BODY MECHANICS PROJECT

2D ANIMATION SPECIALISM PROJECT- Body Mechanics and Character Performance 

Overview:

This was one of my university projects in which we had to chose a specialism within 2D animation to explore. Our task was to independently research and test our chosen specialism and eventually create a final outcome showcasing our progress and what we have learned. I chose to explore mechanics and performance in character animation. This project introduced us to individual learning unlike before and gave us more freedom to research and experiment. 

First Stages:

I had decided my specialism for this project was going to be mechanics and performance as this was something I was a little less comfortable and experienced with, so I thought it would be a good idea to use it as an opportunity to build up my skills in this field. After talking to my lecturer I thought that the best final outcome to work on would be a classic walk cycle in order to perfect the smoothness of my animations. 

Before starting on my main project however I needed to explore and research mechanics and motion to practise on. Using the 'Animators survival kit' by Richard E Williams I had found some animation exercises to practise. I chose to do the ball bounce, the fist slam and a flying arrow. I animated these motions using an app on my iPad called ToonSquid by drawing them out frame by frame and using trial and error to figure out the correct timing. As well as using the book as a guide to help me animate these tasks, I looked at various YouTube tutorials leaving me with these three outcomes: 

Here are some screenshots of the different frames from these exercises:

BALL BOUNCE:

To make the ball bounce animation I mostly just used the guide from 'The animators survival kit' book as it has a very detailed description and pictures all dedicated to just the ball bounce and squash and stretch. 

FIST SLAM:

For this exercise I used 'The animators survival kit' once again however the guide wasn't quite as detailed as the ball bounce therefore I mostly used YouTube tutorials and references instead as well as my own arm/fist to animate from. 

FLYING ARROW:

This final animation from this group had mostly been done using YouTube videos as referencing and trial and error methods, changing the frames and timings to get it looking as natural as possible. 

Starting the Final Project:

After perfecting these exercises I began on my final animation in this specialism project, which was going to be a walk cycle. As I chose to focus on body mechanics as my specialism not character work, I decided to use one of my previous character designs instead of making a new one to do this walk cycle with. 

Before beginning the animating process I had researched and pilled up some references from YouTube tutorials on female walk cycles to some references from 'The animators survival kit' on different female walk styles, but my main references ended up being Disney females from 2D movies. Princess Jasmine from 'Aladdin', Nani from 'Lila and Stitch' but my main style inspiration ended up being Chel from 'The road to Elderado'. 

I started off with animating the torso and arms first, before adding the legs and head as I found it made it easier for me to control the up and down movement, once I had the middle body as I wanted. I could then match the rest of the body parts to that motion. Video references from the Disney movies helped a lot as I watched them whilst animating. 

This is a cleaned up version of the walk cycle, still as a pencil sketch:

https://youtube.com/shorts/3DGJfu7cth8?feature=share

Developing Final Project:

When I finished the pencil frame by frame of the walk cycle, I decided to add more movement through shadows so I did a few more exercises such as a upward spinning ball bounce and a moving hand in order to test it out. 

SHADOW BALL BOUNCE:

For this I looked up a few tutorials on YouTube that I used as reference but I gave the ball my own twist by turning it into a tennis ball so that the spinning and shadows were more visible through the pattern. This was once again drawn frame by frame on Toonsquid starting off with a simple rough pencil sketch and then cleaning it up  and adding the shadows. 

HAND MOVEMENT WITH SHADOW:

For this I once again looked at tutorials on YouTube whilst using my own hand as a reference also. The shadows I placed down using trial and error figuring out how to make them move organically. 

During these shadow exercises I would sometimes draw on my sketchbook pro app and transfer it into the Toonsquid software to start animating afterwards. 

FINAL WALK CYCLE:

I repeated the same exact process that I used to create the two previous animations with my animated sketch to add colour and moving shadows to my final piece. I also extended the frames and duplicated them in order to make the walk cycle longer as extorting it meant that it was no longer going in a loop. 

This is the final outcome after exploring 2D body mechanics and some character performance.