Reference

This is a running reference that I came across on Instagram and I was like ‘Yes!’ because I could totally use this as a reference to make my female character run.

Animate – Rotoscoping

I chose to do rotoscoping for this animation as it saves me time trying to block out running poses. Of course I am going to change the character but rotoscoping allows me to get the perfect body poses for me to use for this animation.

So I began getting a flesh block form for each pose I was going to use, putting circles where the joints are, then sketching the body shape. After that I lowered the opacity of the sketch and did more clear lines that included the clothes, hair and face.

I then took away the reference to get a better look at how my character looks when running and I am quite pleased with the look.

There is a mix of 3’s and 4’s for the timing of this animation.

Draft

Update

The only real update for this animation was to add colour because a peer couldn’t see anyway to improve the motion as it does look like the character is running. I agreed and went on to colouring. I did come across the same problem when I did the walk cycle. Not all my lines were connected so the fill tool did not work or it filled too much.

Improvements

Even though I said the running didn’t need improvement, there are still things I could do to improve the entire thing. The first thing is details. I could indeed make the character look better and more detailed to give a better view. Another thing is the hair. I noticed  myself that the hair tends to get bigger compared to the original design. Also I could use some work on how ponytails look when running. The ponytail in my animation may not move in the right way, however it does still give the sense of motion. To be extra I could also add stuff to the background to make it seem like the character is running past things.