Not Your Typical Walk Cycle

Candall · Wed 05/09/2007 18:28:02

Hiya. I'm working on a special project at the moment that calls for a pregnant character. Here you can see that I've done some work toward a walk cycle, but it's such an unusual animation that I'm afraid I might have overlooked something in my quest for a sort of a brisk waddle.

Please keep in mind that this is only an animation test... I'm aware of all of the issues with jaggies and facial oddness and whatnot. I just want to make sure the movements are okay before I begin the arduous detail work.

Oliwerko · Wed 05/09/2007 18:47:50

I like the character, the proportions seems alright to me, but:

If I was making a pregnant char, I would try to make her belly swing "from left to right", not "up and down" like yours. I hope you get what I mean. I think she pulls the sides of her belly too much upwards.

I would imagine that she's trying to "push" the left side forward, then the right side and left side ahain.... That's how I see it when I see a pregnant woman.

Not sure if I'm correct though.

BOYD1981 · Wed 05/09/2007 18:52:05

my sister is currently pregnant and she walks nothing like that, you might want to do a bit more research into how pregnant women walk, which is not very quickly (all that bouncing about wouldn't be that good for the baby) and kinda leaning back.
The Sims 2 has a pretty good example of how pregnant women walk.
also, she looks more fat than pregnant as there's no over hang on the belly, although i think that is mostly down to the shortness of the character.

markbilly · Fri 07/09/2007 18:21:25

Your baby appears to be living half behind the womb and half in front of it. A baby sticks out the front, a lot lot different to someone being fat, which is what it looks like now.

Anyway, good animation regardless.

radiowaves · Sat 08/09/2007 00:14:12

She seems fat because right now the baby is growing inside her spine... Try making a smaller butt.

Stupot · Sat 08/09/2007 07:09:20

When my sister was pregnant she didn't walk at all.... she got Kev to do everything while she watched Jeremy Kyle and ate ham sandwiches.

Scraseface · Sun 09/09/2007 13:06:36

Quote from: Stupot on Sat 08/09/2007 07:09:20
When my sister was pregnant she didn't walk at all.... she got Kev to do everything while she watched Jeremy Kyle and ate ham sandwiches.

My sister does that too, except she's never been pregnant in her entire life...

Akatosh · Sun 09/09/2007 13:27:40

Poor Kev.

Illustrious · Sun 09/09/2007 15:34:10

I love your walk cycle, it has plenty of charactor.
You may not want the most realistic 'pregnant woman' walk but if you do, try and find material on it or observe when you see a pregnant woman in public.
Maybe a less prominant wobble may help, and I know that there would probably be more leaning towards the back perhaps.
If it would be fitting with the charactor, try placing her hand above the lump on her belly as if whe was touching her stomach much as a pregnant woman would (if you can picture the type of thing I mean).

The side view only looks off-putting (to me) because the feet are so large.

I will definately update my reply to try and help you further, once I've had a look into it myself.

Candall · Sun 09/09/2007 16:41:52

Thanks, everybody. I've made a few changes here and there... mostly, I toned the wobble down. Looking at it so many times made me realize that it was really just way too much. Obviously, I've also started the shading process.

Um... ignore the fact that the hands aren't done yet. I always have the devil with animating hands, so I'm leaving those for last as to not get caught up with 'em.

Afflict · Mon 10/09/2007 18:12:18

I like it. Well done!

voh · Tue 11/09/2007 15:46:10

She still looks fat rather than pregnant to me. Just mentioning that since I have no idea how to fix it, but yeah..

Oliwerko · Tue 11/09/2007 16:07:20

Maybe it's in the fat butt. It seems that she has not only big belly, but also her butt.

Candall · Tue 11/09/2007 22:29:13

Quote from: voh on Tue 11/09/2007 15:46:10
She still looks fat rather than pregnant to me.

Yeah, I think that's just gonna be a look. She doesn't have real human perspective, so I decided to make her sort of matryoska-shaped.

Anym · Tue 11/09/2007 23:25:34

I think she looks fat rather than pregnant, because pregnant women mostly "bulge" (excuse my poor choice of words) only to the front, rather than to the sides (and back) like your sprite does. There as some front/side pictures about halfway down on http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pregnancy (contains nudity, probably NSFW) which might be useful as a reference.

Also, her ponytail swings a bit too vigorously. I do like her face though.

Did you use some sort of 3D modeler for the initial version?

lo_res_man · Wed 12/09/2007 01:23:40

look at the way the lower back arches forward, how would you balance that? as well remember, the rest of the body isn't affected the same way by pregnancy, and that a bABY ( or fetus for ye PC nuts) doesn't jiggle the same way as fat, i thinks its harder less cushy

Candall · Wed 12/09/2007 19:20:48

It's true that the pregnancy itself only causes bulging in the front, but don't assume that the girl is a penthouse model otherwise. A lot of women put on "baby fat," as I'm lead to believe, in part because of the strange and bizarre cravings they develop.

Anym: The ponytail may be a bit too much, but I've grown fond of it

And you're right. I'm pixeling over a 3D mockup.

lo_res_man: I've already corrected the arching issue in my latest set of renders, so you can expect more leaning in the pixeled version of the side view. As far as the jiggle-factor, actually, if you look closely, there really isn't any jiggling going on, though there might ought to be in presense of the aforementioned "baby fat." I think it looks like it's jiggling because her hip movement is so exaggerated.