It took me nearly a month to finish the original cartoon cowboy shot, which was the first I’d attempted to do of my FMP, and when it was done, it looked so bad I nearly lost all motivation to continue the work. Up until this past week, during which I’ve been traveling internationally, I’ve deliberately put off revisiting the cowboy shot, as it depressed me so to see myself fail at a walk cycle. But, in between packing bags, it was the perfect project to break up the leftover time, as the pre-built set and tracked shot required no new planning, only extensive animation repair.
As I mentioned previously, I found that starting over was the most efficient option. That choice turned out to be enormously beneficial, and to my relief, I found that I could whip out a walk cycle no sweat in just a few days, as I should expect at my current skill level. I worked closely with the reference to match the timing perfectly and avoid at all costs the “drunk walk” and weird robotic horse of before.
Of course, once the reference is copied correctly, stylization is the easy part. I chose to give Sheriff Amy the bounciest possible hat, a confident march, and a goofy, stretchy bounce in her step. As with Dana- both rigs, may I mention, are by the same creator, Gabriel Salas, and are the best $15 I ever spent- my favorite bit to animate was her hair. The floaty hair gives the final touch to the weight of her walk. I did find myself wishing that her hips/waist stretched as well, to give a nice jelly-like overlapping squash along with the chest stretch.
George, the horse, was a bit more difficult. Though human walk cycles are old (floppy) hat, George is now only the second horse I’ve ever animated, and of course the first was done rather poorly. That being said, this minimal experience gave me the skill I need for smooth sailing on the horsey sea. With the reference at the ready, I focused my efforts on an up-down motion of the shoulders then haunches, in which the hips raise in each passing hoof pose, thus creating an effect of the front of the horse then rear of the horse raising one after the other.
Pleased with the effect, my main goal after discovering this strategy was to smooth out the hoof movements while keeping the weight realistic, and to exaggerate the upward motion of the hips enough to match Sheriff Amy’s bounce while preventing the horse from appearing too unruly. That took some adjustment. The last step was my favorite, of course, the hair.
Once again, the hair drives home the animation of the character itself.
This is not a showstopper piece like the tiger shot or Dana, but it’s achieved what I’d intended, a finished walk cycle for the cartoon cowboy that looks passably decent and fits consistently into the aptitude of my other FMP work while providing a stark contrast between its realistic counterpart. If I could change anything, I’d say that the horse looks worse than Amy. He still looks good, but it’s clear that I’ve only just figured out how to animate a horse, whereas with humans I’m comfortable enough to play around with stylization.