This is my last task on this rotation, so it will be my last post about paper animation for now.

For my last tasks, i had to complete a walk cycle animation and a head turn animation. I’d say these were the hardest paper animations i’ve done so far (especially the latter); they required a bit more planning and attention to detail than my previous animations.

The first of the two i completed was the walk cycle animation; i had to animate someone walking on the spot. Before beginning this animation, i had to draw out two lines on a frame to prevent my character from changing size too often. I then had to draw out the key frames, and make sure there was enough movement going on before filling in the frames in between. Lastly i added the arms, which was more straight forward.

I found this task to be challenging. It was hard to keep the character proportionate while also trying to make them move up and down subtly in the animation, and i constantly had to re draw parts of previous frames after completing new ones to make the walk look more natural. Thankfully i got the hang of it by the end of my first step, and drawing the frames for the second step was easier. I’m happy with my end result, although i feel like it could be a bit smoother, but i’ll achieve that with practice and time.

(i’m sorry about how zoomed out the video is, i had a lot of trouble with rendering this time)

Next, i did my head turn animation. This animation was hard because i had to work out the timing by myself, which i’ve never done before as i never really planned my animations before starting uni.

My first step for this animation was a quick sketch of my character; a frog girl. We had to put something in the animation that would move with the character, so i chose her tongue and hair to move. I wanted to draw a cute and kind of grumpy looking character, which i think i achieved well. (fun fact about my character; the Japanese characters on her shirt read ‘rueka’, which is a re arrangement of the Japanese work for frog, ‘kaeru’.)

I had a lot of problems with pacing in this animation. i initially didn’t anticipate how quickly it would play (although i wanted it to be fast), so i had to go back in and add some frames. It was also hard because the character had to move from one side of the paper to the other, so i couldn’t re draw it as accurately as i would’ve been able to if she stayed in one place. I had an easier time drawing the key frames and in between, because i had some practice on this from both my walk cycle and pose to pose animation. In the end i liked my result, although going back i’d probably add some more frames to make it last longer and flow a little smoother.

All in all I’ve enjoyed this rotation a lot, and I’ve learned a lot of valuable skills and techniques, even if it was only for a short while. This was my first time animating in any way other than digitally, and while i still enjoy digital animation the most, i can see myself doing this again. I’m grateful that i was able to learn a lot and have fun while doing it.