Simon walk cycle from Simon Aldcroft on Vimeo.
This was by far the most daunting challenge for me. i've never done any animation before and my fear of drawing loomed large.
However, after being inspired by the excellent talk from Mike Patterson, I was ready to have a go. The walk cycle diagram was essential for this. I spent ages trying to get the first figure right and figured if I just completed one good cycle I could copy and paste the figure.
So, I had my figure walking on the spot, but this wasn't enough and I soon got obssessed with how to make him appear to move. Cue the next 4 hours spent designing moving streets and skys to give him the impression of movement.
I was simply blown away by the amount of work required to animate about 7 seconds worth of video. It gave me a truly new found respect for animators.
For the classroom, I'm tempted to try stop-frame animation, as I think the drawing could be frustrating for some students. Also, for computer-drawn animation, you have to have a really controlled activity, like this, for them to achieve results. If they were able to animate images it may be simpler.... though I haven't tried it myself yet! Another thing to add to the to-do list!!
So, I had my figure walking on the spot, but this wasn't enough and I soon got obssessed with how to make him appear to move. Cue the next 4 hours spent designing moving streets and skys to give him the impression of movement.
I was simply blown away by the amount of work required to animate about 7 seconds worth of video. It gave me a truly new found respect for animators.
For the classroom, I'm tempted to try stop-frame animation, as I think the drawing could be frustrating for some students. Also, for computer-drawn animation, you have to have a really controlled activity, like this, for them to achieve results. If they were able to animate images it may be simpler.... though I haven't tried it myself yet! Another thing to add to the to-do list!!