I decided early on in this assignment that I wanted to work in 2D, as it’s my preferred medium. On hearing what three animations we had to complete I started thinking of characters and of references that I could start from.
Walk Cycle
After Alec went through the key poses with us, and after I had re-watched Sarah’s lecture on walk cycles, I figured the first thing I should work out is a character to use so as I might bring some personality to the walk I was going to animate. My first thought was to have a glum detective walking in the rain, the brim of his hat being battered by the raindrops and the vents of his trench coat being blown behind him in the wind. I got a bit ambitious with this line of thinking and started to have ideas with multiple camera angles and more action beyond the walk such as him stopping to throw and stamp out a cigarette, which may have been fun to see realised, but which would have gone beyond the requirements of the assignment.
It was about this time in the year that I had discovered a lot of episodes of The Dean Martin Show on Youtube and, finding him a very entertaining performer, I thought to look through some of what had been uploaded to seek references. Luckily I found a clip that I was very drawn to and decided to use that as my key inspiration.
You’ll find it here, from about 02:15 to 02:21. He goes into his opening number with a snooty, pompous sort of walk that I really enjoyed. It also reminded me of a character showcased in 101 Dalmatians who walks with a high chin and small, quick steps.
You can see it here, from 01:40-01:49.
In the above image you will see my first studies and ideas by way of character design for my walk cycle. I didn’t want to change anything too much from my inspiration as Dean Martin’s take on formal eveningwear, with a scarlet pocket square contrasting against the deep black of his dinner jacket creating personality and visual interest (as opposed to the more traditional white).
At the top of that page I also listed a few more ideas, one of which I almost stuck with was the way Judy Garland would enter the stage on her own TV show in the early 60s.
From 0:23-0:27 you’ll see her come on with short, polite strides. Her outfit here would have served for good inspiration by way of shape design too, with that oversized fur collar.
At this point I had shown my references to guest lecturer Niall Doherty, who enjoyed my ideas and my references, and who encouraged me to study more walks to be able to more effectively portray what I was trying to. I was able to get some good practice along these lines in class with Alec’s exercises which I feel properly prepared me for what I wanted to do. He also gave me additional reference in the Bugs Bunny short ‘Long Haired Hare’ (1949), in how Bugs walks and acts pompously as ‘Leopold’, which you will see in the beginning of this clip in especial.
Now when it came to animating my walk I put the regular key poses in first as a starting point so as I could build on and alter them as needed to create personality.
This was a useful starting point as it allowed me to notice some of what needed changed to suit my goal. Niall gave me some advice at this point and helped me realise that I should aim for less exaggerated ups and downs, and also that I should keep the legs straighter. Also on threes I found this walk too slow.
In Niall’s feedback he suggested, too, that I should put the hand closes to the ‘camera’ in his jacket pocket, which I applied soon after.
The smoke took me a while to get correct, but I had learnt a lot from a particular FX shot in my first semester last year which helped me a lot here. I think it’s appealing and convincing enough for what I was trying to do. I also decided to tilt his head up more to further the personality I wanted to give him.
From here I was pleased enough, and all I had to do was erase overlaps and clean everything up.
Generally I’m pleased with the result. The design may be a bit basic, but I think the personality is clear and present. I also enjoy the accidental resemblance to styles used bu UPA in the 60s.
Run Cycle
I decided quite quickly that I would like to use Santa Claus as my muse for my run cycle. I thought his hat, hair, beard and overall mass would give me plenty of opportunity to play with secondary action and inject some character into the way he might run.
As you can see above I had fun thinking of ways to interpret Father Christmas’ usual design into something more suitable for my purposes, of course researching some history and looking to different films like ‘Klaus’ and ‘Rise of the Guardians’ for reference. Despite those references I decided I wanted a more traditional take, and explored one design I liked further in Procreate (below). I liked the fact that this Santa was essentially a big triangle, divided into big, medium and small parts.
In the bottom of the above photo you’ll find something close to what I settled on. I liked the idea of having Saint Nick without a coat on so I could better show the shifting weight on the up and down poses, remembering something else Niall gave me advice on when prompted; weight. Showing weight in a run relies on the exaggeration of the down/impact pose in particular, as well as the fact that a fat person’s run will generally be slower as it takes longer to lift their own weight- there’ll be more drag. Also, contrast between the key poses will be instrumental to convey impact.
I used my first pass mostly to work out how the conical legs I’d given him would bend and move, as well as figuring out how the arms swung. The latter took me quite a while to get right, but I think I got pretty close thanks to one particular reference I found:
Honestly I couldn’t have wished for better reference- a slow motion side-on run featuring Mr. S. Claus himself.
I found this one of help too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0PSRidKp5w&ab_channel=BurhanuddinGinting
And by way of final design and exaggerated squash and stretch, this one helped me as well.
Below you can see the addition of some squash and stretch. the animation of the hat left me confused for a while, but I managed to apply some ideas from the smoke in my walk cycle and I think the result is good.
Unlike my other two animations I decided to give Santa some colour, as it’s such an important element of his iconography. Instead of white dress gloves as in the reference I gave him some forest green mittens because that colour went well with the crimson I used for his hat and trousers. To keep his dress in cool colours I decided to make his shirt a lavender, which compliments the warm yellowish grey in his beard.
I’m very happy with the result here. I think it showcases all I wanted it to.
Body Mechanics
For my body mechanics animation I thought immediately of Fred Astaire. He was a marvel of movement and his illustrious film career proved an endless resource. Notwithstanding the length, depth and breadth of his work I found quite quickly what I was looking for. It was an elegant little step, slide and turn in a film called ‘A Damsel in Distress’ (1937) that I decided to use as a starting point. You’ll see it in the below video from 01:12-01:20. It’s a very subtle yet satisfying move that I found myself very drawn to.
Above are some thoughts on posing and character design.
Below are some additional movement studies from a performances of Astaire’s in ‘Royal Wedding’ (1951), which I was also considering as reference.
To get a sense of timing and of the forms as he turns I started blocking with some loose figure drawings. Niall’s advice helped me greatly with this one- he noticed in my earliest pass (below) that my drawings were moving stage left as he turned, which wouldn’t be possible. He also pointed out that there ought to be a subtle dip when he slides, adding an arc to the movement and enhancing the feeling of elegance.
I applied this feedback as best I could and came up with a more final block that I was pleased with. Something else Niall mentioned was adding a delay on the movement of the hand as he comes to a stop, which I struggled to implement, but discovered that I liked the snap stop that having the hand brought in at the same time as the dragging leg created, and so kept it.
Even though the action is short it took me a long time to get what I wanted out of my animation, and I spent more time blocking than anything else. That said, I’m glad I spent so long on the sketches so as when I came to cleaning them up I had a good base to work off of.
I came up with a more final design to work from for the over-drawing stage, though I didn’t end up filling the forms in black as I thought it would make the action hard to see.
Although it is looser than I wanted it to be, I’m contented with my outcome here. I think more than anything the timing, dust FX and smears work to sell the motion, and in especial I enjoy how the tails turn with the character’s body.