Walk cycles: FINISHED!

Right, had to make three walk cycles based on several themes, I chose 'late for work run', 'flirty female' and 'macho male'. I decided to make all the characters 'ladybugs', even if one is male and the other more or less genderless. I thought this would help me focus more on the characters movements/actions more than whether they looked right.

Flirty Female:

I know, I know, the legs are virtually independant of the body. I was -trying- to mimic the catwalk strut models use, but I think the timing is off. And because the timing is off, the rest of the bodies match up wasn't as effective as it should have been. However, the one thing I am proud of is the use of heels in this animation, as they definately get across the fact that this character is female, even if the walk lets her down slightly.

Late for work run:

I'm proud of this little guy! First of all cause it's cute, and the general movement was based on the youtube video of a man running across a traffic crossing. I'm please with the little 'lope' it's got going on, and in my defense, all business men/women carry some form of bag/suitcase, so what would a ladybug heading to work carry? .....I like his leaf, nuff said.

I think I went overboard on the flickering of each body part though, particularily the head, I'll need to look into making the movements more fluid in the future, particularily for mostly stationary parts such as the head.

Macho Male:

I'm proud of this guy! He's currently my most perfected walk so far (I think). Hes kind of got a Rambo thing going on, but thats besides the point. I used amatuer footage of sumo wrestlers walking around the fighting ring as well as a clip from the Worlds Strongest Man tv series to look at the speed and leg movements. While the sumo's had the laid back 'strut',. the competitors from the tv series had the clear leg movements. Merging the two, I got this as a result.

The hardest part is/was his arms. Men tend to walk as though they've got a watermelon or a keg under each arm and swing their upper body from side to side, which is why they seem to bob up and down a lot when walking. I tried to translate that into this character, and in all fairness, for a first attempt I think I did pretty well. Again, the legs seem to be relatively independant at times of the body, but for the most part, the only thing I'd critisise myself for would be the lack of 'bobbing'. Given more time, I'd go back and exaggerate his movements more to make him more blatently obvious as a macho male.


In hindsight, if I were to go back and redo each of these animations, I'd exaggerate the movements of all of them to convey their 'personalities' more clearly, so that people would understand what kind of character they are in the first second or so, not the third.