1. Animating the walk cycle Year 9 Multimedia

2. The walk cycle Preston Blair (1908 – 1995) was an American animator who at Disney & MGM studios. He worked on The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Bambi, & the Flintstones series but is probably most famous for his animation how-to books. The diagram above shows Preston Blair’s 8 frame walk cycle. By looping the 8 different body positions shown, a character will appear to be walking with a realistic motion.

3. Animating the walk cycle 1.Open Pencil and adjust the transparency so that you can trace over the figures in the walk cycle diagram. 1.Go to Student Public | Year 9 Public | 09MMD | Unit 1 ~ Animation and open the file Preston Blair walk cycle.png 2.Draw a ground line across the lower part of the Pencil canvas. 1.Adjust the position of the walk cycle diagram so that the 1st figure is placed in the centre of the Pencil canvas, with it’s feet resting on the ground line.

4. Animating the walk cycle 5.Add a Keyframe at frame 1 of the Pencil timeline. 6.Use the pen tool to trace over the figure. If you prefer you can create a stick figure with the same posture as the rounded figure shown in the diagram. 5.Make sure that the arm & leg on the far side of the figure’s body are darker. This will create perspective.

5. Animating the walk cycle 8.Add a Keyframe at frame 6 of the Pencil timeline. 9.Adjust the position of the walk cycle diagram so that the 2nd figure is placed in the centre of the Pencil canvas, with it’s feet resting on the ground line. Turn on Onionskin to check the figures are in the same position. 10.Use the pen tool to trace over the figure. If you prefer, continue to draw a stick figure with the same posture as the rounded figure shown in the diagram. 11.Again, make sure that the arm & leg on the far side of the figure’s body are darker, to create perspective.

6. Animating the walk cycle 12.Continue adding Keyframes and drawing each of the 8 figures in the walk cycle. 1 st figure … Frame 1 2 nd figure … Frame 6 3 rd figure … Frame 11 4 th figure … Frame 16 5 th figure … Frame 21 6 th figure … Frame 26 7 th figure … Frame 31 8 th figure … Frame 36

7. Animating the walk cycle 13.Play your animation. How does it look? 14.Try adjusting the frame rate of your animation. Generally it will look best at a rate between 12 and 30 frames per second (fps).