I have learned a lot over the course of this assignment – but I think the lessons that are going to stick with me the most are the importance of a sound process and good references.

I tried multiple processes during the assignment, all of which are detailed in each weekly blog. The one that worked the best was used for my vanilla walk cycle. I animated every body part one at a time, on a different layer and in different colours. It made it much easier to select and correct individual flaws and it bettered my understanding of the steps of a walk cycle.

I kept forgetting to use references (outside of the pictures from the ‘Animator’s Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams) for my cycles, and it made life harder every time I didn’t. I found that the sneaking walk cycle in particular took so long because I wasn’t referencing a sneak walk enough – the arcs were good and the movement was smooth and flowing, but it was all for nought unless it looked like the character was sneaking. In contrast, the ‘terrified’ run cycle didn’t take too long at all because I referenced multiple sources and picked certain parts of each.

I’ll be sure to make more of my own references from now on, as not being able to find good refs on YouTube contributes to my lack of usage. I will also stick to my aforementioned walk cycle process in the future.