Chameleon RunCycle

[Luxo]

Hi fellow hashers. I have here, fresh off the printing press, a cartoonish run cycle. "Cute" was sort of what I was going for---tell me what you think! Thank you very much! Josh.

The tail is not animated. For some reason the target isnt working. I'll have to rig it myself

 

 

For latest update go to page 2

Click here to watch LoopFRONT

Click here to watch LoopSIDE

 

Model credited to Ken Heslip, thanks for making this awesome model public Ken!

[nimblepix]

HA!

That's really goofy!

Love the rubber arms!

 

Now to add some bounce to the tale and eyes.

[heyvern]

See Josh?

 

That is why I was confused when you couldn't model a baseball bat! I just assumed you were very proficient in ALL areas of AM.

 

 

Nice job... he makes me laugh!

 

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[robcat2075]

It's cute!

 

There's a doubled frame every 5 frames. Why is that?

[agep]

That was hysterical funny!

[Paul Forwood]

Hee hee! That is cute.

He's like a very happy and excited child.

[Luxo]

Thanks guys. Glad I might have got a chuckle or two out of you This was fun to animate, just to loosen it up a bit and put some character in a exercise was nice. (the model is already full of character!). Thanks for your comments, robcat I'm not sure what's going on there, I'll investigate. I'm planning on rendering out a nice toon version (With multi-pass *gasp*!) once I'm done cleaning it up.

[Nosferatu]

Excellent illusion of weight. Very nice job.

 

Nos

[Mr. Jaqe]

His toes clip the groun, other than that it's awsome and very amuzing to watch!

 

Good job!

[jfirestine]

Cute character! Nice design!

The tail needs loosening up. I know you stated the tail was not animated yet, but it will look good as a secondary movement as soon as you get it rigged.

 

I think a belly jiggle would be a nice addition too. to help convey the weight of the character. But hey, it looks good now.

 

Just my $0.02 worth. I really like it!

[amarillospider]

FUN!

 

-Alonso

[KingSalami]

excellent, too funny!

 

I will run like him from now on!

[Luxo]

Thanks everyone! KingSalami, I'd love to see you do that (you should have seen me prancing around my room acting out the action. I still have the file on my computer actually! I'm going to go trow my computer in the fireplace.). I'm having lots of trouble rigging the tail, I have a new-found respect for the people who build and rig these characters for the community. Hopefully I'll figure out a good rig for the tail and post my "final" animation here for critique sometime today. Thanks ya'll.

[dimos]

Josh,

 

If I'm not mistaken your about 16 years old right? If so let me tell you one thing.

 

GREAT work!!!

 

If you're not 16 or younger, well... it still pretty good.

 

Some things can be tweaked but for a beginner your pretty damned good. CYCLES can be the hardest, most tedious peices of work. If you use cycles in a production atmosphere they have to be pretty "spot on" for them to work well, and yours seems to work well.

 

I have seen less amusing cycles from professionals. If you keep up at this and study the craft to hone(sp*) your skills a little or a lot (depending on how far you want to take it), I'd say you have a DEFINITE future in the industry.

 

I like the character a lot too. Did you model the character?

 

Keep it up.

 

Dimos

[Luxo]

Thanks, Dimos that really means a lot! Be careful though, you dont want my head to explode with ego! What things can be tweaked? stop being so nice Is there anything that stands out? Thanks for the comments I appreciate it.

 

P.S. Yah I am 16. Also you have some fantastic stuff on your site! You've worked on some great movies.

[dimos]

First off let me just say again that this is a very nice cycle for someone so young and fresh to the artform.

 

But you asked me so hear I go.

 

 

What I see from the front view...

 

1) Over all speed is good but it seems that every 5th frame is doubled up, which gives a little bit of a undesired poppy action.

 

Just to note...Do you work 24 frames or 30 frames? I suggest to always work in 24 frames per second. That's how feature films are made and most television and commercial productions.

 

2) Head needs a little secondary. Ever so slightly drag (or tilt) the head up or down depending on direction of flow. My suggestion is that the head on frame 1 should be tilted upwards and should snap to where it is in frame 3 but you may need to play with that until it looks right.

 

3) The arms are twinning and that is not so eye pleasing. Vary the arms by offsetting them about 4 frames from each other, or maybe making each one arm move slighlty different (but don't loose that craziness because that funny). Also try a test to see how much funnier (or not) it'll be be to leave thae character hands openly flapping in the wind. It could add in a little more humour. Keep that hand loose but not overly flappy.

 

4) Each time the foot that is off the ground passes underneath the character it passes through the ground which kind of pops a little. You may try to fix this by rotating the foot to point slighlty out to the side as it's passing underneath. It may make the run sillier (which is good in this case). WATCH THE KNEES! The characters right knee seems to bend inwards as it passes underneath him (or her not sure).

 

What I see from the side...

 

1) ARMs should have a slight forward and back motion (swinging). When right foot is forward, left arm should move forward and right should move back. Due to the silly run it should be SLIGHT but noticeable.

 

2) The feet are pssing through the ground but I mentioned that earlier.

 

3) The secondary head animation would really benefit this view quite a bit. Try a few variations to see how it looks best.

 

4) I know you said the tail isn't done but that would also help out a lot.

 

Now all that said here are some extra ideas.

 

Tongue flying out of the left side of his mouth flayling around (funny).

 

Maybe some secondary animation with the eyes.

 

Anyway...

 

Thanks for the nice words. I hope I helped.

