Rotoscope a forward walk cycle

[3deeguy]

I used CamStudio to capture a walk cycle from "Bio Motion Labs" and then imported the video into AS. I created the bones first and built a 'body' around it. No head, hands, shoes or fussing with how the body should look because I wanted to see if I could first get the effect I wanted.
I can convert it to a SmartBone action which will let me change the speed and stop it. Thanks to eskchat for the idea to capture streaming video from Bio Motion Labs!
Creases in the pants and a pair of shoes should help the effect.

[lawnmower70]

very nice.

[Danimal]

Without a moving background to give perspective, it sort of looks like a calm prospector's dance. In context though, this would work very well.

[Greenlaw]

Pretty neat!

This reminds me a little of what we used to do many years ago at the studio where I worked, long before we had access to high-end motion capture. Every now and then, a commercial or video game cinematic production would come along where we needed extra realistic and natural motions, usually with a super tight schedule. To address this, we would video tape each other performing characters, sometimes while walking on a treadmill. Since we worked primarily in 3D, we often recorded the performances using 2 to 3 cameras from different views. After editing and synchronizing the footage to specifically what we wanted in our animation, the footage was imported as background image sequences, and we used this footage to rotoscope our 3D characters to the motion. At the time, we called this technique 'rotocapture.'

That might sounds a bit klunky (it was,) but we were often amazed by subtle details an animator would pick up from the footage that he might have otherwise overlooked if he had been keyframing the same animation from scratch. I'm not saying this was better animation--it just produced different results from animating without the direct and literal reference footage, and for these particular jobs, it was exactly what was needed. It was a case of using the best tools we had available for a given task.

Anyway, thanks for sharing that.

G.

[Little Yamori]

Cool, nice work.

[3deeguy]

Danimal, I tried several ways to add a reference including a moving-road 'cycle' but ended up scaling and translating an image. It's obvious that the walk still 'slides'. I'll have to study actual people walking on the ground to see walking and moving ground 'together'.
Greenlaw, 'rotocapture' is a good word. I want to sample different motions to build SmartBone actions from.

[Danimal]

There's a bit of a slide, yes, but this definitely makes it look way better to have a background!

[lwaxana]

This is a really cool idea and I think the motion looks pretty natural. Regarding the foot slide, I don't think a natural walk has a perfectly constant rate. I think the body moves forward faster when the foot is below the body propelling it forward moreso than at the beginning or end of a step. I'm wondering if the biomotion labs data is based on a walk on stationary ground or based on a treadmill walk, which might be more analogous to a setup with a background receding at a constant rate?

[Little Yamori]

It's obvious that the walk still 'slides'.]

I think it looks fine if you don't focus on the missing feet, which creates a sense of sliding. If you look at the shoulders, it looks about right. It may be that the speed of the ground moving could be slightly off from the walk pace (but maybe not). Have you experimented with a static image of a path, and have your characters body scaled small at the back of the image, and then progress up in scale to have the sense of walking towards the camera. Timing is key, often I find going too slow creates a "sliding" effect.

Adding feet might help too.

[3deeguy]

I think it looks fine if you don't focus on the missing feet, which creates a sense of sliding. If you look at the shoulders, it looks about right. It may be that the speed of the ground moving could be slightly off from the walk pace (but maybe not). Have you experimented with a static image of a path, and have your characters body scaled small at the back of the image, and then progress up in scale to have the sense of walking towards the camera. Timing is key, often I find going too slow creates a "sliding" effect.

Adding feet might help too.

This project has helped me see some of the nuances of walking. I never really noticed how the arms seem to lag the legs slightly. One problem was I made the hips very narrow to make it easier to match bone movement. I'll have to fix that. I used point binding which wouldn't change the shape of the pants as the character walked. That would be a SB action but I would redraw the basic body first.
I'll study video of a real person to see the relationship between feet and ground before I try it again.
BTW, I first have to finish the electronics animation

[eskchat]

very nice.