So this was a huge surprise for CartoonSmart. Not only did we make the Top 100 of animation-related websites (so says, Animation Career Review) we made it all the way up to the Top 30! Of course, I’ve been keeping my own list for a long time, and we’ve consistently been #1. =) Anyway, it is an honor even to be noticed. So thanks everyone!
Annnd (drum roll) we just so happen to have a 2nd “Tradigital” Animation tutorial available this month….
Conan Sinclair has taught an incredible followup to his first“Tradigital” tutorial which focused on animating the head, with an obvious sequel: how to animate all the rest of the body! And like all great sequels this one is 2 hours longer than the first!
In this tutorial, Conan will be tackling the following topics:
Part 1 – Body Mechanics Basics. This lesson teaches the basics of how to make your body animations look real. Even though in a cartoon world anything is possible, there’s still some “rules” to play by. You can’t have joints bending every which way, and that’s one of the things this part looks into. The second half of this lesson teaches a simple animation exercise by making a body move from one side to another.
Part 2 – Jumping is a great movement exercise where you can get an appreciation for weight.
Part 3 – Sitting and Standing. Think about how often a character on TV gets up or sits down in a scene. In your own animations, you’ll find this a useful exercise to add some movement to a scene where your characters might otherwise only be talking.
Part 4 – Walk Cycles. The next few lessons focus on every animators favorite (or possibly most dreaded) sequence: the walk/run cycle. Conan teaches his method of breaking these down into four manageable key poses, which he then adds in-betweens to.
Part 5 – Run Cycles. Runs are similar to walks in that you’ll learn to create four key poses of the cycle, but this time with a bounding motion to it, and the faster the run, the more of a lean is added to the character.
Part 6 – Advanced Movements. This final lesson converts our side view cycles into front view and three-quarter view cycles, which can be a real test for new animators. Conan also teaches a walk cycle with a “double bounce” movement.
Wanna know more?…
Sure, you can watch a chunk of the beginning, for freeeee….
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/47741276 w=600]
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