Anim8or Community

Artwork => Finished Works and Works in Progress => Topic started by: Kevin Gales on November 24, 2019, 02:22:57 pm

Title: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on November 24, 2019, 02:22:57 pm
So I created this girl and rigged her but I don't have ideas what to make her do (animation)
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: johnar on November 24, 2019, 03:52:03 pm
walking is a good start. Walking, stopping, then begining to walk again is also a good one to get your head around.
Walk sequences are a great thing to have in your animation arsenal. Export your sequences into a sequence folder for that character. Other really handy sequences to export/keep are hand movements. Open hand , closed hand, index finger bend, middle finger bend etc...
 I've got seperate 'hand poses' for Left and Right hands, and also others affecting both hands.  (like 'both hands closed, both hands open.
 Key only the hand bones in the sequence, and then they can be added at anytime during the animation without affecting any other parts of the body.
 I've also got walking sequences saved where only the leg bones are keyed. So while your character is walking everything 'above waist' is free to be animated doing other things.
 Jumping and running are good ones for practicing 'weight and timing' as well.
 Btw: Nice cloe model :)
 some of my first character animations involved 'walking while singing' and 'walk, stop, talk, then start walking again. Use arm/hand gestures while talking during a walk and while standing still are all good practice.
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Steve on November 24, 2019, 04:42:10 pm
Nice model, Kevin.
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on November 25, 2019, 03:43:03 am
@Steve  : Thanks,I also thought I nailed her especially the hair 8)  @johnar : Pretty cool isn't she ? well I thought of a walk cycle but thought it's pretty low..I think I'll work on something thanks for your ideas though
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: johnar on November 25, 2019, 02:25:31 pm
. Yes, she definately is pretty cool. Well done.
 Ideas?  :)  Dancing is a tricky one.
 Picking things up and throwing.
 Gymnastics.
 Opening an umbrella, or a book.
 Ice skating.
 Martial arts.
 Conversation with another.
  Hmmm. Could write a list but there are really so many possibilities.
 As far as walking being 'low', it is one of the most basic movements to begin with, but if you're talking about perfecting the art,  a simple walk cycle is the beginning of a huge range of movements. There's all types of walks. Drunk, sneaky, backwards and so on. (i never got far with different walks)
 Anyway, whatever you decide, it'll be good to see cloe moving. :)
 Nice one Kevin.
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on November 26, 2019, 07:33:09 am
@johnar : Thanks man...let me do the walk circle first then I'll post the demo...  8)
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Michel Colaço on November 26, 2019, 05:00:00 pm
Congratulations on your model Kevin! Another suggestion that works very well for me is to take a very small piece of animation that you think is cool and play it with your character to practice.

I did something like this with a character I made to see him in motion.

https://www.facebook.com/mcolfilms/videos/290798834898815/
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on November 27, 2019, 02:37:17 am
@Michel Colaço  Thanks.Cool clip.. 8) Guess what? yesterday I watched several movies and animation to get references anyway I am working on something... :D
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 05, 2019, 04:52:49 am
I have been busy...but here is a quick walk cycle....
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: olan on December 06, 2019, 10:51:44 am
nice one kevin
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: johnar on December 07, 2019, 02:52:24 am
Nice start kevin.
 Theres a few ways to sort out the 'sliding' along the floor.
 One sure fire ways is to use the squares on the floor as markers, or some other marker arrangement is good.
 I'll usually use 3 views, with a side view used for positioning. If your side view shows as the bottom of 3 views, you can 'arc rotate' the view till chloe is standing on top of the time track, with her front toes on one of the time track 'frame'marker lines, then, frame by frame, re-position her so that her toes stay back on that same mark right up untill her front leg becomes the back leg, and until it leaves the ground. Then do the same for each step. ie. Front foot touches ground and is keyed at that exact same position until it is the back leg and leaves the ground.
 Hopethat makes sense. It doesn't actually take very long once you get the hang of it, and it takes away that 'sliding' motion, which never looks as good as when the grounded foot stays in the 'same, right' spot while walking. (or running or whatever)
EDIT: After watching a few more time, i see you have the front foot thing pretty close, aside from the very beginning of the walk.  I think you know what i mean about the apparent sliding. Sometimes the camera movement can also make it look as tho the character is travelling further than a normal stride would carry you.
 The 'side view' marker idea gives a more realistic distance of travel during a walk.
 Just thoughts.
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 07, 2019, 07:03:41 am
Thanks @olan ...thanks for the advice @johnar I have to say it's not so easy to animate in anim8or but then I have been coding a script that will allow me to interchange between blender and anim8or(so far so good)...I just like anim8or's simplicity and clean interface that's why I coded the script to import blender animation(my script can do that) to anim8or
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: johnar on December 08, 2019, 05:03:13 am
That sounds pretty awesome kevin. Hope it goes well. (https://i.postimg.cc/6QhpTB37/Smile-Blnkwhite.gif)

