I can see a Rainbow

Just a brief note on the colours for my character.

My own pet guinea pig, who I referenced for life studies and movement, died not long ago. Although I hadn't based my character on my pet, the character did have similar colours to the real guinea pig I had. So they've stuck. This is in no way a means of dedicating any of my work to my pet, there are far greater things I could dedicate my film to.

As for the drums, red was the best choice for complimenting the colour of the character, as well as being a lively colour to emphasise the gayity of the piece.

Bron

Guinea Pig Walk - Complete and Unadulterated

The walk, finished and coloured. A useful asset for animatic making, me thinks, especially as it comes complete with alpha channel!

Guess the only problem looking at it now is that the back leg pops when the walk is copied and pasted. This can be resolved in the actually animating process.

Give me Head - *titter*

Seedy titles aside, above is the improved guinea pig walk, using the Cat 9 formula. I will clean and colour it to see how the final product could look.

Head Banging

OK, so not quite as planned. The body and feet work nicely, but the head... not quite minimal enough... Will try again.

Theories on a Train

Guinea pig walks...

I studied some videos of guinea pig walks, and this is what I discovered:

A step takes 8/9 frames, which is roughly 3 seconds per step. Contrary to most other animals, there seems to be a "feline rhythm" (left, left, right, right, as opposed to left, right, left, right.) Hind quarters follow a different rhythm to the front (hind step takes 8 frames, front takes 9.)

Head movement is minimal, but like standard quad walks favours the lifting front side. The up position is very subtle.

The spine of the guinea pig is difficult to see, due to the amount of hair on the body. From what can be seen and gathered, the spine would compress when front and back legs are both in up position and would stretch when front goes down (as the hind quarters are weightier and would drag the body back.)

I will test this walk based on these observations and theories. Get me! I sound like I know what I'm talking about!

StoryBoards

Above are the storyboards for my film, which are still subject to change.

First Steps

A really, really basic test for the guinea pig walk. I've dubbed this the Standard Quad walk, which does what it says on the tin. To get a clearer view of the walk, I copied and pasted the movement, which is why a strip of black appears on the screen.

Part of the problem with this walk was that it was a standard quadraped walk, designed more for bigger animals. Rodents wouldn't move so slowly. Plus there'd be more stretching and compressing of the spine.

Regardless, I like quadrapeds!