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Animation walk/run cycles created in Carrara 8.5(Another Clip Added)

mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
edited September 2013 in Carrara Discussion

Hey guys,
I have been working again on learning character animation in Carrara and the attached link shows some animation clips I have done. I still need to clean some things up on some of the cycles but I think I am getting the idea. I am going to get Fenric's Poser Helper to ease the animation pain soon.
Let me know what you think.
I guess the video isn't live yet, I will update the link later when it is.

http://youtu.be/lvHsyZRP_fE

Improved walk cycles.

Generic walk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac50DXd2abw&feature=youtu.be


Female Walk cycle clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwc9yqyJi9Q

Tough guy clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p8SASQ7vnE

Updated Run Cycle clip
http://youtu.be/OeHhjN5IfrA

Mike

Post edited by mmoir on
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Comments

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    The link works now.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    I was gonna say that when I tried earlier it wouldn't work. I assumed it was my satellite connection.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited September 2013

    Coming along really nicely! Bravo, and great to see you here again, Mike!
    In case you haven't seen it yet (though I think I found it due to someone showing you, or vice versa), Faba's Helpers and Modifiers for Genesis is an invaluable aid to animating. I haven't been doing a lot of animating lately - some, but it was just using clips that I made previously. But I still have, in the back of my mind, the idea of exploring what she did to create this magic - and see how well it translates to any of the other figures, including custom ones. It's really neat to be able to pin the feet to the floor like that.

    Just in case, and for other interested readers checking this thread, Faba (fabaone at ShareCG) has some really great stuff for learning to use Fenric's amazing ERC (Enhanced Remote Control) for Carrara.

    ERC for Carrara:
    Control a Value ..... With a Value .........From any object in your scene! The Enhanced Remote Control suite is a set of behavior modifiers and scene commands that work together to add much needed functionality and control to your animation workflow. It provides the basic functionality of Poser's ERC for creating joint-controlled movement within Carrara. But it also provides so much more, giving you the building blocks to rapidly create advanced, realistic animation. Control them all: Shaders, light values, position, rotation, morph settings - even other modifiers!

    Edit:
    Although much of fabaone's offerings at ShareCG are about the ERC, it is not needed for the Genesis Helpers     ;)
    Also, the cool little guy that she animates is a model that she made herself in Hexagon and rigged in Carrara - and ERC'd him all up! Freaking spectacular stuff!
    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Sorry about that. This is the little guy I was talking about above.
    This is the World-Famous Animation Video that she did to show a simple idea of how you can use Fenric's ERC to assist in animation. If you notice the little control panel with the little red squares moving up and down, that's how she's animating what the hand does. Phil W also gives a nice demo of how it works for controlling the flaps of a plane model all at the same time, along with the rigging wires in his Advanced Techniques.

    Sorry if it seems like I've invaded... and I won't carry on so... it's just that I hope that many others, whom see your walk cycle and decide to follow you in this splendid quest. And I want to help to show that there is help out there. Much more than I've mentioned. If you folks ever want more links - I love sharing them! ;)

    Animating can be tough. For walk cycles, it ha been taught to me that it's incredibly important to watch people a LOT. Pay attention to whether their head is going up and down. If so, is that motion coming because the legs are moving the whole hip up and down? Quite often, yes. As well, the hip with be rotating in a somewhat circular pattern, which can be quite difficult to animate. Watch how smooth mmoir's people are moving. It's very nicely done. It can be fun to make people walk in many different ways. In the above question... or is it because the torso is bending because of the hip and leg movements - or simply because of the gate and character of the person you're watching.
    The other day I was looking for a flat screen monitor that matches mine. Just browsing. Many other people in the store. Many have walked by. Suddenly my attention at what I was looking at was interrupted because the new footsteps that just caught my ear was that of my Wife's. I never knew before then that I could recognize her simply because of the way she walks. Even more so, by just the sound of her walk!

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Hey Dartanbeck,
    I am still around just not posting much . I will check out all Faba's stuff and hopefully get some of Fenric's plugins. I agree with watching people to learn how to animate people.
    Cheers.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Awesome. I was just looking through your CCMP thread where you were teaching modeling and such. Very great stuff in there. Too bad the timing for the whole thing was off - but I suppose it's like that always with a project like that. Some can participate, some cannot. I still have All of Those Threads Here just in the event of anybody rejuvenating the project. Nonetheless - some pretty cool stuff in there!

