Hi everybody!

I participated in almost all bootcamp exercises last winter,
and i loved it.

I am playing with Mr Ball these days, so this is a ball interactive
exercise.Mr Ball exercise

I also join a collage of my last year exercises.
bootcamp

Crits and comments welcome.

Michel

Beautiful looking render!

The first thing I notice is in the walk onstage... there doesn't seem to be a compression pose after the foot plants. Also, he seems to have an unnatural backwards slant. I think both of these are detracting from the "weight" of the walk.

The collision with the ball at the end works quite well. I like the way the legs are pulled straight out as he's sliding back,; you might keep that for a few more frames. Then when his body stops sliding, have the feet continue on for a frame or two. That would be a good opportunity for overlapping action.

Thank you Robert.

Good point for the lack of compression in the walk , i will work
on it. And i like the sliding, but it will look better with some variation
in timing at the end.

Michel

I really like this I thought wow that's perfect! but after really carefully looking after reading robcat commits I see what he is saying if the ball legs bend at the knees it would add to the weight of the character. I tried to view the collage put quick times sends me to add a feature to view this. Which feature do I need there is about a 1/2 dozen to chose from?

I think it looked really nice, what was the lighting setup and render settings?

Hi Mark.

Thanks for watching. I guess i will never be satisfied with a walk cycle,it is so hard not to have it robotic.
You might need "On2" quicktime compressor to view the other clip.link to codec

Hi Slipin Lizard

I used Yves Poissant 25 light skylight and one klieg light with z-buffered shadows.If you are not familiar
with that skylight, i recommend to go here:Intro to skylights.

Michel

ON2 was it now I can see the collage and I would like to thank you for posting this! This will help inspire and motivate me. This is some Hi Quality work. Now I noticed on your juice box you are stretching one corner only to make a step. I remember way back someone mentioning about doing this but I don't know how to do this can you please explain. Are you selecting a part of the model (Control point) and stretching it like in model window? How do you do this in a Chor.?

Hey Michel

Mr. Ball is looking pretty good. Another thing you might try to get more weight in is to have it shift from side to side more as it walks. His legs are set so widely apart that the slight weight shift over the supporting leg we all have as we walk I think will be more apparent on this model. The rock back to stand is excellent as well as that kind of bump as its sliding backwards. It looks to me like Mr. Ball is watching the bigger ball, not leaning back strangely. I like the anticipation for the kick but I think the weight is off a little bit, it should be very over the one leg left. I think the spin kick would sell better if you put more rotation in the verticalness of Mr. ball. (In martial arts if your going to kick you need to build up the centrifical force, a good way to do that is with the long axis of the body, and here without arms you really need to sell that, the torso swinging down and hooking around to give more fling to the foot. It might help to temporarily stick a vertical rod in Mr. Ball to better envision it, but it's a hard move to animate anyway. You might check out www.720club.com (I think) a website where people post clips of their extreme martial arts moves, you might be able to find some helpful reference there.)

It's looking good, welcome back.

-Alonso

Hi Mark.

Thank you for your comments. For the leg move on the box, i added a bone on each lower side of the box. I always prefer to animate a bone when possible(rather than animating CPs). There is an image, i hope it helps.[attachmentid=10637]

Hi Alonso

Thank you for watching closely. I don't like the walk cycle much, but i tried rocking more, rocking less,
it always looks too mechanical. Maybe it is so hard because the legs are so far apart as you mentioned.
I am continuing to try. I salute your tenacity and involvement in this forum.

Michel

Thanks I will try that but can someone also tell me how to animate CPs It might be good to know

Mark, in an action or chor click on the little button that looks like an arm making a muscle. This should make all the cp's pop out in read, move them around on different keys and your animating, they turn blue once they have been moved. one tip, if you want the shape to return to the original shape key them in that shape at the end and beginning of where you want your muscle animation to happen. (I think maybe you can also get it back to original by clicking the compensate button and then hitting make keyframe)

-Alonso

Ok I get that thanks.

I agree with Robert, add some up/down to the body during the walk to add weight. Also, you might want to add a little bounce when Mr. Ball hits the floor and begins to slide.

Richard

Hi!

I reworked the walk cycle in the beginning of the clip, and added some weight and stretch a few places,
i hope it looks a little better.

[attachmentid=11744]

I tried some sidesteps and more bouncing in the second clip.
[attachmentid=11743]

Michel

Great improvements from your first one!

I like the side step one, Good Work!

the second one is really fun!

I still like the little head up and down watching the ball bounce. The kick has a really nice follow through. Good side to side weight shifting on the walk. There's a wierd float on the load bearing foot in the middle of the walk. The stand up looks better, but I think it would sell even better if the feet were closer to the body, right up near it so they weight doesn't have to fly very far through the air to get over the feet. Good follow through on the feet getting dragged on the ground. Nice follow through on the final hop up.

2. Excellent display of weight in the knees from the impact of the ball on the head. Nice follow through up to the toes after pushing back up. My main critiques on this is that the ball doesn't seem to be directed to where it comes down next, you've kind of established where the forhead is, so the angle that the forhead connects with the ball should dictate where the ball goes up and comes back down, I'm not feeling that consistency right now. Also the final run off the, that first leg doesn't feel right. I think the weight doesn't seem to be enough on the supporting leg. You might also try anticipating more obviously by having the back leg be more bent and behind the support leg, making kind of a short L shape in silhoette instead of dissappearing behind the ball (might have to break the models joints to get this right, but the camera is the only angle that matters right?) And then bring the leg all the way around and high, so the viewer gets the impression of the new direction of run (1 or 2 frames) and then running off. The new angle of the run currently comes as a surprise, I think that extra exageration at the end of the leg swinging around might help define the end of the swing and beginning of the run. But all together I think this piece is really well done and these are kind of nit picky critiques.

-Alonso

Dude that's looking very nice
Specially that lil demo-reel you made.
Like mark said
That will help inspire and motivate me.
And the walking ball clips just made me laugh.
Thanks again for your comment on my bootcamp
Goodluck


Come give some comments to my bootcamp
Bertmac's bootcamp I probably will give some on yours