Category: Maya

reference：

my work:

reference：

my work:

reference:

my work:

During the creation of the walk cycle animation, I gained a more systematic understanding of the relationship between walking rhythm and shifts in the character’s center of gravity. By repeatedly adjusting step length, timing, and foot placement, I gradually realized the importance of solid contact poses in preventing foot sliding. At the same time, coordination and follow-through between different parts of the body helped make the walk feel more natural and cohesive. This exercise made me realize that a seemingly simple walk cycle actually requires careful control of timing and attention to detail, and it also laid a foundation for more complex character animation in the future.

I haven’t polished it much yet, and it still looks a bit like foot sliding.

reference：

my work:

reference：

my work:

This week, I continued refining my previous animation and recorded new reference footage, aiming for a more exaggerated and “animated” performance. For some of the action transitions, I experimented with easing to make the overall movement feel more natural and fluid.

When attempting to connect two actions, I recorded my own performance as a reference, but the overall acting was not exaggerated or expressive enough. During the animation process, the character’s movement still appeared somewhat stiff. Moving forward, I plan to further refine the timing and performance details to improve the animation.

This week, I found more reference images, most of which are related to the character.

I designed my character—or rather, the monster—as a pair of twins. I drew inspiration from elements that evoke psychological fear, such as preserved corpses, freak shows, and unethical experiments from centuries ago, including prefrontal lobotomy.

I designed the character as a pair of conjoined twins, a brother and a sister. The brother’s body is withered and decaying, on the verge of death. They work as taxidermists. In an attempt to save her brother, the sister conducts a series of dark and forbidden experiments.

The taxidermy room is filled with specimens stitched together from human and animal corpses, and at its center may stand an electrotherapy chair resembling an instrument of torture. The sister believes she can extract her brother’s soul from his dying body and transfer it into these reconstructed corpses, unaware that her actions are only causing him greater suffering. Through this character, I aim to portray the sister’s nearly obsessive, pathological love and her overwhelming desire for control.

Below are the sketches I drew while exploring the character.

Visually, they have asymmetrical and disjointed limbs. The brother’s body is withered, twisted, and close to death, with one arm drawn into his chest and bound by bandages, leaving him no choice but to endure the sister’s various experiments inflicted upon him.

I mainly focused on refining detailed animations, such as the secondary motion of the straw, and tried to anthropomorphize the juice box to better convey its emotions. At the same time, I aimed to make its movement patterns feel more natural, drawing inspiration from human walking rhythms and the logic of a charged jump.
Among all the animations, the one I’m most satisfied with is the standing-up motion. The juice box uses its straw like a cane to support itself while getting up, which I find both interesting and effective in strengthening the character’s personality.

Planning:

My work:

In the bouncing exercise with the squirrel-tail ball, I focused on the follow-through and secondary motion between the character’s actions and the prop. The ball’s delay, swing, and rebound during the bouncing process provided clear rhythmic references for the character’s movement, helping me better understand the relationship between primary action and secondary motion. By continuously adjusting the bounce height and timing, I realized that follow-through not only enhances the sense of realism but also adds vitality to the overall animation. This exercise made me aware that well-designed secondary motion can enrich action layers and make character movement more natural and expressive.