10 replies to this topic

[Grafix TM]

[Taliesin]

It's a nice start. There are a couple of things you need to look at. First of all is the weight. The feet are splayed. They need to be planted almost centrally to keep the mech balanced as it moves forward. The feet need to stay planted once they're down, only tilting forward once raised from the round. Try adding a ground plane for reference. Finally, the hips don't move. For excellent reference, have a look at the ATSTs in RotJ. Or, in fact the MechWarrior 3+4 intros. Observe how you walk in a mirror.
Also check your IK rig. You're getting some popping on the knees. It usually means you need to adjust the constraints.
Finally, you might want to ditch the title animation. it takes up almost exactly half the video for no reason. A 3 second card would suffice, though for test footage like this, I wouldn't even bother with that.

Keep it up,

Tal

Edited by Taliesin, 10 November 2011 - 05:00 PM.

[Grafix TM]

Thanks for the observations. This was a Test Cycle annimation I did for a "Volunteer/Pro-Bono" Freelance project called BattleMechHanger.Com I did a while back. That is why there was the Intro Annimation and Trailing Annimation that I did also for the project.

I did the model and annimation in 3D Studio Max 2011. The Textures/Skin I made for the 3D models I made were done in Photoshop CS3

Edited by Grafixâ„¢, 10 November 2011 - 05:27 PM.

[Grafix TM]

Here is a side view of the walk. I did not bother adding the sound effects this time or any of the other 3D annimations I created.

[phelanjkell]

Are you using a bone system or IK solvers? It seems like your hip joints are pushing your knee/legs outward and little, it seems like its 'bowing'. If you could fix that little issue, it would look 100% better.

[Grafix TM]

I use a bone system for my animations.

[Joe3142]

I could not help laughing, It looks like he needs to pop a nice big **** out

[Heffay]

You might want to put in some toe bones as well, They appear to be digging into the ground, but they should be flexing up as the heel rises to remain flat on the ground.

Put in a reference plane along where he is walking.

There should also be some sway in the upper part of the rig as you walk as well. Not sway from just the hips moving, but some anticipation movements.

Nice start though!

[Durahl]

My Opinion on the overall Posture:
While the pose of the Legs would be okay while standing still to provide stability they're too far apart when walking - It looks kinda... well... not very good.
The slower he walks the closer he should keep to the center of gravity to keep it's balance without beeing forced to excessively move the upper torso aswell which is pretty bad for aiming or piloting.

Then there's the problem with the Knees:
At some point during the animation you stretch the legs at 100% ( upper & lower Leg bones at 180° ) which you shouldn't do as it causes the jerkyness in the animation cause it suddenly locks the joint in place with a fast move.
You probably might want to keep them in a slight bent position ( upper & lower Leg bones at 160° ) at all times during the animation.

Next would be the Feet:
You might want to, like already suggested, work with a seperated foot and toe joints unless you haven't already done so.
Since the foot itself is rather short while the toes are huge in comparison to the upper and lower legs you will probably still running into problems during the animation but it would look more natural to work with more bones.

The modelling itself:
It appears that whoever did the Modelling took the Destroid Defender Actionfigure as a reference which I believe also had the option to slide across the ground using their large hovercraft like feet.
Since Mechs dont have this feature you might want to narrow them down by quite a bit to easen your animation during the walk cycle.

[Dirus Nigh]

Dude you have skills, it looks good.

Smarter people than me have already given you the constructive feedback you needed. So I'll just say this.

"Im not gona crit ya. Im not gona crit ya. The hell im not."

Edited by Dirus Nigh, 23 December 2012 - 09:50 PM.

[Adridos]

Do you people even realise you'e necroing a really old thread, the OP of which is long gone and works on a project for MekTek?