WEEK 10: Animation Direction 1 - Game Cycles -- #1 Treadmill Walks!

You're going to get lots of practice setting up game cycles: walks, runs, jumps, and idles, and finally, blending them seamlessly together.

First cycle on the agenda: Walks. It's time for a whole new level of picky: treadmills.  You are about to become very involved with your Graph Editor. If that scares you, it's time to learn to love this indispensable tool.

Walk Reference:
Treadmill Walk: Dude
"Endless Reference"'s You Tube channel (also see sidebar link -->)
Monster's Inc
Iron Giant

You need to pick a rig to use for all your cycles.
Here's a post about a whole bunch of license-free rigs.

Getting good at cycles requires patience and practice. You should try a few different ones so you get faster at setting them up. It's always better work from reference. Shooting your own reference can be invaluable so you understand the mechanics.

Your final cycles are all due near the end of term but we'll have lots of in-class time to work on them.

Assignment 4: Animation Cycles
Assigned: November 7th
Due: December 15th in class
% of Final Grade: 50%
Please keep file sizes under 2MB
Filenames:
tdonovan_ anim_000.ma

Please include your rig in the same file as the animation so I can reference it in.

Animation work-in-progress will be critiqued in class. The final blended animation sequence will be graded as one project. The sequence must contain at least 3 of the following cycles, blended together into one scene.
1.Walk
2.Run
3.Jump
4.Idle
For example, your sequence could be Walk-Run-Jump, or Idle-Walk-Run. You can have more cycles if you wish. Every cycle must include all of the Principles of Animation. The character should have believable weight, a clear personality, and move with fluidity and clarity. The cycles should blend together cleanly with all necessary weight shifts, anticipations and reactions added to the final file. 

Click here to download a bookmark-sized "12 Principles Desktop Cheat Sheet"

Good luck!