Final shot for the Vanilla Walk cycle.

2nd Progress Shot for the walk cycle.

Arcs

All actions that are performed in animation are followed by an arc or a circular path. These arcs are clearly visible in the graph editor and are separated by key frames. Arcs in animation give a more natural action and better flow. Few examples of arcs are head turns, eye movements, arms swinging, balls bouncing, pretty much anything that is moving.

Reference Links:

http://www.evl.uic.edu/ralph/508S99/arcs.html

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html

This is my progress shot for my Vanilla Walk Cycle Animation; it is still in blocked mode   and I have yet to take it into the graph editor to smooth it out.

This is the video reference I decided to use for the walk cycle animation and I also posted another two more as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=_04mWgkYRnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBp6lfPy5wU

Observing People Walking:
For this particular assignment; there were many different types of people that walk a certain way all being unique but also fall into categories. I noticed that people who walk in groups walk much slower because they're holding a conversation and do not want to rush the conversation. People who use the cell phone tend to go off to the side and walk around in circles until they finish their conversation and go back onto the sidewalk to head to their destination. I also noticed that older people tend to walk with a limp for the simple fact that it is much harder for them to walk because of their age. Business people and students walk much faster; they are always in a hurry especially in the mornings. During late afternoon, people tend to walk much slower, they're much more at ease when walking. Another category of people I noticed were the tourists; the tourist are usually walking slow and observing the area and always carry shopping bags. Despite of the categories, I saw a huge difference between men and women. When women walk they move their hips more. And for more "heavier" people they walk side to side with their legs more spread out.  Overall, I observed that even if people are just walking they seem to reflect their personality or mood at the time.

Anticipation

One of the links mentioned that an action occurs in three parts: 1) the preparation for the action (this is anticipation) 2) the action 3) the termination of the action. In other words, anticipation prepares the audience for something that is going to take place.  Some examples for this principle is getting ready to arm you swing your arms back, raising your foot before you kick the ball, or staring at something before you pick it up.

Reference Links:

http://tysonanimationvisualarts.blogspot.com/2012/01/12-principles-of-animation-detailed.html

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_principles.html

http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/principles/anticipation.htm

This is the final work for my Robot Arm assignment. Two robot arms are playing chess with each other.