Animation Strategies – Assignment 2, Animation

For our second assignment for this class, we were asked to make three animations; a walk cycle, a run cycle and a body mechanics animation. I made the decision early on to make my walk and run cycle more than just the average walk and run cycle by adding emotion to them.

Research:

Before starting my animations, I did some research into each animation so that I can best add some emotion to my cycles.

Walk cycle:

As I had made a regular walk cycle for work that was assigned over summer, I decided to make this walk cycle for this assignment to be more on the tired side. To begin with, I looked up a reference for a basic walk cycle.

Once I had found one I liked and had an idea of the movement, I looked for a specifically tired walk to reference and make sure I had the timing right. While I did look at some other different kinds of walk cycles, I settled on a sad tone for certain and I mainly used the above image for reference. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the specific video I had used as reference for my sad walk. Despite that, I mainly used the above image and kept to it to make sure pacing and timing was right.

Run cycle:

I had never done a run cycle before this assignment but, since I had made my walk cycle emotional, I figured I should do the same with my run cycle. I found a nice basic run cycle before I started to animate.

I only used the above image as reference for my run cycle, adding the emotion from memory and previous pieces of media I’ve seen. I did look at some other run cycles out of curiosity but I primarily used the above image. Similar to my walk cycle, I’ll also make sure to keep the timing right using the above reference.

Body mechanics:

I have never done an animation that showed the entire body moving in some way but I knew I wanted mine to be unique in some way. I ended up deciding on having my character start in a backbend or bridge before moving into a handstand. I started by looking into videos on YouTube to find an ideal reference to use and keep myself right.

Once I found the right video, I planned to watch back the above snippet over and over while animating to make sure I had the timing and pacing right and accurate. I did look at some other backbend/bridge videos but the above video was the best I found as she showed both ways; going from handstand to bridge and vice versa. The above video is the only reference I used for my body mechanics animation.

Final animations:

Below is all three of my final animations looped three times for easier viewing.

Reflection:

I actually really enjoyed this assignment as it enabled me to think more about how to add emotion to basic animations like a walk or run cycle that I hadn’t considered before. It pushed my abilities further in ways I hadn’t before and I appreciated the experience.

I think my walk cycle turned out pretty well. I was the first time I really tried to work out and use secondary action with having Omega’s, my robot character, head delay slightly to imply that Omega was tired and needs to recharge his batteries. I’m really proud of how it turned out and I’m glad that the secondary action actually worked well along side the walking and is noticeable. I also think I got the timing and pacing right with the walk cycle as well as it isn’t too fast and I think it emphasises how tired Omega is. I think if I was to redo this walk cycle, I would try my best to emphasis the tiredness more, maybe by trying to delay his head bob more.

I also think that my run cycle turned out good as well. I think it gets across the idea that Omega is desperate to get to whoever he has spotted is in danger or some similar situation. I’m not used to trying to get an emotion across in an animation but I think I did well with both my walk and run cycle. I think Omega having his arms outstretched emphasises the desperate emotion, like he’s reaching out to stop and/or catch someone or something just off screen. If I was to redo this run cycle, I think I would find a way to possibly add a secondary action that would help get across the emotion within the animation.

As I had never really made an animation where the whole body moved, I am really proud of how my body mechanics animation turned out. I think I got the pacing of the animation right and I think it looks relatively smooth and well timed. I also think I got the movement pretty accurate in comparison to the video I was using as reference. I’m pretty sure the body proportions stayed consistent throughout the entire animation. If I was to redo this specific body mechanic motion, I think I would try and emphasise the secondary action I had added which was a small wobble towards the end to show Omega adjusting his weight some to keep his balance.

All in all, I’m really proud and happy with how each of my animations turned out and I’ll definitely keep in mind the skills I developed from doing this assignment to use in animations or projects I have in the future.

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