Walk Cycle

My walk cycle was quite simple. I used references from the Animators Survival Kit to build my basic keyframes.

Once my basic keyframes were layed out I moved onto spacing the feet apart and slightly rotating the shoulders and upper chest. I done this gradually with every frame.

After adjusting the model I added in some simple directional lighting over one side of the model to give some shadowing. I then added in a camera, and placed it about midway of the character. To render this scene I used Arnold, however I did have issues trying to use it as the plug in wasn’t working, and so I was able to go into Settings/Preferences and Plug-In Manager and tick load.

Going into my rendering settings I rendered the scene as PNG and set the quality to HD1080. Once my render had finished I went into Premier Pro and imported the first image and selected image sequenc, this allowed the rest of the images to import as well. I was able to drag the video of my animation onto the timeline and repeated 3 times to loop the final animation. Going to export I used the format H.264 and uploaded to my folder.

Below is my final animation:

 

Links:

How to render out your Animation sequence in Maya 2020 using Arnold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F0klwCw2m8

Run Cycle

For my run cycle I started off with a reference from the Animators Survival Kit.

I used this image to build up my basic key poses. From here I tweaked the feet outwards and rotated the hips and the top of the chest. I decided to use this rig since it was really maneuverable. I also used the main rig around the waist to adjust the height of the jump between steps. I also added in some curvature to the feet, bending them slightly when the foot was landing and lifting off.

Once I was happy with the final outcome, I added in a single directional light and a camera to set up my scene. I also used the show tab to remove the hud display as well as the controls around the rig.

 

For rendering I used Arnold within Maya. I changed the format to PNG and changed the display to 1020. From here I used this image sequence and imported them into Premier Pro to combine and connect to make my animation loop. I exported the video as a H.264.

Below is my final animation:

 

Parkour Cycle

Starting off my movement animation, I knew straight away I wanted to do an animation of parkour. I went through a lot of YouTube videos and channels deciding what kind of jumps or flips I could achieve.

I began by animating a basic jump which would flow into a second with a landing pose. I used a reference from Pinterest that showed me basic blocking to start me off.

  

From these keyframes I went back into them and added more spacing between the legs, slighting lifting one leg higher than the other in a mid jump and adjusting the arms outwards. I also added squash and stretch in the middle of the jump and adjusted the length of time my character would be while at the highest part of the jump.

            

One issue I did come across was that in-between frames the arms would go out of place. To fix this issue I found out about Gimbal locking, this meant I had to go into the roation tool into Gimbal mode and rotate the axis. Then when returning to my normal axis I was able to adjust and set a new key.

From this landing pose I was able to review these frames. I adjusted the width of the feet apart and lowered the body down. This then allowed me to add in a shuffle animation to make it seem that the rig had fallen but continued momentum into the next jump. However, when trying to animate this shuffle it ended up looking like the feet were gliding across the ground and so instead I decided to do and longer landing and animate the rig straight into the run.

            

 

                       

After completing the run I started the final part of my animation which was the front flip. This last jump began as a thought of doing a b-flip but looking through step by step screenshots of the frames I thought I would be over doing the overall animation. I found a great reference of a flip which I followed some but not all of them. It took me a while to adjust the distance in which the rig would jump but the overall ending seemed realistic in terms of the distance the rig ran before the jump.

 

One of my biggest struggles while animating was using the dope sheet. I struggled when it came to adjusting the frames, sometimes the body would move but the positioning of the feet would be left but I discovered to select the whole body and move the frame after. From this every keyframe I adjusted the frames moved correctly.

 

The two images below show me struggling with the dope sheet and some things moving and others not but I simply deleted the frames and selected the whole rig before moving the frame.

To render this animation I repeated the same as my other cycles using Arnold at the same quality and imported the images to premier pro. This time I didn’t repeat the video clip I just kept it as one due to the duration of this animation compared to the other two.

Below is my final video: