Animation Fundamentals : Project 1

Week 6 - Week 8 : 6 Oct 2022 - 19 Oct 2022

Tan Yi Yun 0345559
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 1/Vanilla Walk Animation
INSTRUCTIONS

PROJECT 1 : Vanilla Walk Animation

Try out
I just wanna explore different ways of animating the walk cycle. So, I try the way of drawing them pose by pose, side by side in Adobe Photoshop. 
Figure 1.1, Walk cycle tryout, Week 6 (6/20/2022)

Figure 1.2, Walk cycle tryout, Week 6 (6/20/2022)
In Figure 1.2, the outcome looks "smooth" with a nice arc formed by the different heights of the head. However, when you take a closer look, something went a little bit off. The legs are messy because it is difficult to determine the contact point when the foot touches the ground. Besides, the angle of the legs and distance between two legs are hard to estimate.

Although I have kept the distance consistent, it is still difficult to draw the in-betweens. 
Figure 1.3, Overlapping the poses, Week 6 (6/20/2022)

Figure 1.4, Overlapping the poses (after fixing), Week 6 (6/20/2022)

And there is a GIF animation done in Photoshop. 
Test animation, Week 6 (6/10/2022)


Anya walk cycle
The character I have chosen is Anya Forger from "Spy x Family". 

Figure 1.5, Anya, Week 6 (6/10/2022)
This is a challenging task because not only I have to animate her limbs, I will also need to take note on her hair by applying the principle of drag and follow. I started off by drawing Anya's front and side view in Photoshop. 

Figure 1.6, Anya's front and side view, Week 6 (6/10/2022)
Side: Anya's walk cycle (rough) - 8 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - side view (rough), Week 7 (10/10/2022)

Side: Anya's walk cycle (rough) - 24 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - side view (rough), Week 7 (10/10/2022)

Side: Anya's walk cycle (clean up) - 24 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - side view (clean up), Week 7 (10/10/2022)

Side: Anya's walk cycle (coloured) - 8 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - side view (clean up), Week 7 (10/10/2022)

Side: Anya's walk cycle (coloured) - 24 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - side view (clean up), Week 7 (10/10/2022)

Front: Anya's walk cycle (rough) - 8 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - front view (rough), Week 8 (18/10/2022)

Front: Anya's walk cycle (rough) - 24 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - front view (rough), Week 8 (18/10/2022)

Front: Anya's walk cycle (coloured) - 8 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - front view (coloured), Week 8 (19/10/2022)

Front: Anya's walk cycle (coloured) - 24 keyframes
Anya's walk cycle - front view (coloured), Week 8 (19/10/2022)

Finally, I have produced both front and side walk cycle of Anya and compiled them into a single video. 

Final Compilation
Final compilation of Anya's walk cycle, Week 8 (19/10/2022)

FEEDBACK

Week 11 :
The 8-keyframe (on 3) walk cycle looks better than the 24-keyframe (on 1). It's a good experience to see the mistakes of animating on 1. 


REFLECTION

This project is considered a fresh experience because I have never tried to animate a walk cycle. I realized the 24-keyframe animation looks wonky compared to 8-keyframe. I think it's because the more frame they are, the more obvious mistake will be captured when the line of action is not smooth enough. One of the challenges I faced is the difficulty of animating the in-betweens. The 8 key poses (contact, down, pass, up) are considered easy and manageable. The in-betweens are difficult to produce a smooth spacing (e.g. the skirt). I also found Adobe Animate difficult to draw the line art because the pressure are not sensitive, the selection tool are weird --- just very different from Adobe Photoshop. After trying to draw a few times in Adobe Animate, I switched back to use Adobe Photoshop. Since I am more familiar with this software and thus, I can maximize the working speed. Then, I imported all the drawings into Adobe Animate to adjust the frame rate. 

Anyhow, I am glad that I have tried different types of keyframe interval - too wide will decrease the smoothness, too narrow will lose the cartoony vibe and increase the chance of "wonkiness". Although the project may look simple, the instructions are straightforward, it is still a challenging task for a beginning animator because there are some principles of animation need to be aware of.