Momentum Animations (run and jump)

[Isaac Preston (wrayayrton)]

like em? I went for a slightly cartoony style, while still trying to maintain SparK's request that a hand be infront of the character

yes, the faster ones kick more towards the landing rather than coil, but that's because you don't lose momentum on a landing, and because instead of stopping the jump anim when the anim is over and the player hasn't touched the ground, I think we should play the fall anim

[Agt. Cross (SparK)]

is there a fall animation with both hands forward and no arm spinning?
you know... well... traceur like

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oh btw, is the dead sprint called that way because kids with a loose shoelace fall and die? hehehehe
I lost a tooth when I was small running too fast for my legs...

[Isaac Preston (wrayayrton)]

I have, to this day, never fallen no matter how fast I sprint. funny story but true.

also, when you're falling heights of 20 feet or more, no one just puts their arms out in front (I know from experience)

you windmill them to remain balanced in the air.

[Agt. Cross (SparK)]

Dec 19, 2010 10:01:57 GMT -5 Isaac Preston (wrayayrton) said:

I have, to this day, never fallen no matter how fast I sprint. funny story but true.

also, when you're falling heights of 20 feet or more, no one just puts their arms out in front (I know from experience)

you windmill them to remain balanced in the air.

you mean unbalance in the air

legs coiled, arms half-stretched pointing in the landing angle
getting close to the ground you stretch your legs to a relaxed position,
if you don't roll your arms will be stretched down to help your landing if nescessary
if you will roll then you arms are a bit forward so your body leans forward, as soon as your feet touch the ground your body will spin forward, then you coild, place your hands on the ground to make sure the right part of your shoulder makes contact, coil your legs as fast as possible to finish the roll.

I can say by 4 year traceur experience.

[Isaac Preston (wrayayrton)]

while this is controlable to a point, a body's natural tendency is to extend once the height of the jump is reached. it also looks far more fluid in animation when the legs are a little spread, because it appears to counteract momentum to have legs together, and then separate in order to roll. just saying.

the arms windmill is not only for stylistic animation purposes, it is also for the simple reason that most other animations are animated with rapid arm movement, especially the running, and to stop the arms immediately on the jump would look bad.

I'd consider changing the fall if you'll send me a sideways shot video of you falling off of a ledge of considerable height twice, once rolling and once not. (15 feet or more, can land in grass). remember, we don't know if the player will roll or not, so we have to have an anim that looks good either way.

[Chia (God_HunD)]

know the old video game "Prince of persia" ?

The game had very good character animations, reason being that the animator had filmed his son try to do the various tasks the characters did, while wearing a black suit with white spots at all the natural pivot points of a body. When making the animation he just copied it

might not sound that much of an achivement, but he was the first animator to use that technique... iv always wanted footage of that kind to try analysing how a person run and see if it looks good thrown into Pivot

[Agt. Cross (SparK)]

Dec 22, 2010 16:57:24 GMT -5 Chia (God_HunD) said:

know the old video game "Prince of persia" ?

The game had very good character animations, reason being that the animator had filmed his son try to do the various tasks the characters did, while wearing a black suit with white spots at all the natural pivot points of a body. When making the animation he just copied it

might not sound that much of an achivement, but he was the first animator to use that technique... iv always wanted footage of that kind to try analysing how a person run and see if it looks good thrown into Pivot

can't agree more

it's like Dhalsim from Street Fighter, I understand it's a super power, but imagine prince of persia doing the same with his limbs! that would look awful.

[Isaac Preston (wrayayrton)]

you bring up good points, but to make movements seamlessly blend, and make them convincing, you'll always need to do more than just copy frame by frame. you need to MAKE kicks look powerful, strides look realistic, and jumps look big. film me yourself jumping as far as possible from the side, and I'll show you that it doesn't look good copied.

here's one of my better pivots: note that I didn't copy the movements, but it's still convincing, in that I created the illusion that the character was really springing off all of the boxes:

[Isaac Preston (wrayayrton)]

Broken ankle

ok. did the "techniqued" falling animation as well as the 50 foot drop without a roll animation