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Rashoni In reply to ??? [2009-03-23 23:40:26 +0000 UTC]

Wow, AWESOME work i must say!

the only critique i would give is possibly using some reference to make the movement less robotic (its actually not that bad right now)

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Niko40 In reply to Rashoni [2009-03-24 21:36:43 +0000 UTC]

Thanks again!

I try to get out of the robot and spaceship mode. I'm still learning animation so if you know any good animation guides on the net, let me know. No matter what the target audience for the guide is. I try to collect as much info about animation as possible.

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Niko40 In reply to rubberbend [2009-03-14 00:08:27 +0000 UTC]

Heh... Thanks.

Usually I start with one dot and front view. I extrude the dot to lines and outline the character from the front view. Then I do the same from the side. Now I just start filling the gaps. For this I use only perspective view and my own eyes. Mental rotation is a great thing to have in here. Well... Basicly it goes like this when I dont have exact front/side images on my hand. The rest is pretty much just adding the details and refining the model. One keypoint is to make everything simple and low poly at first.

For me the animation has been a lot more challenging than modeling. But this doesn't mean the modeling part would always be easy.

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SupaCrikeyDave In reply to ??? [2009-03-13 04:46:33 +0000 UTC]

Ok, first up: this is freakin' sweet

I'm really amazed at how fluent this is. His movement, from one pose to the next, is quite nice. There is one or two points where he stops abruptly (eg. his torso halts when he turns to the right), but even then, there's a subtle cushion that amends that.

I especially like the action of him angrily pushing his tail back. Priceless.

Two things I could point out:
When he lands in the beginning, he appears lighter than he should be. The impact of his landing is good, that works well, but his descent would feel better if he dropped quicker. This would add to his deep crouch, which I really like.

Also, his walk cycle is nice, but could probably use more movement in his upper body. At the moment, while his body does move slightly, it's mainly his legs that move. It would work even better if his upper body would shift with the weight as he walks, moving forward and back in accordance with his leg movements. This would also apply to his head bobbing as he walks, except for when he turns to his tail.

Other than that, I'm awestruck. He moves quite fluently.

Good stuff

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Niko40 In reply to SupaCrikeyDave [2009-03-13 15:18:47 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad you like it.

And I thank you about your comment. I shall look more into these things you said on my future projects.

I tried to use more than one speed and unexpected movements to keep watcher interested. Also I tried to keep everything related. eg. Arms sway a bit after torso has moved which added some credibility to the animation.

About the tail. It's twitching and I meant that he would be hitting it. Not just pushing it. So I guess I have to focus more on the timing.
And there seems to be one big bug on the tail...

Some extra: [link]

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SupaCrikeyDave In reply to Niko40 [2009-03-13 23:23:11 +0000 UTC]

No worries at all

There are indeed nice subtle movements throughout I rather like, including the arm movements, that give it a natural feel. Even the ears have a good feel to them.

Cheers for the face cam animation. Nice to see a lot of detail put into the facial movements, which goes well with his overall movement.

Once again, good stuff

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Niko40 In reply to SupaCrikeyDave [2009-03-14 13:59:09 +0000 UTC]

I posted the face cam since I thought it was just funny. I didn't pay much attention to the face when he wasn't looking towards the camera.
Some guidelines I took from this page (or tried): [link]
Definitely worth a look.

I'v been a bit busy for a few days. I barely have had time to be in front of my computer (The reason I'v been postin messages to one comment at a time and all over the day).

Now that I look my previous message, it looks rather dull. I mean I really appriciate your critisism.

With the dropdown part I wanted to have realism. Wolf don't know where the bottom is so he got scared. I have some experience with dropping down and not knowing where the stop is. In that situation you come down harder than when you know where the bottom is. I red that credibility is not the same as realism so I guess I can abandon this kind of thinking.

And for the walk cycle, I will add more movement next time. I guess I was a bit afraid to move the upper body.

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