Run Cycle

Run Mike run

My run cycle was animated in Maya. Overall very simple running animation in a constant speed. I gave it a sense that the character is tired as an added touch. I first started by opening up Mike in Maya. Next I took a look at Mike the character rig to see how he works, I like working in FK when it comes to the arms, this way I'll have better arks as I animate, the character also its much easier for this situation. There is a time for FK and there is a time for IK. This one calls for FK since its a running scene. The next step was to go to the right view and imported an image to the scene. The image was a running guide from the book The Animator's Survival Guide, a highly recommended book for animator's.

Before I started animating I customized Mike to my liking, I took off his mustache and changed his clothes. I first set up the scene by making it 24 frames per second and also making the scene only 13 frames, since the scene will be only half a second and its also going to loop. I started animating by copying the key poses first then the in between. I was essentially copying each pose I saw and made Mike, the rig, mimic that pose. Its important to first blocking in the key poses in the graph editor. Its good to keep an eye on the graph editor as you animate. Once all my poses where blocked out perfectly It was time to go linear and focus on the graph editor more. I made sure that the keys made proper arks so to have no odd movement. I also made sure to add animation principle by adding back and neck twists as well as an up and downs on his back. Then I worked in the arms and here is where I added the Arm on the chest to make it seem like he is tired. And finished off by adding a tired face in mike.