This was the first project given to us on the Foundation Degree. The brief was to create a loop animation based on human/animal walk cycles. Loved studying this! When researching this, most run cycles are done, the character traveling left to right. The same as a 2d platformer. Its easier for me to draw a character facing left. Also given as I was animating a ninja sprint (head low with minimal movement on the upper torso) I could find no reference material that was of any use. I imagined animating the hair would be the easier part though I found it tricky, makes it all the more rewarding when you eventually get it right. So yea I haven't any images to share of this yet as it's at college. Amongst other things I regrettably forgot to mention in my annotation on the hand in, she is Ninlil, a Mesopotamian wind Goddess. Given my fascination with Japanese retro videogames with female protagonists, this was inspired by games such as Devil Hunter Yohko and Valis. Neither reached our shores, obviously I've got them both;) Games produced in Japan in the 80s and 90s contain excellent artwork! I have mostly studied in the style of Loish in terms of trying to capture sensitivity and femininity . The landscape was meant to be particularly menacing, with branches like arms as if reaching out to grab her and grass blowing in the wind resembling circular saws. The watcher in the background is deliberately undefined, an enemy? A protector? I prefer to leave this open to the interoperation of the viewer, though in my mind it is her unborn child watching from the stars. When doing the stop-frame animation for the background, the camera was set to auto, hence was automatically adjusting the white balance. Though this was unintentional, on play back it gave it an aged feel as if it was running on a reel, which worked in its favour. It's a shame I only produced a series of experiments and didn't complete the final piece the way I envisioned it. Inspirations. Loish I've talked about this girl briefly in my research. She's my favourite digital artist and I think she has colour perfected. I challenged myself to try and achieve the same results using colour pencil, felt tip and gel pen. I really enjoy studying in her style! But yeah the colour is good but not as crisp or bold as what can be achieved digitally. heres Loishs as a comparison. The pencil picks up the grain on the paper and while its a nice effect it isn't an intentional one. Gel pen I only find appropriate for certain highlights like the sheen in the eye but it is bold. Though initially Loish's colour was the reason I was drawn to her, her influence on this animation was her character design. Again unfortunately I'll have to wait until I receive my work back to upload my art but.. I couldn't sing her praises enough and I wanna marry her. This is the type of character design I mean. I had Pocahontas in mind when I was drawing the animation as well. I think probably because she's a wind spirit and Pocahontas sings 'The colours of the wind' tune. Other than that my inspiration for this animation were games like Devil Hunter and Valis.