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Help With Running??

Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 10:02 pm
by SoulStax
Hi, I'm trying to animate a character running. I used still photos taken by Edward Muybridge of a figure in motion to get my characters legs in the right position. It all works reasonably fine until the last frame which is cycled to the first frame then it just kind of snaps and he almost looks like hes gliding for a few frames. I really don't know what i'm doing wrong, I try all different things to get it to work right but it still looks wrong. Could anyone help me? Is there maybe a running cycle that someone has designed so that I can see how it works? Or could anyone tweak my figure for me? I don't know any sites where I can upload the files so that people can download it so if anyone thinks they can help me please let me know the sites or if maybe I could email the files direct? I really appreciate any help. Thanks.

Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 11:25 pm
by Nolan Scott
I can offer you only a walkcycle...
If you like you can download my file "Walk in the Park" here.

http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=902

Cheers
Nolan

Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 11:39 pm
by alano
You have fallen into the "Muybridge trap". Muybridge's pictures don't divide perfectly into the cycle time of the run like an animation cycle has to so you get a discontinuity. An animation book like Preston Blair's "Cartoon Animation" or Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit" will be more helpful. Take the first half of your cycle and make the second half look the same only swapped left for right. So if you have an 8 frame cycle, frames 1 and 5 will be the same in silloutte. Same with 2 and 6, 3 and 7 and 4 and 8. Now it should hook up properly.

re:

Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 2:56 pm
by SoulStax
Thanks for your help, I've tried to do what you said, so now when it loops it doesn't stick but I still can't seem to make it look realistic enough he kind of looks like hes gliding along ice :?

Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 7:24 pm
by alano
How many frames in the cycle? What you do with a run depends a lot on how many frames in the cycle.

Alan