Animation Strategies (week 6+8)

Walk and Run Cycle

In these lessons we were starting to look into our second assignment for animation strategies, which is animating a run and walk cycle and a body mechanics. We were focusing on how to start off our cycles and Alec was showing us the rigs we had available to us to animate with. Alec started off the lesson by exampling to us the basics of what’s important when it comes to animating a cycle and he had set up six exercises to get us comfortable with blocking our character in Maya, which is something that you need to do in the beginning of animating to set up your cycle and allow the animation to run smoothly.

He had shown us the rig ARZI, Jack and Jill and used Jack to mimic a pose of a guy kicking his leg up into the air, almost above his head. Alec then proceeded to show all the changes you would need to make in order to replicate the movement which the person is doing in the image. This is why I had learnt that blocking out is a good and important method when making an animation and can give you a clear set up to then go in and tweak any important details that might help you cycle in the end.

Even to just block out this on pose exactly Alec had to move the rigs hips, head, waist, torso, foot bend and elbow, all little components to a body but parts that really sell the move as they are needed for that action.

Alec first showed us how he would go about starting up a walk cycle for this animation and how he had shown us how to do this using a 3D character, this method that Alec used will mostly be the same process for each of the cycles that we will be creating. The starting pose for the walking cycle would just simply be the character having one hand out and the another swinging back, with one foot out in front of the other. This would then be swapped for the middle pose and the same for the end. The character is walking which is a more relaxing action so the movement could be quite soft and gentle but will depend on what type of walk that I may end up doing. As a walk with more personality, would cause for more movement within the body and grander gestures to be carried out.

Alec then showed us how at specific parts in the animation as long as they were all spread out number wise, Alec keyed in certain poses after he has moved the character to how they should do within that moment and also copied this to another key frame at a further point, to create the walk cycle and loop.

Alec completed his walk cycle by going in and changing how the rigs hips and torso moved with each leg that the character put out, a change in the shoulders with each arm swing and even showed how little details like a head swaying or hand opening can create a smoother and more realistic walk.

This was the same cycle for when Alec showed us the run cycle, as the body generally moves in the same way but just has more movement and again can depend on the type of run cycle which you are creating. Alec blocked out the poses in the same way by creating a start, middle and end pose and made the body move a bit more than he did with the walk cycle. In these poses and keyframes for the run cycle, there is going to be more movement changed throughout the entire character, as they are taking into account gravity and actually will be moving off the ground. This is why there will be the same hip movements and head movement, but maybe just a tad more extreme. However, with the run cycle Alec showed us how we would need to take into consideration how gravity effects the animation and this is why the body will look different to how it is in the air when gravity is pulling it down and then present a more squashed effect when gravity pushes the weight of the body after it hits the ground.

In my own cycle I have imagined that for my walk cycle that I might do a little extra when creating this and maybe make a specific walk cycle or a walk cycle with a little but more action or story, as last year for my first-year course with Alec. We had also been made to animate a walk and action cycle using rigs in Maya and I also found this at the start to be a difficult task but enjoyable in the end. Since that walk cycle was my first 3D animation I had done, I had gone a simpler route when creating it, as it was first time animating a walk cycle and I didn’t want to give myself more work and difficulty if I wasn’t going to end up being able to animate it successfully. Therefore, for my walk cycle this year and since I have a little bit more practice creating it than everything else, I might go for a bouncy walk or a feminine walk and really try to create a walk cycle with a little bit more difference and character, showing that maybe I improved a little over the year or at least got more confident to try something different.

This won’t be the same story however for my run or body mechanics, as this is where I was with my walk cycle last year and it was something that I was quite new to and hadn’t done before, so wanted to keep it simple enough that I was able to manage and complete the walk cycle in the end.

This means that for my own run cycle and body mechanic cycle I will try my best to create something a little different with my body mechanic cycle as it’s a topic that calls for me to do so and although I will push myself in both animations. They will be simpler to begin with and maybe something that I could developed in more time.

After this lesson and when Alec had given us all the pointers we needed and showed us how he drew up a walk and run cycle, Alec had showed us enough solutions and posing examples to get us started now in creating and drawing up our own three animations. In the animations we learnt that it was good to sit and spend time setting up good and accurate poses to set for the keyframe, because this meant then that the likeness of us going back and having to fix the pose and chop and change the actions will less likely happen. This will be a good thing as it will stop us from being held back when trying to animate our work, spending time on small changes that we could have fixed at the start and allow us to power on through our animation and then spend the time in the end adding a bit more personally to the cycle or fixing up the cycle in the animation graph and making sure everything runs extra smoothly.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8535eb_b9171b6ddf3d4fe4a7f0baf6a1a1ce66/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

It was then time for us the go away and start thinking and preparing for what animation cycle we may want to create. To start preparing before I even began animating and to give myself the best chance at creating an animation that was accurate and going to run smoothly, I needed to do some research and thinking into the animation I wanted to create. I had an idea of doing a different type of walk cycle, a classic run cycle and then maybe someone lifting a heavy object or a witch riding a broom for the body mechanic cycle.

These were all good ideas I think but until I searched some videos and gathered references from online and myself, I was never going to know if these cycles were going to be something that I could manage.

That is why before I searched online, I started to take specific poses of myself doing the different cycles I had in mind, as a first reference is always better than working off another’s work and with what I learnt from last year’s animation and in today’s class. With these photos, I was going to be able to make a start in key-framing my work and inserting my images and drawing in the start, middle and end poses that I would need for that cycle.

As I had no idea where to start and just wanted to get myself into the swing of animating after being rusty for not doing it in a while, I just went straight into gathering self-references for the body mechanics, of a witch trying and struggling to lift her heavy broom and then failing to take off and fly with her heavy broom. I knew that I hadn’t a witch, which would give me the style of the witch and the added bonus of a broom, however I did have the ARZI rig which had the flowing hair and a sword so I thought maybe that could do. It would be something a little different, seeing her use the sword for something silly and adding a little character into the scene.

This was my initial idea so I set up my camera and started running around my room snapping the key poses I thought I would need in order to make the animation of a person running around with a broom, I also thought that maybe starting with this body mechanic would make it easier to go backwards and then strip down the animation to a run and walk. This was going to be hopeful thinking as it has been a while since I animated something, and it might be that starting off with the hardest part of the animation, with the most work might cause me a problem and I may become overwhelmed.

Knowing all these possibilities I knew I wasn’t going to know anything if I didn’t make a start somewhere and had to begin the preparation for my animation. I gathered the references, documented all of my brainstorming and after I gathered photos for a walk and run cycle and a couple of ideas for a body mechanic cycle. I was able to use my images and film that I gathered for making good timing references and started drawing up cycles in Procreate.

I drew up a couple of cycles, trying my best to accurately represent the poses and keyframes I would need in order to have my animation run smoothly. Allowing myself the best chance for when it came to animating my cycles. I was going to start off with a good foot forward and be able to look onto my drawings, copy them and then just have to make small tweaks along the way. I gathered enough references, images, video and drawings that now all that is left is to start the animation and see what I can do.