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Being humans, we are really good at identifying how un-humanlike animated characters and robots can sometimes be.
My goal is to take the obviously rigged character given by the original maya file, fix it and produce
a walking motion that is as realistic as possible.
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Firstly, I identified characteristics of the rigged man that seemed non-natural or awkward. Then I went
on to fix these flaws.
1. Fix the exaggerated arm swing
The arms are apparently too exaggerated in terms of movemment. The man feels like a zombie swimming forward in air.
I corrected this by reducing the arm swing angle.
2. Fix the starting pose
The starting pose is awkard because no one really swings the arm backwards to such an extent from a stationary position.
The rigged character feels as if he requires a lot of energy to overcome the inertia. In reality, our 2 hands do not
move much from a stationary position, so again I reduced this for both hands.
3. Fix direction of palms
Palms face too backwards which again makes this weird guy seem an "air swimmer". I twisted this a little to face inwards.
4. Arms too close to body
This is a huge problem. The upper arms are too close to the body, making him look very restricted in terms
of movement. I twisted the upper arm a little outwards, and also increased the angles slightly between the arms and the
body so that there is a slightly small gap between his sleeve/arm and his body. This becomes a lot more natural.
5. Excessive Body Sway
All the corrections above dealt with the arms. But the body sway seems to be the biggest problem in making this guy
seem so fake. Humans do sway a little as we walk because our weights get transferred from 1 side to the other
periodically but the swaying in this case is too much that he seems like doing a catwalk. I greatly reduced the hip rotation
to make
him walk like a confident man.
6. Slouching
This is a slight issue but it made a difference straightening the angle of his upper back.
7. Legs
The legs are fine in terms of timing but this man's legs doe not straighten fully. Also, when his foot lands
forward each time, it seems like the whole sole comes onto contact with the floor instantly instead of the heel as the
first point of contact. Therefore, the movement seems somewhat unnatural. I corrected this by straightening the lower legs.
8. Final position
The man seemed to fall forward and lift off the ground at the same time in the final 2 or 3 frames. It really looked like he is flying forward.
This is due to the last keyframe. I changed this keyframe by rotating the human to a more upright position,
and also correcting various hip and back angles.
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 The "fixed" man, non-slouching, confident, with natural arm swing, good arm-body gap, correct palm direction and straightened knees upon ground contact |
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Results The final product is a 3-second walking motion which is much more realistic and normal. The now-man walks
more naturally with an upright posture typical of a confident young man. His arms looks less awkward in terms
of swing height and the swing axis (originally his arms are too close to the body to exhibit a natural swing).
The straightened knees look a little better but perhaps could be improved because the straightening is a bit
sharp in terms of movement. Also, one thing that I would like to be able to change is the facial expression.
The face actually does play an important role in making a character look natural. This man's expression is
always fixated in the same way, making him robot-like. Overall however, I am pleased with the final walking motion,
because it is so much more realistic than the original one.
Observations about Mocap vs Hand Drawn Animation
Refer to The Angry Man for this part.
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