01. Animating a walk cycle
I love creating animations frame-by-frame.
It offers endless creative possibilities that always keep me inspired.
I spent countless hours with "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams, learning the fundamentals of cel animation,
and how to craft animated walk cycles.
Step 1: Sketches on paper
Drawing on paper has a unique charm that digital tools can’t replace.
For this project, I developed a series of memorable characters and animated their walk cycle.
I tried out different shapes and forms several times until I found a final sketch that perfectly matched what I was aiming for.
Step 2: Drawing in Procreate
At this stage, I use the drawings as a guide to perfect the shapes and form the character.
I utilize Procreate to sketch various poses and develop its personality - a pear-shaped volumetric flask features little houses instead of shoes.
Step 3: Animating in TVPaint
After completing the character, I started drawing the key poses in TVPaint.
I sketched out the contact and passing poses using loose lines and rough timing to get an early feeling of the animation.
Next, I created the in-between poses and refined the rough sketches.
I made sure to maintain consistent stroke size and character structure to ensure a natural flow.
Once the cleanup was complete, I used different colors to distinguish elements for easier editing and compositing.
Finally, I imported the file into After Effects to start the final animation process.
Step 4: Compositing in After Effects
I like to experiment with different features and plugins in After Effects.
At this stage, I tried using Displacer Pro, a free plugin (available here), to create these cool holographic-looking effects.
To achieve different color tones on the outline throughout the loop, I used the Colorama - one of the best but also complicated effects in all of After Effects.
And...that's it!
I hope you enjoyed watching my process of creating this short looping animation.
To discover more of my work, simply click on this link.
Thank you for reading,
Andreas
