Mulefa [Hex2+C6Pro]

[3webjam]

Looks very good to me - the walk is very natural ( for such an unknown and unnatural creature...), and so is the 'bounce'. Very impressive!

Jacqueline

[EricD]

A little update:

I finalized the walk loop: mulefa_walkloop_3g.mov

Then I decided to move to the next step: steering. To get both right and left turn, I made it follow a figure 8 shaped track. Because the zalif wobbles from side to side and up and down at every step, it's very hard to keep the wheels steady.

At first, I tried to make the wheels follow the center track (black on the attached image), and there was a lot of skidding. Then I realized that the front wheel, being so far forward, it would follow a wider arc than the body (it now follows the green line, the feet follow the red lines). There's still a bit of skid with the rear wheel. I'm trying to figure out what arc it would logically follow.

Here's the latest version: mulefa_walk8loop_2f.mov

Eric

[LUKO]

Such a strange animal ... Good job ...

[-ash-]

Hey good job! This character is not easy - I can tell

[Couerl]

That's a lot of work, good job.

[EricD]

Originally Posted by Couerl

That's a lot of work, good job.

Yes, I started almost 3 months ago, although I couldn't touch it for at least a month. I'm only working on it during my spare time.

I originally just planned to do the model. Then I decided to try a walk cycle and finally a long walk with steering. The latter being by far the hardest. Once I can get the wheel motion smooth enough, I'll make a nice skylight render, then move to the next project.

I don't think Carrara is the right tool for animating this type of character, or maybe my approach was wrong. I'd like to have the parent-child relationship of the leg-wheel affect the position but not the orientation, or be able to move the wheels independently and let the front and rear legs fall into position. Will the track modifier work on a bone?

Eric

[EricD]

Originally Posted by EricD

Will the track modifier work on a bone?

Sometimes it helps talking things out. After my last post, I did a quick test: arm_tracking.mov
The square "wheel" has a spin modifier. The last bone of the arm has a track modifier to follow the wheel in XYZ.

This settles it. I'm pulling the wheels off the skeleton and using a track modifier instead!

Eric

[EricD]

Here's the latest. The wheels are separated from the skeleton. I added a target helper object to each wheel and each claw, and added a modifier to make the claw helper track the wheel helper. Then a few adjustments because IK made some strange leg positions. But all in all a lot easier than the old method.

http://www.ericdubois.com/3dsamples/mulefa/mulefa_walk8loop_3c.mov

Eric

[rickei]

looks great... now put some fur on the poor thing, he looks cold

[EricD]

They don't have fur. They have hide!

The draft render isn't great, but it's a lot faster. This animation renders in 8 minutes in draft and I calculated it'll be between 30-40 hours with skylight. But once I get the motion right, I'll do the better render!

Eric

[EricD]

Here is the latest render with skylight (about 17h render time). I may work on the texture a little more, but this is as far as I'll take the animation. Time to move on to the next project!

mulefa_walk8loop_3d.mov

Eric