Atalanta Animations

[Mathias]

Hey NaCl, what's up? I got a comment; may've already been covered - I instantly home in on the oddity of her pulling the arrow out of her quiver, the way it's already at a 45 angle ready to shoot, when she should pull it out as vertical then only once it's cleared the quiver be able to angle into place. I'm sure just one or two frames would fix this.

Keep up the good work.

[TrevoriuS]

Your run lacks weight.
The arms should make a lower sweep when coming across the body.
A bit more bent foreward and legs kicking further to the back may also make the form more realistic/

[Corsair]

I've been working on a run for a while, here is what I have so far (still WIP):



The head and hair will be animated! No need to point it out, I just have not gotten to it yet. All other C+C welcome.

Other than some balance issues which i don't feel like i'm fully qualified to properly address, the most obvious problem lies in 2 frames of the animation  that i've edited here.


Just a few things i noticed when i was doing the edit, and somebody correct me if i'm totally off base here:

in several frames, both of her legs are towards the front of her body, where, at least from my observation, unless you're jumping hurdles your body will never do this naturally on it's own. It almost makes it look like she's running up a staircase (almost, it's not that dramatic.)

watch this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x6V48IIQRQ

Aside from taht you've got a really solid foundation there, and with a little work it could be pretty awesome, so keep up the work

on second thought, you can pretty much disegard my edit, as it sucks. However, my point still stands that the legs kick out a lot farther than they need to.

[NaCl]

Wow, thanks everyone for the input. I've worked on an update, and tried to address the issues talked about.

- Made her lean forward more
- Made the arms sweep lower as they pass the body (the lower arms, not sure if you meant the entire arm)
- Legs kick back more
- In the second passing frame, I made the legs behind her more
- Made her not kick quite so far forward (hopefully got rid of the "can can" effect as it was so eloquently put)
- I think the weight issue was addressed somewhat with these other updates. Not sure



Great video Corsair! The run in slow motion looks different then I expected. Mathias, thanks for pointing that out, I will continue o play with it, but the thing is, the arrow is so long that her arm is not really long enough to pull the arrow out, so I had to fudge it a little. I'm sure I can make it look better, though.

[Shrike]

Hey, I really like the run.  Looks like I missed out on some activity.   

Only thing that bothers me, although it's a big one, is she seems too... umm...

Hm.

Legs kicking farther back doesn't solve the issue entirely, it just complicates things.  Let me show you what I mean, because I know I'm not saying what I want to.


See the bend forward below the waist on the pink line?  Not natural or good.  Make her line of action straight, aka make the waist more aligned with the body, and have her legs kick forward less far and kick back more.  Do you get it?  It's like her legs are running on an upward tilted plain.  I'm not sure if I explained it right, really, so let me know.

One more nitpick-  It isn't super clear as to which limb is closest to us, make the farthest back limbs one shade darker.  Please?  This is awesome, keep it up!

Toodles!
Shrike

[NaCl]

Hey Shrike,

I think I understand what you mean. It's like her calves are constantly bent forward? I think I addressed, or at least improved this now, let me know:

[robotacon]

Great improvements but you can do even better.

HEELS, KNEES AND TOES

Try to have the toes in the ground for as long as possible before you pick up the foot. When you run you trust yourself forward with the toes.
Land on the heel with a straight leg. You have to be a sprinter to not land on your heel and if you do so none of the other frames should have the heel in the ground either.
People often get hurt running because they overextend their knee but no one ever runs without extending their knees straight.

Finally, lookout for the beard-like hair in her face.

[Gil]

Actually robotacon, that's not true. Heelstriking while running, even jogging, is bad pose and hurts your body. Anybody doing running, even at the lowest pose, should try to strike midfoot or frontfoot.

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fBh2qH4QbM

[robotacon]

You're right but I'm not completely wrong.

For this character the running schema in the youtube clip you posted is the best. If you look at the runners in the clip they run like they're elfs.
But you also hear them say that it's easy to fall into running with a heelstrike and all that which I'm in favor of because that's how most people run. That's why I think it looks more natural.
The character that NaCl has created has sandals which probably is more like running barefoot and because of this you're even more right and I'm wrong.

Sorry for misleading you NaCl.

[Gil]

Yeah, you're not completely wrong, but in animated running, I like to stay away from heelstrikes, since it tends to look less agile. For a fat character, a decent heelstrike with followthrough on the knees can add necessary weight.