Attached Link: Walking Boy

Hi, folks. I am a great fan of 2D animation. Love all the Disney classics and some great Animes (Akira, Ghost in The Shell etc). This is just a study on one of the most difficult part of animation, the walking cycle. I didn't use any film or frames for reference, everything from memory. Comments welcome.

It's pretty good for an early pencil test. the motion everall is pretty smooth, even without inbetweens. However, he should probably pick up his feet a bit more, and bend his arms at the elbows a little as they're swinging back. Mostly the feet though, because it kind of looks like he stepped in something and he's trying to get it off his shoe. I'm also not quite sure why he turns around at the end and starts to walk backwards. All in all, though, I think two or three more runs through tweaking, and you'll have it. Also, if you haven't already got it, I suggest buying "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams. He was the animation director for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". It's probably the best book on animation you'll ever read, and for 2d, it's possibly the only book you'll ever need.

Thanks for the critiques and suggestions, BrainMuffin. I was already aware of the "dragging" foot. Now, about the books, I have the Preston Blair's collection and Disney's Illusion of Life. Unfortunately, I have very little spare time to read them more often.

You're welcome to the suggestions & critiques... The preston blair series is good, I don't have "Illusion of Life" yet. Even though I've heard it can be a little heavy on the disney history, It'll probably be my next animation book. (My First? Chuck Amuck: the life & times of an animated cartoonist- Chuck Jones, which taught me more about Termite Terrace than animation) As for reading them, it's not as important as working through the exercises yourself, even if, once a week, or once a month, you flip a book open to a random page, and draw out one or two of the animations on it, run it through the camera and see how it looks. Even if that's all you have time to do, you're learning. Especially, trying to match yourself to what's on those pages. Because as you're copying the drawings, you'll notice things that you wouldn't at a casual glance, like the way some animators will subtly wobble the head side to side in addition to the natural up & down bounce in a walk cycle, or how many frames a certain secondary action lags behind the main action. I know, I'm being a little long winded, but animation is my raison d'etre. Keep at it. Even if you only have time to do it as a weekend hobby.

@brainmuffin: I gave a look at your homepage. Tried to download your animation in the Free Stuff area, but couldn't. Thanks one more time for the suggestions. I'll try to post some old pencil tests, from the late 80's.

Attached Link: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1qub6/portfolio/id11.html

A lot (but not all) of my best work is here. most of it is over a year old, the newest thing is the guy diving behind the crates, that's about a month old. I'm going to re-post the rest of my good stuff when I have time , now that I have a site of my own.