one to get the ball rolling
Josh Wedlake
I was struggling a bit with a dog transition from canter to fast walk to
slow walk so I did some rotoscope work and drew out the keys and arcs which
I thought I'd share in case anyone's interested...
http://linetestjournals.blogspot.com/2011/07/dog-slow-walk-animation-reference.html
Here's how the clip from my film looks now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1-m60mnzP0
Compared to the version in my final assessment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kJoJMMpK2I
What do you guys think of the changes? Things to improve?
The second clip I've been working on is this run:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNLA9Ql1Q-g
Still doesn't feel 100% right to me... any ideas?
looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to since we finished
college!
cheers
--
Josh Wedlake
http://joshwedlake.tumblr.com/
Jarred de Beer
I like it a lot :) especially the sketched backgrounds etc, very cool!
Without knowing the dogs motivation for bounding out of the shed and coming to a trot, the following came to mind:
- I rather like the dogs walk at the end.
- The initial two bounds appeared somewhat 'horse-like' to me, almost like it was a trained horse being ridden by someone who had pulled on the rains to bring it to a walk. I think there are two aspects to it which made me think this: the loose overlapping motion on the dogs head when it comes to a walk (end of second bound);
The tail, perhaps it isn't being used to its full potential, and is a little floaty. If the dog is excited/happy it could be almost straight up, relatively stiff and wagging. If it were 'escaping' it's tail could even be down between its legs but wagging slightly, If it's more agressive/determined maybe it could just be between it's legs.
I've noticed that when my dog 'charges' he lowers himself and his head into the run. I'm unsure what he does when he's excited, but I think his head might be steady, his butt would 'wag' quite a bit too (even if his tail was not wagging much).
It's quite nice,
Jarred
hey guys, thought I'd get the ball rolling with these two...
I was struggling a bit with a dog transition from canter to fast walk to slow walk so I did some rotoscope work and drew out the keys and arcs which I thought I'd share in case anyone's interested... http://linetestjournals.blogspot.com/2011/07/dog-slow-walk-animation-reference.html
Here's how the clip from my film looks now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1-m60mnzP0
Compared to the version in my final assessment:
Jarred de Beer
Josh Wedlake
observe for a bit - my cats just aren't cutting it! I'll have another
go at the shot when I get back from holiday.
An older version of this same shot also got featured on AnimDailies
http://animdailies.blogspot.com/2011/07/dog-leaves-shed.html -
definitely a service worth checking out if you want some free
publicity as well - basically you email in your shot, and these guys
http://animdailies.blogspot.com/search/label/about will crit you - for
everyone on this list in London its also good chance to get your work
out there in front of some local animators if you can't always make it
to the BringYourOwnAnimation sessions.
The tail is definitely something I'm struggling with - I've just got a
6 joint FK chain running through - finding the mix between straight
follow through, and deliberate wagging / emotion signalling is pretty
difficult.
...and the horse like motion - I read after that dogs rarely canter
like this (in a rear lead > diagonal pair > front leg rocking motion)
- its much more of a horse's natural motion. The farmer slamming the
door open (audio cue needed) is meant to scare the dog to jump out of
his way and get out of the shed - I guess I need to make the slam much
more forceful, and give some clue with the dog's face/eyes/head to
point him away from the farmer... probably an error in staging here to
have this happen out of the camera's view!
cheers again,
Josh
Michael Lohr
I must say I really like the dogs movement but I'm not getting the
sense that he's run out of the shed in fear. The canter slowing into a
walk seems to give more of a jovial feel to the dogs movement. In my
head I had this idea of the dog wanting to get out of the shed and so
is happy when the farmer enters as it's a means for the dog to exit. I
actually thought that was an intentional contrast to the farmers dark
mood.
If I picture a fearful dog I see one with it's head held low, tail
tucked in and moving with quick, small steps. This is a bit of a
random reference but it came to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubf28LPnfYs
Skip to 0:19 and the first few steps and the stop are kind of what I
pictured, maybe with the dog looking back over his shoulder cowering.
The boy running is pretty cool. Maybe it's the angle or just me but
his body seems quite rigid in that his shoulders and hips don't seem
to be rotating much round the y axis. I'd have expected to see some
twist going down his spine.
Josh Wedlake
thanks for the crits and the reference - I really like the dog's 'acting' in
that clip! I love how it enters the frame with really rushed footsteps - it
feels as though its moving uncomfortably fast - like if you're running down
a hill and out of control - as if its body is moving faster than its legs
can think. The first few steps are great, but then it feels like the dog is
trying to stop itself from skidding down the hill with lots of short
collected steps which is kind of the opposite of how I need my dog to end
its run. After the first few panicked steps I need its gait to relax into
longer steps. I need to fix the tail anyway so I'll try to tuck it in a bit
more.
I did some more reading and it turns out that dogs apparently rarely run in
canters except when being playful (found that that in the Stuart Sumida
animal locomotion for animators pdf) I also found this really cool download
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~van/papers/2011-TOG-quadruped/index.html (where it
says windows binary - unzip it then double click on run.bat) which is a dog
gait simulator which produces incredibly good animations for something
that's procedural. Spacebar starts the animation then + - keys speed up or
slow down the dog. You can also put it into ultra slow motion. I've been
struggling with another dog walking shot since sending this one around!
will definitely add a bit more twist to the spine to keep the boy's motion
flexible in contrast to the farmer's rigid stiff aging body.... trying to
work up two different 'styles' of motion, keeping the boy very ragdoll-ish.
would be great to see some dailies from what everyone else has been up to!
cheers