NickE wrote a script for importing bvh motion files into Anim8or.  It can be found in the ASL scripts part of the Anim8or forums. Might be interesting for you if you haven't seen it before.
 I haven't played with blender, but did muck around with poser animation and have seen the layouts in 3DSmax and Maya.
  I haven't really tested all of Anim8ors animation tools, and stick mostly to using morph targets, sequences, and very basic key framing  techniques. (haven't really played with things affecting 'fast/slow in, fast/slow out', manipulating the little green box handles in the animation path, and other stuff which i'm probly not even aware of)(https://i.postimg.cc/Dfx4BP7W/Rolleyeswhite.gif)
 I do find anim8ors keyframing setup to be pretty darn good, especially with some of the latter updates, shortcut keys for frame keying, folders, and other bits and pieces.
 Although i can;t compare to the keyframing layout in blender, i'm quite comfortable now with the way keyframing is implemented in anim8or, and, after all, decent keyframing can be the corner-stone to decent animation. (https://i.postimg.cc/NFQscSY6/Winkwhite.gif)
 
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 08, 2019, 11:05:38 am
Yeah anim8or is pretty cool I also like the cleaner interface...it would be top notch if there were constrains and parenting of individual bones + physics then it would be a complete package... 8) and to elaborate on why is said it's quiet difficult to animate first you cannot move/rotate multiple bones(not in referring to ik) you can't copy and
(flip) paste poses which means you have to manually repose on each frame....well you cannot preserve volume when rotating bones or on ik I bet for any actual beginner they will suffer...but I considered to work on tutorials to show people tricks just I am busy with Other projects in blender and other tools...
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 10, 2019, 01:11:12 pm
Another walk cycle...this time I attempted to mimic floor constraint by using a plane as floor reference...and the traditional 4/5 points walk cycle method...*video shows green or grey blocks on vlc.. windows mp recommended
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Steve on December 10, 2019, 06:25:32 pm
Kevin Gales: Have you tried using IK? You can lock the feet with it. Here's a simple example:

Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 11, 2019, 03:13:54 am
@Steve  Cool I'll check it out...although I am not a fan of ik I tried it...always goes sideways however I believe it would have been better if it were both fk and ik
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 11, 2019, 03:39:08 am
Nice ik setup It's not so bad after all I guess I wasn't paying much attention to limits to prevent distortion  8)...I didn't know you can lock ik chain position in anim8or this is new  :o 
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Steve on December 11, 2019, 06:15:20 pm
Also you can use fk with ik.

I'm also trying to add constraints such as keeping a joint >= 0, which would help walking a lot. But I still have a few bugs to fix before it's ready to use.
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 12, 2019, 11:53:04 am
Also you can use fk with ik.

I'm also trying to add constraints such as keeping a joint >= 0, which would help walking a lot. But I still have a few bugs to fix before it's ready to use.

Sounds great... 8)
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: davdud101 on December 13, 2019, 10:06:26 am
That's a good model Kevin! (Sorry I can't add any useful tips but I just felt the need to say that!)
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on December 13, 2019, 12:39:00 pm
@davdud101 Thank you.. 8)
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Blick Fang on December 27, 2019, 03:56:46 pm
Hi Kevin

You might want to see if you can get that model to pretend she is the lead singer of a rock band!  I am in the process of trying to create 3D characters for a cartoon(3D) animated rock band.  She can run around jump, do cartoony stuff and sing in a mic.  To show you what I mean, I used a program called Muvizu to make this video:


https://www.reverbnation.com/artist/video/13853129



I want more customized characters than the ones available with Muvizu.
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: Kevin Gales on January 01, 2020, 06:18:12 am
Ohh that's pretty cool...I'll try something out when I get time... :)
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: davdud101 on May 28, 2020, 03:04:53 pm
Hi Kevin

You might want to see if you can get that model to pretend she is the lead singer of a rock band!  I am in the process of trying to create 3D characters for a cartoon(3D) animated rock band.  She can run around jump, do cartoony stuff and sing in a mic.  To show you what I mean, I used a program called Muvizu to make this video:


https://www.reverbnation.com/artist/video/13853129



I want more customized characters than the ones available with Muvizu.

It lets you import models too? Is it original music Blick?
Title: Re: Perfecting the skill
Post by: johnar on June 02, 2020, 07:21:12 am

 Kevin
 If you go with a band, in anim8or you can add a bone at about chest level and add the guitar/ or other instrument, to that. (like a saxophone, trumpet, or other instrument that moves with the players body.)

 Its a lot of fun making, animating a band, especially if you like music as well, and there's a lot of stuff to work-around and learn from.
  Just a really cool thing to do. (https://i.postimg.cc/6QhpTB37/Smile-Blnkwhite.gif)

Blick Fang (https://i.postimg.cc/mr96SrMD/Thumbs-Up-W1.gif)