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Pythosart — Run Cycle
Published: 2011-11-22 15:46:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 5364; Favourites: 151; Downloads: 44
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Description
Ax Cat Run cycle! It works now
I've been wanting to do this for ages, and I finally managed it with Photoshop CS5's Animation mode thing. Yay
It's only eight frames, but I'm going to go in and add a few here and there to smooth out the animation. I may also clean up the drawing some.
Art, Ax Cats, and Toria © Me
Adobe Photoshop CS5, Approx. 3 hrs (drawing and animating)
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Comments: 74
Sure! Save it of you want, but I don't know how much you'll get out of it hahah
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it will help for a running reference for feline characters. Im also the assistant director art for brohoof studios and four legged walking or running cycles are very helpful.
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That's good, but I think the torso should be less stiff.
Hope this helps!
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I'd recommend exaggerating the squash and stretch of the torso a bit more--cats tend to stretch their bodies out quite a bit when their legs are fully extended and to really contract as the legs get closer together. Really pushing that can make your animation appear more natural. The leg movement looks great. It does bother me a bit that the back left leg crosses inside of the front left leg. I'm pretty sure that cats front legs pretty much always cross inside of the back, but I am basing that on memory, so please correct me if I'm wrong! Did you draw in a reference ground line? The front paws seem to be hitting a bit lower than the back.
I'm getting critical because I do think this looks really nice. Getting the legs down is the most important part of a walk or run, and you seem to have observed that really well. It will definitely look smoother if you add more frames and play it at a higher frame rate. I hope you keep animating!
Oh, technical thing, were you using a video layer, or doing each frame on a separate layer? I've hardly used Photoshop to animate, and there seem to be benefits and drawbacks to both methods so I am curious.
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Could you do it in different speeds so I may use it as reference as well?
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I am nowhere near good enough with animation to do that. I could upload a set of the frames, though.
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oh yeah! ok that works too, yes, cuz I need to figure out how horses run for my character XDDD
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If I were you, I'd look up a different animation. Canine, feline, and equine run cycles are all VERY different.
Here's a horse run cycle. If you're doing an animation, leave out the last few frames.
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D'aww... quite different I suppose :/
It's just for drawing my centaur for my manga, is all, just need to see some frames is all and jumping shots and such...
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the back legs work, but the front lets don't seem to quite work with the back legs - the back legs feel like their running but the front legs feel like a trot, like its running with its wrists, not with its entire arm. Try making everything a little more extreme, it'll read better - make the body more flexible; when the back legs come up, squish the chest and hips closer together, stretch the body out when the front legs are going back down to the ground. You can probably move the shoulder blade around more too, especially just before the front legs lift, and add some overlap to the wrists just before they make contact with the ground again. The chest and hips bob up and down - when the back legs pull up, the hips are at their highest point, they are at their lowest just before the back legs leave the ground, same for the chest.
Its not a bad attempt though 
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yeah, photoshop's animation mode isn't absolutely amazing, because as far as I know it doesn't have an onionskin option or anything like that, but it is at least in standard pixel format, which works better with your style than flash auto-vectoring everything. The only thing I can think of for a critique is that I'm not sure this is a flat out run, it looks more like a trot to me, something about the hind legs not quite extending enough, because the front legs wouldn't really go any further forward, they would just lift up more... I dunno.
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that cat looks incredibly light on its feet! Very well done o: like the muscle movements in the chest. There's something not quite right about it though.. whether it's the head? Should that be bobbing up and down or fixed? .. or the hind legs.. do they need to be more powerful when pushing/ should the back be arched more, making the hind and front legs come closer together when they're at their closest part? I'm not sure, really .-. I don't think I can put a finger on it, but either way, it's pretty cool. You make me want to animate something.. what program did you use?
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Are the back bones supposed to stay arched in the back while they run?
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Not sure what you mean. I did reference the run cycle from a couple of videos and stills, so as far as I can tell the back is doing what it's supposed to.
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Just that the shoulder blades seemed stiff. But obviously you know more about it than me. Still looks awesome C':
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really well done for a first time shot, animation can be a tricky SOB. knocking out that ectra kick on the back leg and adding a bit more of and arch ot the back when the legs come together will flush it out nicely. making the head dip a bit less on the extension will help it smooth out as well looks kinda jerky . reference is always a good tool check out this vid
[link]
just ignore the CG cat they in some shots animation stiff as a board good example of bad animation.
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Hm, there is one thing I feel you could change - in the frame where the hindleg swings forward before going back it wiggles a bit since the hindleg is in an identical pose to the frame before. My suggestion would be to change either leg's position so it's bent more, to reduce viewer confusion and make it look less like it's quickly swishing its legs back and forth. 
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Yes, someone else pointed that out earlier. I've fixed it, but the file is still on the school computers, so I'll need to wait till Monday to upload the fixed version.
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Okay then.
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Nice, sure. It's far from perfect. I aim to fix that when I get back to school, though
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It looks fine to me? I think it may be because it's in profile and the neck is a bit longer than it should be.
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Frame four and six has the head looking slightly shorter than the rest, and yes I agree that the next is slightly to long
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It still looks fine to me 
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Like I said, it may be me. You're the artist and you have the say in what goes intothe art.
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KEEP WORKING ON IT I LOVE DETAILED ANIMATIONS!!!!!!!!
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3 hours only? I would need 3 years!! Simply amazing *-*
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Practice, and you'll get faster.
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yeah.. I guess you're right ^^°
is there a way to get one of those programs for free? 'cause i want to create just a tiny flash animation for school.. or is there maybe another program you would recommend?
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I really don't know. I've never actually looked for any free programs. My school has pretty much everything I need as far as programs go.
Try [link] They might have an animation program. Plus I think there are some site where you can upload frames to make a .gif animation for forums and such.
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Sounds nice
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Aww thanks for the link <3
Very helpful!
I'm deeply indebted to you.
[I'm sorry for my english xD I'm hope it's not that worse as I think it is]
May I can draw your main-chara
Is your chara the black and white one, which you use as icon?
Just give me some time, cause this week [including the weekend] I've no time and lots of things to do for school -.- boooooring
Sooo yeah.. again:
Thanks a lot *-*
bye :-*
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