Walk Cycle Appears Not to Work for Face/Head

[directorG1985]

Hello,

I'm working on some tests animating a personified penny. Everything but the face and top of the head seem willing to walk at a moment's key press, in either direction, instead of altogether. Causes major warping eventually:

PennyPincherTest20 2017 05 21 4KAE - YouTube

Noticed a Khain user may have had similar issues recently. I'm currently trying to link skeletally to the waist/hips at the base of the penny head. Considering there's no "body" beyond the legs/shoes, any ideas? Thanks for any suggestions!

Sincerely,

[personal info removed by moderator in accordance with forum rules]

[oksamurai]

Hard to say without seeing the puppet structure but some guesses -

1. Does the main puppet group and any views (if applicable) have a +/crown?

2. Even if there isn't a body, have you still added all the appropriate tags? See Acquavella at http://okaysamurai.com/puppets/ for an example of a body-less walking character.

3. This is a front / 3/4 view style character, and Walk is currently optimized for side views. It's possible that because the legs and arms are not responding properly because of this.

4. There's a draggable or fixed tag/handle somewhere on the character holding the character back.

In short I'd check out other walk examples like Maddie, Walkbot, Acquavella & Evans and try to emulate that structure. If the issue continues feel free to share your .puppet file (File > Export > Puppet) via a shared link on Google Drive, Dropbox, or Creative Cloud to take a closer look.

[directorG1985]

Hi OkSamurai,

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll send a screenshot and see if I get better motion with another follow-up in the next week or so. Here are my responses to the following:

1. Yes, the main puppet group (Wilk -- I'm building off the Wilk puppet for this test) has a crown. See screenshot below. A few others have crowns, too, such as pupils and shoes. I also see that in certain views, facial features may or may not have a crown applied -- i.e. right/left eye etc. have no crown applied for frontal but have a crown in the left quarter. Should become universal for no crown, may solve the issue outright.

2. I've applied a good number of body tags, originating my design from the Wilk puppet. This version removes the abdomen (this test is Scene Wilk 11), and its the first to start the walk cycle.

3. Correct, there are multiple body views allotted here. Good to know I should try only profile view during walk cycle for best optimization. My ultimate goal shot-by-shot, there will be certain shots with more frontal static characters, and if they're walking, likely more profile views if this works well.

4. Draggables/fixed points -- I think the feet/legs and hands/arms were likely the only spots with such assignments in this test. Could that cause the facial features to stay put...?

Thanks for suggesting several other examples, particularly Acquavella, I'll be sure to give them a comparison. I'll send you a Google Drive or Dropbox version of my puppet if I'm still having issues in about a week. Thanks again for your help!

Regards,

Garett

[oksamurai]

Thanks for the info. One thing I immediately noticed is that the arms and legs don't seem to be independent, stapled parts. If you look at a lot of the example characters, a) the limb groups are independent (have a + or crown) and b) are stapled to the body (the staple tool was used to attach them to their parent group). That could help.

Yes, draggables on a walking character - at least in the view that's meant for walking - can cause issues and keep stuff pinned down that you don't want. In general, anything you want to move with walking (limbs) should be independent and free to let the walk behavior swing them however it can.

Hope the examples help!

[samsonuik]

I had the same problem.

The solution for this is you need to add all of the behaviours to each individual heads manually for each facing direction.  I got mine to work with head-turning while walking and full eye and mouth movements.

Need to add:

Head turner

Face

Eye gaze

to each head layer for each profile.

Took forever to figure out.