Hey everyone. I am trying to animate my character running across the top of a building, leaping off of the edge and landing on the side of a new building. Right now I am on the running on the top of the building part. I can post my sad little "storyboard" for the whole thing if you guys want to see it.
I removed the tail after the first few frames so I could concentrate on the leg and arm motions. Her tail shall be animated after I have the motion of everything else correctly. I didn't include her head on the last few frames because i dont really like them. I plan on replacing them once you guys tell me how I can fix my work. I noticed the run started to slow down a bit. I guess thats a good thing since she has to anticipate her leap off the building. I dont like how the arm motion gets after the passing position. I think I was concentrating on the leg motion too much, lol. :p
Please tell me how I can make the trasition from her run to the leap anticipation go smoother. I like the very last frame and would like to keep it. I just need help with going from the left leg's contact positionm to the pose in the final frame. Please help me out guys. :D
Btw, I leave for SCAD orientation on Sept 7th! I'm so excited! :D
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane
The simple answer, Mew? (especailly if he is chasing or being chased)
Your character seems to stop to anticipate the jump with both feet planted firmly and arms back Like Bongo in Fun And Fancy Free jumping over the log (tra-la-la :) ).
The jump ought to be part and parcel of the run. The leap is just like a run but he's in the air longer. I would make his anticipatory pose the mid-stride of the run (of course plan it so this transition comes at this point) which his foot contacts BUT he takes that pose further in 6 frames (@ 24 fps) and then springs up in the air with enough energy to clear from that anticipation.
Lots of live action have this kind of jump...... Or maybe an olympic long jump has the dynamic you are looking for?
Thanks Graphiteman. I can see what you're saying play in my mind, but when I look at the frames i have so far it takes a bit more thought to get it the way I see in my head. I dont really get what you said about taking the pose further. :confused: I'll just do what I see in my head and then repost it so you can see (hopefully it will be similar to what you ment by taking the pose further). Off I go to fix it :D
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane
Ok, Mew.
What I meant by taking it further was making more extreme in this case the mid-stride. I thought essentially the same pose but crouching down in 6 frames at contact to anticipate the leap. But I discovered his arms would still swing with the momentum so it's not exactly simply plussing the same pose.
ur goal. I know others can take this apart too.
I hope this helps yo
Thanks, for taking the time to show me what you were talking about. That helped A LOT! Thank you so much! :D I see what you ment now. The arm swings you did helped also, as well as the tail motion. I was unsure of exactly how much the tail would move up and down. I will go back and make corrections.
I noticed that in one frame you have her in the air with both feet off of the ground. In my cycle that doesn't happen. Is that pose a nessecity, in a run? In The Animators Survival Kit, it says that if one foot is always on the ground then it's a fast walk, rather than a run. They didn't have a picture showing what they ment so I didn't really get that. I'll study the differences between your run and mine. Thanks so much for taking the time to make a little animation to show me what you ment! :D
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane
Yes, the difference between a walk and a run is that in a run both feet are off the ground at a stage. I don't have the Williams book in front of me but that too is true; if there is always a foot on the ground it is a walk. That's why olympic speed-walkers look so goofy:). They're fast but they are not running.
It is necessary to have a transition in air for a run.
If it's "hitting your mark" you are concerned about, that your character will miss it because of such a stride in the run, then start with the pose at the mark you want to hit, in this case the leap point, then key the run backwards from that point. That's what I did/do.
When Graphite talked about the olympic running I remembered of something. The other day I was watching some athletes jumping, and paying attention to their movements. If I were to do a character running and then changing to a leap, I'd make it kind of like the character was running and suddenly kicked the air, you know? It's like a continuation of the run, but suddenly one of the legs decides to go up, in an arch, like the runner was kicking the air and then the rest of the body was going to follow that foot.
Did it make any sense? :)
danielpoeira.org
I understand what you're saying Graphiteman. I looked back at my original animation and it really did look like a weird, fast walk. I'll remember to include that in the air pose in my future runs. :D I "redid" the animation. I say "redid" since truthfully I basically copied yours, lol. I learn by copying things and then when I gradually change what I copied until its something different. By that time I would have mastered the tecnique of whatever it was that I copied. I hope that makes sense.
Daniel, at first I didn't get what you said. After visualizing it for a little while I got it. I'm seeing your description as you using the "in the air" pose as actual the leap and then the character landing on the leg thats out in the front. Basically an extended version of the extreme in the run.
Here's my copy of Graphiteman's work.
The last frame looks like its bigger than the rest. I'll have to go back into Imageready and scale it again.
Anyway, my next step is to have her in the air and the camera goes from this side view, to a front view. I'll post an update once I animate up to the part where I want the camera to turn...as I will probably have some problems with that.
Thanks for the help so far guys!!!!!!!!!!:D
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane
Yeh Daniel that too makes total sense. But I'm not a jock nor really studied the hurdlers. And my first impulse is to say that kind of burst of movement would be better appreciated in a longer shot and more time...like seeing the other building the character is landing on.
Also It does help to know the character's motivation even if just an exercise.
I'll admit my quick take on it is rather cartoony. We could spend forever taking that apart too. Been thinking it could be even snappier if he sprang off other than the contact foot...
I did some more work on it today.
I'm not really happy with how the building moves. I think I'll have to go ahead and make a real background for this... This was just an exercise and I hadn't planned on doing a full bg. Oh well. If I made a background how could I make it look like my character is moving away from the building? I imagine it would be easier to move the background so the building goes away from her than actually moving her away from the building. I've never done anything with backgrounds like this, so I'm clueless. :confused:
Anyway, I like the anticipation I did for the pose in the last frame. I stopped there because thats the point where I want the camera to slowly go from her side to her front. If any of you have any tips on how to do that I'd appriciate it. :D It would be easier to simply cut to the front view of her, but I thought it would look better to have the view point gradually go to the front view. I hope that makes sense.
Please give me some advice guys. :)
Oh, Graphiteman, her motivation is she's just going to school, and rather than driving, or whatever, she is using her abilities and enjoying it :D
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane
Uhhhhh......
Your links were posted wrongly or don't work.
Could you please re-post the last two?
Sorry about that. Angelfire can be very retarded. The images were up and working when I first posted them. :confused:
Here's a link:
http://www.angelfire.com/ab3/PlanetPichu/PerLeap2ndTry.gif
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane
Hi Mew, This'll have to be it for me as I'm busy.
I did see second try. I think your frame rate's too fast for the amount of drawings. I did 24 fps on 2s (= 12 fps).
My feeling is if your character went into a tuck then she would somersault a la Sonic The Hedgehog along and arc ...perhaps with a slightly exagerrated hang time (slown-in/slow out positioning) at the crest of the arc. Then you can BAM! into the spread eagle (I'm guessing two frame slow-out on ones from tuck position), landing like Gene Kelly ;). Your spread-eagle drawing is a little weak....more like an inbetween than a key. You may want to experiement by having it extreme as possible and then cushion into the same pose but more realxed. One contact foot when lands would look better than twinnning two.
But after all that maybe you don't want a somersault....you didn't animate one. The anticipation for that mid-air-spread-eagle could simply be the leap's anticipation and replace the present leaping off postion with spread-eagle
But I really don't know what will happen next. As it is she anticipates to go again shortly into to another anticipation, the tuck. Was she jumping down? How far? I assumed across to another ledge? ANd the character's line of action and the path of action are very important for planning this. As it was in my quicky's e.g line of action at the leap did not suit where you wanted to take it.
Just keep on experimenting,experimenting,experimenting.
This is good really. YOu're really learning so much and open up a lot of questions. Good luck in school and don't get ahead of yourself, now.;)
Thank you so much for your help Graphiteman! I really appriciate your time. :D You're words and images were VERY helpful. Thank you for the well wishes at school. I'll try not to get ahead of myself, lol.
"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane