@ xothermik
now i am inspired.
Nice.clean method. I used about 6 poses to define my cycle- i will upload the pix later. Am outta d house @ d mo.
Great start! (nice commentary too)

@ all
please more activity.
This is day 3 of 14

thanks! lets hope its a chain reaction then because u work was what inspired me to start.

@xothermik
Wow, i'm inspired. Nice work in a short period.

Critics
[list]
[li]I think you should work on the arms, add some overlapping. it's looking stiff at the moment.[/li]
[li]I noticed a little bit of knee popping that's kind of distracting. i know that would be fixed for the final.[/li]
[/list]

I must start soon. If it requires for my office work to suffer abit.

Nice job guys! Like Zpixel, I'm inspired and motivated too. With my model pre-rigged by POSER and textured by me, I decided to go straight into creating my animation poses, and walk cycle (just learnt that term from the pros).

I started with two key poses: a basic left and a basic right swagger. A simple timeline will be set to start the walk cycle at Left, put the Right pose in the middle of the walk cycle, and a repeat of the Left pose at the end of the cycle. Continuously looped, it'll form a sketchy walk, to be tweaked and adjusted later.

I'm using POSER's box tracking for animating to increase cpu performance while animating. The final render will be applied to the model I earlier posted

@ kemji
good going.
pls post a movie clip, even if its at this preliminary stage.

@ zpixel
hurry up, the teams waiting.

did some experimental tweaking on the walk cycle.
trying to find an attitude that matches my character- am gunning for exaggerated exuberance.

putting a little more character in the steps and tweaking them so both sides arent exactly uniform.
this may not be the final motion i will use, am just trying to get comfortable with the character- get a feel for how he animates

gave him a bit of a head bob- if i was facial animating, he'd be whistling a ditty tune!

comments . . .

and by the way, i am animating in layers.
it gives me more control over the key frames and keeps my timelines clear of multiple keys.

if i want to add more swing to the arms, i simply create a new layer, and apply my tweaks to it- that way i can turn the effect on or off.
for this project i am using motionbuilder, but i know its a feature all 3d apps have.

so, i have a layer for each arm swing, the head bob, hip sway, and the finer adjustments on the knees.
both leg movements are on the same layer, and by turning off a desired layer or adjusting the keys, i can switch from an arm swing to a different gesture while the character is still walking.

my only hassle is keeping track of all the layers and wot they control. lol
for the preview i've used 6 layers so far.

@ all
day 4 is round the corner guys. . .

well, until i get more feedback- i think i will use this as my base walk cycle.
i am now going into his actions and gesticulations as he walks.

for some reason my storyboard isn't attaching (will keep trying tho)
my next clips show the character walking while bobbing to music (headfones will be attached later)
he waves to a couple of people as he walks by (maybe brushing a few specks from his shirt- if i have time)
i am trying to convey a yuppy fellow, (fancies himself to be irresistible) lol

my animation style for this project is comic, and very exaggerated!

oops, files didn't attach in earlier post.

@all

Didnt know this had gone in so far and i feel left behind. My internet's been out like 6days now, crazy Swift pple. Anyway,

@OKX, Kemjisuper and Xothermilk
Nice jobs guys, will be posting critique later but way to keep the blood pumping for the rest of us. Will be posting soon

@Okx
email addy is darkhangelle@yahoo.com, send password please. Muchos gracias

@ 9tLecturer

already started my blocking poses,

an update/feedback would be nice.

@ emekan, aphek
wots up guys?
missing ur output.

this is meant to be a knowledge trade remember?

@ resichild
dude, u just need the internet for posting.
hope u have been busy offline- u know i am always on ur case. lol

look forward to ur input man! have sent the password to ur addy.

@ kemji
also sent the password to ur addy

good going guys- but we need more ACTION/PARTICIPATION pls!

@OKX
Really sorry no output from me. Had to travel to PHC suddenly. I've not had time to touch my laptop.
But will really try to contribute. Sorry guys.

@OKX
Nice work.
Critique
------------
1) The timing or spacing for your walk cycle is a bit slow.

2) The swing or sway of the upper body and the head is way to much. I know that this is suppose to be
stylised but,

3) The core of your character( the hip and spine) definitely needs some overlap.

4) The arms also needs some overlap as well.

just my two cents. Will start posting as soon as I get to abj.

@zpixel
decided to try out that place to see for my self.

Wow, cool works,everyone.Nice to see all these animation WIP videos.Can't wait to see the finished movies.This takes a lot of work,kudos to all the participants.

@ aphek
cool. but get back to ur workstation ASAP!

really like ur eye for detail.

yeah, i prefer working with a slower timing for my walk cycle- it kind of emphasizes the flaws. when i get a general motion i am comfy with, i then just scale the keys to achieve the desired speed for the walk cycle.(thats a roundabout way of saying, thats not the final speed, lol)

yeah, the sway is really exaggerated- hes actually moving to the music playing on his discman and i also wanted a unique walk.

tell me if u still think it doesn't fit in when i post the complete first clip, where he is gesticulating.
will upload rough blocks of the motion later.

i dont quite get wot u mean about the overlap, could u please clarify (in simpler terms, lol)

thanx 4 taking out time 2 critique- very valuable!


@ melvi
thanks. kinda surprised u didn't sign on tho!