 

Dimos

[mtpeak2]

Pixar, the tail is already rigged just hidden and the target is there, you just have to apply a kinematic constraint on the tip of the tail to the target null. Somehow the constraints were lost while getting the the CD ready.

[Luxo]

Thanks you so much Dimos! Wow, thanks for that critique it helped me a bunch! I fixed the 5th frame problem (but now you have to download to view), and yes, I do animate at 24fps. I tried to put in some secondary "drag" on the way down on this update, but not so much on the way up. I want the head to propel his heavy body up (I could show this a lot better). Personally I like the twinning, though not aesthetically pleasing but I think It works. If I offset the arm too much I think it wouldn't have the same effect, there's only 8 frames from down to up. Thanks for the comment though I appreciate it, just my personal take. I think I fixed the foot/knee problem, thanks! I tried to get a slight twisting movement in this update, not sure if I did enough however. The tail caused me major major problems because I using my own crude rig (thanks for the help mtpeak, now my future animations with this guy will be much easier!). It was a big headache but I did come out with something. Just a simple "whip" movement, I didn't want to take that much focus of the character with something fancy-shmancy, you can see it good on the back view. If anyone wants to see the back view I'll put it up. Thanks for all you help Dimos and everyone. Oh and no I didnt make the model. Ken Heslip did (I think), it's on the hash "CD" found in the Free Models sections of hash's homepage.

 

This is my latest update. Close to final, critique away please!!!

 

You'll have to download these to you HD and loop them in your chosen Multimedia player. Thanks.

 

Click here to watch fronthash.mov

Click here to watch side1.mov

[Gerry]

Pixar - nice work! I would crit this but you're miles ahead of me in character work. the side view shows great progress. Love the head bobbing. Maybe the tail bounce could be a tad more fluid, but overall really excellent.

[nimblepix]

Tail bounce needs some adjustment.

Remember that the tail follows the up and down movement of the body,

not lead it or move at the same time. Think in terms of a lag motion.

 

I think he just stole some cookies, or is on his way to the ice cream man.

[Luxo]

Tail bounce needs some adjustment.

Remember that the tail follows the up and down movement of the body,

not lead it or move at the same time. Think in terms of a lag motion.

 

I think he just stole some cookies, or is on his way to the ice cream man.

Thanks Gerry and Nimblepix. Yah, the tail needs work, that's for that tip Nimblepix I'll go try it out.

[dimos]

Pixar,

 

I like it much better now. Maybe you could try offsetting the arms by 2 frames instead of the 4 frames I originally requested. You'd have to figure out the best offset by tweaking. The twinning still is distracting but maybe it's as simple slightly altering the animation of the arms to look different yet the same. Figure that one out!

 

Dimos

 

EDIT:

 

Also it would be cool to see a rotation cycle of the character in motion. I suggest keeping the character running on the spot for at least 2 seconds and the rotating the character on the spot for about 5 seconds (depending on your preference), and hold the front view at the end (again for 2 seconds again). Remeber to gradually move in and out of the rotation to help smooth the rotation, it looks more appealing. Also make sure that you DO NOT include a copy KEY 1 on the last frame so when folks cycle the animation it doesn't seem to hold or pop. Render it using the realtime setting that way you don't have to wait too long for rendertimes. Once you get the final animation then render the cycle as you wish. I am really interested in seeing the final version. Good luck

[Gerry]

I vote for running for the ice cream man!

 

Dimos, your comments and crits are really valuable and helpful to read. It's great to see a WIP like this, the comments made, and the results put into use.

[Luxo]

Thanks again Dimos, youve been soooooo helpful! Well, i'm back to work on it! I've never spent this long on one animation, and the funny thing is it's the shortest one I've done.

Lol, Ice cream truck it is!

[dimos]

I have ALWAYS spent more time per frame on cycles, than on other type of animated peice. Cycles have to be good in every sense to make it work. It has to be believable and technically accurate or as accurate as humanly possible.

 

A common mistake when animated walk and run cycles is animators believe that spending a lot of time on few frames is not necessary, but one has to remember that a cycle is more than just 12 frames (for example). When actually using a cycle in a longer peice you tend to see it for MUCH longer than those 12 frames originally worked on. Any discreptencies in the cycle will surely show up after the audience has seen it in motion for a few seconds (or whatever).

 

I hope that made sense.

 

Dimos

[Luxo]

Thanks Dimos that totally makes sense. Well, I'm calling this "final" I still haven't fixed the twining problem but maybe when I have more time and concentration I'll revisit it. I really have to get cracking on TAoAM and Animation Boot Camp if I want to work on TWO. Sometimes you have to say "C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me". But yah, It would definitely improve it and if the weekend gods grant me time I might take a few more swings at it.. Dimos, I tried the rotate idea, for some reason it's skipping frames, very bizarre.

 

So thanks to all who help the little tweaks made a difference I think. Comments and cretiques still open

 

 

RunCycle (Please download to your multimedia player and loop)

Front http://www.filegone.com/359050926225918

Side http://www.filegone.com/561050926230213

[rhinthell]

That's really adorable. I'd love to see some more control in the tail so it isn't bending so much in the one joint at the end. I think that would really help. Right now it's sort of distracting.

 

Overall it looks really nice. Great sense of weight and personality in that guy. If anything I'd suggest a little more rotation in the hips to lead the legs a bit but honestly I think it works fine with a more cartoony style if you don't want to add that.

 

Love the floppy hands.

 

~Cristin