How do I make bigfoot walk?

[RASH]

Can I make this walk?

My poor anim talents can only make it skate.
(click on the pic for a clip)

[nobudget]

Moho can, don't know about you

I'd say start with the help file, part 3.4 Character setup. That example fits your particular character very well. It's a matter of placing the bones correctly and keeping the limbs apart so the bones won't interfere with each other.

Good luck,

Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com

[RASH]

I'd say start with the help file, part 3.4 Character setup. That example fits your particular character very well. It's a matter of placing the bones correctly and keeping the limbs apart so the bones won't interfere with each other.

Thanks for that reminder. I tried it, but it didn't work immediately. It seems that bitmaps don't show in union skinning other than as rectangles. So I had to hand trace all my character's bitmap body parts (which was a lot of work, even though I could duplicate the extremities' left version to a right version with layer duplication).

Then it showed (after many faillures) that a normal walking action wasn't possible, because my character's legs seem to be too short. Using locked bones wasn't possible either, because the large shoes deformed too much.

I only got him to do a kind of hop-while-you-walking. Click on the pic below to see what I mean (60 Kb QT movie).

The Moho file can be downloaded here.

Does this mean my character's legs need to have a certain minimum length, in relation to the length of the shoes? Or am I doing something wrong here?

[nobudget]

Let's put it this way: Have you ever tried walking with shoes like that? You could give the shoes two bones, toes can bend and so can most shoes. That will make some difference. But since you are Dutch you are probably used to wooden shoes And you could make it more a "hopping" motion, that will give the legs and feet more time to readjust and would be more realistic, well as realistic as it can get...

Reindert.
www.nobudgetvideo.com

PS. Happy Queens' Day!

[RASH]

Let's put it this way: Have you ever tried walking with shoes like that?

LOL No, I haven't.

Well, this project started off as a joke. In cartoon animation things are often exaggerated, so I thought, why not do a bit more and make really, really big shoes. But now I'm this far, I'd like to finish it.

And you could make it more a "hopping" motion

That is a good idea. Hopping like a kangaroo would make things a lot easier, so that's the first thing I'll try. Next, I could try to create an one-legged hopping motion, and finally, hopping on two legs, one after another (a bit like Bug Bunny does when he's in a good mood). Of course, the movement of the arms and legs will be quite different in each case.

[Toontoonz]

http://www.crumbmuseum.com/kot.gif

Maybe you are thinking too technical and "real" and not "cartoonie" enough?

Do the feet have stay stiff? - Why can´t they bend in the middle?
Do the legs have to stay a fixed, static length? Why can´t they stretch and contract as he walks?
Does he have to walk?- Maybe the shoes have rockets in them and he flys around? Or maybe wheels come out from the bottom or ....

The basic question to me would be when developing a cartoon character is why does this character have or need big feet? How does it fit into the character´s personality and/or cartoon story line? If he can´t walk in the big feet, maybe he needs to have a name like "Shufflin´Sam" or some other cartoon name.

Anything is possible in cartoons - think outside the box.

[RASH]

Thanks for that advice, I really needed that!

You're right, I should ask myself questions. Just making a design move isn't enough. Next time I should spend more time in preparation. Just drawing something and then trying to animate it is not the right way, it seems.

Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun doing it.

Thanks again for your kind advice.

[Toontoonz]

And when creating a character one has to take into consideration many things; such as:
-My character will be driving a car - or other activitiy- (how do I get those big feet in there?)
-Will those big feet (or other characteristic) take up too much space in the frame, blocking out other characters?
- How can I place other characters up close to him with his feet so big?
- How does the character look compared to the other characters? This guy has big feet, should the other(s) have a big head or big hair or ???
-What if everyone has big feet? - big problems?
- When all the characters in the cartoon are together on stage, do they all fit? Is one way too tall and the other way too short? Too wide or too narrow?
- How do the big feet (or other characteristic) help the cartoon work? Or does it cause too many problems?
- Is the characteristic detracting from the cartoon?

One can make up lots of excercises of creating strange characteristics and try to animate them just to show one can´t do it real good - a man with arms 20 feet long, or a nose as big as a house, or a woman with one giant, car-sized tooth, a boy with 400 legs trying to run...but their are probably better things to spend one´s time trying to experiment with in Moho.

[RASH]

One can make up lots of excercises of creating strange characteristics and try to animate them just to show one can´t do it real good - a man with arms 20 feet long, or a nose as big as a house, or a woman with one giant, car-sized tooth, a boy with 400 legs trying to run...but their are probably better things to spend one´s time trying to experiment with in Moho.

I've got the picture Don't rub it in too much, please.