Polish and final animation

 

The polishing and the final animation

 

 

The final animation was created with the Nurb curves and grid hidden, a floor was added to stop the character looking like it was walking on air, and the geometry of the body was set in smooth.

 



Blocking the animation

 

Blocking the animation

 

now with the planning done, it was time to start on making the animation. I first started with the a single sidestep, going to the right for the character.
 

 

I noticed after making the step that it was a lot harder to make a post and pre infinity loop as the character is moving at an uneven tempo and would eventually stop unlike the walk cycle. To solve this I decide not the create the infinity cycle, but only animate two side steps for the animation.

 

During peer review, the teacher advised that for my blocking the body should be balanced more properly as the weight of his body was uneven and to avoid rotating the feet too much.

The second pass of blocking was the complete animation, with two sidesteps and the Package man peering around the corner. After the second pass was peer reviewed, the teacher advised that the arm were given more animation as one student pointed out that they looked like they were frozen and stuck onto the wall. Also she added that facial expressions should be added.

 

Planning the animation

 

Planning the animation

 

 

As we had many different basics animation to choose from, ranging in different levels of complexity such as turning on the spot 180 degrees, jumping onto an object or taking a step forward, I decided to have the character to move sidewards. Once I decided on my animation, I watched a couple of references ranging from a single sidestep, a subtle marching step and even a bunch of animators like ourselves sidestepping one by one.

 

One of the animators sidestepping

 

While observing the videos I began seeing a pattern in the walk cycle, being one foot at a time, as opposed to the basic walk cycle with both feet moving at the same time in similar motion. The centre of gravity balanced on the stationary foot, then shifted to the other foot as the body follows the first movement foot, which depends on which direction the person is moving. the hip also lower and rise more when larger steps taken, and tilt to help manage the centre of gravity

 

Single step reference thumbnail

 

For my animation to make it interesting, I decided that it would be the character, Package Man, creeping sideways along side a wall, when he reaches the end, he would peek his head around the corner for a moment before darting it back around in shock. After a brief pause he would then take another peek. 

Drawing of side steps