A simple procedural animation technique [video]
Comments
cgijoe
argonautcode
Thanks, I didn’t know about that technique. I’ll definitely fix it for the next video! I was on a time crunch while making the voiceover for this one. I didn’t have a pop filter and thought I could get away with a software de-plosive. Turns out popping is pretty difficult to fix without warping or trimming audio.
Loughla
I'm going to level with you, I can't hear the popping noise. It just sounds like someone talking.
Maybe don't stress too much about it?
Modified3019
Some people like myself are very sensitive to some some vocal/audio oddities, while others seem insensitive to it.
The issue is for those sensitive, it literally creates the feeling sick and/or needing to escape or fight the situation (rage) despite rationally knowing there’s nothing wrong. See: misophonia
While sometimes the cause is unavoidable, reducing the avoidable ones is worthwhile, though I would agree that getting paranoid about it isn’t needed.
For those that encounter this in video/audio, a useful trick I’ve found is watching at a higher playback speed, which seems to mask many of the things that would drive me mad.
recursive
Definitely don't stress, but it is certainly some low hanging fruit. The quality of the animations is far beyond the quality of the audio. There's no reason the creator needs to care. But given the care and attention put into the appearance of the animation, they just might.
starry_dynamo
Funny enough, I came here to say that I watched that without sound and it was still very interesting and easy to follow. This person is a really great educator. Their other videos look equally intriguing and well done: https://www.youtube.com/@argonautcode
nox101
This is very well made video. That said, the animations don't actually move like real snakes or real fish. Animals don't move from the head and drag the rest of their bodies behind them with constraints on circles. They pull/push with muscles though out the entire length of their body.
Fish: https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-29361571-koi-fancy-c...
In fact not only do they not drag their behinds, the tails turn further than the bodies
Snakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEto1-ZTbd4
That's not a dis. The technique in the video is pretty to watch and might be good enough but it just stuck out to me at a glance as unnatural. Like something was off.
ASalazarMX
The beauty of procedural animation is not thas it's realistic, but that very simple principles allow for good-enough results. It's something used for videogames or presentations, not simulations.
TL;DR: animation by simplistic algorithms is a beautiful technique, but a lousy simulator.
nox101
Making a more realistic "looking" simulation would not be more work or less simple.
For both, simply following the path of the first circle is both a simpler algorithm and closer to natural movement
owenpalmer
Beautiful video. I would love to see this animation technique combined with an evolution simulation similar to Karl Sims' Evolved Virtual Creatures project:
https://youtu.be/RZtZia4ZkX8?si=vxQ904w_CNXsSoj5
Previous HN discussion:
abnercoimbre
I was thinking the same! Hope everyone that liked the first video check this one out too.
dudinax
Jefferey Ventrella has a few programs along those lines
progbits
Regarding the "derpy lizard", I think it would look much better if it had some gait pattern - maybe not allowing some legs to reach at the same time, or just starting the legs and their target points with different offsets so they don't move in phase with each other.
Beautiful video though, would love to see more content from you.
nighthawk454
Wonderful video, cheers! I also had no idea Processing was so efficient at animations, I'll have to look into that furhter
irq-1
Great video. Much more complicated, but checkout Godot "fish" in the docs.
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/performance...
> The animation will be made of four key motions:
A side to side motion
A pivot motion around the center of the fish
A panning wave motion
A panning twist motion
mikhmha
You could also use these techniques as steering behaviors for a group of autonomous agents? Each agent is a point on the segment. It'd be like a team doing a dragon or lion dance.
globalnode
Had no idea about the FABRIK technique, that looks really useful in a lot of different contexts too. I did a little clap irl at the end of the video.
IndySun
The animations are less realistic grounded, legless, critters and more accurately things being dragged (without seeing whats dragging them). That said, engaging, concise, and well produced video. The technique also comes to life when legs are added. Maybe thats obvious.
worldsayshi
Great demonstration!
TheRujiK seems to use a very similar animation technique. These creatures also somewhat remind me of the creatures of Spore: https://youtu.be/a87tB__3KEs?si=2Xl3Ub3j-Z3msxm6
albert_e
Great video -- any complementary resource that can help a young learner get started? What tool might one use to do such animations?
azeirah
I'd recommend starting with the book "The nature of code", if I recall correctly, a new version was published very recently
heyrikin
Oh snap these are built in Processing? I'll have to give it another go.
aloisdg
Great video. So smooth. Now I want to try it. Good job
I hope the author sees this. Dude, your video is so awesome, thank you! But your microphone is "popping" every time you say a 'P' or a 'T' sound. This is because you are speaking directly into it. Try talking "past" it instead. Your vocal sound goes out in all directions, but the "wind" from your mouth that creates the pops only goes in one direction -- straight forward -- so if you slide your microphone to the side, you will still have good sounding audio with no pops.