Motion Assignment 1: Walk Cycle

Cse459 Preproduction for Digital Animation

Part 1: 12 Principles of Animation

For each principle, find 2 videos that demonstrate it excluding: Appeal and Solid drawing

• Squash and stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging (an image showing bad staging vs good staging might be more fitting here :))
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Slow In and Slow Out
• Arcs
• Secondary Action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid Drawing
• Appeal

Part 2: Stationary Walk Cycle

• Download the Lt.Dan character.
• Planning sheets and video reference are a MUST! View Examples Here
• Complete a standard walkcycle using this tutorial as a guide.

Turn-in

Part 1: Principles of Motion

• A TXT document with links to each video. Make sure that it is clear which links are describing which principles. Give a 1-3 sentence description of how each video demonstrates that principle.

Part 2: Walk Cycle

• Planning sheets in JPG form.
• Turn in 3 playblasts: one from the side camera, one from the front camera, and one from a clear perpective camera.

Grading Criteria

Part 1: Principles of Motion

• This is just for you to understand what the motion principles are. We'll just be checking to see if the videos you found demonstrate the principle.

Part 2: Walk Cycle

• Fluidity in motion (no jerks, abrupt stops and pops)
• Nice motion paths/arcs
• Demonstration of ease-in ease-out (the feet)
• Overlapping motion (the hips shouldn't move exactly in-sync with the feet)

Useful Links

Please have a look! :)

Understanding the graph editor by Victor Navone (A pixar animator):

Descriptive explainations of the principles:

Another wakl cycle tutorial:

Awesome walk cycles as examples: