cartoon dinosaurs

[willf]

Here's a few new clips from my WIP cartoon "The T Stands For Justice", the production of which sometimes seems to prove that Xeno's paradox is more than an abstraction.

Triceratops charges



Another cute dino yelling "Hooray!"



and a second one with her getting an idea.

[Danimal]

I liked them all and they really look great! The Triceratops seemed to suffer a bit from the dreaded "sliding" as it bounded along, but other than that these look really good.

[willf]

Dammit. You're right about the sliding.

I know Selgin has a walk ruler but I could never figure out how he used it. There was also a thing he did where he got all the onion-skins of the contact keyframes to overlap, so that the character advanced only when the feet were off the ground, but I am uncertain as to whether you need to use his remap technique first in order to do that.

[Víctor Paredes]

I know Selgin has a walk ruler but I could never figure out how he used it. There was also a thing he did where he got all the onion-skins of the contact keyframes to overlap, so that the character advanced only when the feet were off the ground, but I am uncertain as to whether you need to use his remap technique first in order to do that.

After version 10, the walk ruler is not necessary anymore (the "tail bone" I used for my rigs is also obsolete). That's a good new. I want to post about that, but I'm very busy this days.
I like your characters and animations, I just think you should adjust the pose of tyrannosaur to get a better balance, right now he should fall back:

(it's not perfect, but a fast photoshop to get the idea)

[willf]

Ahh, I see what you mean. Thanks for the reply, I'll try it.

Also, now that I see it, when she comes to an abrupt halt, the little t-rex should lean forward and then snap backward a bit more.

[lwaxana]

Nice ones! The triceratops run could use a little more sense of weight. Fixing the sliding feet will help, and I think adding some squash and stretch could also help.

[willf]

Thanks for your reply.

In your opinion, what's the best way to fix sliding walk cycles? Is it a timing thing?

One thing I'm going to try is to keep the big guy's horizontal layer translation restricted to just those frames where he's in the air, and try to keep him from moving too much on the frames where his feet are in contact with the ground. But maybe there's a better way.

[lwaxana]

Willf, it sounds like you have created a run cycle in place (the ground is moving) and then you are translating that to move the character across the screen? If so, others would be able to answer the question much better than I could, as I'm not the most savvy with the software.

The way I would do it is to animate the run in context so that the ground is stationary and the character is moving, so that you are controlling how much the body moves across horizontally for each frame (like this: http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_not ... ram_01.jpg). Because as you said, it shouldn't be moving across the screen when the feet are planted on the ground. Does that make sense?

[edited for clarity]

[lwaxana]

oh wait, you could just manually key the horizontal translation. You could use linear interpolation for the in the air part and step interpolation to more closely control the part where the feet are planted.

[willf]

Lwuxanna, that's a good idea. That plus onion skinning might do it.


The alternative, as you say, is to animate it so that tricero is the one moving and not the background. I hope to at least minimize the slippage and see what it looks using your suggestions before I try it that way, though. Thanks.

[drichird]

I like your cartoon dinosaurs, and your artistic style. I especially liked the she-Rex and how well you made her facial expressions and little arm movements convery the "Hooray" and "I got it!", yes yes, nicely done. Good work on her eyes, she is a very cute dinosaur and anybody who can make a dinosaur cute deserves kudos. You brought back memories of when I watched "Land Before Time" with my kids, hope to see more and maybe some full episodes? Don't let Zeno's paradox stand in your way... I know it's hard work and sometimes feels like all we do is keep finishing only half of whatever is left, then half of that, then half of that, .... !!!!