Moho Forum

heyvern wrote:Maybe sled dogs?

Sled dogs would be funny. Look next door and see an igloo instead of a house?

Creating new critters for part 2. Having fun making cycles for animals.

This is going to be a husky type dog to pull a sled.

The movement is great. Do you use anything as reference?

S:)

Stephen X wrote:The movement is great. Do you use anything as reference?

S:)

I have the Animators Survival Kit and a bunch of those really "old" classic animation how to books for kids that I've had since I was like 6 years old. I also watched a lot of running dogs on Youtube.

The part that always bugs me doing four legged cycles is how the leg motion is "offset". So, you key the up/down/pass of one set of legs, and the other set is "slightly offset" in the timeline. It's always tricky for me to get the loop correct. I can see why so many people like "FBF". It is easier to simply key every single frame.

Basically what I did this time was to key "one side" of the bones for the run, then I copy those leg bones for the "other side" and simply offset the keys. The movement of both sides is "almost" the same and it saves a bit of effort. I actually did most of the run cycle just with bones before I even drew the dog.

He grew hair!

Movement and design are excellent.
Although the secondary movement of the ears is great I would have preferred that they would have been rigid with the head. It looks odd.
Great job!
-G

Genete wrote:Movement and design are excellent.
Although the secondary movement of the ears is great I would have preferred that they would have been rigid with the head. It looks odd.
Great job!
-G

Thanks!

I agree about the ears. Something is not right. It might be too much movement or the "pivot" point is not correct.

Also I found some "husky" sled dog videos... and those curly tails don't really move that fluidly. It's like they are stuck in a permanent curled up state and simply bounce up and down a bit.

That's an awesome trick with copying the leg bone's motion and offsetting the timing. I wish I could absorb your brain!

S:)

Additional info on rigging:

I used region binding for the bone layer, no point binding at all. I used bone offset on frame 0 for the legs and tail (moved them away from body). I created a bunch of smart bones. This is just so easy to fix joint bends and keep point count low.

I did discover that I didn't have bones set up for that nice movement on the body/back so I "cheated" and put in some point motion in the back on the vector layer. I only keyed 3 points to "arch" the back and and belly area. It was easier than adding in an extra spine bone and then having to redo the cycle.

Even using bone offset, the tail and "front" back leg is still "connected" to the body.
The tail at the top is actually smoothly connected to the top of the body. So the top is a smooth continuous spline. I did this because the tail is an extension of the spine and I wanted that smooth connection.

I used the same connection for the "front" back leg to the body that I used on the polar bear. The top back of the "haunch" is connected to a point on the back of the body. This gives a smooth curve when the leg and body move together. I don't get a "peaked" point there because both points bend similar and it looks connected smoothly. The reason for these connections is for creating the shapes needed. At some point I may connect the "back" back leg to the body to create a secondary back shape for the "arse" end. Probably not needed for the furry dog. I did this for the polar bear.

VERY cool fur effect! The ears do seem to jiggle around too much, but I'm willing to forgive you...

OMG! I'm in your brain! Thanks so much for posting the wireframe:)

I know maybe it's not the best time to tell it, but I really envy your snow. Here never snows, I remember when I was a child there was "snow" one day, we played a lot in my street, made snowball wars and some snowmen (just like in the movies). That "snow" was basically mud, cold water and a little touch of frost.

I really liked the video and the dog. Thank you for showing the rigging, animate quadrupeds is always a challenge and it's very to learn from your success.

Thanks selgin!

Sorry you don't get snow.

I didn't always hate snow. I loved it as a child. It took many many years to lose my "happiness" about snow. When I was a child, snow was WONDERFUL. It didn't effect everyday life the way it does when you "grow up". As a child a big snow meant no school, sledding and building snow "creatures" (when younger I never built "snow men" I always built huge snow creatures, requiring a ladder to attach heads). Children from all over the place would all come to my neighborhood for fantastic sledding. We would sneak into a local golf course through holes in the fences to sled on the amazing hills. There would often be 20 to 30 kids, with "look outs" to warn us to run away if the "checker" came by to chase away the kids from their precious golf course hills.

As an adult this "excitement" over snow continued for a while, then slowly over the years, this excitement turned to dread. Driving in snow was scary and dangerous. My car would often get stuck. Could I get to work? Would I slide down an icy hill and be killed? I didn't have time to build snow creatures. DId I have enough food in the house?

I remember visiting my parents after I grew up. That wonderful steep hilly street I loved to sled down as a child became a horrible scarry snowy icy death trap. My parents house was at the bottom of a HUGE STEEP hill. I would have to call my father and ask the road conditions of that steep hill before visiting. If that hill was snowy or icy... you could NOT drive down... it was a winding steep hill and you would basically have zero traction. There is no fear I have greater than getting part way down this hill in my car, and realizing it was completely iced over. That terror still haunts me. . It wasn't simply a straight hill, it curved around. If you started to slide... there was no way to know what would happen... and another car could be coming UP AT SPEED to get to the top.

Trying to get UP that hill was also terrifying. You get half way, lose all traction... and have to sort of slide down backwards. By the way... there were TWO hills the same, at each end of the street. There was no other way out. I grew up with those "hills" trapping us at each end during snowy winter days. As a child these two hills covered with snow was FREAKING AWESOME! As an adult trying to drive somewhere it became a nightmare.

I would often keep a wooden sled in the trunk, park at the top of the hill and sled down to my parents house. Of course... I had to walk back up, through snow, to get back to my car. When I was younger my father kept a sled in his trunk so he could get home after work. He would park at the top of that hill and slide down.

I now live on a "normal" street, completely flat, no hills but I still get really nervous and very annoyed with snow. Deep down inside though, is that little child who LOVES snow. There's a tiny little bit of that old excitement... but... it gets over powered by the adult who has to clean off the car, scrape the windows and drive through plowed up piles of snow on the street.


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4 legged rigs

I haven't done much rigging of quadrupeds before. When working on the polar bear, I rigged it completely wrong at first. It took a while to figure out that the forelegs and hind legs are simply "arms and legs" like a person walking on hands and feet. I originally rigged it like it had "4 legs" off the same "spine" bone chain. This didn't work at all. I had to create that same root bone at the hips or middle of the back, with the hips and back separate. I was over thinking it. A dog, bear, horse, etc is simply the same rig as a bipedal character, just bent over.

@Heyvern, that sounds like an oscar winner short if you ever decide to animate it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Okay it happened AGAIN!!!!

We had the second huge snow storm... not the first inspiration for this but the second one. The first snow melted quickly after the temp went up to 70 for two days.

So then I started creating tropical creatures for the animation part 2.

Then... Another big snow hit. After that record breaking freezing temperatures hit. Freezing cold, can't go outside with out gloves cold.

Well... today... it's freaking 60 degrees... all of the snow is gone AGAIN and I'm back to adding tropical creatures to my "I hate snow" animation putting wheels on the dog sled and a Hawaiian shirt on the arctic explorer. This should be a very funny and relevant animation. Just keep having the weather change.

(I think the Intelligent Designer needs some Adderall or Ritalin to deal with a short attention span regarding appropriate seasonal temperatures... or maybe, the government needs to keep an eye on the top secret weather manipulation machine in area 51. Maybe... a janitor keeps bumping the switch while cleaning the tanks they keep the aliens in. )