcroucher]

Hi John,

 

Great work. It looks very nice. I loaded the Thom project. One of the glitches occurs at 8:09. The action THOM WALK 01 008 needed to last a bit longer. It ended before the next action (THOM WALK 01 009) had ramped all the way to 100%.

 

At 22:12 thom's arm completely disappeared. I don't know why this is yet. This still needs investigated.

 

Bob

[luckbat]

I get the disappearing arm thing all the time--it reared its ugly head just yesterday while I was working on a walk cycle, in fact. It seems likeliest to occur when two different actions position the same bone at the same place and time. If I could reproduce it 100% of the time I'd submit a report, but it's been pretty random.

[nyahkitty]

The psuedo Thom that I made by modifying the sample rigged guy from TSM 2 seems to behave quite nicely. No strange translations. Are you referring to that or the original Thom?

[Mr. Jaqe]

John, the link seems to be broken, I just get a "page not found" message when I click on it.

 

Btw, love your new avatar.