Wounded walk cycle

This started off as a quick walk cycle re-cap, as I've been slowly introducing myself into fighting animations. I originally made the plain walk cycle in a day and over the week just came back and played around with some ideas as I watched it back. I also sent it to my tutor and collected some thoughts and feedback. This really helped me to finalise the feeling. I think this was a great exercise to practice pushing the boundaries of simple movements like walking. I remember my first animation tutor always asking "what's the feeling?".

I really love when video games have alternative walk cycles based on your characters mood. In this example, I considered when your health bar is low and your character starts limping or showing signs of injury. I think I could have pushed this by adding a slight limp, or dragging of the feet a bit more.

I used animation layers to add a lot of the details and again - push some poses. I really wanted him to feel hunched and in pain, but still be able to look forward. I found this difficult and had to break some parts of the shoulders to achieve it. I received feedback regarding his hand holding his body - they didn't look very engaged. I think I could have pushed this by maybe making his hands more claw like.

Overall I recognized an improvement in animating the basics in a 3D walk cycle. I was much quicker with blocking and also new what I was looking for when I was in the polishing phase. Using motion trails made so much more sense to me from when I first used them in walk cycles and I'm much more attentive to the foot rolling. I also notice the things that can be improved but also content with what I've made in the time frame I gave myself 😊