Any comments on how well these work as tweens of the extremes? (Just a handful of frames)...Advice is appreciated....They were quick and are just doodles-in-Flash but they have some redeeming values...the values that don't make that list? =) Sometimes things are just fun to look at =)
Questions - Two Small Tweens (~55k)
By ScatteredLogical | Sunday, June 27, 2004 at 11:48am
#1
Questions - Two Small Tweens (~55k)
The Batman head isn't half bad. There are 2 things that bother me about it, the eyes wobble a bit, and the ending mouth....where it seems like it will be a smooth inbetween jumps in the last 2 frames.
It's not bad, but I think you need to make a better guide for yourself to follow so that You don't let "wobbly" animation take over. It's all too easy to let happen and you'll often hear the word "ARC" in a case like this. Make arcs that smoothly connect the starting and ending position and use them to help turn the head.
It's a little hard to explain if you did this all in flash. and it kind of looks like you did.
The walk however,
there is something that you can do to immediately make things better. Take 4 drawings: the extremes of each leg (left and right) extended forward, and extremes of the middle position; where one leg is straight while the other one crutches to extend forward. Walk cycles aren't very easy to do straight forward, and it's probably a good idea to do the extended positions first before anything else. The number of drawings can vary.
Drawing:
1: left leg forward, right leg back
4: left leg straight under, right leg cruched
7: right leg forward, left leg back
10: right leg straight, left leg cruched
13: same as #1
That's one formula for a 12 frame cycle, but you can do it other ways as long as the number of drawings between each leg is equal. You should only make it different if you want a limp. I don't think you wanted a drag in your walk so I think you may want to try a formula.
There are many many ways to do a walk cycle and I'm still trying to figure out how to do personable styles to it. The basic is still in my head, and from there, all of the crazy pant legs will come forward.
Definitely pick up the The Animaton Survival Guide by Richard Willams, he covers all of this stuff in dozens of ways. It's great material.
Keep aminatin;)
L8r,
Adam
Atomcloud Animation
These are mouse-drawn like my other thread (except of course for the Bat-extremes from Google, which are mouse-traced , so I don't know that I could fix the wobble....smoothness, yah...I tried carrying over my drawing arc abilities as best I could but this was when I was first learning Flash so that's more than likely why it sucks; ie didn't retain a lot...
As far as the walk cycle, I feel awful now because it was done with a walk cycle formula I remembered (not only that but I remembered it FROM Williams' book)....so really it must just be an intrinsic sort of bad....I like the smoothness but not the float. I think it's strongest problem was it was formulaic, but not with any character or anything interesting happening....not enough lift, no life to the movement.....just a 'tweening exercise
Thanks for the comments again!
Good news -- I was doing my normal re-reading on principles, and when it got to walk timing (it was a discussion on timing, actually, not walks, but a walk was used as an example)......it explained reasoning (the things smart people are even prone to sometimes missing, because there's so much to retain) behind eases in and out, and how in a walk they were especially prevalent.......so I went back, and took out an entire frame right before the knee-up extreme of each leg, and it has a greatly improved sense of movement to it......because of the implied speed drop/burst in moving the legs laterally on the screen, it was more of a weighty feel, even though it's slidey-floaty in nature.....maybe not an overally fix but a "step" in the right direction ar ar ar =)
Incidentally, it was Adam's walk cycles that illuminated me into adding quirk and a better arc to the leg movements in subsequent walks I tried today, so....this is just a process, like life, right? Nowhere to go but up...
Let's see it again then;)
Always remember that there is no ONE way to do a walk. there are surely ways to make life easier when making one, and walks...no matter how often I do them myself, they're always a bitch.
Try one in profile, frontal, and 3/4 sometime, you'll know what I'm talking about.
I wanta see you try the walk again. It's GOOD that you're starting with the legs. How bout the rest of the body, hmmmm?
L8r,
Adam
Atomcloud Animation
I don't have access to my comp right now, but I will most certainly be back to add the frame-cut original, and even attempts at the assorted other walks. I remember from Dicky Williams' book the varying perspectives....It looked difficult, but I'm a sucker for self-improvement.....we shall see....hold on to your hats, kiddies
Incidentally, the first walk cycle I ever did was a full body. It was hilarious because it was like a stick figure and Mr. Basic had a baby.....nothing organic about the whole thing....the walk was nice (arguably better than this moused contraption) but it was only half a cycle and changing heights was an issue....mark my words I've nowhere to go but up with this =) Thanks for sticking with the threads