Sprint Cycle

[Rosier]

Obviously really early and rough, but I want to make sure everything is in a decent place before continuing.  Stuff like the limb consistency and such.

[MysteryMeat]

Tweaked the framerate some and made some corrections, the arms are still not quite making enough of the same movement but she had a bit of an uneven gait thanks to differences in the leg movements. Ideally limbs should move in the same way as the other, unless you're doing perspective stuff or playing around with characters that limp, etc.

I also made the hair biddly bob a bit, because having the hair move makes it more ~*[ DYNAMIC ]*~

[Rosier]

I'm keeping it slow for now so that people can see the flaws easier.  Otherwise made the arms have a more synchronous movement and kept the fixed legs.

And I'll focus on the hair and all the other details like the clothes after I'm happy with the rest.

[wzl]

This feels more like a light jog than a sprint. No explosive movement, no speed, no urgency.
The slowness of the cycle doesn't necessarily help seeing problems. If you're speeding it up later, you might not get the result you want, because you made the cycle for a slower framerate. Same with us, seeing it slower prevents us from giving accurate feedback, because it doesn't portrait the motion it's supposed to be.

bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BmtGNjm7BE

[Rosier]

This feels more like a light jog than a sprint. No explosive movement, no speed, no urgency.
The slowness of the cycle doesn't necessarily help seeing problems. If you're speeding it up later, you might not get the result you want, because you made the cycle for a slower framerate. Same with us, seeing it slower prevents us from giving accurate feedback, because it doesn't portrait the motion it's supposed to be.

bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BmtGNjm7BE

Noted. 

From the video, it seems that I should keep the arms bent at an angle rather than splay them out, and dramatically lower the character's posture so they're bending forward a lot more, right?  I'll start working on that.

[MysteryMeat]

Don't take any guide on walkcycles as definitive, while there's some good guidelines to work from part of the charm in them is that they can serve as an excellent expression of the character.
Ed Edd and Eddy was a prime example of this, you could tell a lot about who everyone was just by how they ran.

[Rosier]

Don't take any guide on walkcycles as definitive, while there's some good guidelines to work from part of the charm in them is that they can serve as an excellent expression of the character.
Ed Edd and Eddy was a prime example of this, you could tell a lot about who everyone was just by how they ran.

But first, let's figure out HOW to do a decent walk cycle...






Made them lean forward more, kept the arms at a 45 degree angle, and played with the level of bounce to make it more forceful.

[eishiya]

When a person runs, especially if they're springing, their forearms go in front of them, sometimes even becoming horizontal. So, you won't get an energetic sprint look by just rotating the same arm sprite, you'll need to do some foreshortening.
(A similar thing also happens with legs, one leg goes in front of the other, but that's not very visible from the side so you'll only need to worry about this when doing front/back views.)

[MysteryMeat]

looking solid, boss! I'd say it's looking good motionways, now onto the details!

[hapiel]

I'd second eishiya's comment about the arms.

Also, the arms would move more explosively to the front, and slower to the back, and almost rest a bit in the front position. Kinda the opposite from what you had in the first versions of the animation!

[Rosier]

Made the arms fold in a bit, plus added the start of the hair.  I'll probably make it a bit more voluminous and maybe a bit spikier, but I want to check in on the SIN curve.

[MysteryMeat]

that hair is way too static. think of it as a billiwing wave starting from the head and movi g down it as she runs, or like an orb of force is rolling under it pushing it into shae

[Rosier]

More like this then?  Or should I make it dip a bit more?

[nessx007]

Fun seeing the animation progress through each stage! (I think the updated hair movement is definitely improved btw)

Also, dunno if I'm the only one that thinks her posture seems a bit hunched now? Its like her head and upper body are leaning as expected, but where her shirt ends and shorts (skirt?) begin is almost level with the ground (instead of leaning at the same angle as upperbody/head, if that makes sense). That said I'm aware this is a draft, so it's probably just the temp clothes throwing me off. Once the clothes are finalized with motion of her run it should hopefully alleviate the hunched look. Looking good overall though, keep it up!

[wolfenoctis]

Some quick, rough thoughts:


I don't think you should hunch her over like that when she is running, it looks strange.

[MysteryMeat]

@wolf, it actually adds some urgency to the run-cycle I feel. You see this played with a lot in cartoons, "the more forward a person is going the more they care about getting there" is kind of the general rule I see played with a lot.

[tsej]

@MysteryMeat She looked like she had kyphosis. 
@Wolf great edit! Learned a few things.

For some reason the motion of the hair looks very unnatural. Try imagining how the hair would react to HER pressing to the ground and lifting up. I think the hair is a secondary motion, it should follow after the character.

[MysteryMeat]

Ah, true enough. I'll try and do a fixup edit later.
@OP though, good work on the new hair. Looks a lot better now that the whole thing's moving.

[Rosier]

Also, dunno if I'm the only one that thinks her posture seems a bit hunched now? Its like her head and upper body are leaning as expected, but where her shirt ends and shorts (skirt?) begin is almost level with the ground (instead of leaning at the same angle as upperbody/head, if that makes sense).

That's more than likely a product of the torso being a completely still image at the moment. Once I add some movement it'll probably look better.

Some quick, rough thoughts:


I don't think you should hunch her over like that when she is running, it looks strange.

I definitely see what you mean, but I also feel like your edit does lack urgency, as Meat said.  I'm definitely going to use it as a reference for the limb proportions and movement, but I think that if I straighten out the back on mine rather than have it curve like it is now, I can make it look less like a hunch and more like a lean as intended. 

