Welcome to lesson four of Animated Loops. In this lesson,
we're going to learn how to make a scrolling loop.
The first thing we need to do is make our character run,
which will be the focus for this part. Then in the next part,
we'll add a scrolling scene around our character. Let's get started.
We'll start with the character rig in the default pose as before,
but as he'll be moving sideways in this loop,
we'll need to make some adjustments. Show all of the hidden layers,
select the CharacterMirror null and the BodyMirror null and delete them.
Now if you select the hand and feet nulls,
you'll see their values are no longer mirrored.
We want the character to be facing to the right, so select the face null,
and move the Position 50 pixels to the right.
And on the MouthDetail layer,
we will need to adjust the Position of the tongue shape, too.
Move that 15 pixels to the left
and also adjust the Path,
shape points and use the Convert Vertex Tool to give the tongue a curve.
Flip the Horizontal Scale of the foot left shape and you also may need to
flip the Position, too, if that isn't at zero. Then
select LegLeft ankle and in Effects Controls change the direction to
-100. Select LegRight,
ArmRight,
HandRight and FootRight and move these all below the BodyShape layer.
Move the arm and hand below the leg and foot.
Move ArmLeft and LegLeft to the top of all the Shape layers and
move ArmLeft and HandLeft above the leg and foot. Next,
I'll bring in my Color Palettes
and for all of the right limb layers - LegRight, FootRights, ArmRight,
and HandRight - we want to make these the darker shade of yellow.
Let's just do that with the Fill Effect since all of these layers are one solid
color, and while they're selected we can just pick the color.
Then, we can delete the Color Palettes. Next,
we'll set the Start and End of the animation. We'll start at 2 seconds again,
so drag out a marker and name it Start,
press B for the beginning. We're going to make this a 24 frame loop,
so go to 224 and create an end marker.
Then go back one frame and press End for the end of the work area,
and I'll just zoom in so we can see things more clearly.
Let's show all of our limb controls, too. We're going to focus on the body,
feet and hips to begin with,
so let's move the hip controllers to the top of the controls, too.
We'll start with some animation on HipLeft. Go to the Start,
set the Horizontal Position to 50 and set a keyframe, at the halfway point,
12 frames later, move it back to -80.
At the end, copy and paste the first keyframe,
set all of these to Easy Ease
and add a loop In and Out expression.
I also want to move these keyframes 2 frames earlier to be slightly ahead of the
foot movement, which we'll animate now.
Select a FootLeft null first and show the Position and
Rotation. This will be the contact point of the run with the heel on the ground.
So rotate it to -45 degrees and move the Position across in front
of the character, keyframe both.
We'll also add a keyframe here to the FootLeft path shape,
but move that one frame later. Then on the start frame,
we want to curve the shape of the foot up so the toes are in the air before they
hit the ground. One frame later,
set the Rotation of the Foot null to zero so the foot is flat
on the ground. And five frames later, six frames after the Start,
keyframe the Rotation again and slide the foot backwards for the other end of
the step.
We'll also keyframe the Path at this point as well.
On the next frame, we'll rotate the foot down slightly,
move the Position back further, and
on the previous frame where the foot is still flat,
drag out a guide from the Ruler to show where the floor is.
Then back to the next frame, move the foot up so the toes are on the ground.
And we also want to curve the Foot Path shape too so the toes are bending,
lifting the character off the ground. Next frame,
copy and paste the straight path shape.
Rotate the foot down even more. Move
it back slightly
and move it up so the toes are still on the ground.
Four frames after that is the halfway point of the loop.
Move the leg back further
and lift it up off the ground. Keyframe
the Path here too, just in the straight pose. Three frames later,
delayed behind the Position keyframe,
Rotate the foot so the toes are pointing back.
Three frames after that is the passing point of the foot movement.
So move the foot null Position below the character in the middle and a bit
lower. One frame later,
we'll adjust the Path shape, bending the toes back slightly.
One frame after that, rotate the foot so it's pointing towards the ground.
And two frames later, we'll be just before the heel hits the ground. So,
rotate the foot up. On
the End frame, copy and paste the start keyframes for Position and Rotation, and
for the path shape, too.
Let's do Easy Ease on the Path keyframes. Ease
all of the Rotation keyframes, too, but on the Position,
just Ease In the last keyframe. For the others,
we're going to adjust the motion path of the Position using the Convert
Vertex Tool on the keyframe points to make the Path a smooth curve.
The
passing point can be quite flat.
And
the End can be angled forwards so the foot is coming down from in front.
Okay.
We're going to add a loop expression on both Position and Rotation
and on the Path shape, too,
then copy and paste all of these LegLeft keyframes to the RightLeg,
starting with the Path shape from FootLeft to FootRight; the
Position and Rotation from FootLeft null to FootRight null,
and the Position from the left hip to the right hip.
