Animation Fundamentals / Project 1

6/10/2022 - 19/10/2022 / Week 6 - Week 8
Nurul Adlina Rizal / 0345429 / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Animation Fundamentals
Project 1

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JUMPLINKS

Lectures

Instructions

Reflections

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LECTURES

Week 6: Walk Cycle

1. Timing
2. Spacing
3. Arcs
4. Drag
5. Follow Through & Overlapping
6. Method: Straight Ahead
7. Solid Drawing

Walk Cycle

Cycle > Looping animation

Start & End, Same Drawing

1. Timing

(Even Timing)

Reference > Observe > Formulas > The Animator’s Survival Kit

Poses

1. Contact (Both feet on floor, same level (heel and toes))
2. Down (Forward feet flat on surface back feet on toes)
3. Pass (back feet goes up)
4. Up (back feet goes higher up, forward feet goes behind and is on toes)
5. Contact (Flipped) Both feet on floor, same level (heel and toes))
6. Down (Flipped)
7. Pass Up (Flipped)
8. Contact

Natural Walk

2 step per 1 sec
2 step per 24 frames
each step 12 drawings
3 frames per pose

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INSTRUCTIONS

Project 1

For Project 1, we are tasked to animate a walk cycle either based on the character we did on Exercise 4 or any other characters. I decided to animate the character that I will use for my final project.

Fig 1.0: Walking Cycle Poses (6/10/2022)

I have yet to give her a name but animating the walk cycle helped me figure out the design I wanted her to have which is simple and cute. 

After the walking cycle from the side view, we also had to do the front side which was most difficult for me since I am not used to drawing the front view of my figures. I found it easier to animate the front view when the layers are on top of each other rather than drawing the poses separately. 

Fig 1.1: Rough Walking Cycle (12/10/2022)

Fig 1.2: Walking Cycle Lineart (13/10/2022)

Decided to animate the hair to make it bounce. This animation principle is Drag, Overlapping, and Follow Through. As suggested the method used for the hair animation was Straight Ahead. 

Then, I had to figure out her colour palette which I have yet to do. I quickly came up with a colour palette to showcase her bubbly personality. I also made her Siamese patterned cat because it is one of my favourite types of cat. Her colour palette is subject to change for the Final Project but for now and this project, this is her draft design. 

Fig 1.3: Walking Cycle Colored (18/10/2022)

Fig 1.4: Colored with Background (18/10/2022)

I added backgrounds and made the clouds travel at different speeds to show their distance from the camera. I time-stretched it on Adobe After Effects so her walking seems to look a bit faster. 

FINAL

Fig 1.5: Project 1 Final Compilation (18/10/2022)

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REFLECTIONS

Experience

I had a good experience in class learning the steps to creating a walk cycle as well as doing the project itself. Despite it being a tedious process, I loved adding things to my animation to make it look more smooth and lifelike. It was also a fun experience because I got to animate my own character. 

Observation

I observed that I am getting quicker at creating frames for my animation when before I worked quite slow. 

Findings

I found that I can have fun while creating animations by adding my own signature and uniqueness for example the hair bounce. 

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