Animating with Alan Martin

We had a guest lecturer in, Alan Martin, who went through the basic steps to creating a walk cycle based on John Preston’s diagram of the stages of a walk: the contact pose, the recoil and the passing stages.

Each pose of the walk was given a space of 3 frames as this resulted in a speed that suited the style of walk. Body dynamics was also mentioned.. the hips and shoulders will oppose each other in most of the poses, the shoulders will rotate down  when the hips rotate up: this is easily visualised when sections of the body are divided up using cubes.

The numbers need to add up: For example when the hips are given a value of 12, the chest (which is made up of 3 controllers) will be given a value of 4. ( 4 multiplied by three equals 12.)

When using the foot roll controller, the maximum value will be 40 ( 45 at a push) as this is pushing the body to the max, if 40 doesn’t give you the desired look a toe roll can be added on top of the foot roll, this will give a better poses than exceeding the limit of the foot roll, exceeding it may look unnatural.

The wrist should not be seen as a dead appendage that is just hanging on the end of an arm – especially not in a dynamic walk. It can be used as a means of showing the character is in control, he is driving his body forward: imagine walking in a swimming pool, the drag and weight in the hands created by the resistance of the water, this is the same when walking, the hands will form the shape shapes and turns, they just aren’t as obvious – there is still an element of resistance between the hands and the air.

Below is the walk cycle that was created in class:

 

Preston Blair – Cartoon animation

“Rhythm in animation is based on the wave principle, the “Line of Beauty” curve – an S shape, animates as a wave into the opposite Z shape and back, the wave is pushed or manipulated from one side to the other. To begin with start with your first drawing an create a chain reaction of rhythm lines waving.”

“TAILS : a delayed secondary action.

For a Squirrel the order would be feet first, then the body rises, the arms may then arrive, followed by the tail.

Delayed secondary actions are effective in putting life into poses and holds. A chain of parts can arrive at different times and in different timings to take the curse off of any held drawing.”

Another useful source of reference would be the bouncing ball with a tail from the ‘Animators Survival Kit’.

I thought it would be useful for me to draw out the movements and images mentioned above to make sure I fully understood them.