I hadn't expected it to be easy; certainly, after three months of drifting out of touch with my artistic side, it was never going to be easy. I'm grateful, then, for the relatively smooth introduction to the course which, without wishing to tempt fate, I shall be partaking in for the next three years. As always, we began with the very basics; pencils, paper and bouncing balls. I'm infinitely thankful for the previous foundation year and the experience it provided me, as I found the basic principles simple enough to grasp, or rather, re-grasp. It was this that afforded me a little extra time to play around with the bouncing ball animation, and as such I had my ball bounce onto a trampoline, and consequently blasted into space. Whilst I was initially apprehensive about animating the balls reaction with the trampoline surface, it came together satisfyingly, aside from the trampoline after-wobble, which ends too abruptly.
The second week of animation principles brought yet more familiarity, though, that isn't to say that it also brought simplicity, in the form of walk cycles. I'm glad to no end, that we were provided with a guide sheet that enlightened me with dozens of tips and guidelines that hadn't occurred to me in the previous year. Things that, in hindsight, were perfectly logical, like reusing frames by switching the forward arm/leg, and animating the body and leg movements first, returning afterwards to add in arm movements and whatever else. What I did recall about previous walk cycles, however, was the time they took (though, that fact is relevant to all animation in general), and this, quite unfortunately, remained unchanged. As instructed, I followed the guidelines as closely as I could, wary that any attempt to experiment in the same manner as I'd done with the bouncing ball could undermine the flow and natural feeling that the basic walk cycle requires. Again, ultimately I was satisfied with the outcome, though the character doesn't display enough up-down motion as he walks.
The finished walk cycle, in all of its glory. Also, curse Youtube for its lack of a loop function; it has drawn my ire one too many times...
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