Over the summer of 2023, between my first and second years of the Animation Course, I set myself the goal of improving my creative skills over the break by planning out different projects and ideas to work on before proceeding into year 2. These included personal projects for myself such as character designs and concept art, and the recommended animation practices we were encouraged to do over the summer, the main one being learning how to animate walk cycles. Below are the three main walk cycles I had animated in both Clip Studio Paint and in Krita, each of which featuring rough character sketches with differing silhouettes and walking styles.
Practice Walk 1-
Practice Walk 2-
Practice Walk 3-
Practice Walk 4-
Practice Walks Comparison-
Project: Personal
Programs: Clip Studio Paint, Krita.
I decided on this method as I aimed to convey the different personality types that can be shown to the audience through walks cycles. in Richard Williams’ ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’, he highlights the advice of Ken Harris that “walks are about the toughest thing to do right” (Williams 2001, p. 102) , additionally stating that “All walks are different” and “No two people in the world walk the same” (Williams 2001, p. 103).
Additionally, I had also attempted to do an animation practice where I took a voice line I had recorded myself from a small independent project I worked on and aimed to animate a character speaking the line and acting out the emotions felt. However, I had to cut the practice short due to my inexperience at animating lip sync. Hence, it is only a work in progress at the current point in time. However, I am still proud of the work I have done so far.
WIP character animation-
Project: Personal work
Programs: Krita
Voice acting provided by myself.
References-
Williams, R 2001, The Animator’s Survival Kit, Faber and Faber, United States.