ZOMG

Nice animation, Hips look kinda wird tho. I'm not sure but I gues it's this belt ridge is throwing me off.

as for music read this

http://techdirt.com/articles/200606...../1837225.shtml

I whuld drop it off on your place.

Hehe, Oi.. Ill wait for a cease and decist letter on their part first >_> I mean technically copyright laws allow you to use small portions of a piece in a work, though I think its limited to under a certain number of seconds (is it 30?) how else can a movie be reviewed or TV show or anything for that matter be publisized by a critic :p

Theres a few little bugs in the walk cycle, ones on his arm, ones on his shoulder, and many say that he moves his hips like a girl. The hips are at an off-world axis which makes it hart to piviot foward and backward so I do it diagonally, but its a degree some are not accustomed to... Its more of an exageration and its supposted to be a strut, not a walk :) Which is why it looks like hes putting so much effort into the walking. :)

Normally I find it takes 2 to 3 passes to finish up an animation. I find it helpful to stop working on it for a while after a pass, then go back to it and hunt for the flaws. Getting critiques before working on the next pass helps also. Although having others point out flaws in your hard work always irritates the ego, it is necessary in order to grow.

Good thing I dont have much of an ego then XD Its good to hear so many good comments, though I flinch everytime someone mentions a flaw I was aware of and was hoping they wouldnt see ;)

totaly awesome; very interesting mesh

someday I will fill his wings with feathers.. *sigh* someday >_>

DUDE! this is like.. nice nice well done, fluid. life like..
you should be proud

Thanky! ^_^

again one of the most awesome things i have seen. >^,^< i hope my Khon comes out half as good as this when im done with him.

from the nice swoosh of the tail and the bounce of the wings down to the animation of his paws on and off the ground. insta fav. >^,^<

awww, thanks! ^_^ lots of hard work and effort went into him, his rigging, and the animation :)

i love the music

awesome walk, i would suggest using Walk by Pantera

what is walk by pantera? :)

a very good song, that would probably fit with this animation.

One last thought. Next time make Play button that loads first so Animation wont start on itself. This music good as it is, but gets on my nerves after a while (good thing that there is option to stop flash plaing).

well it was just a quick avi to flash conversion... I didnt touch a thing in flash actually... though I know how to add playbuttons, I just was a bit tired at the 2am or what godaweful time I was converting the thing

Oh yeah,great work and animation;the music is good with moves.

Hehe, thanks ^_^

Very nice, the timing is working out quite well. Awesome personality in your walk! Great follow through of his wing type limbs, and his tail! I think perhaps as he stumbles, I would allow him to get his bearings together a bit longer (just a few more frames) its a bit quick. Perhaps brushing himself off or something and walking off as if nothing happened. Though underneath, he knows he's not numero Uno (adds to the character development)

yah, I think I probably should have spent more time with that as well... problem is I was trying to keep it in sync with the steps, and I guess It just passed my mind when I was working on it, I was going for the idea tho, just forgot to double check I got it :P Oy... 20/20 hindsight >_>

Understandable. I've fallen into that trap way too many times. Oh as far as the popping goes, check your curves out. I'd love to see your maya file (I assume you used Maya) I'd love to check out your curves in the graph editor. Though in order for me to see that file, I'd have to get it from you via AIM or something. Anyway good job!

Forgot to mention, perhaps even adding some more shoulder movement will help get him grooving a bit more. His walk is more of a strut to the music. Theres alot of info shown here on the legs and hips, but a bit more shoulder movement will really get him going. Heh sorry Its me being nitpicky about animation again.

The poping on his arm is an IK going out-of-range, the right foot is more likely a motion curve issue, and the twisted ankle at the end is meerely forgetfullness. Theres a few other problems that are going on, but this is in the past, Im on a a 2 week break :P

Now i focus on designing a buisness card, planning my demo reel, finding an internship and starting an online portfolio O.O

Ahh I know how that is. I had that problem with one of my older models. The elbows were popping and doing some weird stuff.

Ahh I'm in the same boat as you, internship and getting my portfolio ready. I have at least a year and a half to go till I get my BFA in Character Animation.

Less than a year for me, for a BS in Game Art and Design >_>

I think this came out fantastic. I love how you added a little personality to it, especially the stumble bit. I think, given his strut-like walk and large sword, you timed his stumble and pick up very well. He doesn't seem like the type that would want to dust off or make a big scene, but get up quickly and keep on strutting.

The expressions and lively tail are great additions, and the anatomy is gorgeous.

I think the only thing that even remotely bothers me at all are his shoulders, which seem to be exaggerated in the way they jut out and swing with each step. However, if is in fact a strut-like walk that you're going for, then it may just be fine as is ;3

Thanks for critique ^_^

Yah in hindsight, i liked the shoulders to move forward, but I think I exagerated them a bit too far XD

wow, well done, and love the trip that you managed to work into the sequence. tho not sure, the hips where the legs were walking semed a bit...i dunno elongated and the skin was a bit flabby, but thats probably just me nit picking. Can't wait to see the final finished model with skin and texture.

Yah, Im thinking I might have kicked the leg up a bit high or something to cause that, or the skin-weights were not painted right for that side... They were set for a maximum influence of 3 and I think it probably should have been 4, since he has a thigh, a hip, a pelvis and a lower spine affecting the area o.o

its all tweaking^^ still absolutely great tho. cant wait to see him textured. tho is he missing something or is it pon purpous that he doesnt have a sheath?

It was a school project.. I uhh didnt plan on making him anatomically correct when I made him XD But its been requested by quite a few... Id concider doing so, but I think that wouldnt happen for a long time... since I still need to use him for projects, and I dont think I want to have to model clothes for him, so they wouldnt see stuff.. cause theyed demand the 3d file, where the pants wouldnt hide anything if the chose XD

hehe oh woops:P maybe create a 2nd alternative character thats fully anatomoically correct:P

Look forward to seeing more of your work, this character has life to it:D

As simple as that would seem, it requires enormous changes...

Id have to redo all skin weight painting(took around 12 hours), and have to do all the blending shapes over again as well (took around 13hrs)+ and un-forseen issues that Im not aware of.

It would be easier to just create some 'strap-on' to put on the character XD

eep, wow. i dont think people realise how much effort and time it takes to create something like this. well done indeed.

If you think thats high, Ive invested well over 100 hours into this model... through a span of two classes... The same Goes the the Bluedragoness Model over a span of 3 classes (one was just a minor touchup)

Awesome :O
How you do it ^^!? I've tryed messing with animation programs many times, but i just can't make anything like this :D
It's very nice work!!
a bit about his hips..
But it's still very great, and the music fits so good ^_^

Are you trying to animate your own model, or a pre-made model, and then, are you trying to animate your own character rig, or a pre-made one again..

Preferably, what program are you trying to animate in? (important things before I can give advice) ^_^

i just got a new program ^^''
Called: 3D Studio MAX
I don't have much experience in it ^^''

correction: 3D Studio MAX 8

Well first you need to model a character of some sort, and make sure its all one object.. Then you would create bones for the character, then you would add a skin modifier, defining the bones as effectors. Youd then adjust the weights where the mesh might incorectly be modified, and tweak it to look right.. you would then add any IK structures or dummy objects to the bones, to affect its motion...

Id reccomend a getting a book, or tutorial about it :p

Thanks for your help ^^
i'll try mess a bit with it ^^

Turn back now if you don't want a full critque. You mentioned above you don't mind them, and I enjoy critquing animations since that's what I do (even if it is traditional).

What I think you've missed after watching it several times through (thanks for the loop!) is that the weight you have implied in his wing arms and sword show up in his ARMS but not his rib cage. It seems too much of the rotation of his upper body comes from the movement in his shoulder and not enough in his chest.

You should make the arms more passive and have the action of the rotation come from the lats.

You're also missing the bounce that would be appearent in each step - his upper body and head would have the smallest amounts of up and down snap to them as his body reacts to impact of his feet hitting the ground.

I do not mean this as an insult but did you mean to make him look like he's limping? If so, did you mean to make that leg (his right) be taking the bigger and harder looking steps? It seems he's favoring the wrong leg.

But the thing that sticks out the most to me is the uneven loops between the rotation of his hips versus his shoulders. Even if he's strutting, you want his hips and shoulders to always be rotating exactly opposite each other (unless you were looking for slightly wonky - in which case they could be the same length of time, but not matched). Part way through the walk loop, his shoulders start matching his hips, and it makes him look like he's walking funny. Check your timing on those points and make sure the extreme forward movement on the right foot occurs at the exact same time as the extreme on the left arm and vice versa.

This will not ruin his attitude - It might even make it clearer.

I just thought of something (as I watch it again) checked it and it's true. It has to do with your rigging, and since I know how painful it is to rig anything of this nature, feel free to skip this part. Usually, with a two legged creature walking forward with a load on it's back it to lean futher forward than you've indicated - his back is very stright and when he walks, though his knees come up fairly high, he doesn't seem to step forward very much past his collar bone (where the point of balance is, as you probably know). If he were standing straight up I could tell better if your rigging has him balenced too far forward or back, but I would consider just looking at showing that he's aware of the weight in his back more, and that he should have to take steps that go as far forward as they go back.

AGain, I'm very sorry if this was unwelcome. Your character has tons of personality and I love to see that before little minor mechanical things. The music is awesome and you got a laugh out of me with the trip (which was superbly executed!).

I hope to see more of these in the future.

Also, for wings, I would probably try rigging a series of flat pieces (that would come from the top of the arm on the outside) that each correspond to a section of a normal bird's wing. That way you can put the feather pattern down on it, and manipulate several feathers (that would move together naturally) at a time.

I hope this was helpful and not overly critcal - this is awesome work - superior to most of the stuff I see at school.

Youve mentioned a few things here that Ive allready mentioned and admitted to, on reasons for some problems... But I suppose your observant at least..

I should also probably mention that nothing was taught in the class on HOW to animate, it was more of a measure if we could just figure it out, I guess.. Since it was a character rigging class, not a character animation one XD

Theres a problem with the shoulders (I think they sway a bit too far) and legs (I think one goes higher than the other) the ankle at the end (merely forgot to set a keyframe to fix it) The shoulder out of sync thing was a user error, skaar falls and stumbles on an odd stepping sequence, so the rest of his body in loop is set for that old loop and then needs to gradually fall back into the origional step, I fixed much of the legs hips and spine, but forgot the rotation of the shoulders ^_^;; (which is why it seems that the're timing is off, because they flip their timing it appears) Theres also a reason why I didnt have him bend forward or back much with his back, because the skin weights of the back isnt panted correctly, I wasnt aware of it untill mid-animation when his mesh would tear if I bent it too far... so I kept his back a little more rigid than I wanted to... painting weights to fix the back could have taken a few hours that I didnt have at the time. I also ran into technical complications cause I set this guy for 3 influences, when I should have set him for 4. (thats what you get for taking your teachers advice... in a few parts, like his butt and lower back, there are more than 3 bones that should be influencing its deformation, but arnt affected cause its maxed at 3 from initial settings)

Oh, and no ones told me about that collarbone thing before... Ill try to keep it in mind :)

sorry theres a bit I didnt respond to, but I assure you I read the comment completely :P

the wings I had already thought about something similar to your idea... I just ran into a 'chicken and the egg' dilema which basically came to mind was that Id need to find feather texture that I make poly cards defined from, or do I make the poly cards and then have to find feathers which fit the right proportions... heh... Everyone can tell when a feather has been stretched out of proportion >_>

Hopefully I will have more from this character in the future... but frankly.. I dont know when I would have time to do a new animation.. they take a tremendous amount of work.. being how lazy I am, Id have to wait for a class assignment where i could use him... buuut I think were going to be required to use new characters.. next time around >_>

I want to complete him still at least, however ^_^

i forgot about the limping. Thats something that you have to really be careful of in walk cycles. This is the biggest problem I see with 3D walk cycles at my school, and frankly its a bit annoying. While I said earlier your timing was working overall. I think the timing of his shoulder movements needs a bit of a tweak here and there. Like you mentioned it sways a bit too far, yeah now that I look at it again it does. Also, maybe you could add a bit more drag with his left hand as he sways his arms. Have you heard of www.thegnomonworkshop.com? If so they have an animation DVD on bipedal walk cycles. That my friend is a great DVD!

Holy shit that's nice. I can't wait to see what you come up with later on (perhaps with fur?).

P.S. if you ever have issues with music use and want something custom-made for one of your animations, I'd gladly make it.

Im not quite sure if I will or not, but I plan on adding texture to him someday, and adding the rest of the wings, which will make things a bit more complicated... Its a game model so I cant do dynamic fur or anything.. but maybe small cards to add illusion of fur ^^

As for the music thing, Im not sure when.. I just kinda dumped it in there last minute for this, though I had an origional plan that would animate according to how the music played, but the teacher wanted me to dumb it down so *shrug* :P

i need somone like you to animate for me?

Is that a question or a statement? XD

if you would have the time...i can come up with some sick textures (i do a lot of textures and photos for friends in school who design games and crap)

nah...ignore what i said...i'll leave you alone man...luck with future work ^^ laterz

hehe, as far as art trades or project colaborations, im just too busy at the moment :p

Thanks for the luck :3

Beautiful work! A few bugs here and there (the hips look kinda funky, but heck, who am I to critisize) but overall, daaaamn... this is quality! Great work! What program(s) did you use.. Maya, probably?

Yah Its maya, and yes Ive gotten alot of feed back on the hips XD

Someday I may fix these problems, but thats far down the road, looking at other important projects in the future

Awesome animation dude, I suck at walk cycles. XP

Mucho Thankyou ^_^

Amazing ^^ the music scared me at first o.o;

LOL sorry bout that.. it STILL startles me sometimes XD

Nice to see him stumble. :)

Gwah, I wish I could afford fancier softwares, but am currently playing with freeware or very cheap bundles. We'll see, but keep it up!

-Zi

Eh.. You'd be surprised on the quality of some of the lil proggies ^^

As far as modeling goes, I was fooling around with Silo recently at my internship, and its like a scaled down version of max or maya, just strictly limited to poly modeling.. clean mesh work, nice subdivision proxies... not too shabby, for a 100 buck program ^^ free trial too.

very awesome model for maya. :P and i compliment you more on the rigging than the actual animation because.. damn.. RIGGING IS A BITCH, and your's has a lot of limbs and no weird skin folding. NIIICEE.

Yah, rigging can be.. especially painting skin weights and modeling blending shapes... Its a pitty I didnt use all the emotions I really wanted to use. but this was a rigging class NOT an animation class, he never really taught how to animate them...

Sweet!

Love the tail wag... and the sword design. The locomotion looks a bit better from behind than in front for some reason... dunno, bit off balance maybe with that sword over one shoulder.

haha thanks ^_^

Yah theres a bit of things off with the walk that Ill prolly never get around to fixing XD

You're welcome... nice pick of music too.

hehe, well if you tell yourself that, then you never will =P

Holy crap! That's pretty amazing! I'm already getting ideas of making catwalk music for animations like this ^^ You and I should totall collab, if you're not busy of course.

Hehe, Thanks, put alota effort in, and its my first real character animation (besides some test stuff) Though I never have much free time off >_>

hahah welcome to the world of being an animator.

That's a lovely animation (seriously) but I've just spent twenty ****ing minutes trying to work out where the hell that god awful music was coming from. I would, at present, heartily and most sincerely recommend removing it. Preferably with a blunt instrument.

Quite probably not a fair comment, but at present I'm not feeling particularly fair.

Haha, hey at least your not me and have to surf to that page every time to read a comment posted on it! XDDD sometimes its late at night and BAM it nearly sents my dog running into a wall XD (I have loud speakers specially when I forget that the volume is turned up XDD)

But its no dice, I might have been forced to do a different animation than I wanted but the song is the last thing I dun wana throw out if I dont have to :P

sorry bout the tormenting music XD (specially since it will keep on playing and playing XDDD)

I'm not going to do a critique, as everything as been covered already, that I can think of anyways. I'd say have a look at the skinning tho, I saw a few vertecies popping out, especialy around the shoulders.

Hes already has an attitude, and with a bit of work you'l have a very solid walk cycle.

Also, have a look at this:
http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Sur...../dp/0571202284
I highly recomend it if animation interests you. Great book, and I heard quite a few animators have it on their shelves.

Keep up the good work!

a side note, I didnt have a character animation class before I did that animation, it was a rigging class, Ive since already purchased that book XD

thats just amazing...I admire your work :3

God that's beautiful!! I just can't stop watchin it XD It's so awesome!! He's got a cute lil switch going there too hehehe. You truly have awesome skills I hope you make it far*howls*

Yes the swish was certainly my favorite part as well. :3

I don't think your hips are moving enough... or your torso... there is very little counter animation. Hard to tell what's going on when he trips. Not enough up on the passing, or down on the contact. Neat charater for sho though!

i like wings^^

Very good.

Looks good... although I think the legs are too far apart... looks like he's trying to ball walk or something... It's not too natural...

(Just a helpful critique) This is still amazing though... better than what I could've done.