Walk Cycle

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I'm trying to add more character to the walk, by making him drag his feet.

It's difficult! I'll have to work at it. Making it believable is the tricky part, for me his feet look like they're being dragged along, but his body doesn't say the same.

Walk Cycle

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Here's a loop of a walk cycle, with just keyframes!

This is the character I'll be using I think, I just wanted to see what it would be like animating him in a walk.

Getting the movement of certain parts like floppy ears and such is going to be difficult, but I really would like to try something with that, so I'm going to give it a shot.

Lip Sync Test

I'm getting there. I'm happier with how the arm is moving, although it's still not quite there yet. I'm very pleased with the general movement of the head to exaggerate parts of the audio, I really think that's coming together nicely. The tough part is squeezing out the unnecessary frames, because I still have trouble with too much action in too short of a time space. Like I said though, I'm beginning to get there. I delete frames I don't need, and realise it looks a lot better without them. It's just a case of trimming away the fat now.

Lip Sync Test

Lip syncing test again! I tried to have more focused head movement, and tried to do a bit more with the arm. I don't like how this one came out very much, however. The head movement is more or less a good progression, but the arm doesn't seem to add much, other than look a bit wonky.

Lip Sync Test

I tried moving the head around more on this lip sync, and I'm quite happy with it. Again, the timing and spacing is a little shaky, but I think I'm definitely heading towards the expressive movements that I want to put forward.

Lip Syncing Test

Another go at the same lip syncing. I'm a lot happier with how this one came out, I think I'm getting the hang of shaping the mouth now. There are some very obvious timing issues with both the mouth and other moving parts of the character as he talks, but for the most part, the gist of it is there. I'm getting there, slowly but surely! I need to learn how to slow things down I think, it still looks like it's moving at a million miles an hour.

Lip Syncing Test

Another lip syncing test. Today's lesson gave me a better understanding of what I need to do, although I still found this very difficult. I'm still suffering from the problem of putting too much action in where it isn't needed, I think. Everything wobbles around without any real timing to it, which is completely wrong. I need to keep practicing until I get it nailed down.

Lip Syncing Test

Oh dear. This is my first proper lip sync I've attempted, without any prior knowledge of how to really do it. This is just giving it a go! I'm not really very happy with it all, it all moves a bit too fast and doesn't have much difference in the mouth, other than opening and closing. Hopefully tomorrow during the lesson I can learn a bit more about what I'm supposed to do, and then practice with some audio clips more.

Walk Cycle Test - Working on hands

First attempt at getting the hands to have some movement to them as the arms sway. I'm not very happy with how these came out, and I'm not too sure how to fix that. There doesn't seem to be enough time to get the hands swaying without it looking very jerky and out of place. I'll have to practice a few more times and see what I can change to get it looking how I want.

Walk Cycle Test

I think I've finally managed to get the arms to the point where I'm happy with them. I focused on keeping them in one area for the most of the animation, rather than staggering them in keyframes. Because of this, I can concentrate on the timing of making them swing back and forth. I know what to do from now on, so I don't think I'll have trouble anymore with them jarring in places. I can try to make the hands swing now I don't have to worry about the arms.

Walk Cycle Test

The same walk cycle again, although this time it has a slight bit of character to it. I made the character slouch as it steps downwards, and I quite like how it looks. I didn't mean for it at first, but I wanted to keep it once I saw it in movement. Also again, I'm not quite happy with the arms. The arm behind the character is fine, but at one part the arm in the foreground jumps a bit further than it should. Still, I think it's a lot better than my previous attempts. I'm getting there!

Walk Cycle Test

Another walk cycle test on paper. Finally, I'm happy with how the arms are. They move exactly how I mean them to, and I know how to tackle them in the future. I also made some slight changes in how I animate the legs, that being not raising the foot as high just before the step down. I think it looks a little better. Despite what I said about the arms, there's still a problem. That's the hands, which on this animation, wobble quite blatantly. I've got the arms down, now I just need to do the same to the hands!

Walk Cycle Thing

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Bao asked me to animate a walk cycle of a little character he quickly made. I thought it'd be good practice anyway, so I gave it a go! I tried to get the movement of the ears and tails etc. in response to other body parts; something I haven't really tried before. As a first go, I think it does the job. Maybe it's a bit too wavy in places, but I'm pretty happy with how it comes out. As the character takes the step on its left foot, I think it jars a bit too far forwards. Other than that, I'm pleased with how it came out.

Walk Cycle Test

On this test, I tried changing how the arms worked. I gave them more of a bend, and took away any joints they had. It works, but doesn't seem to look right when compared to the rest of the cycle.

