Moho Forum

Hey,

This short clip here was my attempt to make smooth character movement, and testing out position helpers when animating.

One Legged Backflip

It's also my first fully completed and sucesfully rigged character .

Feel free to comment.

Fort Ash

Several things.

1) Anticipation. A backflip is a very energetic move, even for a cartoon character! He needs to crouch down a lot further before he jumps into the air.
2) He lands futher forward than he jumps. This gives the impression that he is nearly weightless. Maybe that's what you want...?
3) When he lands, there is very little reaction (he is already crouching down when he lands, which also seems odd). This, too, makes him seem very light.
4) When he is walking, his head doesn't move up and down. This makes his movements look mechanical.

Try to do something simple first is my advice. Just get him walking convincingly across the screen. There is a lot of video reference out there, and you could also take a look at the "Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams -- there are dozens of walk cycles in that. Good luck.

Hey,

Thanks for your reply....
I'm in beginner stages of animating so it's very difficult for me to add some personality into my animations.
And yes, it is a stickman.... Pretty light. If I wanted to make him heavier, I could have made his ground collisions stronger, and flip times shorter.
His head does move, I made sure of that, but for just a little.
Belive me I have done flips in my life and if your head is wacking around like crazy you're never going to land a flip .
You must be pretty stiff for doing that.

I appreciate your comment.

Fort Ash

The one thing I would recommend is learn ease in and ease out. Apply that to a bouncing ball. If you can understand and apply that one principle, you will cross the line from artist to animator. That was the difference for me early on.

A backflip is an intermediate level animation exercise, heck I'm struggling just to do a basic jump.