Observation object: A squirrel in Centre Park, NYC
What do you notice about the way it moves?
Spending 1 hour following and observing a squirrel leaping around, I noticed that its movement on the ground is a weaving run or a series of leaps with the tail held out behind. The long, muscular hind legs and short front legs help it to leap. The hind feet, longer than the front, are double-jointed to help scramble head first up and down the tree trunk. As the running cycle presented, the craws act as shock absorbers when the squirrel lands.While running, the tail is used as a counterbalance to help the squirrel steer and turn quickly. While jumping, the tail is held horizontally behind the squirrel. It helps improve the aerodynamics because the increased body length helps reduce the drag coefficient Squirrels will often pump their tails at ‘take off’ and while in ‘flight’, which may help accelerate the squirrel through the air.
How would you animate it?
After sketching out the squirrel’s run cycle, I realised it is similar to the bouncing ball practice we did in the studio. The squirrel’s body squashed together, gathering legs to get ready for a push; the ball also smashed and became shorter when it hit the ground. I chose to apply the pose-to-pose technique in order to show a complete movement. The first frames showed the squirrel gathering legs ready to push off, ended with its forelegs landing, containing weight, and the hind legs coming through. These two actions communicate a gathering and a release of tension and strength. I placed a middle frame of the squirrel horizontally flying, stretching its body to the full length, performing the process of release on tension and a play on the effect of gravity.
What kind of follow through or secondary movement could you use?
Their tails are flexible and used to balance leaping movements and communicate signs. Hence adding extra details to the tail would add interest and realism to the scene. Secondary actions are used when animating the leaping cycle where the front legs will swing forward while the hind legs stretched backward, creating balance as I go along with the motion. Hence, not all weight falls onto just one side making things look less stiff than they would otherwise be without this addition. The squirrel can also carry food, highlighting the characteristics of cute and smart.
Would you use any easing in or out? If so, why and where?
Yes, I applied both easing in and out to present the movement. I sketch out ten frames of a single jump performed by the squirrel. Then I noticed a lot of repetition in position between pushing off and landing on the ground. As a result, I ease out similar positions with little or no determining change to the completion of the action. The fast start gives the animations a feeling of responsiveness. By combining both techniques, the squirrel presents a powerful, neat, and simple three-step action, which I think works just fine. From an interaction point of view, however, ease-ins feel a little unusual because of the abrupt end; things that move in the real world tend to decelerate rather than stop suddenly. Easing both in and out can provide a more dramatic effect than just easing out. In this case, it made the squirrel look cuter and flexible.
Observation object: seagull
What do you notice about the way it moves?
Birds’ wings flap with an up-and-down motion. Sketch 1 – 6 has their wings moved down and forwards, lifting the body in the air, termed as downstroke. A bird’s wing produces lift and thrust during the downstroke. Sketch 7 – 9 has the wings lifted upwards in preparation for another downstroke. This movement is an upstroke. When soaring, the wings are held out to the side of the body and do not flap. As the wings move through the air at a slight angle, which deflects the air downwards and cause a reaction in the opposite direction. The bird has to tilt forward and go into a dive to maintain forward speed.
How would you animate it?
Similar to the squirrel, I sketched out the flying cycle pose to pose and set out the extremes. Then, I analyzed the drawings that smooth out the action. The bird is flapping its wings, so my first extreme is of the bird with its wings in the up position. I am also working out how the movement of the back wing matches the position. As the wings flap into the down position, the bird is a little higher up in the second extreme. The body also swivels down a little at the neck in the second extreme as the bird’s wings push down. After finding my two extremes, I fill out effective in-betweens to complete the action. Bird fly is a brilliant example of learning the arc, every time its wing changes its position, the height, and angle of the bird also vary in response.
What kind of follow through or secondary movement could you use?
I could elevate the animation by adding details to the feather, as the wings travel back up, and the bottoms curve down a little to show the feathers’ flexibility. The bird could have its mouth open like it is singing, or it can hold something in its claw.
Would you use any easing in or out? If so, why and where?
Yes, I would ease out of the flying cycle. According to the graph, the bird has a lengthy process of taking off and balancing its body when soaring. The starting position is an upstroke, and the end of the action cycle is a downstroke. Hence, only the process of folding the wings and stretching them out parallel to the body is essential to smooth out the start and the end of the arc, ease out some in-betweens to make the action more fluid and realistic. To be clear with the extremes and its role in the arc cycles is significant to both easing in and out.
Observation object: Myself taking a walk
What do you notice about the way it moves?
I discovered during forward motion, the leg that leaves the ground swings forward from the hip. Then it strikes the ground with the heel and rolls through to the toe. The motion of the two legs is coordinated so that one foot or the other is always in contact with the ground. While walking, the muscles of the calf contract, raising the body’s center of mass. As a result, our body is on a repetitive up-and-down cycle while walking. Then gravity pulls the body forward and down onto the other leg. Walking differs from a running gait in several ways. The most obvious is that during walking one leg always stays on the ground while the other is swinging.
How would you animate it?
I started by recording myself walking around and feeling the motions my body makes as I walk. Then I find it challenging to separate the walking from pose to pose. I then study how the human body moves during a walk, such as how the hips rotate. Where is the weight centered, and how many frames does it take for each step? With the basic knowledge, I started by creating the contact position, and the start and end of each step. This moment is when the front and the back leg are both in contact with the ground, but the back foot’s heel is lifting up. The weight of the body splits between each leg. Then, I filled out the in-betweens with the down position, the lowest position in the walk, the passing position, and the up position. Then I repeat the four positions for the opposite leg. After the up-and-down movement looking and feeling correct, I refined and cleared each frame.
What kind of follow through or secondary movement could you use?
I could add a hat. If my character is moving downwards, the cat brim is forced upwards, and as he goes upwards, it starts to straighten out and be dragged slightly downwards. And this motion would continue. A flappy hat also adds a bit of motion to the character. I can also add a backpack, by delaying the layer, it could add an extra bounce to the character’s animation. The follow-through could be demonstrated by adding drag to the character’s cloth
Would you use any easing in or out? If so, why and where?
Ease in and out are important to the walking cycle as only robots move at a constant speed. A great way to sell the weight of the character is to have the feet slap firmly on the ground. The feet should go from raised to a flat within one or two frames. Ease out of the first pose, and plant on the next. I can also raise the toe up to add a bit of drag during the ease-out pose. According to the diagram, I speed through the 2nd contact pose into the down 4, then ease out of the down and speed through the passing pose 7. The reason for doing so is to avoid repetition and increase the clarity and flexibility of the movement.