Walk Cycle Test

Another walk cycle, the same as the previous two. Apart from a bit of a wobble as the arm in the foreground passes across the body, I think it looks pretty good. I can see what I've done wrong there, I've had too many frames close to the middle. It should be a quick pass, and I haven't done that here. I'm going to start a new one, and test it on that to see if I can change it.

Walk Cycle Test

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This is the exact same walk cycle as below, although tested on Flash instead of straight onto paper. It allowed to me to mess about with delicate movements to try and get the arms and legs moving better, so I could tell where I was going wrong. It can be a little confusing sometimes for me, going through all the pages and pages of paper to find out what exact point I went wrong was. I think this is okay, I just need to keep doing it until it's flawless.

Walk Cycle Test

Walk cycle test, on paper this time. I have the weight down, then general movement is all good. There are a few big problems though, most notably with the arms. They're out of timing, and go in the wrong direction on a few frames. I need to fix these. Other than that though, it's nearly there. Another couple of tries, and I'll have it done.

Walk Cycle Test

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Another attempt at giving a walking character a slight bounce in his step. I don't like the bounce this time though, the squashed version passes far too quickly when compared to the stretched. It makes the bounce look very odd when played.

Walk Cycle Test

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I made a walk cycle without fleshing out a character ontop, this time. I wanted to show my process underneath it. This is essentially how I've started each of the previous walk cycles, with a stick figure underneath to lay down the foundations to draw upon. Again, I tried to give the walk some emotion, but had to keep going back to fix timing issues until the whole thing turned into a clumsy mess. It's okay, but you can really see the glaring timing errors on it.

Walk Cycle Test

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A normal walk cycle, this time. I like it! I wanted to give some bounce to the character as it walked, so I put a bit of a stretch on certain frames. This does exaggerrate the movement quite a lot, maybe too much. I think it looks kind of believable though, which is a great start. With a bit of tweaking, I should have it perfected soon, I hope!

Walk Cycle Test

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A walk cycle test. I gave the character a bit of a swagger as it walked; I should probably just do a normal walk cycle first! I wanted to play around a little, though. This is really quite shabby, but I think the general gist of what I wanted to do is there. The walk has some character to it, and whilst it's not perfect, it's close to what I wanted.

Running Cycle Test

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I had a go at making a little running animation. I think it came out okay, I used what I knew from easing in and out on the bouncing ball animations to try this. It's a bit wobbly and unpolished, but a good start I think! I should have probably started with walking instead of running, but this is what it ended up as half way through.

Ninth Bouncing Ball Test

I tried to do a ball bouncing off a wall in this one. It doesn't look too good I think, the fall from the wall seems much faster than it should be, and doesn't look believable. I'm not sure what I need to do to change that, there's not a lot of frames to fit in the space between the wall and ground. I need to play around with the frames in that gap until the animation looks convincing.

Eighth Ball Bouncing Test

This time, I used a Pound coin to draw around and make sure the circle was perfect with each drawing. The squash and stretch shapes didn't matter so much, so I could draw those as normal. I think this is better than the last two attempts, the animation seems a lot tighter because of a uniform shape being used throughout.

Seventh Bouncing Ball Test

On paper again. This time, it's entirely in 1s. I also was able to use a ligtht box this time, so I could follow the trajectory with a bit more accuracy. It paid off, I think! Next time, I need to make the ball less wobbly. Other than that though, I think I almost have it.

Sixth Bouncing Ball Test

On paper this time, instead of digitally! I used 2s on here, when really I shouldn't of, so I went back and did it again. Also, there's some slight inconsistencies with the trajectory, so I'll look at that again.

Fifth Bouncing Ball Test

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Once again, a left to right bounce, but this time using what I learnt from the previous test. I'm getting a lot better, I think. I really like how the markings give the ball another dimension of movement, it wouldn't be the same at all without them. I added some character getting knocked by it to try another direction of bounce, rather than just from the ground up.

Fourth Bouncing Ball Test

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The last few attempts I made lacked height, so for this one I nearly doubled the length in which the ball would bounce. It looks a lot better now, more believable. I also made the arc at the top last much, much longer, which gives a better bounce impression. Once again, I added markings to the ball, these being a lot better than my last attempt at a tennis ball. In general, there's a lot more frames as well. I need to use more frames, I think.

Third Bouncing Ball Test

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Another test, although this time the ball is travelling instead of just bouncing in one spot. It lets me practice with different arc heights, seeing as the arc needs to become lower and more compact to give the impression of a weaker bounce.

Second Bouncing Ball Test

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A bit better than the first one. I wanted to play around with creating the effect of weight, so I made the ground 'thud' with the ball hitting it. I think it came out well! I also decided to give the ball some markings, to emphasise the rotation as it's in the air.

First Bouncing Ball Test

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It came out okay, I think, but it seems a little too fast. The squash at the bottom is also far too exaggerated. Need to think about both of these when working on the next one.