Week 7 – Week 10 | 11/07/25 – 26/11/25
Emily Soh Ching-Ling | 0359478
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Animation Fundamentals | Section 01 | GCD61104
Project 2 — Walk Animation & Jump Animation
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 LECTURES
1.1 WEEK 9 — ANIMATION PRINCIPLES (PART 6)
Animation Principles (Part 6)
1.2 WEEK 10 — ANIMATION PRINCIPLES (PART 7)
Animation Principles (Part 7)
2.0 INSTRUCTIONS
3.0 PROJECT 2A — WALK ANIMATION
Instructions:
- Study the poses and timing of the vanilla walk cycle from The Animator's Survival Guide.
- Contact pose (3 frames).
- Down pose (3 frames).
- Pass pose (3 frames).
- Up pose (3 frames).
- Animate your character from Project 1 walking in the same spot from the side view.
- Your animation should be appealing, flexible, and fluid.
- Software: Adobe Animate.
- Requirements:
- Frame Rate: 24 fps.
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9.
- Resolution: 1280 × 720 (HD 720p).
- Format: .mp4 / .mov.
- Submission:
- Rough animation (basic form and sketchy strokes).
- Tie-down animation (clean strokes).
3.1 PROGRESS
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| Figure 3.1-1: Walk Cycle from The Animator's Survival Kit, Week 8 (11/11/25) |
I followed this walk cycle guide from The Animator's Survival Kit while animating my character.
Figure 3.1-2: Rough Animation — Key Poses, Week 8 (11/11/25)
*Slowed down to 5 fps for ease of viewing.
Figure 3.1-3: Rough Animation — Complete, Week 8 (15/11/25)
Dress: Pose-to-Pose, Poncho & Boots: Straight Ahead
Figure 3.1-4: Tie-Down Animation, Week 9 (18/11/25)
3.2 FINAL SUBMISSION
Figure 3.2-1: Project 2A — Compilation (Final Submission), Week 9 (18/11/25)
4.0 PROJECT 2B — JUMP ANIMATION
Instructions:
- Study the poses and timing of the jump animation from The Animator's Survival Guide.
- Normal pose.
- Anticipation pose.
- Jump pose (Push Off, On Air, Landing).
- Follow-through pose.
- Normal pose.
- Animate your character from Project 1 jumping from the side view.
- Your animation should be appealing, flexible, and fluid.
- Software: Adobe Animate.
- Requirements:
- Frame Rate: 24 fps.
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9.
- Resolution: 1280 × 720 (HD 720p).
- Format: .mp4 / .mov.
- Submission:
- Rough animation (basic form and sketchy strokes).
- Tie-down animation (clean strokes).
4.1 PROGRESS
 |
| Figure 4.1-1: Jump Animation Breakdown by Plainly Simple, Week 8 (12/11/25) |
I used this tutorial by Plainly Simple as a guide for this animation. They go into detail about the timing of each action and the halves method.
Figure 4.1-2: Rough Animation — Key Poses (Attempt #1), Week 8 (12/11/25)
*Slowed down to 5 fps for ease of viewing.
This is where you will see me struggling to get the secondary action to look natural. I realised while key posing that my character’s hat would fall off when jumping, and she would have to hold on to it for the animation to look realistic.
Figure 4.1-3: Rough Animation — Complete (Attempt #2), Week 10 (12/11/25)
I was unsure of how to pose her right hand. This led me to acting out the animation in real life to see how my limbs would naturally move.
From what I've gathered, the hat-holding hand generally does not move during the Push Off, On Air, Landing, and Follow Through poses, and only moves when shifting from the Anticipation → Push Off and Landing → Normal poses. I applied my findings to my animation, and it looked much more natural.
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| Figure 4.1-4: Template, Week 10 (12/11/25) |
One of the hardest parts of this project was keeping my character’s proportions consistent throughout the various poses. The key poses look fine on their own, but the slight shift in proportions becomes obvious when connecting them with in-betweens.
To remedy this, I made a template of my character's limbs that I can move around like a puppet. This minimises the unwanted distortion between poses.
Figure 4.1-5: Tie-Down Animation, Week 9 (21/11/25)
4.2 FINAL SUBMISSION
Figure 4.2-1: Project 2B — Compilation (Final Submission), Week 10 (24/11/25)
5.0 FEEDBACK
5.1 WEEK 10
Specific Feedback:
- @ Project 1B:
- Foreground elements have a good colour, but can be bigger to make them stand out.
- Can make the horizon a sunset so that it is more atmospheric.
- Since your character’s colour palette is similar to the background, can add a rim light to her so that she stands out.
- @ Project 2A: Very good.
6.0 REFLECTION
In hindsight, I should've given my character something less loose-fitting, as 90% of my time was spent figuring out how her dress and poncho should move.🫠 I would've also chosen a simpler art style so there was less work to be done, but alas.
That aside, seeing my character move for the first time was really cool. I'm suddenly reminded why I chose to specialise in animation in the first place.💓
7.0 FURTHER READING
7.1 WEEK 8 — 2D ANIMATION: WALK CYCLES
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| Figure 7.1-1: 2D Animation: Walk Cycles by moderndayjames |
Reference: moderndayjames. (2021, May 25). 2D Animation: Walk Cycles. YouTube. https://youtu.be/IViMJyqU9gY?si=kgHk0cYe-s7vJa8Q.
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