Thats a joke btw.

"actuallly this involves spiderman too, not batman. but im also taking a new approach, more comedy, less action. i dont see to many movies like that with more comedy than action" --SteveStarfyTV on an Indiana Jones meets Star Wars idea.

I'm pretty sure Nos uses a 7 in Frankenstein? But, I personnally use 6 and I think it looks fab.

::My Band [v5] | Twitter | Facebook | Youtube::

I'd like to see this alleged 12-frame walk.

5 frame isn't that bad. Only use it if you don't need to synch it with stuff. I used it in TV Addiction, which, of course, only had music.

That is brilliant! I tip my hat to you, sir!

It just makes so much sense, and is such a magnificent piece of lateral thinking, I'm jealous I didn't think of it myself.

Excuse me, I have to try this out now.

UPDATE:

...aaand here I'm back with the results (may still be processing at the time of writing). In a nutshell: it works. The good news, instead of 8 minifigs you can make do with 7. The bad news: that will still only give you a 4-frame walk. So for a 6-frame walk (imho needed for smooth 15 fps walking), you'd need 11 identical minifigs. That can be quite 'spensive, so I think it's only worthwhile if you need to animate long walks.

-PG

Last edited by papaguru (January 17, 2009 (03:44pm))

Papaguru,

By no strech of the imagination should this idea be credited with me. A host of old school animators used this "animation by substitution" trick. An actor would be made, a mold made of it and dozens of wax duplicated pulled from it. Each would get 'dressed' and positioned for various repetative tasks. When doing this type of animation, somekind of index had to be included with the actor. A metal pin in the foot or rear. Something that the animator could reference with calipers to make sure the actor was in the right place.

I was almost embarrased to see the Youtube test with my screen name all over it. Like I said, it was not my idea in the first place. But I will take credit for re-introducing the idea to a new generation of animators!

You are right about not needing the eight minifig. I purchased my actors in groups of 8 to have one minfig available for non walking scenes. Sometimes I would have even more when I needed stunt doubles for various tasks.

I animated at 15 FPS. The standard eight position walk cycle seemed about the right speed for what I was doing. At $3 a minifig, it would not be that expensive to by a dozen or more for the serious hobbist. I invested a few thousand in cameras, software, and other equipment. $50 in minifig to keep my project on schedule (I had a firm schedule from my "client") was a small price to pay.

I am not sure what you mean by only getting a four frame walk cycle. There are 7 unique positions but admititly half of them are mirror images of the others. Is that what you mean?

FIB12345: Having fun with your signature? <grin>

Last edited by FLL-Freak (January 17, 2009 (07:23pm))

Well, I learned from you, hence your name went into the test. Credit be given where credit is due.

AAAAAaaarrghh!!! I just noticed, I misspelled your name on every occasion! So sorry! [/blush]
UPDATE: Corrected. Somewhat.

True, I only considered the walking. Having a spare fig (or multiple) available for other scenes can indeed be convenient.

Well, yes. What's the right speed is indeed firstly dependent on what you're doing, and secondly on the animator's opinion. In general though, the eight postion cycle results in almost 4 steps per second (@15FPS), which (imho) feels too much like Laurel and Hardy's way of filming high speed pursuits. A twelve postition cycle gives 2,5 steps per second (@15FPS). Still the double of normal human walk, but to me, it feels natural for a minifig.

'Till now, I've spend EUR 20 on brickfilming, IN TOTAL! (One cheap-ass webcam, one legoset for parts). All the rest I had lying around (those 1982 firemen I used for the test, are vintage, childhood memories). Perhaps I should arrange a buget meeting with the mrs.

Yes. Or at least, that's how I understood walks to be described here on the forum and on brickhelp. The number of a n-frame walk refers to the number of frames used for one step. A cycle consists of two steps.

-PG

Last edited by papaguru (January 18, 2009 (05:51am))