Animation Principles

Due to the character i am animating, it was hard to find some examples of something that looked completely right at the correct angle to study properly. Fortunately, there was a few animations on YouTube and also some animation guides. I studied these to make my animations as good as i could.

This animation from YouTube is good, but it felt too smooth in it’s movement and felt uncanny valley esque, it felt like there was barley any weight to the model and it being such a towering figure i felt like it should be more impactful and have more exaggerated movement and secondary actions (like jiggle in the thigh).

I also found some character sheets of a walk cycle that helped me create a more natural style of movement. This way it gives me a better ability to smoothly cycle my animation without it having a sudden jagged movement to go back to the start.

Made by https://www.artstation.com/immortalstar01

What i would like to do with the principles

Exaggeration

I would like to add some extra jiggle than normal to the legs and belly and to add some extra movement to the head and body on the left and right movement and also on the up and down movement.

Secondary Action

I would like the tail to flick faster or slower depending on the body movements adding extra movement to it. And also to have the jiggle on thighs belly and the rib area.

Arcs

I would like the tail and the head to move in arcs, so it is more fluid motion wise, same as with the arms but since they are not used nearly as much as something like the head on this certain creature due to the size of each appendage.

Appeal

I want to attempt to add appeal by using the jaws and using secondary actions and exaggeration to an effect to make it more interesting to watch.

Follow through / Overlap

I want to make sure the animation has a bunch of animations happening at once so that the downwards motion of the head takes place at the same time as the walking of the feet. This is especially needed for the tail as it is the thing that grounds the animation and makes it feel like the T-rex won’t fall over.

Timing

I want to make sure each of the cycles like running, walking each cycle properly without any sudden jolts. I also need to make sure the animation doesn’t happen to fast as it would most likely ruin the weight of the model if things happen to fast or slow.

References

NaturalisBiodiversityCenter (2021) Tyrannosaurus rex Trix walking animation [Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/@NaturalisBiodiversityCenter [Accessed 03/05/2024].

Jan Negron (2018) Dinosaur Walk Cycle Available online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YAWBP [Accessed 03/05/2024]