Walk Through Space - Stop Motion

https://vimeo.com/214024414

This is my first attempt at a full walk cycle in the stop motion room, and in many ways it has been a success, but there are a lot of things that need adapting and changing, so I will revisit this animation in the future to perfect it. Unlike my other animations in this module, I didn't use my own primary resource for reference aside from my bar sheet, this was because I first want to master a simple, regular walk cycle before I can start adding my own personality and tweaks to the animation, and there is an abundance of secondary sources on the internet regarding the walk cycle, and one in particular which I based my animation on - 

Secondary source material

My Bar Sheet Scan

I found the secondary source material very helpful as it listed the 5 key poses in a step, and shows the amount of keyframes in between each of them. The only thing missing from these diagrams is the movement of the arms, so I had to improvise how they moved using my excising knowledge from the Maya animations. Each key pose within this diagram suggests that there is two keyframes in between each pose, meaning that they are on thirds, my final animation sticks to this rule completely, and I found it relatively easy to space out each pose for the armature. The things which I am please with in this animation include;

- The up/down movement of the head is clearly incorporated and accurate according to my source material

- Legs pass and bend accurately

- It is timed so that every two steps is equal to a second of animation

However, as I previously mentioned, there are also some aspects of the animation that I was not happy with, which include;

- The starting and ending pose was a 'contact' pose, meaning that I didn't get to animate how the armature would start and stop the walk. This was because I wanted to purely focus on the cycle, but I feel as though on my next attempt of a similar animation, I will definitely do research into the start and finish of a walk prior to the animation and attempt to incorporate it into it into future animations.

- Due to the lack of arm specifications on the diagram, I feel as though the arms are somewhat over-exaggerated and don't move realistically. So I will make sure my source material has this information next time.

- Each step is varying in length, and makes some steps look overly cartoonish than they should be, and due to the pacing between each step being the same, the speed seems inconsistent. If were to ever to incorporate a walk cycle in the future, I will bring a ruler so that I can ensure each step will cover the same distance.

- The body appears to be too far in front of the legs, which would be more suitable for a running animation

I am glad that I made this animation now, as I feel a lot more confident for using a walk cycle in future animations. After reevaluating this walk cycle, I decided to go back and re-shoot this animation, keeping in mind all the things that I have learnt from it. I attempted to shoot in twos, meaning that each frame is shot twice, meaning it will be played in half the frame rate, thus making me have to cut down the amount of inbetween frames from each key frame in order to prevent the animation from seeming too slow. I wanted to see how this would effect the animations smoothness and appeal.

As you can see there are a few minor improvements that I have made, such as presenting the armature come to a gradual stop, appose to it just freezing as was the case with the original, and getting better control of the arm movements. Despite these very minor improvements, I feel that the original should go as my final submission, as due to the frame rate, the video doesn't seem to flow very well.

Sneak Through Space - Maya

After completing a walk cycle which I was satisfied with, it was then time to experiment with the walk cycle in alternative contexts. I started with the sneak, and due to complexity and my inexperience with animating this movement, I decided to record my own primary video to use as reference material, I tried to keep the cameras focus on the feet, as I feel they will be the most important aspects to master in order to distinguish this from any other type of walk.

From this footage, I then compiled this very simple and quick illustration of all the key stances within the sneak, along with a bar sheet.

Primary Source

Bar Sheet Scan

However, after analysing the simple figures in this, I felt I needed to exaggerate their movements when it came to the animation itself, specifically the way the body leans back when lifting up a foot, and then slowly tilts forward as its then placed on the ground, as I think that along with the feet movement, that is one of the most defining properties of a sneak. This may be as I was perhaps a bit too subtle in my video reference, which won't translate too well into the cartoony figure of Buckid. Thankfully, I found some very helpful secondary sources, which break down key stances of a much more cartoony sneak cycle. I decided to combine elements from both sources to create my final cycle. An aspect that wasn't specified in my primary illustration, was the length of time both feet spend on the ground, as that again is essential to making the type of walk clear, but thankfully it was shown clearly in the secondary source which I gathered.

Secondary Source

https://vimeo.com/212127985

This is the final video for now, and I am impressed with how it has turned out. I made sure that as the leg stretches out, the foot slowly is placed down, with the hip following through shortly after the foot drops, not simultaneously such as in my previous walk cycle. I made sure to add a 5 frame segment after each step where both feet are on the ground. If there was anything I would improve with this animation, it would be the speed, as I was under the impression that a slower movement would have been essential to convey a sneak, however I later discovered that this isn't true, as if all the key poses and sequences are accurate (which I feel as though I have accomplished for the most part in my animation), then the illusion of a sneak will still be made, so if I ever re-do this animation, I will make sure not to spread out the keyframes as much, but for now, I am pleased with my result and it is interesting how remarkably differently I went about animating this than the usual walk animation, due to how vastly different they are from one another.

