- frame 19; I would straighten out his RT_Leg so it looks like the VanDam "Split Kick" roundhouse
- frame 29 - 34; have his LF_Foot "slide" instead of "stepping"

neat little test piece!

Last edited by ricekrispyninja (10-17-2011 9:12 pm)

nice!
how's that feel for you?

(I think you could straighten out frame 20 just a weee bit too!)
((and maybe just a weeee bit of "anticipation" before the "bow"?))

Last edited by ricekrispyninja (10-17-2011 9:12 pm)

looking REALLY NICE now!

- careful with his LF_Knee at frames 12 & 13; looks broken
- and the hyper-extension or IK madness at frame 15 & 16
- rotate the head back a bit more before he takes his bow... or not. 
(not too sure about that...)

Last edited by ricekrispyninja (10-18-2011 2:41 am)

TonyChau is right!

- frame 16; we should see the "top of his RT_Foot" and NOT the "side of his RT_Foot" there
(basically, the same rotation as in frame 18)

Good eye TonyChau!

Made another pass... feeling very good about this.

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Hey again Ryan!

Thanks for the kind words, been quite the ride here at AM and can't believe I'm close to the end   Gonna try to dissect this kick a little, but keep in mind I'm no pro - just a student myself and if anyone spots anything wrong please feel free to correct me.

Alright, let's jump into this shot here (major props for doing a short 48 frame test):

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First off at the risk of sounding like a broken record studying reference for this would help immensely.  A combination of things at the start lends to a lack of force to actually get him into the kick.  It looks like he starts coming down while his center is still more on his right foot, then he uses his right foot to get onto his left foot, then he uses his left leg to propel the kick.

But during the whole action the left foot just spins.  Theres no point where it isn't sliding and it never seems to actually create any force.

Another issue is that both feet stick in place, the weight is coming down onto his right foot and should cause slight movements (a polishy note).  And the left foot never comes up off the ground, it's glued to a spot and spins in a circle.

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Maybe you can use something like this - notice that he sets up by turning his left foot in to get his body in a position with a lot of torque.  Then upon release it propels the spinning action and ultimately the kick.

F15-16 is a big pop, and the question of the force comes in because again the foot is just spinning around when it should be fairly stable to start the kick off.  Also watch out for how much the hip moves - if he gains that much speed he would continue further forward, right now at F17 it moves very little which accentuates the pop.

The biggest bit I see is the way he changes direction at F18-20.  He's moving screen right, and his balance is screen right.  At this point how does he change direction?  The only point of contact he has is his left foot and pushing off of it would only send him up and even more to screen right.  Normally in a kick like this you have most of your upper body to counter balance, but even then a lot of the time you get the leg to actually point the other way... something like this:



Notice his weight bearing leg tilts away from the kick and all of that mass he has to counter the momentum he went into the kick with as well as the leg high up in the air.

Towards the end of the shot, you have a giant weight shift happening but the Hip line remains completely flat.  Make sure those weight changes show in the rotation.  Furthermore, his left foot slides in at a point where he's really off balance still.  If he took the weight off of that foot at F30, his balance point shifts way over to screen left, which would mean he'd start toppling over to the right. 

Weight shifts are hard!  Make sure you study those well.  Hope some of this helps and all the best to ya

What I notice more is that he´s facing the camera instead facing the opponent/ target.

And at the end, at the final Rfoot landing, remenber what Miagi Master said: step softly, weightless. I mean, the balance should stay on the Lfoot until R foot touches the ground, so then the weight can swich to 50/50, not before.

Nice topic, keep going!

PHEW... took me awhile (4-5hrs)((is that good, or bad? haha)) but here's another run at the roundhouse kick.

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I'd love to submit a reel to Pixar with just kicks haha I'm getting the hang of it though.... this was my first time working layered and in linear (not stepped/pose to pose) It was a challenge at first, but it was a lot of fun.

nice... very clean!

nice!

- I think the LF_Foot should plant just after the RT_Foot plants; it should plant on frame 28 or 29.

I agree that the jump seems a bit far for the relatively small anticipation, and I feel that the landing is too abrupt.  I imagine your character should be stumbling forward a bit to regain balance (with a little more overlapping action).  Right now, it's a bit too perfect, especially when he takes that final step with his right foot.  The jump itself seems pretty solid gold to me, though!  Definitely keep it up. :-)