In this module we were required to create two walk cycles and two run cycles. Each one was to be done as a basic walk/run and a walk/run with personality. Within this module I learnt a lot, especially when it came to using FK and IK controls.

I decided to do my walk cycles in 3D. For this I used Blender to do my animations. I used Blender’s ‘Rain’ rig as a base for my animation. This allowed me to use a rig with full controls without having to create a full model and rig. An example of the rain rig is shown below.

I started creating my first walk cycle within Blender. This didn’t prove that much of a challenge as I was well versed in walk cycles due to my previous experience. I used a reference from the ‘Animator’s Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams.

This reference was extremely helpful as it helped me with my spacing as well as the curves of the head position. I read through parts of this book to help with this walk cycle and it was very rewarding and helped me with smooth my original walk cycle. It contains very helpful tips and tricks. I was very interested on the sections to do with weight as I feel like I was able to improve my animation by applying the advice about weight.

Originally I used Inverse Kinematic controls for my arms in this walk cycle. Ultimately this made the whole thing look off. The arms were very jittery and didn’t seem to move with their weight properly. I managed to get some advice from my lecturers who helped me understand more the essentials of Inverse and Forward Kinematics within animation. I applied this to my animation and managed to get a smoother feeling within the arms. I now understand the mechanics of Inverse and Forward Kinematics – especially within the ‘chain – like’ idea and the directions involved in both. A clip of my animation is attached below.

For some reason, after rendering the animation, the eyeballs didn’t seem to move with the rest of the rig. This stumped me as I was unsure how to fix this and I tried many methods. It seemed to only appear within the render and never within the viewport. I figured it was an issue with keyframes which I tried checked and didn’t seem to find anything. I would improve on this next time to create a much smoother render and if I had time I would talk to my lecturers about this. If I were to do this again, I would definitely start with using Forward Kinematics instead of Inverse Kinematics. This would allow me to create a smoother animation from the get go without having to go back and edit it later on.

After this I moved onto my first run cycle. This one was a little harder than the walk cycle as I had no previous experience doing them. Again I did this in 3D using the Rain rig. Again I used ‘The Animators Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams as a reference. I chose to use the reference for a more exaggerated cycle. This would allow me to understand the extremes of the animation while keeping the general structure of a run cycle. The reference I used is shown below.

This was an extremely helpful reference to help with my spacing and structure. Again, I originally used Inverse Kinematics for the arms and legs. This ultimately made the animation appear jumpy and not very smooth. After getting the advice from my lecturers, I went back on the animation and refreshed it using Forward Kinematics. This took some time, but it allowed a much smoother running animation. Another slight issue I had was with one of the legs jumping. After getting some help, we discovered there was an extra keyframe hidden deep with the animation. We went into the graph editor to find the keyframe and removed it, ultimately creating a smoother curve in the graph. This was extremely helpful to be shown, as I started to understand more about the graphs and how their smoothness affects the animation. A clip of my run cycle is shown below.

Another issue I had was with the secondary action within the hair. This caused me issues as I was unsure where the hair had to move. For this I went straight to YouTube and searched up videos of ponytails bouncing. This was extremely helpful and I was eventually able to create a much better looking animation. I am still very aware that it could be improved and still doesn’t look the smoothest but I would wish to do that next time as I learn.

If I were to do this animation again I would definitely focus a lot more on the secondary action within the animation. I would work more with references and actually use a lot more Forward Kinematics for the hair as I believe it would create a much more smooth animation within the hair.

Next I started working on my walk cycle with personality. I was actually quite happy with how this one turned out. I started brainstorming some ideas and eventually settled on an injured look, with one leg dragging behind the character, like a zombie. I hoped this would create an interesting and different look as well as challenge me.

For this one, I originally blocked out the idea of the rough walk I had within my head. This was just to be used as a guide to help create a reference. From that, I asked my girlfriend to walk around using the pose. This allowed me to create a smoother look within the animation. The main struggle I had was actually creating the look that the character was ‘pulling’ the leg behind themselves. This was mainly solved when I moved onto the upper torso animation. I figured out that using the torso and arm on the opposite side of the dragging leg would create the much needed effect of dragging the leg. My animation is shown below.

I believe the ‘throwing of the arm’ effect I created helped exaggerate the look of struggle within the character, adding a nice cartoon-like feeling to the animation. If I were to do this one again, I would start with looking at more references to ensure a better and smoother animation. I would help a lot if I had started with Forward Kinematics, similarly to my other animations. This would have sped up my process a lot and made it so much easier to animate.

Finally I started working on my run cycle with personality. I initially started following the same premise of an injured look. I hoped I could have made this work but when blocking out the animation everything seemed entirely off. It just wasn’t smooth or even remotely made sense. After reflecting on this I decided to change this by changing the idea. I settled on a crazed, deranged and manic run cycle. I got the idea of this from the iconic running style of Pennywise from the 2016 ‘IT’ movie. This is what I based my idea and reference on.

When I started this I had a much better idea of how Forward and Inverse Kinematics worked. Because of this I was able to create a smoother animation in a much shorter timeframe than before. I used a mixture of these to create the look. The main issue I had with this one was figuring out the timings of the chest twisting. It took some experimenting but I eventually managed to create the look I was aiming for. I used this animation as an opportunity to experiment with the facial controls of the rig. This was actually extremely fun and I really enjoyed it. I managed to use the controls to create a crazed look within the characters face which I think looks well. My animations, shown from two angles, are below.

I was very pleased with how this one turned out. If I were to do it again I think I would add more animation to the upper body, arms and face. I would have liked to do this but I just ran out of time. This would be the icing on the cake for this animation, in my opinion, and would have really helped to polish it off completely. In the future, I would also like to revisit the injured run idea and complete it, as a way to challenge myself with the skills I learnt through this section of the module.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. It allowed me to really explore the animation potential of blender and it was extremely useful being able to learn how a proper, fully developed rig works in animation. This term I acknowledge I was not in a lot of classes for this assignment. This was mainly due to my work and mental health taking a toll again. I am aiming on combating this by slightly reducing my work hours to focus on myself and the course more. Because of this, I am going to aim to attend a lot more of the classes for the next assignment so I don’t have to try to follow along at home for the whole assignment. This would allow me to really improve my skills and  by getting the practical help I require from the lecturers and my peers.

I thought this assignment really helped develop my skills in animation. I learnt so many more key processes to add to my own development pipeline. This will be extremely helpful in the future when it comes to other assignments and personal projects. I was very pleased with how my animations turned out and am open to any advice on how to improve them. Next time, if I were to do this assignment again, I would definitely try to manage my time a lot more, this would be extremely helpful as it would make the assignment less stressful for myself. I would also try to use a lot more references for my research and development. This would help me create more realistic looking animations which I ultimately regret not doing, as finding more references would have made this project a whole lot shorter.

I really enjoyed this assignment and I hope to use my feedback as well as the skills I learnt in the future to revisit it to create smoother walk and run cycles.

 

Final Animation Showreel Link: