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The World on Spin Cycle

The very talented (and very nice) Andy Kennedy, who I used to work with at Animation Collective, is out with a new stop-motion short that I think you'll love. Don't miss his 'making of' material, which makes clear what a herculean effort this was. This is a new medium for Andy, who usually works in Flash -- seems to me he's a natural!

A Little Animation Nerdery

Usually when I teach the walk cycle I have the highest point of the arm swing come at the heel-toe position. I recently took a look at Richard Williams, however, and I noticed that he has the highest point of the arm swing come at the landing position.


Oh no. Had I been teaching it wrong all this time? This didn't seem right, from observation. So what did I do? The same thing animators have been doing for decades... I went to Edward Muybridge for reference. Muybridge was a 19th century photographer and flagrant genius who became fascinated by human and animal motion, and documented it in serial photography.


As you can see, the highest point of the arm swing here comes at the heel-toe. And it isn't a fluke either... on other Muybridge plates you see the same thing. Is there some kind of consensus among animators that the arm swing should come later? Apparently not. Here's Preston Blair:


So is Richard Williams just wrong? I don't think so. I think he's trying to improve on reality. It's a subtle difference, and both walks seem natural enough, but by overlapping the actions the Williams walk seem a little more integrated, a little more pleasing to the eye. The walk has less of that nordic track feel.

An Ordinary Joe

Here is a style frame from a current project, still very much in progress. The style is a bit of a contradiction: very flat, textured shapes with shading. I suppose you could call it a frieze or relief style. Here's a turnaround of the character, sans texture.