Month: November 2024

Center of Gravity and Balance.Stride and Rhythm.Overlapping Action and Delay.Forward Momentum and Leg Swing.Key Poses

Theory

As a character walks, the center of gravity shifts between the feet to maintain balance. During this movement, the hips, shoulders, and center of mass exhibit subtle shifts up and down or side to side, giving the walk a realistic sense of physicality.

Walking isn’t just leg movement; it requires coordinated motion across the shoulders, arms, and torso. Overlap and delay refer to the slight time offset between these parts. For example, the arm swing might lag slightly behind the leg movement, giving the motion a natural feel and avoiding mechanical stiffness.

Practice

This week I finished the character walk animation for the animation bk stage, these are the screenshots of what I learned from the Animator’s Survival Manual, and finally my production video

In animation, how to show weight is very important. It allows the audience to see the texture of the performance object and increase the vividness of the character.

Theory

If a character or object in animation doesn’t exhibit weight, it may appear floaty or unrealistic. Adjusting the speed of an object’s fall, its bounce on impact, and other dynamic responses can depict its mass and weight. For instance, a heavy object typically falls quickly with minimal bounce, often causing the ground to shake slightly, unlike a lighter object.

Practice

This week I filmed real-life references and learned how to animate a ball to convey human weight. I also learned a lot of tricks from these videos. Finally, here is my production video.