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited September 2013

    I had a couple of breakthroughs creating walk cycles in Carrara which make the cylces look much better in my opinion. I also bought Fenric's Pose Helper plugin to make the animating process a little easier which it does. Anyways here is a video showing a generic walk cycle. Let me know what you think.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac50DXd2abw&feature=youtu.be

    And here is a female walk cycle.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwc9yqyJi9Q

    I am happy as the quality of these walk cycles is what I was working towards and they are fairly easy to modify to create different types of walks.

    Post edited by mmoir on
  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Hey ,
    I added another walk cycle a strongman or tough guy clip.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p8SASQ7vnE

    I will redo the run cycle next.

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited September 2013

    Okay,
    And here is the run/jog cycle and this is the last video for a while.

    http://youtu.be/OeHhjN5IfrA

    Post edited by mmoir on
  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Those look very good, Mike! Excellent work - right now I'm trying to learn how to model, but next on my list is learning the basics of animation, so I'm very interested in your approach

  • Rich GellesRich Gelles Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    mike--
    these are looking very awesome . For hand done stuff you are really showing your skills here. Animating is not easy task --so keep it going man -- And thanks for sharing---

    you know this thread , the twight zone thread and the modeling thread are all so great.....showing what you can really do with Carrara. And I have to say its just fantastic to see this enthusiasm for Carrra !!

    Rich

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited September 2013

    Thanks Jon,
    I did have a video tutorial of my animation process when first starting to learn how to animate, it is not exactly how I do it now but you may find it interesting. The links are below , there is three or four different parts to it with the last 2 or 3 videos being more important.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FitzvGgLmHQ
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri7P8UeDcDI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhqsIv6d-T0

    For my process animating the Genesis figure I do the following:
    I animate the character walking in place first until I get a nice walk cycle, then I move the character forward making sure the feet don't slip to much. Maybe if enough people are interested I could do a full tutorial on creating a walk cycle as I do it quite different from the above tutorial. The above tutorial does show how I get the feet to stick to the ground but I do it differently now.

    Keep on learning , I also started with modeling in Carrara and have just recently started to learn some animation.

    Jonstark said:
    Those look very good, Mike! Excellent work - right now I'm trying to learn how to model, but next on my list is learning the basics of animation, so I'm very interested in your approach
    Post edited by mmoir on
  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Rich.

  • kakmankakman Posts: 225
    edited December 1969

    mmoir said:

    Maybe if enough people are interested I could do a full tutorial on creating a walk cycle as I do it quite different from the above tutorial. The above tutorial does show how I get the feet to stick to the ground but I do it differently now.

    Well, I would certainly be interested in such a tutorial and I would imagine many others would be as well.

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    mmoir said:
    Maybe if enough people are interested I could do a full tutorial on creating a walk cycle as I do it quite different from the above tutorial. The above tutorial does show how I get the feet to stick to the ground but I do it differently now.

    Thanks Mike, I didn't know you had done some tutorials, just watching the past way you used to do walk cycles was very illuminating, I had no idea for example that a loop would actually continue to translate the character forward instead of just moving the feet. I agree with Kakman, I would also love to see more tutorials on the newer method :)

    Keep on learning , I also started with modeling in Carrara and have just recently started to learn some animation.

    Oh, I'm a happy customer of some of your models already, so I already know you do beautiful modeling first hand :) I've been rendering still images with Carrara up to this point and never digging deep into how much this tool can do (turns out, a lot!) and I was always afraid to model, but I'm actually quite enjoying learning.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited September 2013

    Here here!
    I, too, am a big mmoir fan! Not only are your products extremely well designed and laid out, but your included tips files are a very welcome part as well. You always teach me stuff as I go - which is one of my favorite parts of buying stuff... is to see how it's made. I really love how you've constructed the whole keep in your Mystic Gorge! I just can't get over how meticulously crafted that whole scene is!