@ all
guys we are approaching day 5, thats almost the halfway mark!

pls more responses people. non-animators comments are very welcome too!

hi guys sorry no update from my end. my fever took a turn for the worse . seems to be subsiding now. hope i feel well enough to get back to my character tomorrow.

@ xothermik
sorry man.
have a speedy recovery!

i did a screen grab and stitched 2gether my first few takes to get a ruff idea of scene timing for the entire project.
it gives me info on duration of the takes i will use, and the areas to focus on during animation so i don't end up doing a lot of work that will be edited out later.

i've done approx 4 secs so far.
this is my approximate timeline breakdown:

our character is walking down a street + he gets to an intersection (7 secs)
he looks both ways + he crosses the street (3 secs)

as he walks down the street he is distracted by something to his right or left (2 secs)
he walks on while looking in that direction + he walks into a street pole (3 secs)
he falls + we leave him sitting on the floor dazed (5 secs)

am working on the 'intersection clip' at the moment.
there are still loads of tweaking to be done on the existing animations, but being a solo project (and given the time squeeze), i want to ruff out the entire sequence before fine-tuning any more.

the attached file is very lo-res. will post a higher res when my internet connection decides to behave. lol

comments please . . .

@OKX
It's looking good. I like your character's swag.

I finally had time to start something. This is my first pass. All I've was set all my extreme keys and the breakdowns, no fine tuning has been done yet.The way i tackle walkcycles is, I set keys for a basic walk-cycle first, from there i started adding the kind of attitude i want for my character.

@all
hi guys. Was able to do something with the little time I have. I was unable to use the rig that I intended to use. I really do not have time to learn how to use the rig. I ended up using one of my old rig. This is just rough pass at the walk-cycle the acting will come later when i am able to squeeze more time.
Critiques please.

@OKX
Nice Swagger.

Hi Guys,
Sorry about the slow progress on this animation issue. I guess we all overlooked the easter period coming into play. I had to spend it in Villa with little or no technology available. lol

I'll dust off my lappy and get to work.
@OKX: Ok man, i'll get right to the mp4's for my character.

Cheers

@ all
happy easter and welcome back guys.
lets hope we are all recharged and good to go.

this is day 8, and the progress sheet looks poor! lets engage those afterburners!!

@ aphek
good start.
its kinda hard for me to critique tho, the character is a bit too far from the camera (for me)
please render a close-up of a perspective view, and a few orthographic views for easier assessment.

the timing could be toned down a bit- although i don't quite know wot kinda walk u are gunning for.

more action people! . . .

@aphek
Nice one. I think the dude is walking too fast.

@all
The first post was just a basic walkcycle. I did to get the ball rolling.It is easy for me to add attitude to the was by adjusting the passing position on frame 7 and 19 ( I use a 25 frame cycle). I work fast and when the need arises it is easy for m to slow the walk by scaling the keys on the timeline. Since OKX has chosen the swagger type of walk ( just coined the phrase) I did a walk cycle which I call the mumu walkcycle. The walk is not as smooth as I would have loved. This is a rigging issue as the rig uses only ik for the chest controls and no fk. I did the rig a long time ago while learning how to rig.

For those that do not know,
1) Play the movie with Quicktime player
2) Use "Ctrl + L " to loop the movies.

This is the side view.

This is the front view.
I am will start blocking the rest of the performance hopefully today.

@all
The first post was just a basic walkcycle. I did to get the ball rolling.It is easy for me to add attitude to the was by adjusting the passing position on frame 7 and 19 ( I use a 25 frame cycle). I work fast and when the need arises it is easy for m to slow the walk by scaling the keys on the timeline. Since OKX has chosen the swagger type of walk ( just coined the phrase) I did a walk cycle which I call the mumu walkcycle. The walk is not as smooth as I would have loved. This is a rigging issue as the rig uses only ik for the chest controls and no fk. I did the rig a long time ago while learning how to rig.

For those that do not know,
1) Play the movie with Quicktime player
2) Use "Ctrl + L " to loop the movies.

@all
The first post was just a basic walkcycle. I did to get the ball rolling.It is easy for me to add attitude to the was by adjusting the passing position on frame 7 and 19 ( I use a 25 frame cycle). I work fast and when the need arises it is easy for m to slow the walk by scaling the keys on the timeline. Since OKX has chosen the swagger type of walk ( just coined the phrase) I did a walk cycle which I call the mumu walkcycle. The walk is not as smooth as I would have loved. This is a rigging issue as the rig uses only ik for the chest controls and no fk. I did the rig a long time ago while learning how to rig.

For those that do not know,
1) Play the movie with Quicktime player
2) Use "Ctrl + L " to loop the movies.

@Aphek - Wow! I'm so loving your character. The model, the walk, I think its real good. I disagree with Zpixel. I don't think the character's too fast. It's already modeled as a comical character so any kind of walk speed is fine. Besides, I bet the speedy walk is in line with some unique storyline, we can only tell at the end of the animation if it's too fast or not.

Just my opinion though, good work man.

looks like a real mumu indeed.

finally got some time to play with my character again. didn't do much. just added that double bounce i mentioned earlier.  don't worry bout the arms i still haven't worked on them yet. still the initial block pass plus i accidentally had the reference coordinate system set to view rather than local while working in perspective so its kinda spooky.

experimenting with alternate walking styles. you can still ignore the swinging arm for now other c&c are welcome

@xothermik
Am loving your walk.

I feel bad i dnt have enough time to work.