This blog will detail the process of my confident character walk!
I again used references from The Amazing Digital circus, as well as Kevin Parry’s walks.
Another walk cycle that helped me out a lot this time is a walk cycle from Klaus’ production team!
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/MzY2ZDM3ODkz/
Although the specific walk I referenced is a little more generic, it’s a sideways stylised walk that I enjoyed the look of and referenced a lot for this cycle.
Personal notes in preparation for the walk:
And my PureRef setup (along with other walk cycle references shown before):
Personal notes:
I started off by importing this drawing of the character into ToonBoom and lowering the opacity so I could draw over it, as I really like this drawing and I think it shows the character’s personality pretty well.
I had to vectorise the image so that I could move it freely in the program.
I once again started with the basic up and down movement of the head and the body.
Attempting some basic back and forward movement.
Another leg arc plan!
Helpful reference that I used for this walk as well (thanks for Chloë for sending it to me)!
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZGX6B0
I took note of how raised the chest is and how high the arms come up – although this is a very exaggerated example.
Chloë also suggested that perhaps I could make the pass pose a little quicker.
Though I wasn’t sure how much I liked this. I might just not have been executing it quite right.
After experimenting a bit more with this cycle I created this nice movement that I liked, it looked a little bit like a bobble head movement. I was also referencing that Amazing Digital Circus walk cycle with the head and body coming closer together, although I didn’t add any squash or stretch this time.
I also realised in hindsight that by referencing the posing of the walk cycle for Klaus, I had accidentally tweened the animation right from the start … I made a note to try to avoid this in future animations.
Starting to lay out the upper body movements.
More upper body movements and counterbalance in the lower body.
New plan for the legs! I really liked how I made the foot drag behind.
Drawn in, I was really happy with how this was turning out!
After hours of pain and difficulty … I finally figured out a tail movement that I was happy with.
I referenced this video, which ended up helping me with my other animations too:
The exercise I did based on that video which helped me with the movement of the tail on my character.
I still found it a little difficult to apply to the character as the tail doesn’t move quite as far up and down as in the exercise, but it still helped me immensely.
Then I improved upon the tail animation a little more. (The lines that show up beside the body are just personal notes to show the movement of the body.)
Another arm arc plan, as well as a plan for the hand on the hip. For the arm swinging casually, I decided to break the limb a little bit, but I think it ends up working. I like how the arm follows a pendulum sort of motion, and it really gives off a leisurely sort of approach.
However, I got some feedback to perhaps make the arm not so leisurely and to make the character appear a bit more confident, there should be at least a little bit of tension in the arm. I made sure not to make it too tense, though, to still give off the aura that this character feels like he owns the place.
However, I brought the arm up a little more and I feel this gave the walk a little bit more of a feeling of bravado!
The hair attempt was obviously very temporary, and I tried something new with the ears, making it feel almost like they’re moving the character forward rather than following behind him, though I’m not sure if I would make that same decision if I were to redo this.
I was also going to initially add a bit more of a head tilt towards and away from the camera as he walked, but I ended up running out of time. I may change this when I’m polishing up this animation for my portfolio, though.
A lot is going on here so I’ll explain one by one.
The arm on the hip was a huge struggle for me for a while. I was finding it hard to conceptualise how that would look and it was difficult to find any reference.
Then I remembered, oh yeah, I can make my own reference!
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/YWQ0YjIxNjE1/
Recording and referencing these helped me understand that more realistically (even if a little exaggerated), the arm starts pointing towards the camera and coming around a bit as the body rotates. It’s not perfect but I was glad to figure it out eventually.
I had to adjust the other arm a bit because in my arc plan, I accidentally ended up making the forearm way too long. It was a little awkward to try to adjust, but I think it ended up looking okay anyway!
With the hair and fluff on the chest I tried to have a bit of up and down movement like before, though admittedly it was a little rushed and I think this should be adjusted when I polish this animation up in the future.
The horn is drawn in as I was originally going to copy and paste it with the rest of the head, but drawing it in actually added a silly little bounce effect that I kind of enjoy!
Finally, I added in some wing movement, which was also a little bit of a struggle – initially it looked a little off but a friend suggested I made the wings flap towards the body more, which I think helped it look a little better. I think it could still use some adjusting, though.
Regardless, overall I am really happy with how this walk turned out, and I really enjoy this overconfident and sassy character that I created – I think all things considered, the personality comes through pretty well!