    Okay, in the list of tutorials above, the first one is missing. Here they are in order:

    Creating a Walk Cycle in Carrara - Part 1
    This video discusses getting Mike's excellent Man Model, made entirely in Carrara, set up for animation. Plenty of needful information on rig setup in here. If you like, at the time of this writing his Carrara Man Is Still Available Here along with other models made for use in the Carrara Community Movie Project. This beginning was a set of tests and lessons to get a team prepared to make an animated motion picture together using Carrara. I have kept all of the CCMP threads (that I know of) Linked to in this Index. Very useful stuff.

    Creating a Walk Cycle in Carrara - Part 2a
    With the mesh attached to the rig and all set up with an NLA animation group, it's animation time! Mike dives right in and starts creating a walk cycle, explaining why he's doing what and when, helping to understand how to work with you model (or any model) for Clip Animation - this one a walk cycle. Very good stuff! Mike is good and fun to learn from! ;)

    Creating a Walk Cycle in Carrara - Part 2B
    Continues on from the last video.

    Creating a Walk Cycle in Carrara - Part 3
    Puts everything in motion as he finalizes the cycle, renders it out using six seconds of loop applied to his clip - and makes some tweaks according to what he's seen in the test render, and comes to a tasteful close.

    The series is really informative and is so perfect in that it all takes place on Mike's first people model made in Carrara, I think, which was also masterfully crafted with beautiful topology and foresight. The CCMP threads are filled with the entire process. Not just Mike, either... though he has been a driving force. This is the real stuff from a real pro - and I feel very fortunate to be present in these forums during such an incredible period!

    Mike, I am incredibly interested in seeing your new method(s), and anything else you might wish to teach!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • paulg625paulg625 Posts: 4
    edited December 1969

    Really great work Mike.

    You are a leap and bound ahead of me in Carrara animaton. I would say where you are you should look at general work on walk cycles so you can add the natural mechanics to it such as leaning and lowering you character as he puts weight from one leg to the other. ( I am new to Carrara but use to work with Studio max and read a book on animating walk cycles a few years back. The walk gestures were taught by an animator from disney. He showed the natural tendency to bend the knee and the body to drop as you put your weight on it.

    Just a suggestion I know where you are and how much you want it to look natural.

  • Rich GellesRich Gelles Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Have to say Mike is one of the more skilled Carrarist going. Not only did he make the model but rigged it and now animating it. Pretty cool indeed. And sure Mile-- any tutorials you want to share would be welcomed by all who have any dreams with animation in Carrara.

    Dartanbeck---I am a big Mmoir fan too as you can see.

    Smiles.

    Rich

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Well, I haven't released a product at Daz in a long time so I was thinking of creating some different walk cycles for the Genesis figure to use in Carrara, I could include a video tutorial on how to create the walk cycle with the product or as a separate product or as just a youtube video. I haven't decided yet . Thanks for the compliments guys.

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    mmoir said:
    Well, I haven't released a product at Daz in a long time so I was thinking of creating some different walk cycles for the Genesis figure to use in Carrara, I could include a video tutorial on how to create the walk cycle with the product or as a separate product or as just a youtube video. I haven't decided yet . Thanks for the compliments guys.

    I picked up some more of your products over the last 2 days during the sale that I'd been wanting since forever, great stuff!

  • Rich GellesRich Gelles Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Not sure if you ever got to sign in mmoir ---over at

    http://bond3d.wix.com/carrarators

    There are a few more animations posted in the forums now which is good to see. And I already am feeling motivated to start getting serious about animating again with Carrara. It can get contageous .
    Hope to see you over there mmoir.

    smiles

    Rich

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited December 1969

    Rich,
    Yes, I signed up. You have to sign up twice, the forum sign up was the one I didn't finish although I couldn't create a thread in the proper place. I created the animation challenge in the Competition/Introduction thread.
    Mike


    Rich Gelles said:
    Not sure if you ever got to sign in mmoir ---over at

    http://bond3d.wix.com/carrarators

    There are a few more animations posted in the forums now which is good to see. And I already am feeling motivated to start getting serious about animating again with Carrara. It can get contageous .
    Hope to see you over there mmoir.

    smiles

    Rich

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    Animating sure can be a lot of fun to do. I love it. In watching through your videos again, I really like watching the subtle differences in which you use in Carrara than what I am used to - like your nudging and keyboard commands. It's just cool watching you work. At the end of the final video, I also enjoy how you mention different possibilities available to us by using NLA clips. I've never actually created an animation from directly within a clip before. I usually make my animation, and then make a clip out of it - so this is really fun.