Then select all of the RightLeg keyframes and offset them all 12 frames later to
have the opposite timing as the LeftLeg.
Now
we're going to add some movement to the Body.
I'll clear the guide first.
Three frames after the Start,
select the Body null and keyframe, the Vertical Position at 25.
Six frames later, change that to 10,
and six frames after that, copy and paste the first keyframe.
Add Easy Ease, add a loop In and Out expression.
Then on the Character null, at the Start frame,
set a Position keyframe at 540 by 540.
Set another one six frames later,
three frames later change the Vertical Position to 525 to have the character
hopping in the air. And three frames after that,
copy and paste the first keyframe. Let's just do Easy Ease on the top keyframe.
Then add a loop In and Out expression.
We're also going to add some Rotation to the Body null.
Three frames after the first position keyframe,
set the Rotation to -2 degrees and keyframe.
Six frames later, rotate it to 2 degrees. Six
frames after that, copy and paste the original keyframe.
Add Easy Ease
and a loop In and Out expression.
We'll also add some squash and stretch to the body,
so show the Scale on the Body Shape layer. At the Start,
set the Scale to 102 and 98 and keyframe that.
Six frames after that, change it to 98 and 102. Six
frames later, copy and paste the first keyframe,
Easy Ease, add a loop expression.
We're going to shift these keyframes five frames later,
just so they're delayed behind the movement of the body.
Now we'll animate the shadow Scale,
which will move in time with the body movement.
On the first body position, keyframe, keyframe the shadow Scale at 100%,
six frames later, change the Width to 120.
And six frames after that, back to 100.
Add Easy Ease and a loop In and Out expression.
Now we have the shadow changing shape to match the movement of the legs and
body. Next, we'll animate the face.
Go to the Start frame and select the Face null. On the Position,
set a keyframe at 50 and 0. At the halfway point 12 frames later,
change this to 75 and 0.
And at the End frame, copy and paste the keyframe from the Start,
add Easy, add a loop In and out expression, and
offset them six frames later so it's delayed behind the body movement.
At frame six, the first face position keyframe,
scroll down to the MouthDetail layer. On the tongue shape,
add a keyframe to the Position. 12 frames later,
move it back to -20.
And 12 frames after that, back at the original Position.
Let's do Easy Ease and the loop expression.
Now we'll adjust the shape of the mouth. On the MouthMatte,
we'll animate the Path shape and the Stroke Width.
At the start frame,
make the Stroke Width a little bigger and just keyframe the Path. At the
halfway point, we'll make the Width a bit smaller and
also flatten the curve and move it up. At
copy and paste the Start keyframes and add a loop In and Out expression.
We
could do a conventional arms swinging motion like this,
but you need to add some contrast to the arms so they're visible in front of the
body. This could be as simple as just adding some white gloves for example,
but I want to do something different and maybe a bit funnier and have the arms
stretched out to the sides,
which will also demonstrate how I often use circular motion on my loops, too.
So let's go back to the start. First,
we're going to change the direction of each of the arm bends,
so select each wrist and in Effects Controls flip the direction of each
bend. Also
move the Position of the shoulders a bit closer in.
We'll make these 150 and -150.
Now I'll animate HandLeft null first. Show the Position and Rotation.
I'll make the Position a bit closer in,
keyframe that and rotate the hand pointing up,
and add a keyframe. At the halfway point,
reduce the Rotation and
move the arm a bit further out.
At the end frame, copy and paste the first keyframes.
On the Rotation add Easy Ease,
but on the Position,we're going to change the motion path.
At the Start, pull the Direction down. At the Midpoint,
point the Direction up. Then at the End, back down again,
creating a small smooth circle.
Then we'll add the loop expression to both of these
and move the Position keyframes, three frames earlier. Now,
we'll copy and paste these keyframes to the right hand,
and then select all of the position, keyframes,
and while at the first key frame,
slightly position over so that on the other side of the body.
Then let's go down to the HandRight Shape layer.
Set the Scale to 100 in both directions,
and the Horizontal Position to -11.
The last thing we need to do is just animate the fingers.
Let's go back to the Start.
We'll do HandLeft first.
We're going to keyframe all of the Path shapes for the fingers and thumb.
At
the Start, bend all of the fingers in towards the body slightly
and adjust the position of the points.
12 frames later, bend the fingers in the opposite direction.
And again,
just adjust the points slightly.
At
the End, copy and paste the Start frames, add Easy Ease, and
add a loop In and Out expression.
Then shift these all six frames later. And,
finally, copy and paste all these keyframes to the Paths on HandRight.
Now,
we can turn off all our Limb controls.
And there you have a finished run cycle animation ready to add into a scrolling
scene, which we'll create in the next part of this lesson.
I'll see you there. Thanks for watching.