#human locomotion

[thinkingofyours]

When the Wild Runs Through Us: Sports Inspired by Nature and Instinct

There’s a rhythm in the untamed world that exists before us by thousands of eons. It’s in the fluid sweep of the leopard leaping, the cliff-hugging hang of the rock goat, the liquid flow of the dolphin surfing. For centuries, we humans observed, learned, and lived by imitating these primal movements. But in the process, as we constructed walls and asphalt streets, that intense, primal connection…

When the Wild Runs Through Us: Sports Inspired by Nature and Instinct

[drworkout]

when you put all of that together, you have a body made of a central axis, wrapped in a double helix of muscles, connecting to four limbs, each of which is also wrapped in a double helix of muscles, and it is this spiral structure of muscles (tendons, and ligaments, attaching to bones) which allows us to generate so much movement complexity out of the combined flexion-extension, lateral flexion, adduction-abduction, internal and external rotation at every joint. simon thakur

[bornbarefootuk]

"Human locomotion is unique, a masterpiece that has evolved over 10s of thousands of years, it has helped us thrive mentally and physically into the beings and societies that we know. A keep component for moving around - Our feet. Each one has 26 bones, 30 muscles and about 30,000 nerve endings..."

[ketchupbeard]

My animation for Human Locomotion class, studying and recreating the hostage scene in the film Bronson. I chose this scene as I wanted to break down and understand intimidating movements. You may have to watch watch it through twice to load the finger pointing properly, as youtube cuts it off during the first run through or failing that, just refresh the page.

[ketchupbeard]

Watching films like Taxi Driver, Bronson, Dredd, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scarface for research on human locomotion feels like I'm not doing any work again but why shouldn't I enjoy researching?

I'm watching these movies to get an angry/sinister walk cycle that can be turned into a search like scene (looking around corridors etc), as I want to try and get a paranoid feeling for my character to come across, like it's looking for an intruder. The scene posted above has some great body language, especially in the scene where Robert De Niro is interacting with the pimp and his stance is notably anxious which comes out when he walks away.  The character I'm trying to portray for my Human Locomotion class, is that of an Icarus (antagonists of some previous work seen here icarusfallsgame), an army of secretive invasive force that is trying to usurp Earth's population by pretending to be diplomatic peace bringers, but as we know they're quite different. There would obviously be two main sides to this character, one that is quite reserved/calm and the other which portrays a paranoid/intimidating emotion. I was thinking to look into other films for the espionage factor, like Taken and James Bond Skyfall, so that I could have a much more varied spectrum, but this is only for the walk cycles.

I would like to start with an idle animation before anything else as it would be able to give people a glimpse at both sides at once by having the Icarus standing in it's calm state then peer around it's shoulders for the remainder of the action. After watching clips from all films, I will possibly upload videos of myself re-enacting parts.

The rig I will be using will be the Blake rig as the Icarus rig isn't set up to be able to emote this much in detail as of this moment in time.

[ketchupbeard]

The collection of the Principles of Motion (POM) DVDs are created by professional animators to provide an innovative reference medium for aspiring animators. These DVDs supply all animators with advanced tools that reveal the subtle, yet crucial elements of human movement. All material contained in the POM DVDs are now available on this website.

As it says above in the title, this website has a lot of free resources for animators involving walk cycles. One part of many pieces that I will use to animate my character.

[ketchupbeard]

A brief show reel of walk cycles and animations for the game character Sly Cooper that were created by the character animator Travis Howe. Through the reel you can get a great sense of character appeal that Travis brings into each action through understanding of anticipation and exaggeration as the Sly Cooper series is heavily into cartooning. One of my favourite parts of this reel is when Travis animates the classic cartoon action of the character being knocked unconscious and spinning around 360 degrees, this mainly due to the use of overlapping action and the illusion of kinetics on the foot as it sways when Sly drops to the floor. 

Regardless of which part the video you watch, you can guarantee that the strong sense of timing has been the foundation on which Travis has been able to apply all the other principles of animation to his work. Although the characters are animals they're anthropomorphic and as a result, heavily influenced by human locomotion. 

[ketchupbeard]

Lists of films that contain spies and espionage that I can use to animate an Icarus from my previous work with @icarusfallsgame. Icarus arw sneaky and athletic, so a spy would be the best way to characterise their movements. Hopefully I'll be able to use an Icarus rig in maya to animate the walk and idle animations, however I will need the blake rig to represent the lip sync.