Although Animan doesn't really like this style as much as as the hand-drawn way, it's great for making characters walk, run or whatever. The way a person walks tells us a lot about what kind of a person they are, or how they're feeling. Making walk cycles with cut-out puppets allows the animator to keep tweaking the animation until it has just the right feeling. Here's a video showing how it's done!
Coach Ben
Coach Ben
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Animating a Walk Cycle
In the old days of animation, everything was "hand-drawn". If a character was walking, every different pose was made as one drawing. Now we are in the digital age, and there are lots of short-cuts. One of them is, to build the character as a cut-out puppet, and move the different pieces, in order to create the illusion of animation. This is what is called "Flash" animation, because users of Flash kept their data files small by using this method.
Although Animan doesn't really like this style as much as as the hand-drawn way, it's great for making characters walk, run or whatever. The way a person walks tells us a lot about what kind of a person they are, or how they're feeling. Making walk cycles with cut-out puppets allows the animator to keep tweaking the animation until it has just the right feeling. Here's a video showing how it's done!
Although Animan doesn't really like this style as much as as the hand-drawn way, it's great for making characters walk, run or whatever. The way a person walks tells us a lot about what kind of a person they are, or how they're feeling. Making walk cycles with cut-out puppets allows the animator to keep tweaking the animation until it has just the right feeling. Here's a video showing how it's done!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
would love to know how to animate in Toon Boom :s
ReplyDeleteI guess it's all the practice and the time using the program that counts, huh? :))
I love all your videos Animan! I can't wait to see your new one
It's probably going to be the best one yet! :D
Cheers, Animan!
When I started using Toon Boom, there were NO tutorials like this one. I was terrified to try the cutout puppet feature. What if I failed? One day, I dared to experiment. Wow, it was easy--and fun! What the heck was I so afraid of?
DeleteToon Boom lets you draw, paint, animate, move the camera and render it out as a movie. Of course, there's a lot of stuff to learn. So you start with what you want to do most. After a while, you'll get it. Then, go on to another part of the software, and so on.
When you said that it's all the practice and the time using it, you NAILED it! If you have fun using the program, you'll naturally want to keep going back and doing more--and when that happens, you really get the hang of it!
And I thank you for your kind encouragement.
This is a very good tutorial, Animan. I tested some walks for characters, but I didn't feel they were funny or comical enough. I love how your cartoons are a "festival of emotions", from funny to raunchy. When I watch one of your toons, I'm throw back to a simplistic childhood idea of dancing, singing, and comedy. You are truly talented, Animan!
ReplyDeleteBack to the drawing board for me, so I can hopefully make my walks as funny as yours. Thanks, again.
I found this tutorial online, and I thought it was very good. The artist goes into a lot of detail about what he's doing. Some people might find that to be "overkill", but for someone who's learning the software, it's exactly what is needed, because they want to know the reason for every action taken.
DeleteThe great thing about doing walks with puppets, is that you can experiment. Move the arms or hands in unusual ways and see how it looks. Or, when the leg is coming up, bring it up really high, or at a strange angle. If it makes you laugh, then hit SAVE!
When you call my cartoons a "festival of emotions", it's a fantastic compliment! Emotion is the last, and biggest hurdle in animation for me. I think that the drawing itself is like the vertical axis (Y), and the movement in time is the horizontal axis (X). That's a 2-dimensional world. When you add emotion, you have added the depth axis (Z). Put 'em all together and you have a 3-dimensional universe. If your characters are talking, then you can get emotion from their voices. A character who knows he's hot will strut so he can show off! A shy character will walk a little bit curled up into himself. A horny character might get an evil-looking smile on his face. Use the dialogue, walks, movement, or facial expressions to express emotion. Of course, you're doing it all for the audience--but when you've done it right, you'll get the biggest kick out of it!