Character critique

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:24 pm

Thanks guys. I'm glad I'm finally hitting the right note. Thanks for all the help. I couldn't have done this without the valuable input here. I'll keep posting progress (hopefully all the way through to some animation).

tonym · Post by **tonym** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:52 pm

synthsin75 wrote:I'll keep posting progress (hopefully all the way through to some animation).

An...i...ma...tion!
An...i...ma...tion!
An...i...ma...tion!

I like the tanned/untanned skin best in this latest version.

Really, the white shirt wasn't working? It looks to me like the gray shirt is closer in value to the skin than the white shirt was.

Lookin' good. sir.

Oh. One last thing. I feel wicked for having suggested more shadows in my previous post. Imagining you animating all those shadows now fills me with vicarious dread.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:44 pm

Thanks Tony. I'm not too worried about the complex shading. I've got a few tricks to handle animating those.

DK · Post by DK » Sat Jun 28, 2008 5:41 am

I've been watching this thread for a while now and would just like to say that I quite liked the original character you did synthsin75 mainly because it was not a parrot copy of anyone elses style. I would encourage you to develop your own style but also take all the ideas offered under consideration as they all have great merit.

Cheers
D.K

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:51 pm

Got her rigged, and here's a quick animation. I still need to add the shading back in though.

Thanks DK. I kind of figured I had lost some uniqueness in the style, but I needed to get the basic design flaws worked out. Now that I have a better idea of composition in AS, I can go back toward my natural style.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:53 pm

It is a quick animation but, don't you feel that she walks oddly? I believe that one leg is longer than the other. Something is strange in her walk.

I like her anyway

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:27 pm

Well I fixed it a little, but I'm afraid it doesn't show so well in the gif. I'm having to cut frames to host it. The fix did add some bounce though.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:05 am

What I see strange is that her body goes up and down non symmetrically with the walk cycle. I mean, in a complete walk cycle the body should go up and down two times and both would be the same amount. It seems that her left leg is longer than the right one and the vertical movements are not equal.

tonym · Post by **tonym** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:44 am

Whoa, a walk cycle! Brave man. I thought you might start with something easy, like showing her licking her lips. Heh.

At first glance, cool walk cycle!

After scrutiny: I think her chest moved more realistically in the first version.

Also, it looks like she bounces more with one foot than with the other, so there is a slight limping quality to her gait.

I'm now covering the bottom of her body with my hand and imagining her with a pegleg and DANG if that isn't a sweet pegleg walk cycle. I think it's a sign. She needs a pegleg.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 6:21 am

More hip Synth, give her some hip!

BTW what gif compression are you using, it's all spotty?

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 6:49 am

Thanks chucky! I always forget the hips, but this isn't a serious effort yet.

Gif compression?

I'm using MS Gif Animator. Probably crap, but free. If anyone has any free gif maker suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:07 am

There's a free one that's pretty damn good called Beneton Movie GIF, it's not as good as image ready (for blistering speed of import/ export procedures) by a long shot but it will save a decent gif , it has effects (if you want them) and other editing features and will save out as other movie formats.

http://software.benetonfilms.com/

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:13 am

Thanks chucky, the screen shots look way better than what I'm using.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:27 am

Well Beneton won't work for my purposes. But I replaced the last gif with one from another program. Let me know if that's any better. Looks like it chokes on the fast motion.

Guess there's no free lunch.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:12 am

How are you rendering from anime? I tested it before suggesting it.
I used Png's single frames, you just have to careful to fill out all the import boxes before it will import the files
.