Time for action and change

So after some deep thoughts about what I should do now, I have now wrote down my action plan and what I need to accomplish so that, my showreel is much stronger and tailored towards the studios which I want to get into, as well as the type of work that I want to do i.e creature work. This is a big change for me as mentioned before from a previous post, as I've never done creature animation. But, if I want to stay and work in the UK, then creature animation is the step forward.

Now before I show you the work that I have done over the past two weeks I want to talk about something which I feel strongly about and should be addressed. It's about the "mouse". Yes, this device is what I want to talk about.

I have been using this device throughout the majority of my life and never had I had any problems using it. It was however only until during my university course that I had heard other animators talk about using the Wacom tablet device to animate. They exposed the dangers of "repetitive strain injury" (RSI) with the use of a mouse. This is due to the small movements that causes an unatural twitch of sort, when animating on the PC.  Kenny Roy really reiterates the dangers of RSI (video below).

I then thought about it for a while and thought that, "was it worth investing a Wacom tablet?" I was still unsure at the time as I had other things in mind which I wanted to buy i.e a new camera. But, I soon realised that since working on an animation last week that I've noticed my right hand was beginning to feel stiff and I felt quite a bit of pain building up. I then bit the bullet and decided to invest in a Wacom tablet.

I have to say it was difficult to grasp the concept of using a wacom tablet when I started using it for the first time but after configuring the buttons and slowly grooving into the use of the pen, I must say I couldn't believe that I was animating with a mouse before this device. I highly recommend for any animator that is serious about their work that, they should purchase a wacom tablet. It was instantly a huge relief for my right hand, and now after almost a week of using it it has recovered from the RSI of the mouse.

If after reading this post that you don't feel convinced enough that a Wacom tablet could help, then just remember that you not only are you putting your future career at a risk but, also your health. That's all I have to say about this topic. If you want to know which model I have it's the "Wacom Tablet Pro Intuos 4".

Right, over the past two weeks or so, I have been focusing on a cheetah walk cycle and I must say, I'm about 70% confident that I have animated this correctly. Reason why I say that is because it's the first animation which I have done without it being critiqued by my tutor, since the training. So, it's quite strange that I don't have that initial feedback of my work but, I do feel reassured that with the animation principles that has been drilled into my head, has been applied here in my work.

So here are some of my initial drawings of my research which I spent a day or two, to really spot the key movements of the cheetah. I really pushed myself to really focus of each movement and to improve every drawing to be better than the previous.

Initial drawings

I was watching videos of cheetahs and other cat like animals, that could help me identify the key poses for my walk cycle. I then looked that the Animators survival kit and saw the thumbnails drawings of a dog. I then drew them out as thumbnails and compared the image above with the cheetah reference videos. I then noticed that the cat walk was different to the one that I drew out.

Working out a formula

Convinced that animals will have different walk variations I then aimed for something more close to the cheetah walk cycle video, that I have. One thing that I noted down was the fact that the back leg of a four legged animal, seemed to be the driving mechanic for the walk and would therefore, be a step ahead or frame of the front two legs.

Finding the weight shift

I then looked at how the weight would be shifted from side to side in a walk. Much like the character walk cycle, it's a similar formula.

Key pose 1

So, after figuring out my key poses, I then started out drawing and annotating the first key pose, from when the shoulder muscle of the cheetah is in front and rotated to, how the back part of the body is lifted higher than it's counterpart of the front body.

Key pose 2

Key pose 3

Key pose 4

After 2 weeks of working on this animation, I was able to complete the walk cycle. I will re-render this animation again, as I'm not happy with how I staged the perspective view camera, other than that I'm quite happy that I'm back and that I'll look forward to ticking off the list of animations that I have set myself to do. I'm also sure that I will need to go back to the Cheetah walk cycle file and make some more refinements. See you next time.