Walk Through Space - Maya

After getting used to posing and moving Buckid, I then felt I could finally start animating him, starting with a walk through space, however in order to better understand how specifically the feet work and move in a walk cycle, I first animated simple cubes representing a foot each, which moved from A to B in a similar fashion to the way feet would. The main area of focus was the rotation, and after looking through some secondary sources, I realised that as a foot lifts off the ground, the heel kicks slightly behind, before rotating in the opposite direction outwards before making contact with the ground and flattening. Making each step even was also essential to giving a realistic feel for the animation, which the grid visible on the ground assisted me with. After completing this animation, I feel more confident to work with more complicated rigs, however one amendment that I would make in following animations is the final step of the foot, because as it covers a smaller distance than the other steps, the rotation and lift of the foot also have to be reduced, something which I didn't take into account in this animation.

https://vimeo.com/207766381

After that I applied the same principals to the 'Buckid' rig, however this time with the increased complexity of having the rest of the body react accordingly to the foot movements. I started off with a very simple and emotionless walk, which I could then implement some character and life into later.

https://vimeo.com/207780510

This is my most recent addition the the Maya walk cycle experimentation, and there are a lot of improvements and additions from the previous one. 

1.  I realised that as I am no longer dealing with simple cubes, the feet should realistically bend at the heel before lifting off.

2. There is a very subtle 'bob' of the head as the body comes down, which is following the 'Follow-through' animation principal, which I feel gives it a more lively and less robotic feel.

3. The body now reacts more realistically to the movements of the leg, as the lift side of the hips raise with the left foot and vice versa. The shoulders also move with the arm movements more realistically. These adjustments I feel prevent the body from appearing as one big inanimate entity tagging along with the legs.

4. The final step is fixed by having the decreased distance compensated by a reduced rotation and lift from the foot.

5. Arm movement has been slightly reduced, as I felt they were too exaggerated when compared to the leg movements

https://vimeo.com/212127108

These amendments have combined to make a walk cycle that I am relatively pleased with, however I will likely come back to this animation to adjust the mood of the subject during the work, after analysing how mood may effect the walk, as well as making some overall improvements to the walk itself if I feel that they are necessary.

Emotion to Emotion - Stop Motion

Above is the primary reference material which I utilised for the making of my second armature animation. After concluding in my previous stop motion blog post that I felt I should have performed and recorded the actions myself in order to emphasise certain movements and get my personal vision across easier, I done so with the primary material for this particular animation. I performed the actions in front of a mirror so that I can see the actions as I am doing them. For the shocked emotion, I stiffened my body to make the pose appear more tense for the shocked emotion, and relaxed my body for the relieved emotion.

From this video, I was then able to create a bar sheet where I simply illustrated key poses within the video, and then placed them beneath their according key frames, assisted by the timings on the original video. The faint lines between each pose on the chart illustrate the type of motion path which I feel suit the movement in between the key frames, for example, 'slow in, slow out'. This was something that was lacking from my initial stop motion animation, so hopefully this will help improve the quality of the animation.

https://vimeo.com/207766445

This is the result of my second stop motion with an armature, which was assisted by the primary research above. I felt as though during this animation, I have improved upon the handling of the armature itself, as in the previous animation I found it to be very fiddly and I couldn't accurately position the armature in between frames, which hopefully shows in this following animation. The emotions which I used in this animation were shocked to relieved, as I felt they were emotions which would realistically follow eachother, and both can be portrayed in distinct key poses. The poses which I made with the 'Buckid' rig in Maya really helped, as variants of both emotions were imitated with the rig, providing good material to base the key poses on. I feel that the result of this animation is a lot more 'cartoony' and exaggerated than my 'Stand up, Sit down' animation, which may likely be due to the reference material. However, this works in the animations favour, because I am trying to give emotion to a figure which lacks any facial expression, therefore in order to really communicate the expressions, I will have to exaggerate the poses somewhat. The story behind this animation which I had in mind when animating, was the armature was watching a motorbike accident, which shocks him, but is then relieved when he sees the victim is okay, however due to the abstract nature of the animation, I'm sure others will easily be able to interpret their own stories into the animation, such as names are being called on a register, the armature thinks he hears his name, before realising it's not. With the initial jump, I included a 'follow-through' technique, which worked a lot better than it did in my previous animation, and helps make the expression become more recognisable. There is one thing which I am disappointed about however, and that is the positioning of the feet on the armature, as they seem to aimlessly jiggle about at times, and I see their being two main causes of this; 1. in the reference material I did not alter the vantage point so that the feet are visible, therefore I had to assume how they'd realistically move, so next time I'll make sure to include my whole body in the reference material, and 2. I was primarily focused on the upper-body movement, as that is where the expression is typically shown, therefore the feet may have been nudged without my realisation, which is something which I will definitely work to prevent in the next animation. Overall though, I am very pleased with the result of my second armature animation, as the movements are smooth and the expressions are clear.