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Biomechanics comes in handy!

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Biomechanics comes in handy!

A friend at work is a biology teacher and loaned me a great book on biomechanics. I hated science when I was in high school, but this book is really awesome. I put it to use today animating a deer running and I feel like I really got it. It took way less time than a regular human character walk, and so far the drawing is pretty rough, but the rhyrhm is there and I can use this as my basis.

check it out:
It may work best to just download it so you can loop it as I still can't figure out loop settings in making QT movies. The other option is to just keep clicking the play button to manually loop it.

Next step is to get closer to clean up with it and work in a few different angles, put about 8 of these in front of a sleigh, and I'm off to the rooftop!

rupertpiston's picture
Cartoon Thunder There's a little biker in all of us...

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

On Dasher! On Dancer! On Prancer! On Vixen! On Comet! On Cupid! On Rupert and Piston!

Nice!

I put it to use today animating a dear running and I feel like I really got it.

Quick moving, bounding animals like deer have to be the toughest to animate but the fluidity of motion you've achieved almost "erases" the rough and fools the eye into forgetting about the clean-up.

Dontcha just love it when a plan comes together. :)

slodog

Animals in motion

Hey rupertpiston,

Dunno if this is helpful to you or not but I thought that you might at least find it interesting. Eadweard Muybridge, the guy who changed the way artists portrayed animals, people and birds in motion has a website! Not bad for a turn of the century figure. :)
One of your keys showed the deer in an apparent "flying gallop"* which, although it's unnoticable when flipped, still kinda made me wince a bit. The same kinda wince I experience when someone writes on the chalkboard with crayon. rofl
Anyway, if nothing else it's a neat place for animators to check out.

*Deer are quite unlike horses and I've seen still images of deer in that position (all four feet high in the air) but that's in mid-leap which they do quite often while running.

cheers,
slodog

Yeah, there's a few problems with it. I'd like to get the feet actually galloping more instead of just springing open and closed. Also I feel like the neck stretch is off someplace.

I've cleaned it up in Toon Boom and I'm going to go ahead and use it in spite of these issues. I don't have time in my production schedule to do too much futzing about with things. I'd like to get my christmas cartoon on my website in time for the holidays and we're due for a baby in our house real soon, which will likely effect my work schedule some. I am going to take some time off to stay home, but I think our son will have my rapt attention.

Thanks for the link and the pointers. I feel good about it, but it has some clear issues that I can work out some other time. I live about an hour from Stanford, so sometime I should go up and check out some of the Muybridge stuff.

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

Congratulations! Glad to hear of the good news!

Personally I don't see any "issues" with your deer animation at all so I hope you don't get the wrong idea about the Muybridge link (and perhaps any perceived insinuations). The pencil test was great and very fluid and I sure as heck wouldn't want to cause you to "break" that motion simply by suggesting that all four hooves are aloft.

But when you get to the in-betweens a "rocking horse" illusion may appear and, if so, the Muybridge examples may give you the solution.

I'd genuinely like to see any future works on the deer so I hope that once your Christmas cartoon is done and your family priorities are in order that you'll be able to post more on it.

In the meantime, congrats again on the new baby. Hope Mom and babe is well and that you enjoy the hometime to the fullest!

slodog

Thanks, slodog. Muybridge has some coverage in this book as well as a shot of a small heard of gazelle on the run. Nothing you said did anything but make me think a bit more. I'd already been watching the test and feeling like I wanted more of a sense that the hooves are sort of rolling one after the other, but it looks like they all hit at once. Not too bad for a greenhorn, but I figure I'll stay a greenhorn if I don't look critically at my own work and ask others to do the same.

Mama's doing great. This morning she was snuggled against my back and Pete was kicking through her tummy at me. I'm on alert for the commencement of labor anytime. I really should go to work today and get my grades bubbled so they can be turned in on time should the kid arrive, but I'll likely get a colleague to do it for me if that happens. Heck, they're multiple choice, I'm bound to get a couple of 'em right :eek: :p

I'll keep you updated. I cleaned it up in Toon Boom last night and I'm still trying to work out the color on it to my satisfaction. Jeez-- I just took a look at it and found I'd left out the last frame in the TB version. gimme a sece and I'll have it up.

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

Here it is with (preliminary) color. I'm giong to work on adding some texture with shadowing and color on the coat and face since at times we'll just be watching this.

Reindeer With color

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

And Scattered, my friend, I'm usin' that bit about Rupert and Piston. Thanks!

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

Hey that looks great! I'd saved the pencil test and when you play the two simultaniously ..simotaneous ..er, at the same time it's only then that any variance (other than one's just pencil) is detectable. Amazing how much difference such a subtle change can make.

slodog

heh heh, I just got the "on Rupert on Piston" bit. lmao :-D

Thanks brutha slo! I lined up nine of those bad boys, with one at the front, and varied the rhythm of each by a frame so they dont' look like a bunch of darn Rockettes kickin' in time to the music. Still working on Santa and his sleigh, but when that's done I need to do a tug/rock to match the efforts of the deer. Having a freakin' ball, actually!

Cartoon Thunder
There's a little biker in all of us...

my red-nose friend

nice job.

if you like you can raise the rump when he tucks the hind feet in below him, just before he hind feet land. you can also keep the front feet propped straight as long as it's touching the ground.

nonetheless, it's good as it is.

and the red-nosed one wouldn't happen to be called 'Rupert'?

Don't worry.  All shall be well.

and the red-nosed one wouldn't happen to be called 'Rupert'?

No fair bringing his twenties into this. *audience groans*

In all seriousness, if you want just one more extreme (not in the animation sense, just the dictionary sense) piece of action, at some point in every gallop like that for most four-legged animals there is a point where just the hooves of the hind legs surpass those of the front legs. I know you wanted to avoid the springing, but they need to gallop on a surface before they can just rowboat through the air...