For some reason the motion of the hair looks very unnatural. Try imagining how the hair would react to HER pressing to the ground and lifting up. I think the hair is a secondary motion, it should follow after the character.

I tried make the wave in the hair "bump" go harder when she went from being really low in one frame to being high in the next, but I guess that didn't quite work out...  I'll take a second look at it again.

[nessx007]

Some quick, rough thoughts:


I don't think you should hunch her over like that when she is running, it looks strange.

I like this edit for fixing the hunch, but yeah instead of straightening the upper body like you have here, keep the forward leaning and align the bottom half of the body to the steeper angle of OP's current head/upper body. I'm definitely digging the overall edit to the proportions though.

[wzl]

The urgency mainly comes from the gait and swing of the arms and animation timings. hunching the back only is one aspect of it. in this instance it looked more like a sickly old person with a stiff leg (the irregular bouncing). wolf's edit is spot in in terms of a relaxed jog with proper posture and technique.

[Rosier]

Some quick, rough thoughts:


I don't think you should hunch her over like that when she is running, it looks strange.

I like this edit for fixing the hunch, but yeah instead of straightening the upper body like you have here, keep the forward leaning and align the bottom half of the body to the steeper angle of OP's current head/upper body. I'm definitely digging the overall edit to the proportions though.

The proportions on mine have always been temporary.  The arms and legs were literally made with just the line tool.  This is more of the end look I was going to refine once I moved on past the hair, but I also toyed with the body to make it less hunched and more leaned. That, and the legs are now a bit more filled out, but also have the shorts separation.

The urgency mainly comes from the gait and swing of the arms and animation timings. hunching the back only is one aspect of it. in this instance it looked more like a sickly old person with a stiff leg (the irregular bouncing). wolf's edit is spot in in terms of a relaxed jog with proper posture and technique.

I can toy with the bouncing a bit, but wolf's edit looks like what you said it looks like; I'm not going for a jog, I'm going for a full blown sprint.  The edit is really good, but it does lack the urgency that I'm going for.

[Rosier]

Normalize the bouncing a little bit, plus cleaned up with the proper proportions and all that junk that comes with it. 

Next step after polishing this would propbably be her main hair motion.

[MysteryMeat]

Mm. It might help to think of the hair as a sort of "motion trail" for the head, instead of as a separate entity. the big problem is that it doesn't follow the bounce very well, and as such feels disconnected from the rest of the animation.

[Rosier]

Tried syncing it up a bit more with the bouncing, but otherwise I'm not too sure how to go about fixing it.

[Rosier]

Added some hair physics, making the bangs, front, and sides of the hair move, plus added some shading to the ponytail in addition to spikes for variety.  And eyes because I changed my mind from just using a blank face.



This is kind of what I plan on making a complete frame look like, but I'd like to know if there's anything I'd need to fix before completing it.  Sadly, I lose a few details just because they would just clutter up the animation, but not really worth worrying over.
On second look, I'm probably going to lighten up the darkest shade of blue on the pants, by w/e.

[Rosier]

Fully colored and animated version.  The only things I don't think is quite right is the chest, but otherwise I don't really know.

[MysteryMeat]

chest is too static for the run, doesnt turn with her torso.

[Rosier]

Bit more like that? 

[wzl]

the run looks very heavy, almost like a fast paced march, not like a run at all. the swing of the arms is linear, no acceleration or anything.
the legs seem slightly too long, limbs are generally too thin, and uniform, and the knee joints are far too low in most frames.
You went several steps back from the previous posts i feel, 
I'd suggest to study wolfies edit again, see how it looks fluid, running, fast paced, and understand why. Think about the kind of run or sprint you want,  and look at references.
To be honest neither of the animations in this thread look like sprinting or dashing, more like casual jogging, but wolfie gets closest to a correct looking runcycle regardless.
i hope it doesn't sound too harsh, i dont wanna discourage you. Keep it up!

[Rosier]

the run looks very heavy, almost like a fast paced march, not like a run at all. the swing of the arms is linear, no acceleration or anything.
the legs seem slightly too long, limbs are generally too thin, and uniform, and the knee joints are far too low in most frames.
You went several steps back from the previous posts i feel, 
I'd suggest to study wolfies edit again, see how it looks fluid, running, fast paced, and understand why. Think about the kind of run or sprint you want,  and look at references.
To be honest neither of the animations in this thread look like sprinting or dashing, more like casual jogging, but wolfie gets closest to a correct looking runcycle regardless.
i hope it doesn't sound too harsh, i dont wanna discourage you. Keep it up!

I made it so the arms fold in again rather than splay out, made the legs a few pixels shorter, thickened the arms, and redid the legs more like wolfie's version.

I honestly don't quite agree with you on how they all look like jogging save the first few drafts.  I feel they're at the very least at a run, but I still cleaned up the cycle anyway.  Also changed how the legs were shaded and messed a bit with the breasts.

It's also one pip faster.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Hi, here's my attempt. I've used wolf's edit cause it was good base and allowed easier and faster sketching.

I think that in your last version legs looks like horse gallop, and like there's only 3-4 frames, mostly because both legs look the same. Try different shading which wolfenoctis suggested in his edit, it's a good way to make it visually easier for eyes.

[Rosier]

I had this waiting thanks to another forum.  Definitely helps mark the proper sides.