Final Submission:

Walking the Dog:

Final animation incorporating two walk cycles and a ball and tail.

Ball and tail:

Ball and tail inteacting with it's environment

Walk Cycles:

Ball and Legs walk cycles; normal, limping, skipping and tiptoeing, and Digital Tutors walks; male and female.

 

Bouncy Balls:

3 different weighted balls bouncing across a plane:
     red and yellow ball- hard bouncy ball
     white ball- filled with liquid
     red and blue ball- hard ball filled with air (basket ball)

Animation so far:

This is the animation as it stands. The two walks are established and the main turing point, the owner begin pulled by the dog, is established but is not entirely finished. When the owner gets pulled I want to make the head snap back before he is completely pulled forward by the ball. The right arm still needs to be animated as he moves and the left needs to move up and down slightly in time with the ball's movement.

When the owner comes to a stop I have got him to the position where he has stopped moving. Form there I need to get him to rise up into a standing resting position. In my storyboards I planned to have some POV shots of the owner looking at the ball before it shots off in another direction. I have decided instead to keep it all in one shot as the camera work will be more simplistic allowing me to focus more on the quality of animation.

Walking the Dog: Hurried Walk Cycle

Reference Images:

This cycle is more of a run and as such the stride, timing and height will be different for the first walk. the stride is much wider and the legs lift up higher. Because the dog is pulling the owner the arms aren't in a cycle. The right arm is kept back to maintain balance as the left is being kept forward by the dog. This means that the torso doesn't rotate side to side as much. There will be a lot of hip rotation up and down as the dog will be dragging the left side of the body down.

Hurried walk: 20 frames 

For the hurried walk cycle shortened the cycle to 20 frames as the character had be almost if not, running as he gets pulled by the dog. this cycle has many problems. I don't like the back and forth bobbing motion so I will make that less emphasised. The hand movement also need work: the left hand will be moving up and down as the ball jumps but this can only be animated once the ball is added to the scene. the right hand moves too much. In my reference video's my dad's arm doesn't move as much- it remains outstretched as he tries to regain his balance.

Hurried walk: 15 frames

This cycle is greatly improved: I made the cycle 15 frames which gives the cycle a greater sense of speed. The torso movement has lessened but there is still some degree of popping which I want to remove. I have not animated the right arm yet. I have decided that I will animate this once I have my character running through the scene and not animate it as part of the cycle.