AuthorTopic: apprehensive walk cycle  (Read 6931 times)

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

apprehensive walk cycle

on: February 04, 2017, 07:57:51 pm
I started work on a character for a horror game. This walk cycle is supposed to be apprehensive as the character is constantly a little intimidated by her surroundings and uncertain of what's around the corner. Please provide some helpful C&C!

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #1 on: February 05, 2017, 12:34:12 am
Good pose concept but the anatomy here is quite off. Work on those arms a bunch, you might have to redraw them entirely. The legs are also off, though not quite as much. The forelegs are super short and the crotch is too low here
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #2 on: February 05, 2017, 08:06:28 am
Thanks! Gonna try and fix it up now. Do you think I should go for realistic proportions? I was kind of going for child/teen proportions a little bit cartoon-like but if it looks off it's no good

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #3 on: February 05, 2017, 08:28:22 am
Proprtions should be about the same in any style! Shoot for realism then work backwards, even mario follows the same general rules in spite of his cartoon art style! His leg bits are all the same lenght, same for his arms! And his torso is only ever as lomg as his legs!
« Last Edit: February 05, 2017, 08:33:14 am by MysteryMeat »
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #4 on: February 06, 2017, 07:56:56 am
Do you think these proportions are better?

« Last Edit: February 06, 2017, 09:09:29 am by rocifier »

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #5 on: February 06, 2017, 09:22:20 am
Close! The thighs should bend inwards, not just cinch like that! You also need to tweak the bent arm more, it looks like lines drawn over her torso because it's too pulled in.
I recommend lowering the grab point from her shoulder to her elbow or slightly above it.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #6 on: February 07, 2017, 06:54:37 am
Thanks for your feedback. It's not easy to know what you mean. Is this better?

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #7 on: February 07, 2017, 10:45:37 am
Yes, much! Don't forget the forearm bump though, when arms are bent that muscle group tends to fluff up some, like so:


Try to replicate that curve on the inside of the elbow, and use your dark lines to provide a better indicator of form on arms and legs. I'll try to squeeze an illustrative edit tomorrow if I catch up on math!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #8 on: February 08, 2017, 08:42:58 am
Nice reference, thanks!

« Last Edit: February 08, 2017, 08:47:18 am by rocifier »

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #9 on: February 09, 2017, 09:56:30 am
« Last Edit: February 09, 2017, 10:03:38 am by rocifier »

Offline StelloHexis

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 61
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #10 on: February 11, 2017, 01:00:42 am
I think it would look better if you give the face less detail, something like this:

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #11 on: February 11, 2017, 03:20:13 am
Less detail is a good idea, yeah. Try a few without faces or just the implication of a face, like shading along the brow and nose.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline dotodrymo

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #12 on: February 11, 2017, 06:06:17 am
Her legs stand out as the most obvious anatomy issue. Here's an edit with shorter legs and the green tone in the skin swapped out for a warmer color. I also messed around with making a readable face with distinct features at this size.

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #13 on: February 11, 2017, 08:31:22 am
I'm not so sure the legs were a problem, that new version now looks off to me for some reason.
Overall her anatomy is a bit "stretched out," giving her a very slender look, but everything seems proportional to my eye save the torso.
The LEGS aren't the problem, that is. Her arms match up proportionally to her legs, but her waist terminates a bit early and her head looks a bit squashed
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #14 on: February 11, 2017, 08:48:08 am
Here is the reference I was basing her off



Tried to match body and lighting a little more closely:



Struggling with making a minified face look good. Tried a few options and came back to this one.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2017, 10:01:22 am by rocifier »

Offline dotodrymo

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #15 on: February 11, 2017, 10:09:28 am
My edit definitely didn't address all of the underlying anatomy issues, but respectfully, those legs are pretty long! The fingertips of a relaxed arm usually come to almost mid-thigh. In order to make her relaxed arm go to mid-thigh, you'd have to imagine that her crotch is way up here:



(forgive my sketchover, I'm on trackpad)

Which makes the legs almost twice the length of the torso. Shifting the crotch down would make the thinnest part of her waist way too high, as well as violate the hand rule. In my edit, the waist is still too high, as mysterymeat pointed out. Changing the height of the legs without changing their shape also highlighted that they're too triangular. In this pose, the legs shouldn't just taper to a point, they should have something of a subtle hourglass shape. My head edit also makes the skull disproportionately large for the sake of readability/fixing facial anatomy, and combined with the semi-realistic proportions of the rest of the sprite, it unbalances the image. That one's my bad.   :-X

Because you're looking to animate this sprite, I'd actually suggest going with something more similar to the sprite you initially posted! This pose isn't super suitable for a walk cycle, since people's feet aren't pushed together when walking.

