Animation Mentor body mechanics
In March 2023, I wrapped up a 6-week workshop with Animation Mentor. Under the instruction of ex-Disney animator Jay Jackson, we focused on character movement and mechanics. The first few weeks started with a basic walk and run cycle and later progressed into jumps and various physical actions. I learned a ton and enjoyed utilizing simple characters to focus purely on movement and momentum. The following animations are displayed starting from the last week of the course to the first week.
I animated this pitch for the last assignment, focusing on arcs and spacing for every body part. The initial ball toss proved difficult because I had to carefully animate the energy being transferred from the arm to the ball believably.
This assignment was to animate a jump. I used reference but modified it into a rhythm with silhouettes that were more pleasing in the key poses.
For my run cycle, I wanted to push the bounciness and exaggeration, but still used some subtle overlap in the hands to maintain the organic nature of the character.
This personality walk cycle was difficult, not only because it was done in perspective, but also because of the amount of overlap in each body part- from the legs to the upper torso to the arms and hands.
A standard walk cycle with some slight variation. Not much to say on this one besides that it was fun to animate!