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Zugz 13 posts
http://www.animateharder.com/video/runcycle.mov
*Edit: here is the revised version
http://www.animateharder.com/video/runcyclerevised.mov
this is a run cycle testing out a rig for a "double knee" leg using a simple character. This guy (well, a better model of this guy) is going to be a part of an animated short. Please give me some feedback relating to the animation of the character.
You should right click and save as so you can loop it in quicktime
also, some comments on my own work, i am just now noticing that the tail has no side to side action besides what is inherited from the body. And the feet/toes land perfectly flat (but i dont seem to mind since the leg is not human)
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Global 1,589 posts
I think it is animated rather well
It has a nice sense of weight, loops perfectly and the little guy even has character. I think the tail works without side to side motion.
Not sure what you mean by "double knee" leg though, as it looks very much like a human leg running on the balls of the feet. In essence that is how a quadruped's rear leg is structured - but the proportions are often more exaggerated and the behaviour is more spring like. I'd be interested to see the rig if you would like to share some screen shots.
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Zugz 13 posts
what i meant by the double knee thing is that it is rigged a little differently. I understand that it is like a human leg that walks on the ball of the foot and really there is one knee and the "second knee" is actually the ankle. The problem occured when i rigged it like a human leg. it was very difficut to animate because on a human leg the ik goes from the hip to the ankle and in my case the ankle doesnt touch the ground so i needed the ik to go from the hip ti the ball of the foot. So the ik then controlled two joints instead of one. With the help of some friends we eventually figured it out. Well they figured it out anyway, i cannot explain how they got it to work. TheOnlyAaron who posts on this forum was the guy who finally put it all together so i will have him post the rig and explain how it works.
Thank you for the crit. I am glad you think he has character because that is always the goal.
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Global 1,589 posts
Cool - I would be very interested to hear of the rigging, especially as you only used one IK chain for 3 joints. There is so much info on character rigging and different techniques are explored and explained pretty thoroughly, but that seems to be only on human characters... quadruped rigging guides are few and far between.
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Hey Mike,
Looks good
My only concern at the moment is the motion of his centre of gravity (ie....the animation arc of his body)
Right now there's no real bounce to his step (and there should be). His motion is like this:
When it should be like this:
In other words (in case my amazing illustrations don't show it correctly), a bounce-step arc should always slow down near the top of the arc.
Otherwise looks cool!
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TheOnlyAaron 188 posts
Hey everyone, I am the other guy working on this, and here are some pics of the rig, and their explanation. The first is just the leg.
The Green bones make up the front knee, and they have just a standard HI solver on them. The Blue bones make up the foot, and heel. The IK Chain Controler is Linked to the end bone on the blue chain. These are two seperate bone systems, so the foot can be torn off easily. The Base of the blue bones is actually right by the brown circle, the chain doubles back, (thanks Brian) which is linked to the dummy in the scene. This allows that joint to be controled, and influence the green chain. There is just a simple rotation wire paramater on the "heel" bone so that it can be droped or raised with a slider. On the front for the toes, the red bones, they just branch off of the blue chain.
Here is the entire rig ( so far, without the mouth / facial controls. ) The Tail is a Spline IK (thanks for showing me Tyson) and those red crosses and dummies in the front control the orientation on the knee. all is linked to the green Hula Hoop.
If you guys have any ideas on how to make this any better, or simpler please just let me know. I'll Post the final Rig before animation begins with the facial controls, and the tounge.
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Zugz 13 posts
I understand what you mean, your drawings are fantastic. But just for some clarification, i wasn't sure if the curve you drew was for an entire cycle or just half of one.
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Mine weren't for the entire cycle....you'd probably want to have a few frames of smooth buffer once he sets his foot down....but you definitely don't want him to have the kind of dipped-down arc that's in the bmp you just posted.
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Zugz 13 posts
well thanks for the advice, i will see what i can do. I will probably be able to post a revision tomorrow afternoon
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Zugz 13 posts
http://www.animateharder.com/video/runcyclerevised.mov
here is the first revision. I added some follow through to the toes and I tried to accomplish what tyson was trying to say. Better... Worse...Let me know what you think.
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TheOnlyAaron 188 posts
Hey Mike, I think it looks better. The use of the toes was a nice touch. Good Implementation of Tysons diagrams too.
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
The improvements looks good man
....now I'd just say to get a bit more extra overlap on his tail and it'll look great
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adam_kehoe 30 posts
hey guys your stuff is looking good so far. I watched the animatic and i think your story is really well put togather. Cant wait to see how it all is going to turn out in the end.
