Project #4: Walk Cycle

For the walk cycle project, I used the character Samus from the video game trilogy "Metroid Prime".  Her suit has many different parts and joints, thus I had to create many different symbols to create the puppet rig.

I began with some rough sketches of the character; once I made the sketches, I was able to color it in and start rigging the puppet.

Samus is on a mission in this walk; her fist is tense and despite the wintry cold surrounding her, she is keeping a consistent and focused pace to show her determination.

I created the Samus puppet rig in Adobe Animate, along with the backdrop.  I added the snow in Adobe After Effects to add to the frosty planet setting.  I then did some compositing in After Effects; I imported the backdrop as an image and added key frames to change the position to make the background move instead of Samus, but creating the allusion that Samus is walking across the bridge.  I had to add the snow, too, since I just love the look of snow and winter on screen; it is also my favorite environment from the video game Metroid Prime, so I was very glad I got to add the particles in After Effects.

What was most interesting about this project was how daunting the task of creating a walk seemed in my head at first, but once I created the Classic Tweens on the rig, it felt so good seeing how everything came together and I really enjoyed the pupating process.  The walk itself was actually a lot of fun to create; I loved working with pupating!

While the project had its fair share of challenges, it was rewarding to see Samus's character come to life piece by piece, and this project helped me feel comfortable with pupating, rigging, and creating a walk cycle!