Persy Walk Cycle Reel

Persy Walk Cycle Reel

I've updated this reel from the previous reel that I created for Persy.  Since I created a walk cycle for Lucy, I decided to also create a walk cycle for the main character from Delivery, Persy.  Because I also typically work with animals, mostly canine like animals, I thought it would be a fun challenge to animate a biped too.  Persy's model and rig are from the University of Central Florida's Character Animation program "Delivery" film.  

My biggest learning curve from working with Persy was the fact that she has hair and it needed to move and react to how her head and body are moving.  I also learned that hair reacts and moves differently as you get further into animating the ends of the hair.  It's essentially long chain with each reacting to what the chain before it is reacting to.

Another big lesson was the animation curve Persy's arms created when moving forward and back.  I never thought about how arms gain and lose momentum and how the wrist and hands react to that movement.  As the arms lose momentum the wrists have follow through and catch up as the arms are beginning to gain momentum. The hands then also react as the fingers get closer and further apart. 

The last big lesson I learned was about facial animation.  Persy has her limits on her facial rig, she can be very expressive or very subtle.  If you combine  too many controller's Persy's face will start to cave inwards in some areas.  I have never been comfortable pushing Persy's face to it's limit but with this animation I really played around with what her expressions are and how I can creatively make her look happy without breaking her rig. 

Overall, this animation has taught me a lot about how the body moves on a biped and how it effects other parts for follow through animation.  This animation is definitely not quite completed yet as I need to work on Persy's fidget sometime in the near future!  The music in the reel is called Typography by MorningLightMusic.