Post 5

    This week I was implementing feedback into my cat’s walk cycle. I really wanted to make sure it looked like muscles were being used, so I paid close attention to how the shoulder rotated and the relationship it has with the other body parts. For example, the hips rotating opposite of the chest. I then worked on the small details such as the toes on the paws closing before it hit the floor and spreading more and more as the cat put pressure on his leg. Once I was fully done with the feet, making sure that each back foot goes into the same footprint as the front foot giving cat’s their unique gait, I offset them. I noticed that the back foot would move into the front foot’s footprint before the front foot had already stepped down. These little features that almost seem like it’s not worth exploring actually made my animation come alive. 

    My favorite parts were working on the bounciness of the whiskers, ears, and tail. Once I thought about tails and whiskers as segments where the last segment leads the next, it became a lot easier for me. Peers mentioned that it felt like the whiskers, ears, and tail wasn’t dramatic enough for the walk my cat was doing, so I scaled up the bounciness afterwards. Mark mentioned they were probably all saying that because there were no head movements. I thought because there were torso movements and the head moved because of the torso that I wouldn't’ have to animate any head bounces. I was very wrong and adding it finalized the animation for me. Now, I am moving onto my next animation.