In the image below, you can see an animated 8-frame walk cycle of a character. I have some experience with creating looping animations, such as creating a run cycle and pushup animation, which can be viewed on the homepage under the Gallery tab and wanted to challenge myself in this project to improve on the works that I had created prior.
INSPIRATION
This piece was inspired by two areas of media – the Netflix show Arcane, created by Riot Games and Fortiche (IMDb, 2021) and the cyberpunk genre. I recently saw the first season of Arcane, something that I have been following since it was announced in 2019 at the League of Legends 10th anniversary celebration and was immediately taken with the animation and the art style of the show. I knew that I wanted to incorporate the masks that the viewer sees throughout the first season into the character design for the walk cycle, as I found the shaping and the mechanics of them rather interesting.
I also wanted to incorporate a jacket into the design. My previous animations featured the character of Beauregard Lionett from the show Critical Role, who is known for not having sleeves as a part of the character design. As I wanted to improve on my previous works, I decided to make my character have a large jacket as a part of their design, as this would allow me to show subtle movements in the clothing, such as cloth creasing and folding as a character swings an arm idly or a fold in the material of the character’s pants as they bend their knees when walking.
(Messner, 2021)
EXPLANATION
I started this project by setting up Photoshop for animation, which allowed me to make a timeline that I could add and remove frames to, control the timing of individual frames and control the number of times that it would play.
I began by creating a very simplistic figure, showing joints such as the elbows and the knees as circles whilst showing the arms and the legs of the character as rectangles in the varying poses of the walk cycle, allowing me to see whether the figure looked correct when the animation was played. If the figure did not look right when they were transitioning from having contact with the floor, squashing and then to the passing position, I could easily fix the issue without having to make any changes to the character’s outfit, which had varying layers for the colours, the linework and the shading.
Once I had the basic figure walking correctly, I then began to add the line art for the character. I reduced the opacity of the basic figure and started creating the character seen below on a separate layer, allowing me to add to the basic figure without creating overlapping lines and shapes that would become an issue if I needed to erase a section. I also wanted to challenge myself by having the character hold something, as I have struggled with drawing hands in previous works and have a tendency to draw the hand closed in a fist around an object, such as a sword handle or bō staff or keeping them out of view, often drawing the piece from the chest up so that the hands are out of frame or having the character put both hands in their pockets.
I didn’t want to create a character that was too complex, with various moving parts such as belts and backpacks that would have their own motion to them. I added a mechanical-looking mask, linking back to the masks that were seen in Arcane and created a jacket for the character to wear, with a large hood with a collar. As the theme that I have created has ties to the Cyberpunk genre, which is a subgenre of a dystopian future, I wanted the item that the character is holding to be something that does not appear realistic. I had the character hold a lightly glowing purple cube, taking inspiration from how elements in the cyberpunk genre can provide soft light. This can be seen in the jacket that the character V wears in Cyberpunk 2077 and is seen wearing in the promotional material, which has coloured lighting strips in the collar of the jacket, which when the player moves into a darker area in the game provides soft lighting against their neck.
COLOUR
Once I had the linework of the character created, I created additional layers to add colour to the character as I did not want to leave the drawing monochromatic. I colour picked multiple shades from the jacket that the character Vi is seen wearing in Arcane to act as the colour of the jacket and any subsequent shadows. This was also repeated for the mask that the character wears in the animation and I contrasted this with a blue colour to add vibrancy to the head area.
OUTCOME
I’m very happy with how this came out – I was able to create an 8 frame walk cycle that loops without fault or stuttering. I also included lighting and shading of the character model, with shadows being shown on the left-hand side of the character, such as under the character’s arm in their pocket and behind their jaw to portray a light source on the right-hand side of the image.
If I were to improve this piece, I would potentially add more details to the jacket or add elements that would provide me with a challenge, such as a backpack or a belt – as depending on whether the item is tight around the character or loose creates a different motion.
Referenced material
Gadea, W. (2018) Two Kinds of Walk Cycle. IdeaRocket. Available online: https://idearocketanimation.com/2-walk-cycle/?nab=1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F [Accessed 1 Dec. 2021].
Giovanni, E. (2020) Update: Cyberpunk 2077 Adds New Perks, Playstyles And The Ability To Change Your Character’s Clothing In Preview | Happy Gamer. HappyGamer. Available online: https://happygamer.com/update-cyberpunk-2077-adds-new-perks-playstyles-and-the-ability-to-change-your-characters-clothing-in-preview-73777/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2021].
IMDb (2021) Arcane: League of Legends. IMDb. Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11126994/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2021].
Messner, S. (2021) Arcane episode 2 recap: Jayce, Viktor, and Caitlyn’s origin stories revealed. PC Gamer. Available online: https://www.pcgamer.com/arcane-episode-2-recap-jayce-viktor-and-caitlyns-origin-stories-revealed/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2021].
Miller, J. (2019) Killing Floor 2 – Cyberpunk Outfits. ArtStation. Available online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQqN01.
Rietkerk, S. (2021) Arcane: First Impressions of Riot Games’ Netflix Series. IGN Nordic. Available online: https://nordic.ign.com/league-of-legends-arcane/51192/feature/arcane-first-impressions-of-riot-games-netflix-series [Accessed 1 Dec. 2021].
Tenor (2021) Arcane Jinx GIF – Arcane Jinx Gas Mask – Discover & Share GIFs. tenor.com. Available online: https://tenor.com/view/arcane-jinx-gas-mask-gif-23904711 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2021].