Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Notes for myself

John told me to rearrange the walk so that I could see it in a cycle.

Link

(It's kind of fun to watch the peg holes go by, haha).

Anyway, looking at it this way makes it easier to see some problems. The biggest issues of concern:

- The head. It tilts too severely. The original looks strange, but still smooth-- my study should match that
- The extreme on the far arm is jumpy. That should be easy to fix, but the arm itself looks weird and wooden, like it's just a puppet's arm moving out! Maybe I should make the fist move a bit more?
- The near arm is very jumpy. It's a little twitchy in the original but it's too much so on this one. I think part of this could be fixed by making the hands on frames 9 and 10 fit in more with the others.
- The tail. No flow.
- The eyes are still weird, of course. Need to tweak them still.
- John said the hair overlap is too mathematical. I don't know exactly how to fix that, but I'm willing to experiment!

Next time: I need to perfect the animation in its rougher stages.

Also: To those of you who have been leaving comments, I appreciate it! You are nice folks.



UPDATE!: I have an exam on Monday and some other school stuff to do, so I won't be able to put in as much time straight up as I'd like to. So I will be updating this post with my progression on fixing this.

HERE is the first update. I am redoing the head and neck, making sure that moves smoothly. Specific feedback VERY appreciated! When you back away it looks fairly smooth but I don't think I'm satisfied. It loses some of the original's bounce but I think I want to focus on just making it work smoothly rather than complete fidelity. I need to learn to crawl before I can walk. Or, I guess, walk before I can walk interestingly.

I have also been informed that I misinterpreted his head shape! It is upside-down! I'm such a dork. It also tilts even less than this!

4 comments:

  1. The legs, feet, tail feathers and the body are, as near as I can tell, perfect. The head and the hands don't seem to match.

    Since this looks like you took his walk ( which was only one loop and not continued ) it's probably okay to change the last few frames so that they match with the first.

    I copied a Flip the Frog run cycle and applied it to one of my own characters, and that's a bit easier. But, doing it the way you're doing it probably teaches you more. You're certainly more advanced than I am.

    I see what John is talking about with the hair; because it's hair, it's not one solid piece, so it shouldn't be as syncopated as the other body parts, but you'll have to get creative on that one.

    You're getting better all the time!

    - trevor.

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  2. I guess at this point it becomes a matter of personal taste. But, it DOES look smoother.

    Yer not on facebook, are you?

    - trevor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am! I am the only Geneva Hodgson on there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Any relation to Joel from MST3K? :)

    - trevor.

    ReplyDelete