Walking Cycle Animation

The Project

For this project we first had to create a character of our own on paper. We had to leave out shading and colors because that was to be added in Photoshop later. Then, scanned or sent our drawing to our computers and imported it into Photoshop. From there we edited out the extra space so it was only our character. Next we had to separate and copy the parts of our character if we were planning on having them move in the animation.  After that we added in color along with shine and shadows using the dodge and burn tool. Finally, we added in a background and then we were ready to move on to After Effects. In After Effects we started with setting the anchor points for each of the body parts that would be moving in the animation. Then we parented all the parts from the body to keep them from falling off. From there we set position and rotation keyframes accordingly. Every part had to move opposite from each other which was the hardest part. Before moving on to the null object we added a shadow by making a shape and applying a Gaussian Blur effect. The last step was the null object which we only had two keyframes for; one at the beginning, one at the end. If your character walked faster you might have had to move them closer together to make sure your character wasn't gliding across the floor. After that, you were done and you could export and upload to YouTube.

Overview

At the beginning of this project I had a hard time creating a character I really liked I had two designs before I came up with my little dinosaur: a robot and a teddy bear. I ended up pulling out my sketchbook when I had some extra time in another class and started doodling, ending up with my dinosaur. The Photoshop portion of this project was pretty simple for me. I implemented some skills from some previous projects to make the window looking outside and the shadow-like effects on the floor and door. In After Effects things started to get a little tricky. It took me a while to get the movement of the legs to where they are now. There is still a little glitch in the right leg every few seconds. After finishing the arm and leg movements I realized that I needed some head movement to make the animation look more smooth. I had to go back into Photoshop and separate his head into another layer before I could make it move. I ended up having some extra time so I made his eye blink as well.

What I Would Change

Overall, this project was a lot of fun! I missed a day of class due to orchestra but I was able to catch up pretty easily. I really liked how it turned out. The only part I would change would be glitch in his leg. I believe that happened because of a mistake keyframe when I was first attempting to make him walk. I would also like to make the background more realistic because it looks pretty 2-Dimensional.