For this scene I wanted to have another walk cycle so that my character can walk up to the stall to grab a ball for her brother to have the first throw. Since my 30 seconds on paper didn't seem as full of action as Hayley's, I thought having a walk cycle would be perfect and would allow me to practice how to bring fluidity and realism to my character. This time, I tried to narrow it down to just 5 poses like Mat had told me to look at. This really helped me see what poses would come next instead of just estimating. I also tried to add in the aspect of when her left foot is in front, then her left hand would be behind, as if it were to be the opposite pairings, then her walk would look stiff and unnatural.
Also because we have a lot going on in our scene, I found it much more easier and practical to select my character and her controls, press ctrl+H and animate her this way, so that I could hide the rest of the scene, but be able to pose her and complete her walk cycle, without other objects obstructing the way.
Therefore I think that this walk cycle is much more smooth than my first try, so that shows I am improving! I also think the timings in between steps match, and her body as a whole is positioned in a much more natural way!
The next stage of this scene was my character picking up a ball. I didn't really know how to approach this scene, so for the most part, I just kept setting the keys for the ball in the same positions as my character's hand. This was quite difficult to do because obviously the ball moved at different times to the girl's hand as they are keyed in different frames, so I just had to key the ball in every frame in order to keep the movements looking consistent. I am really happy with how she picks up the ball, and how she steps back. Trying to make her walk backwards was harder to plan out that a regular walk cycle, because her legs are so thin I kept getting confused at which one was which!
To help me with timing and all the unplanned actions that were not in the animatic, I made myself some really rough, but easy for me to understand drawings of what each character is doing at each time. I found this to be extremely useful because I could plan ahead, as well as have continuity within my animation as I knew what was coming up next and where each position of each character would be.
Then I wanted to convey some of her mischief into the scene since I felt like there isn't a lot of it in there yet and that is the main trait of her personality! So I decided to have the little sister tease her brother by playing with the ball that he wants to use, throwing it up and down into the air to tempt him even further. What was hard about this action was all along I forgot to bend her elbow throughout the process, so her hand was just moving up and down. But once I achieved it, the motion looked ten times better. I wish I could have bent her palms inwards but my character's hands didn't have that ability, which I regret now! I also tried to roll the ball down her hand and roll it back up when she is about to throw it again, just for gravitational emphasis. I think it looks much better this way however!
Then, fed up with her antics, I posed Hayley's character in a way that allowed him snatch the ball from his sisters grasp! I didn't think I would be able to make Hayley's character move very well because he is much more solid and wider than the character I was used to animating with, but I surprised myself again. I did struggle with this scene but I kept at it to try and get the grabbing motion to be the right timing. I also made him look like his legs are moving, through his body's swaying motion which I am very pleased with. I tried to think of how every part of his body would be effected with this motion, so that I could really try and emulate a natural movement.
This is a quick play blast of the whole scene! I am quite happy with it as it looks okay considering this is the first time I have ever properly animated in Maya! If I have time I would like to change the speed of her walk, just slightly as I think it could be a bit faster, however my aim is to animate the whole 30 seconds of my scenes, and then go back and perfect them!
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