Cycle Cycle Cycles

I've started working on a run cycle, So I can have a fresh mind whenever I look at my different scenes, I've messed around with alot of timing. I have decided to go with the traditional run cycle and just edit the poses slightly to match my running style.

I have used this as my base reference for my animation.

And here's what I have for the timing so far, It's maybe a little too fast because It's just on 1's, but I changed the timing to 2's and it looked to slow, so I think if I change the first 3 poses to 2's and the rest 1's it might make it look more natural and not too fast.




I'm working on the stumble at the moment, and just trying to figure out how to do it, I have this so far, the timing isn't right it needs to be alot faster. It doesn't look right because the run is very fast and then the stumble part is very slow so it's not consistant.




More work on the skid, I think its starting to look alot better, I think the last pose needs to be slowed down by a few more frames.




I've been working on the beginning part of this scene, where the character is standing at the door, taking in the environment, and thinking of his next step. I wanted him to look like he was psyching himself up to run, so I added in a small subtle arm shrug. Here's my work in progress so far...



I know this is only two steps, but I think I have worked out the timing for my run cycle, the first 4 poses are all on 2's then the last 3 poses of the step are on 1's. I think the timing looks better and not incredibly fast like the last cycle.




The run cycle so far, obviously its still in the stepped out stage, but I think it's starting to look better, I changed the arms because they looked very unnatural, like robot arms.




I actually watched this playblast a fair few times and decided it was way too slow and felt the speed just increase while he's running so I kept the first 18 frames on 2's. I then put the rest of the poses on 1's so it looks like he speeds up as he's getting closer to end of the roof, which I feel happens when you run, you need to build up your speed. Heres a playblast of my current progress so far.



Since I have the basic steps down of the run I have been working on the skid at the end of the run, when he realises he's not ready to jump across to the other roof, and comes to a skidding stop, here is my progress so far of the skid.



I think it's starting to look better, maybe a little less arm flailing, I still want some arm movement so it's like he's out of control and can't stop himself from running.




I scrapped my last animation, of the skid, because it was not very realistic, the gravity wasn't correct, because his body was too far over the end of the roof. I watched the skid from kick-ass again, frame by frame and drew out all the poses, below.

They really helped me pose the character, and help me stick to making it look realistic and not to over the top, I'm still working with the timing a bit, but I think it looks good with the poses, here is a playblast of my current progress below.

Animating

I'm justing testing out to see if the run cycle would work here's some progress so far.




More stepped out, I think the timing is right for the run, because I want it to be quite fast, I've only really animated the legs, and the hips just to work out the speed.




I have been looking at the reference videos really closely and copying out the poses and posing my character the same way, here's an example of that below.

Work in Progress so far from just using the poses to animate.



I am animating the running part between the stairs and can't get the timing quite right, I think adding in 1 or 2 more frames to each step will make it the right speed. The video below is to show the timing I have at the moment.



I changed the curves to splined and it looks a little smoother and not too fast, so I may not have to change the timing and go straight on to animating the arms.



A bit more progress, of the running, below, a few things need to fixed and added, such as, tweaking the feet, rotating the back and positioning the head.



And this is just putting some steps into what the girl will be doing, so this is her getting a shock from the guy running at some speed right at her. I think I may slow down the "shock" well give it some anticipation before she jumps a little.




Going through lots of variations of the fall, I have decided to go with this one below, because it's subtle and it goes with the character not being able to stop, but still gesturing that he is very sorry.

Steps

I have been watching my reference videos very carefully, and I am planning out the steps for the run cycle, I have just drawn these 12 steps from the first reference video.

When the person seems to get up a few steps, he starts to step up, two steps at a time.

Front View

Below are some quick drawings of the front of  the body, I drew them again from watching the referencing videos to see how the arms would move and the feet.

Free Rigged Characters

I am using Free rig characters for my animation, just to save time and so I can do the best character animation possible. The rig I have chosen to use is "The Morpheus Rig" which you can download from this site, http://www.joshburton.com/projects/morpheus.asp

It's a customizable rig, so I should be able to produce characters that fit the characters descriptions I wrote earlier on. So far I have customized the Morpheus rig to fit the character, which is "Jason" (the runner)

I have given the character some simple clothing by selecting the faces on the rig, and applying materials to them with just basic lambert colours.

The Second Character

I have customized the second character to fit the Character profile of Leo "the chaser" and I did the same for the clothes as I did for the first one.

The Girl

I'm using the Eleven Rig, for the girl character, which you can download from this website http://elevenrig.blogspot.co.uk/p/changelogs.html It's a nice rig and very simple to use, and is customisable.

Here's what the girl character will look like.

UV Mapping & Texturing

I've been making my own UV's for each object in my scene, so the textures fit perfectly and look seamless, here is an example of the UV map for an archway on one of my buildings.

I've started doing a bit of texturing for my environment, I'm just starting with the small assets first, leaving the more complicated models till last. As you can see in the image below, I have textured a few items such as Roof Vents, Wood Planks, and some plant pots.

More items such as a wheely bin or "Dumpster" I made the textures myself by just using colours and the brush tool in Photoshop.

I've also been collecting some Tetxures, that I have photographed myself such as brick and pavements, and uploaded them to my Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/35740584@N02/

I've textured the base of this building using a photograph of some bricks, I took myself, then I painted over the bricks to make them different colours I think it fits perfectly on this building, and goes well with the new York style.

Progress on the texturing, two buildings textured so far, I have used my own textures so far, from the website that is mentioned above.

More Progress, almost finished 4 out of five buildings now 

Finally texturing the last building, still having only used textures that I have taken myself which you can find on my Flickr account.

I have one more Item to left to texture and that is the "Fire Escape" which is located on the top of the 1st building (orange brick one on the right)

I have finished texturing my first environment, as you can see from the pictures below, and I am now starting to texturing the other environment, which is the Stairwell, shouldn't take too long as there's not that many items.

Stairwell Environment

I haven't really got that many wood textures, So I did a search for some wood textures. I came across these two great sites, which I have downloaded some textures and started applying them to my environment. I have listed the websites just below.

http://www.textureking.com/index.php/category/wood/page/4

http://freestocktextures.com/texture/

They were very helpful and had a big variety of textures to pick from.

The Textures so far

I have almost finished with the texturing of this environment, as you can see from the Image below, all I have left to texture is the stairway landing and the wall, Which I will probably finish today.

I'm pretty much finished with the texturing of the stairwell, I'm not too sure about the walls but I can always come back later and change it, here's a quick render so far.

I changed the staircase to the left to match the reference video staircase, just for ease of matching the poses.

Door Swing

In my animation when the Fire Escape door swings open, I wanted it to look smooth, and swing from the characters forceful push. I have gained the smooth action by parenting a locator to the right side of the door, and key framing its rotations, as you can see below in my video.