Activity 2: Animating a Rough Walk Cycle

T-EXC-001-004

In this activity you will learn how to animation a simple walk-cycle.

First, you need to plan your character’s walk. What is your character’s personality and how will it affect the way they walk and move? For example, a dancer is light in their step and gait. While, a thief is stealthy and may scurry furtively from one place to another. A hunchback lurches to one side and drags one foot or limps dramatically.

This activity focuses on the Xsheet view and its functionality, but everything can be also achieved in the Timeline view if you prefer.

Material

You can download the provided sample material for this module and use the following templates to use as a reference to compare with your final sketch. Don't forget to unzip (uncompress) the files before placing them in your library.

MO-EXC-001/01-baby-walk-rough.tpl

How to sketch your rough key poses

Start Harmony.
In the Welcome screen, name your project: Walk_cycle followed by your initials.
In the Workspace toolbar, select the Hand-Drawn Animation workspace from the drop-down menu.

In the Tools toolbar, select the Brush tool.

In the Colour view, select a colour swatch for your sketch. Sketching with a light colour helps during clean up.

In the Xsheet view, select the first cell in the Drawing column. You can do the same in the Timeline view.

In the Camera view, sketch your first key pose.

To sketch the second key pose of your animation, you will use the Onion Skin feature to display the previous and next drawings in washed-out colours. This mimics the effect of working with a stack of paper on an animation disc and light table.

In the Tools toolbar, enable the Onion Skin button.

In the Xsheet view, select cell number 4 for the location of the second key pose.

Click the Onion Skin button and adjust the blue onion skin markers in the Timeline view to display the desired number of previous and next drawings.

In the Camera view, sketch the second key pose, which is the highest point of the walk cycle. The leg that was pointing forward on the first one should now be straight beneath the character. Using the following guide to complete the four key poses of the simple walk cycle animation.

Repeat these steps for each key pose.

In the Xsheet view, right-click on any cell between two key poses, and select Drawing > Create Empty Drawing.

A new empty drawing is added in your layer, ready for your next pose to be drawn in.

Add new drawings and sketch your poses with the help of onion skinning. Continue until you complete the walk cycle animation, which should be composed of 12 different drawings.