Striking developments...

Here are some videos showing the progression of my bowling ball animation so far.


Step 1.



Step 2.



Step 3.



Step 4.

Lifting it further...

Here I have continued with the "cartoony" acting piece and given it more of an ending.

Starting to pick things up...

Here is my first effort at the lifting sequence. I think this has a good sense of character to it, and though perhpas does not stick rigidly to my reference footage I do believe it makes quite a nice characterised piece. However, now after having been shown Softimage's rotoscope tool I will perhaps attempt a more realistic animation.

Breaking Down the Reference Footage

Here is the reference footage that the above was taken from. Though no Oscar contender I believe my acting is suitable to develop into animation using the Moom character. In this piece I intend to drag out the lift a little more to create a greater sense of how heavy the object is, as well as perhaps begining with a little stretch and eyeing-up of the object to enhance the character.

Walking Funny

After developing a standard, realistic, yet slightly boring walk, I began to think about adding more character. I really enjoyed this and find Softimage a great piece of kit.

Bringing in the Arms

With the lower half working nicely, it was time to work on the arms. It seems that posing the arms at three points (each contact, and the passing postion) is enough to give a natural looking swing. Though the Richard Williams 2-d walk cycle guide obivously has arm poses for each stage of the cycle, Softimage inbetweens well for a simple arm swing.



Im pleased with this walk, it looks relatively natural and realistic despite the obvious cartoon nature of our character, and it was simpler to achieve than I expected. So I went on to have a little fun with characterised walks, which I shall post in due course.

Developing Steps

After showing my intial blocking of the lower half of the walk cycle, it was suggested that, to make my walk more realistic and less exaggerated, I take away some of the bounce. The Richard Williams guidlines we have been following portray a big drop from the waist on the 'down' and a high rise on the 'up,' bellow I have adjusted my to be a little more subtle.