    Just a fun tidbit I'd like to add, stiffness can also be removed by adding subtle (as well as not-so-subtle) rotations or bends in the abdomen, chest neck and head. So you're actually trying to keep the lineup straight by using opposing bends. It's amazing how a bit of these subtleties can really add life to what's going on.

    I agree. By the end of the final video, I am very pleased with the results. You've shown how just a few simple, but well thought out, poses can create a fine walk cycle. Bravo, this being one of your first steps into it, as you did a splendid job - a nice smooth cycle!

  • mmoirmmoir Posts: 821
    edited January 2014

    Hey guys,
    I am hoping to be a little more active with the animating in Carrara shortly so hopefully you will see me around more in the near future.

    Dartanbeck , yes curving the spine with opposing curves works wonders for a more natural look, as the "female" walk cycle in the first post of this thread does this opposing curved spine.
    I am glad you are finding those tuts useful.

    Post edited by mmoir on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,543
    edited December 1969

    I have used very similar methods in making walk cycles, too. I just enjoy watching your perspective. My methods would seem very chaotic, I think, if you'd see me do it in a video like that! LOL
    But even though I wasn't truly looking to learn, I was looking at the series as something to recommend to others, wanting to get into animating - and I truly have (above) recommended it, and will in the future. It's excellent, going through the whole process, sharing your thoughts, reminding of what keyboard shortcuts you're nudging with, etc., and just explaining, very well, why and how you're doing what you're doing. Very nice series!

    It'll be good to see you back here and active again! Especially if you grant us more cool scenes for Carrara we can buy! Well, and animation sets, too... of course! :)

  • GrokDDGrokDD Posts: 59
    edited January 2014

    A couple of examples of what a sequenced png run cycle could look like in a potential game.
    Both are flash .swf files, so I don't think cell phones or ipads can view them,


    http://runcycles.grokdd.com/CallumRun.swf

    http://runcycles.grokdd.com/ValRun.swf

    Click on the green arrows to rotate the figures.
    One could possibly make sprite sheets too, but I haven't learned those yet.

    Val Stalker I used Poser's Walk Animator, then tweeked the keyframs in Carrara.

    Callum,, I think was from some sampler pack

    I'll have to practice more.

    Post edited by GrokDD on
  • fis7157fis7157 Posts: 26
    edited December 1969

    CARRARA QUESTION... I'm using NLA walk cycles IM TRYING TO GET MY CHARACTER TO CONTINUE WALKING FORWARD when i loop the walk cycle it returns to the original staring point before starting the walk over and if i add a continuation clip to follow threw the motion it goes back to starting point before the next NLA clip.. My character is is doing the Micheal Jackson moon walk.. lol Help Plzzz..

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited April 2014

    Its often the keyframes of the hip make displacement, erase them and creates new a path for the whole character apart from the NLA.

    PS: if he don't want to move, select the top of the tree of the character and group it...

    Post edited by DUDU on
  • fis7157fis7157 Posts: 26
    edited December 1969

    Thanks deleting the hip track keeps the character animation from sliding back doing a funny moon walk BUT THE RIGHT LEG IS DOING A FUNNY KICK AND MY CHARACTER LOOKS WOBBLY PLZ HELP.. CARRARA CAN DO ALL THESE THING BUT A SIMPLE WALK IS SO DIFFICULT SMH..

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited April 2014

    HI :)

    When you load in an animation as Key-frames,.. then you convert that to an NLA clip,. there's a Dialogue panel that pops up, which has several options on it. (see pic)

    You need to select a "Bone", so that Carrara can calculate how the animation will loop.

    Once you've loaded that NLA clip into the time-line,.. You need to set the "Loop" option in the NLA panel,. then click and drag, to stretch out the NLA clip in the time-line, for as many loops as you want

    you should see Loop point indicators to mark the end/start of each cycle.

    Pic 2


    Hope it helps :)

    NLA_loop_2.jpg
    1671 x 994 - 299K
    NLA_loop_setup.jpg
    1422 x 748 - 198K
    Post edited by 3DAGE on
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