Flea Run

AmigaMan · Post by **AmigaMan** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:25 pm

This is a little animation I did using my Flea character. The creation of the character for animation is described in a tutorial that should be up on the Smith Micro website next week sometime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEz9Fm9CJJE

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:21 pm

Ah! Your flea animation is amazing! Nice use of animation principles! And of course, I'm interested in the technical side as well! Did you do that with actions? I remember that you had that a 360 degree turn around of the flea character before.

AmigaMan · Post by **AmigaMan** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:05 pm

Thanks Iwaxana. No, I didn't use actions. I had the turnaround views you remember seeing in a switch layer. I animated the switch layer in a circular motion, scaling it as it moved back, then switched on the required character position at each point in the circle. It was then just a matter of animating through to the next switch. If that makes sense?

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:38 pm

Interesting. I don't see how you made the transitions between switches so smooth. Are you using interpolation? How many different angles does the character have? And does each switch have its own fully rigged character or are the vectors the only thing switching?

I want to make a walk cycle that transitions from walking toward the camera to walking along side the camera sideways. But the only method I've thought of is to do the transition frame by frame.

AmigaMan · Post by **AmigaMan** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:20 pm

There's no interpolation. The character has 8 angles. Well, 5 and the rest being flipped versions to complete the full turnaround. Yes, each switch is a fully rigged character. It probably looks smooth as it's switching as the character jumps which is the fastest part of the movement. I don't know how well it would work for your walk. I would probably attempt to do it as I have here but, in effect, hand interpolate from one view to the next between switches?

Uolter · Post by **Uolter** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 2:19 pm

Great animation! Can I ask you about the shadow? I would make something like that for my project but I don't know how to make it follow the character movements in a "save-time" way...

AmigaMan · Post by **AmigaMan** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 6:16 pm

Thanks Volter. The shadow is as simple as could be. An oval. I keyed it twice at each point the character was stationary (when it's foot touched the ground to the frame before it left the ground) and then once at each point when the character was in the air midway between 'jumps'. I also scaled it to make the character appear to be leaving the ground and obviously when the character was further away. That was it..... about 10 or so keys in all.

Uolter · Post by **Uolter** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 9:06 pm

Thank you! Yes, It's very simple, sometimes I lost myself in twisted thoughts...

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:33 am

Amigaman--I see, it must be the 8 different angles and the quick transitions. Thanks for explaining how you did this. It's really very nice! :D

Uolter · Post by **Uolter** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:41 pm

CHECKED NOW CONTENT PARADISE YOUTUBE CHANNEL, AND FOUND THE TUTORIAL! HERE'S THE LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU1o3qmFuX0

THE DOWNLOAD LINK IS IN THE DETAILS!

THANKS DALE!