(that edit's looking much better, though! whatever you decide to do, keep at it! :) )

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #16 on: February 12, 2017, 04:14:27 am
Hmm I appreciate your feedback, but I guess I don't really agree that she is out of proportion. As you can see she quite closely matches the reference proportion. Where she doesn't it tends to be sub-pixel issues and I have intentionally chosen to break a proportion one way or another on the pixel boundary:



There are probably two reasons that you think the arms might be wrong:
- the first is that the long arm has the shoulder significantly hunched upwards, bringing the hand up too.
- the second is that I have chosen to effectively represent the palms only, not the fingers too, due to lack of pixel space

However, your comment about the original image being better for animation is quite a valid point. I will give some animation a try and see how it goes with this new figure. I was a bit gutted I wasn't able to pull off some hourglass shapes on the legs at this scale.
« Last Edit: February 12, 2017, 04:16:11 am by rocifier »

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #17 on: February 12, 2017, 05:18:34 am
You're messing up the lines! The legs continue up under the dress, not stop at it!  mark the bottom of the pelvis too!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #18 on: February 12, 2017, 06:55:58 am
Hmm yes I think I see the problem. Speaking of the pelvis bone has helped me to see it:

EDIT: wait, no, I went to edit it and the pelvis points already line up to the pixels XD

« Last Edit: February 12, 2017, 06:58:40 am by rocifier »

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #19 on: February 12, 2017, 08:34:23 am
Since this bit of criticism is unclear, I decided to work on some of my other crits instead!

Notable here: I removed the face entirely, replacing it with some brow shading to imply the presence of eyes instead, thinned out the hair bulk for a more believable slope off the skull, and redid the legs and arms to be shaped better (and introducing new problems with length and readability in the process, whoops!).
Remember, limbs curve slightly! You wanna try to keep that intact!

I also changed the pose slightly to be more spread-apart yet still withdrawn-looking so she could be animated easier, in general try to keep a strong outline.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline dotodrymo

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #20 on: February 12, 2017, 09:36:23 am
Ah, I see my mistake! You were right, mysterymeat. I was referencing myself in the mirror, and I'm much shorter than the tall model in the picture. I also didn't recognize or account for her hunched-up shoulders, which made my use of the hand-thigh rule incorrect. Woops!  :blind:

I'm still not convinced that the anatomy is 100% -- specifically, the knees on that skeleton don't align with the knees on the photo reference, which suggests that other stuff is off, especially in the arm-n-shoulder area -- but since you're modifying the pose, perfecting this one is irrelevant.

Good work so far, and good luck moving forward!

Edit: ninja'd - that pose change suggestion looks really good! thumbs up to the shape of the arms, especially. :) 
« Last Edit: February 12, 2017, 09:40:20 am by dotodrymo »

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #21 on: February 12, 2017, 10:19:34 am
Yeah, my leg retooling went pretty poorly almost immediately lol. I'd discount that bit entirely from the thighs down!
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #22 on: February 13, 2017, 08:13:11 am
Thanks guys this is helpful. I see what you mean by the legs curving around/inwards now. I will definitely keep that in mind when I animate her (at this level, one pixel change can almost throw the whole pose off as I'm sure you discovered). I need to her to be skinny for the story and her age (18), and most definitely asian build though.

I tried some more edits and I think she is getting pretty close. I got a little more limb curvature by working the shading. Also don't forget she is wearing high heels!

« Last Edit: February 13, 2017, 08:54:58 am by rocifier »

Offline rocifier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 167
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #23 on: February 15, 2017, 07:29:29 am
Kind of got the bottom half animated

Offline MysteryMeat

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1997
  • Karma: +1/-0
  • "The new alternative to q-tipping your cat!"
    • mysterymeat
    • spoiledmysterymeat
    • View Profile
    • My rad art blog!

Re: apprehensive walk cycle

Reply #24 on: February 15, 2017, 10:09:32 am
Looking good, but keep the feet stable when they start to move towards the back! It looks like her foot twitches and slides back rather than propelling her forward.
Additionally, don't forget to add a slight full-body bounce to it when you animate the rest.
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |