Walking towards the camera... Having trouble...

CrAzY Dan · Post by **CrAzY Dan** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:29 pm

Could someone help me out with walking forwards as i cant figure out how to do it. I am using the feet as switch layers and have set up the bones but i cant get it to look right.

Could someone help out?

Thanx

Dan

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:04 pm

Um, I'm not sure if I understand your problem correctly.

Do you mean "a character walks forward towards the spectator/camera"?
Or do you mean "just a simple walk forward of my character as seen from the side"?

Nolan Scott · Post by **Nolan Scott** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:25 am

Please have a look here, and play with the settings -
might help a little as reference.

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

Cheers
Nolan

jorgy · Post by **jorgy** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:30 am

Nolan Scott wrote:Please have a look here, and play with the settings -
might help a little as reference.

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

Cheers
Nolan

Now that is flippin' cool!!

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:19 am

Perhaps you're being too technical. If you have a movement that is hard to depict in animation, you can act it out yourself and view the motion in a large mirror. If you have a videocamera on a tripod, you can record it and study it in slow-motion. Some digital camera's have video recording capabilities.

After careful study, you could try to draw the motion in a flipbook, to develop the right feel for the movement. Only then you could try to animate it on the computer. If you can't draw it, you can't animate it. So if you want you to animate it, you should first be able to draw it. Just with a sharp pencil on a piece of drawing paper.

The drawings in your flipbook don't have to be masterpieces, but just little sketches, detailed enough (but no more) to show the most important parts. You can use stick figures to simplify your drawings in sequence. Draw as little frames as possible, just enough to show the motion. These frames are your keyframes in the computer animation. Use the flipbook as a visual reference and don't scan it into the computer. It is just to remind you how the motion should be animated, what the most important frames are. Draw your sketches loosely, not e.g. with a ruler. Draw several light lines and darken the correct ones.

I think that this method, although it has many steps, is more effective and therefore faster if you are having troubles animating a particular motion. This motion could also be the walk of an animal, or the falling of a leaf on the floor. Using the flipbook, you can make the animation less real, but more entertaining, with a faint reminder of the motion in real life. This could mean you make several variations of the motion you observed in real life, one more entertaining than the other, until you have the appropriate version in flipbook format.

Try to convert that version into a Moho animation. If it doesn't feel right, go back and try again. Practice makes perfect.

I hope this helps.

Nolan Scott · Post by **Nolan Scott** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 5:19 am

Well, here is a simple “walktest” nothing exciting really, very basic –
just to show the possibilities one could achieve.

If you like you can download the movie or the file “LennyFrontwalk”
from my iDisk:

http://homepage.mac.com/g.t.schneider/n ... ing50.html

Cheers
Nolan

teotoon · Post by **teotoon** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:11 pm

Here is another simple example. I did this when there was no bone locking feature in Moho. So, if you use "bone lock" function, it would look better. BTW, please do not forget to keep the image files in the same folder to play the Moho animation correctly.

Hope this helps...

http://www.geocities.com/teotoon/Moho/Front_Walk.zip

[img]http://www.geocities.com/teotoon/Moho/F ... _Still.jpg[/img]

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:52 pm

Ah, now I see.

Your problem isn't related to Moho in the first place. I suggest to take a ride to the next good library (or bookshop) and have a look into Richard Williams' "The animator's Survival Kit", starting at page 102, "Walks". Or you might grab a copy of Preston Blair's excellent "Cartoon Animation".

The main point is that your character lacks weight. The moment one foot touches the ground, the pelvis has to get lower too, at least on this side.

Doing this in Moho is not impossible, but a bit complicated since most people rig their bones in a way that the pelvis bone is the root of everything, therefor not moving by default. I'm working on that problem myself, but haven't found an easy solution right now.

Walks are much easier done seen from the side, so maybe you should start with that until the result satisfies you. Then you can transfer the tricks to the front view.

13YearsOldAnimator · Post by **13YearsOldAnimator** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:42 am

Nolan Scott wrote:Please have a look here, and play with the settings -
might help a little as reference.

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

Cheers
Nolan

awesome thing -- imma use it to my projects!
thx alot!

CrAzY Dan · Post by **CrAzY Dan** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:18 am

The biomotion thing is very helpful and thanx for all of your replies

I now need help with the way the shoes look. I have the shoe in a switch layer so i can animate it. What should the shoe look like when the character is walking?

Thanx

Dan

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:24 pm

Slowtiger said:

have a look into Richard Williams' "The animator's Survival Kit", starting at page 102, "Walks". Or you might grab a copy of Preston Blair's excellent "Cartoon Animation".

This is great advice. These are excellent books that you can learn a lot from. If you are serious about animation, you need them. Richard Williams' book in particular has plenty of reference material relating to feet and shoes.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:58 pm

crazy dan...

I would suggest you take off your shoes and look at them from the front.

Put them on a table so you can see them from any angle and do some simple sketches.

It almost sounds like you want someone to do this for you? Give you exact instructions for what a shoe looks like when we have no idea what you are creating?

If you want to be an artist it takes hard work and patience. If you enjoy it... it isn't work anymore it is fun.

You have the whole world around you to draw from... forgive the pun. Use what you see. Get a cheap sketch pad and draw everyday. Draw draw draw. Buy a comic book for reference. Watch the cartoon network. Video tape it and pause it. Look for feet... people walking... Find something that looks like what you want and "copy" it.

The answers are right in front of your nose. Just look around.

-Vern

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:14 pm

heyvern wrote:Find something that looks like what you want and "copy" it.

Ah, the noble art of copying the masters...

People nowadays are so indoctrinated by the need of being original, they don't notice that almost everything has already been written, drawn and tought. Being original is very difficult and you can call yourself lucky if you've made one or two truely original creations in your entire life. Most people mash up existing ideas and imagery and perhaps add some new aspects to existing ideas.

So why try to fool yourself by being "original". Just use what is at hand and recombine it in a mashup. But not too obvious, because of some lame copyright laws like the DMCA.

CrAzY Dan · Post by **CrAzY Dan** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:34 pm

Thanx for the advice. I think i will sketch everyday as i am quite good at it. I will try and get into a habit of doing it aswell.

And i do watch cartoon network alot and get inspiration from programmes like Fairly Odd Parents and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends.

Sorry if it sounded like i wanted you to do it all for me. Thank you very much for the amazing tips