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[CoriDavis]

lol! privateering, nice.  Anyway, here's my walk cycle that took me 5 times of re-rendering to finally get it "as good as it's gonna get" I actually ended up moving the arms to my sides instead of having it outstretched the way it was. it was nearly impossible to get the arms to move right when they were in that position.
http://tinypic.com/r/110zk7c/7

[Arik_the_Red]

Looks good.

Have you looked at johnar's old walk cycle?

He has an extra factor which has an extra up and down bounce to it. It means having two extra bones to start from the root, that bounce up and down sort of like scissors. It creates that extra illusion of walking motion that makes the entire figure look completely animate, so that the body and head don't appear static and unmoving.

I did some work with it awhile back, and, while I didn't get the thing finished due to a loss of work (computer death)... I did get some decent result with a goblin I was toying with...

 

My guy's showing a number of flaws that I didn't get to work out due to the file loss: arms remained inanimate, he leans back and sways a bit, his left foot's inner toe didn't get weighted with the rest of the foot, and there is a little skipping limp... because I didn't polish it off... 

[CoriDavis]

Hmm, I saw the video, and that does look like a good ide, Ii might think about it. Of course my figure already has too many bones to count, lol. Anyway, here's my morph target and hair movement test

[Water Music]

Arik has the right of it.  In longsword, cavalry, or 3D animation if you stop moving you're dead.  Everything should always be in motion, even if just slightly, or it looks off.  Your facial expressions are quite good, though.

In addition to Arik's comments I'll add that ne'er-do-wells back in the day would buckle their swords loosely about their waist; making them flop about dramatically to bring attention to the fact that they were packing, and therefore were not to be trifled with (hence the term swashbuckler).  If you've never walked around with a sword on your belt you can believe me when I say they usually move quite a bit and have a definite impact on your stride.  You will bounce up and down a little, but not as much as when you don't have a sword.  To compensate for this you will either swing your hips and shoulders more (causing your sword to sway) or you'll keep your left shoulder and hip a little more forward and point your right foot a little more to the outside to keep an even stride.  Sorry if that's TMI.

[CoriDavis]

Yeah, for the sword part, I noticed that. I actually have walked with a sword (I do colonial reenactments, the model is actually based on my cosume) It's just I have it on the same bone as my hips which I guess I could make movable. It's not too late.  I actually just started the first part of my official clip for the video project which I had to leave my computer on overnight to finish, hehe. 
I still haven't put it in that codec yet that it needs to be in, if I can ask, What does it do? and also, my colors when I render seem to be awfully diminished, like I turned it into a .gif or something.  Is there a setting I can change it to so I can fix that? I use Microsoft Video 1 which might be the problem, but most of the others I try I get some error message and it won't work.  I might end up re-rendering this part anyway because my camera seemed a bit off because of the resolution size I set it to for the requirements.
http://tinypic.com/r/ju6zwk/7

[Water Music]

Ah, excellent.  Renaissance for me.

In the very rare instances where I've rendered from Anim8or I've just saved each frame as a bitmap and then reconstructed in a video program, like movie maker.  The real question is if you render a still from Anim8or do you get your diminished colour, or do you only get that in your video?  That should tell you where the issue is.

[CoriDavis]

Just video. but I've never tried the other video selections. Would it do any good to render "full frames uncompressed" and deal with the humongous file size it supposedly gives?

[CoriDavis]

Here's my first test render for the 10-second portion of my part in the video.
http://tinypic.com/r/2cqloch/7
Any suggestions to make it better? I already made my character turn around slower and more realistically since I rendered this.  Any other suggestions are welcome before I render the final clip for the video with its massive time rendering huge resolution in antialiased.  By the way, does the codec increase or decrease file size at all?

[daniel99]

It is not the horrid, looks ok.
It's a good try, man. And it is funny.
So, i like it.
rock on

[Raxx]

Not bad CoriDavis, I like what you've got so far.

The only real crit I have at the moment is the camera's (lack of) fluidity, especially when it's making its way under the main boom. Try to smooth the transitions a little bit, and in the end I think some subtle camera shaking/wobbling would be more effective when it freezes on your face looking at the camera. Maybe alternatively, have the camera swaying up and down with the boat swaying in the waves at that last segment.

If it's not too hard, you could also try giving the flag a less linear rippling effect, and more diagonal due to the weight of the end of the flag pulling it downward (like in this vid:

).

Your "avatar" has a lot of character to her, I especially like it when she faces the camera, so good job!

[Water Music]

To answer your last question Cori, a codec is the means by which a video is compressed and then reassembled for playback.  When you apply one the memory it takes to store your video will be lessened, but the quality of your video will also be diminished in the process.  They're pretty good these days, so you should see a significant reduction in your video size before the quality lowers in too noticeable a fashion.

[CoriDavis]

Ok, I put in as much of that as I could.  I deleted some unneeded keys in the camera movement and straightened out the path more.  Also made the flag look better.
http://tinypic.com/r/2w3t7v6/7
Anything else before I make the final render that's going to take all night?

[Water Music]

Looks good.  You've probably rendered already, but you may want to experiment with your lighting a bit to give it more drama.  The only real criticism I have is that on your flag the sword handles are backwards...but I'm probably the only person who'd notice...

[TheBlackHole]

And it's supposed to be my face!!!!

(I attached it for when the Tinypic image expires)

[CoriDavis]

Water music: No I haven't rendered actually. and Aww darn it (about the swords)

TheBlackHole: XD XD XD LOLOLOL!!!!!!

Edit: I tried a light... but it didn't give much of an effect. even an infinite light just made everything darker and unrealistic. not like the sun which I hoped for.  I think it's best to reneder my final clip without any lights so it will look more like a sunny day on the open sea. (then I have to try out that codec...)