» Fri May 27, 2011 10:09 am
Hello All!
Great work, keep it coming.
A note on the foot placement while walking. While walking, a warrior's foot placement is going to be in line with his or her hips for overall body relaxation as well as structural integrity in combat (and then in real life through ingrained practice and/or regained naturalness) with the feet moving in a straight line forward or whatever, not swinging to the left or right (which would complicate matters, even in an animation sense, exceptions existing for obstacle clearance in a passive or active sense as it also does for sneaking). Feet too wide or too narrow are effected unnaturalisms, whether from ego or physical incapacity (lack of balance, too fat, etc).
Strength in position, whether natural or fighting stance, is based on the use of the body's natural structural alignment to reinforce it whenever possible. If that structural integrity is lost, it must be regained. That is how you beat someone in physical combat, you destroy their structural integrity...make them lose their balance by doubling them over, breaking this or that, whatever.
This goes for sneaking, too. Real life sneaking is done in as natural position as possible. The shoulders and hips will be relaxed, the torso will be as erect as possible even while crouched down (as an inclined torso inhibits balance and correct breathing and is alien to correct fighting posture, and a holistic fighting/sneaking system will have one trained to be able to defend/attack from a "sneaking" or crouched position). A slight inclincation is perfectly fine, but too much is cliche. This position may seem unnatural, but that is only because most people only imagine what it should be like without having any actual ability in doing it, and so errors creep in *no pun intended* (like torsos bent too far forward, etc). Arms are somewhat gathered unless they're needed for balance or doing something (like holding a weapon, and even that will be as unobtrusive as possible) and you have no obstacles around you. You don't want to go knocking over that vase on the coffee table in the middle of the night, so you would keep your arms down at your sides, relaxed. Sweeping gestures may be used to clear/control obstacles, with hands and feet, but that maybe goes beyond the scope of these animations as that would also include (correct me if I'm wrong here on the term) collisions.
That is all and above the singular point that in sneaking, one wants to look as natural as possible, and try to fit in. Adopting a *sneaking stance* tells everyone that sees you that you are up to no good!
And no, in case anyone was wondering, I am not a professional thief or anything like that. I am, however, a teacher of the warrior/military arts of old/today, and that includes studying traditional ninjutsu from recognized organizations like the Bujinkan and Stephen K. Hayes' Quest Centers, as well as knowing how certain special forces members sneak in a natural, relaxed yet load-bearing way (which is structurally similar to the ninjutsu method, by the way). These aren't trade secrerts or anything, but if one hasn't studied the material or pursued it in any way, the sources might be difficult to find.
. their games could have been epic if it wasnt for their bad animation :unsure: . kudos to all of the animators in the community. maybe you guys could collaborate with fallout3's community animators namely Jahandar and Alendor. Heres hoping tesIV evolves(graphically,ai, animation etc.) before tesV gets released. 
