Walk planning
I don't know what happened to the post I did of this on Thursday, but here it is again.
The emotion of the walk is a hard one for me to pin down. The first time we did this I put it down as somber (which it's not really), this time as a glum resolution/acceptance.
It's the walk when the little girl gets off the chair and slowly walks over to the ball. Almost like she's not quite with it/in a daze/numb because she's finally accepting that what's happened is not the fault of the ball.
I see it that below her core, it's a steady slow paced walk and everything above her core sways to the rhythm (like it's all secondary action).
I don't know if that makes any sense.
1. contact
2. down
3. passing
4. up
"I see it that below her core, it's a steady slow paced walk and everything above her core sways to the rhythm (like it's all secondary action)."
ReplyDeleteGreat post Scheree. Above the core of the walk the upper body reacts physically to the motion in the core - that is the animation principle of follow through and overlapping action. Those biomechanical movements usually travel up the spine to the head and shoulders and then out and down along the arms to the hands. A non-character walk, a 'vanilla' walk, based purely on biomechanical movement would have these movements (things swaying along to the beats in the walk).
In a character walk the animator has the opportunity to communicate what the character is thinking and feeling in the walk. So the secondary actions animation principle comes into consideration. Some animators understand it better as 'secondary acting'. It also involves the animation principle of solid drawing, in particular, posing and psychological gestures.
So in further explanation the secondary actions are acting choices that enhance the story of how the character is thinking and feeling. It could be a hand pose like a scrunched up fist suggesting tense and tight emotion. It can be a combination of line of action, shoulder lift or slump, head position and angle, facial expression, curves through the arms, or psychological gestures with the hands (including a contact pose, maybe?). All these things make up secondary actions. They are emotionally motivated and more to do with acting and communication.
Overlapping actions and follow through are the physical movements of body parts, accesories, clothing and hair that are animated to show an understanding of biomechanics, locomotion, weight, mass, balance.
Hope that explanation describes the difference between the two animation principles of ' follow through and overlapping actions' (physical) and 'scondary actions' (emotional).
I thought you could have the feet scuffing the ground as the character walks. That way the body will be fairly still.
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