Welcome to Ms Borgersen's digital art class

Walk cycle 

Walking: a simple human function. But how easily is this mirrored in the animating world?

Welcome to the wonders of the walk cycle: a series of animations that loops endlessly to mirror the motion of a character taking steps. The cycle is repeated over and over, the primary purpose of this being an aversion to animating each step again.  

Walk cycles are an integral part of an animator’s learning because this technique is the basis for character animation: from 2D short films to extensive video game storylines and cinematic films.

Character animation can be an arduous task within motion design since it requires an integrated approach based on foundational skill but it can be broken down into 4 simples and  distinct poses:

CONTACT, RECOIL, PASSING and HIGH-POINT.​

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Contacl pose

​The feet are at their furthest extension in the walk. That is their most extreme position in the cycle. That alone makes this the most critical pose in the sequence. You can plan an entire walk sequence just by laying out all the contact poses as they work into one another.
Recoil pose

This is the frame where the character impacts the ground. It is also the lowest point in the cycle. The characters arms are furthest from the body as a result of the force of hitting the ground. The front foot is fully in contact with the ground; the rear foot has just lifted up from it.
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Note that the leading foot is directly beneath the body, supporting the weight above it. Too many beginners produce recoil poses where the foot is not beneath the body, but several inches ahead of it. Try to avoid this.
The passing 

​The Passing: The passing position is the point in which the feet are at the midpoint of changing positing.
High Point pose

​This is the highest point in the cycle. The character's body is stretched to the maximum as he lifts his leading leg forward to reach the next contact position. The heel of the trailing foot is just beginning to leave the ground.

Assignment: One 

Using Frame by frame animation and one of the walk cycle reference below students are going to createe a fill walk cycle. Using either a stick figure or a character of your own draw each walk cycle poses; contact, down, pass and hit point with in between frames. 


Step one: choose one of the following guides.  
Step two: bring into animate and between drawing your frames based on the structure of the template.  Each character must have two legs and two arms.   

Assignment one reqs

  1. walk motion should be fluid
  2. characters should have arms and legs
  3. characters should so some compression and expansion in their walk
  4. The movie should be a minimum of 5 seconds (you can put the walk on repeat) 
  5. Animation should be clean  and show craftsmanship

Assignment two

Now that you have gotten used to adobe animate and a classic walk cycle now lets up the creativity and difficulty.  I want you to now animate your own character for 10 to 15 seconds. You may ask what does your character need to do, well that's up to you.  What you must have an original character that moves and comes to life in some way.  you can make them walk or maybe they are even falling down. Or maybe they are transformed in some way.  Maybe its even a short skit that they are in , where something happens to them.  

What will you need?

- an original character
- a action or movement that your character is going to do
- must be 5 seconds long
- Must be fluid and realistic movement.   (My suggestion is to look a reference, like if  your character is sipping tea how does a arm naturally fold upward to bring the cup to the mouth. ) anima) Animation is so much more than just art and drawingreally part acting too and a little bit of physics.