Hi,

I've recently had several questions about creating walk cycles. In fact, I just completed a Q&A for 3D World magazine on this subject and they said it would be ok to post it up on my Web site.

The tutorial is actually about creating a walk-cycle for a spider so there are few other tricks thrown in. You can view it at this ** link**. 

Hope you like it!

Mark

OoOo will have to get the files too, thanks Mark.  Do you know what Issue they are publishing in? # or month

 It looks like it will be issue 0121 unless something changes.

Great as usual Mark---

but our programme is CarrAra!!!!--not the car!
(don't know how we can educate Americans!)

Brian

*"but our programme is CarrAra!!!!--not the car!
(don't know how we can educate Americans!)"

*Uh, Brian, granted there are a lot of uneducated "Americans", but 3DWorld is published in the UK, so pick on the Brits for this one, OK?

Sorry parsecs don't  follow your reasoning?

(Mark, unless he changes his nationality for 3DW stuff?, knows I am making a usual, irreverent, Aussie dig at a funny, seemingly common, USA pronunciation of Carrara,)

Brian

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?carra01g=Carrara is how a lot of users pronounce it.

The wrong way to pronounce it is by using the Porsche name.

Anyway, blame the Italians.

Thanks Mark!

Brian:

It's a program, not a programme.  If you use old English, then it should be "ye olde programme".

Even on Renderosity, the spell check catches that one.

Klebnor von Weisenheimer

Programme may be old English, I don't know, but it shouldn't come up on a spell check as it is a valid word. For example, you use a computer program, but you watch a television programme :)

 You'll be happy to know that all my articles are "corrected" by the editors the official language of the UK. ;-)

Quote - you watch a television programme :)

This will be a surprise to 300 million Americans, I assure you, who watch television programs every night.  In colour!

Klebnor mit zuviel zeit

Very cool Mark!

Thanks for the link buddy!

Clint

Wow, Mark, thank you so much for this. I can't wait to check it out (streaming goodies are blocked here at the office, so I have to wait about eight hours to see it...)

God Bless You, Mark Bremmer! Thank you very much!

This is a great tutorial Mark! I didn't comment on it before because QT kept crashing my browser. I did a QT update and was finally able to watch it. Thank you.

Sorry Brian, I over-reacted, probably as a result of hanging out in some international forums where America bashing seems to be the rule-of-the-day. You always seem to be fair-minded, with a good sense of humour. I should have known better. Fair dinkum mate. ;-)

Parsecs--I think the USA pronunciation is very funny.
Klebnor--The Aussie versions of the Windows Spellcheck gives us a choice of American or Australian spelling versions--"Old English!"?????--The Aussie Macquarie Dictionary leads the way in New English--well thats my story and I am sticking to it!

Mark--sorry, but a bit of a giggle anyway.

Brian

Thanks Mark,
I caught onto the target helper quite early due to your VTC series. I used it to keep heads pointed where I want them during walk cycles.
Helpers are great tools.

I thought the Porsche was Cararra as where our software (and that Italian city or marble) is Carrara? Although it's true that most of us statesiders still pronounce it the first way (I know I'm guilty), since it just seems to roll off the tounge easier regardless of whether it's correct. (Like toe-mae-to toe-mah-toe kind of thing. lol. I suppose that difference registers better in the native Italian though.)

Back on the main topic, it will be nice to see just how animation grouping and non-linear animation system actually works in Carrara. The manual seems to explain it to some degree, but sometimes it's better to see it in action because of the oddities and quirks that can be run into.

Any chance you could get an .avi version up so it's not so crash happy on PCs? Please?

(And yes the PC version of QuickTime is bug-ridden, to the point where I'd rather not touch it. Alternately, if anyone has an idea of how to force Firefox to use VLC to play/stream .mov files...)

Edit...
One more round of frantic Google searching answered my own question. Strangely enough, it's the Ubuntu folks to the resue with the answer. What they mention is all under Firefox so it works independent of the operating system.

Take a look at the MediaPlayerConnectivity extension for Firefox, and that lets you change the player for .mov away from QuickTime if all you get is crashing with that app. There will be a second pause and it opens your preferred player's window, but at least now it's possible to actually watch the video.

Ok, I guess I can quit my whining now. Hopefully I'm not the only one though, so maybe that extra 2¢ was worth it.

I'm a U.S. mid-westerner (or so I've always thought; it's my understanding that people in Iowa have a different perspective on folks from Indiana) and I pronounce it kuh-RAHR-uh. My problem is that almost all of the information I get comes from reading, and I often learn to pronounce words correctly much later, when it's hard for me to change.

I'm not sure if this is anything approaching blasphemy, but Mark's video plays just fine through IE8. 'Scuse, please, while I step into my flame retardant suit...

:lol:

Quote - I thought the Porsche was Cararra as where our software (and that Italian city or marble) is Carrara? Although it's true that most of us statesiders still pronounce it the first way (I know I'm guilty), since it just seems to roll off the tounge easier regardless of whether it's correct. (Like toe-mae-to toe-mah-toe kind of thing. lol. I suppose that difference registers better in the native Italian though.)

The "rr"'s just change the accent.  The Porshce vehicle is spelled with an "e".  That's why it's pronounced different from the Italian marble and 3D software.  Otherwise, "rare" or "rair" are needed in the spelling to pronounce it the same way as the automobile.

Since Carrara is the name of a town in Italy, I would think we need an Italian speaker to correct the pronunciation.

Klebnor

I dunno... we Americans have been proudly butchering words from all languages, including our own, for so long it'd be a shame to stop now.

As a fun example, go to Versailles, Indiana here in the U.S. and ask a local how to pronounce the name of the town. They will tell you that it's pronounced vuhr-SALES, and if you try to tell them about the former capital of France, they'll mostly look at you funny.

:biggrin:

Versailles sounds like Cairo (pronounced KAY-ROW) GA.

Sometimes the alterations are intentional.  I have a friend who is originally from Berlin, MA.  The locals pronounce it BURR-lynn (emphasis on the first syllable) so as not to be confused with that German city.  No one would confuse Berlin, MA with Berlin, Germany - believe me ... I've spent time in both (before and after 10/89).

Klebnor

Well I always thought it was pronounced " Carrara-boom-de-ay, carrara-boom-de-ay"
Anyway, if you go this Merriam Webster link it will give the proper pronunciation.
Thanks Bigtime for the Tut Mark!!!

Back on the main subject...  That spider video shows a pretty neat technique for doing things. NLA also looks like a useful alternative to some of the keyframe tweeners for certain types of repetitive motion, not just walk cycles. (Perhaps with less math involved to get timing right too.) It's yet another option that shouldn't be overlooked when doing animation.

If only I knew people who did music and voiceover stuff, I'd do a "Real Men of Genius" style tribute with a salute to "Mr. 3D software-tutorial video guy" in appreciation of Mark's work.

thanks for the tut,

much appreciated

headwax