Oh boy!

[Pawige]

So, this is pretty much my first foray in the whole low-spec 3D stuff, finished rigging it this weekend. I'm fairly experienced with high-poly stuff and all that jazz, but I'm pretty new to this. Made a lot of big mistakes in the process, but I think I learned a lot. Crits are very welcome though I might just toss this one and do a new one. Any comments will help with the next one. This was intended to be viewed from quite a distance, so if you squint or zoom out it gives you a bit more of an accurate idea of what it should look like.







Edit: Oh snap forgot the wire and the texture!
246 faces or 466 tris. About one day for the modeling and texturing, and another for the rigging and animating.

[Durnus]

Ooh, nice. Well, evil. Don't have anything to say about the model. Just learning Blender right now (and enjoying it) so for the moment I can only admire your poly-work and especially the UV map, but I can say something about the animation from intuition.

Judging from the bend of the elbows, it looks like it's supposed to be a walking animation, but it looks too forced. When I walk or see someone walk, generally the arms don't swing that much, and I hardly see any rotation of the chest either. If it's supposed to be running and I'm just seeing it in slo-mo, I think the elbows should be bent a lot more. The hips should also have more of a sin wave feel, rather than a sawtooth wave. I am from a region where people walk a bit more... lazily, so I may be biased. You have much more experience with modelling than I do though, and offer this only as my own observations.

The model's great though, hope my stuff turns out as well as yours.

[Gil]

It can't be a run Durnus, as the two feet have contact at the same time. In runs we have moments were both feet are off the ground and there's never a contact period with both feet.

I agree that it's a very animated walk, but it does fit the character. I would bring the elbows in just a little, because right now they stray pretty far from the torso and that might be a little overkill.

[miscdude]

I see a lot of mixed vibes in the walking animation. He has a very jagged and rough hip movement, suggesting someone who is disgruntled or dare I say 'evil'. However, his upper body has lots of sway and life which makes it look as if he's trying to strut. This is where I get confused, because his upper and lower body movements don't match to one air. If you either made his hips much more smooth and made his legs stretch a bit more or tightened the movement of the upper body I think this would look great.

[Pawige]

Okay, here we go again. I'm really pretty inexperienced with 3D animation so this is a bit of trial and error, especially with the rigging.



Any better? It's supposed to be a slightly goofy character, doing its best to be intimidating.

[Rawsushi]

Opposite arm, opposite foot. He can still be lurching, but it'd make the walk more "correct".

[Pawige]

Whoah. Don't know how I missed that...

Fixed.

[Sherman Gill]

Looks great now, Pawige
I hate those pink highlights, maybe shift it more to yellow in the lightest shade?

[Conzeit]

I've got to say the animation has improved a lot when you made him relay on hunching rather than on swinging his arms for balancing....I would even dare say that you should undo the lastest fix. I am aware this seems incorrect, but the correct arm balancing gives a sense of composture, makes him seem too much in control of his mind. The fact that in the second to last fix he is not correctly balancing, instead he is throwing himself at every step makes the wallk seem a little more brutal....more bloodlust induced.

The animation has improved a lot with those two lastest fixes, but it still lacks that goofy quality you wanted....I propose that you bring in some element of nerveousness, perhaps shaking on his hands, perhaps making his glance switch around instead of being focused squarely on what's ahead of him...or maybe make his steps sort of stray sideways wasting energy he could be using to move forwards in a more focused manner.....the important thing is that you experiment with several elements that would appear nerveous if you saw this behavior in someone.

[Rawsushi]

I'm with Conceit on this one. No so much on the making the arms move with the legs like the previous edit, but more with the expirementation aspect. People that are nervous tend to be stiff and defensive. I think you can get away with moving the arms with the legs if they're just tilting slightly. The previous verson SORT OF had this, but I think the arm movement might have still been too drastic.

You might want to try decreasing the arm movement or even changing the stance so that he's reaching out slightly (but with a bend to show that he doesn't really want to actually touch anything).

I'd suggest walking around your house and acting out what it is you want him to convey. Don't go outside though. You'll scare the children.