For my day off session today I was focused on perfecting my walking animation and start my work on pushing and pulling. I started with the walking exercise and used the hand out to refresh my memory of how to walk in Maya, I decided to follow Johny's advice and use small polygon cubes as a guide for the footsteps in the rig. I began by key framing the translate keyframes in the 25fps hold then began moving the translate "Y" to move the rig down and then move the left foot forward and set the keyframe, the pelvis was then moved forward but tried to make sure that the foot was in the middle of the two boxes before moving the opposite foot.
However I had a lingering issue as the figure moved forwards without any foot movements at all, it took time but I did correct this issue. I was beginning to feel I had forgotten the basics of the walk. I did manage to hold the foot in place using the translate X keyframe. The walk then played perfectly in synch.
In the progression of development I created several files on the walk, such as the arms moving forward and back within the walk. However as learned before capturing the arm movements was difficult to do in a walk animation. To help me I tried using the graph editor to help with the arm movement and it did help slightly but I still couldn't help but feel the arm movements were a little off in the timing.
One thing I began to notice was the speed of the walk was rather fast and it was clear this was an issue to address. In the walk I also made motions in the hips to show more movements in the legs. I did this with playing back the animation, and using the rotation tool. However though I moved the hips on each leg movement I couldn't help but notice the hip movements were out of synch near the end of the walk. Playing back the animation confirmed it, however on a plus side I felt it showed the development of the walk and that I was getting closer to a more refined attempt at the exercise.
The pushing and pulling exercise I felt was going to be the most difficult, as I wasn't sure how I might approach it. I was debating on having the hands on the wall at the start then have him pushing on the wall from that point or try and position his hands using the IK/FK blend tools. I decided to explore both possibilities, and so I started with my work from the week before easter and moved on from there. In the bar sheet I referenced to the movements of the pushing along with the reference footage. I saw there was some movement in the legs and so translated it. In the end frame I had the character tired from exhaustion which was a good element to show emotion.
Upon receiving feedback on Facebook it seemed I didn't show enough strain in the legs. I recently found that I could keyframe the FK/IK translate frame and have them in position when switching between the two be it from the waist to on the wall. I felt this was a solution to starting the animation. To show strain I had the pelvis down slightly. The movements were repeated as before only this time I included more movements in the legs to show the strain of the push. Whilst the feet were slipping it did show a struggle in pushing it. Much like the first it ended with the rig showing exhaustion.
Pulling was an oposite, and so I created a wall with a shelf in it using the polygons to look like a turning lever. The hands were posed when the frames were set on the IK/FK blends to show the character was grabbing hold of the lever. In the animation I wanted to show the struggle and to challenge myself and tried to move the foot on the wall to show the strain of the pull. The IK/FK cubes held the arms out but I found it difficult to keep them on the wall without them going through the wall.
Moving the left foot onto the wall was extremely difficult as it wouldn't hold in place when the animation was playing through and I was forgetting the rules of stopmotion armatures didn't apply to the buckid rig which made this all the more challenging. The animation was complete and it was clear I would need some feedback to help improve on my understanding of the exercise.
Looking back I would think that I could improve upon these animations. For the walk I would pay close attention to the legs to see which hip would need to move, and to aid in that I could sketch out the poses of the legs to act as a guide to the hips. In hindsight, I should've taken a closer look at the graph editor for these exercises to see how it could improve upon the speed and hold points of the animation. Hopefully the feedback I'll receive from the group tomorrow will help me refine the animation.
In conclusion I would think I've made a good attempt at the exercises and I'm closer to a refined version of the walk, but from the pushing and pulling its clear I still had much to work on in terms of the feet positioning and the strain of the character itself.
In future I shall sketch out hip movements in the legs to better refine the walk before attempting it. I shall also look at positioning the rigs feet on the wall better and keep it in place when the animation is playing possibly look at the IK/FK functions.
However I had a lingering issue as the figure moved forwards without any foot movements at all, it took time but I did correct this issue. I was beginning to feel I had forgotten the basics of the walk. I did manage to hold the foot in place using the translate X keyframe. The walk then played perfectly in synch.
Pulling was an oposite, and so I created a wall with a shelf in it using the polygons to look like a turning lever. The hands were posed when the frames were set on the IK/FK blends to show the character was grabbing hold of the lever. In the animation I wanted to show the struggle and to challenge myself and tried to move the foot on the wall to show the strain of the pull. The IK/FK cubes held the arms out but I found it difficult to keep them on the wall without them going through the wall.
Moving the left foot onto the wall was extremely difficult as it wouldn't hold in place when the animation was playing through and I was forgetting the rules of stopmotion armatures didn't apply to the buckid rig which made this all the more challenging. The animation was complete and it was clear I would need some feedback to help improve on my understanding of the exercise.
In conclusion I would think I've made a good attempt at the exercises and I'm closer to a refined version of the walk, but from the pushing and pulling its clear I still had much to work on in terms of the feet positioning and the strain of the character itself.
In future I shall sketch out hip movements in the legs to better refine the walk before attempting it. I shall also look at positioning the rigs feet on the wall better and keep it in place when the animation is playing possibly look at the IK/FK functions.
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