Cat Walk Cycle Tutorial

PLEASE READ! Pause if it moves too fast for you. The song is "It's Hard Work" from Spirited Away--or at least, it was, until it was apparently disabled. :/

Hm...that brings up a problem...oh well.

So, recently, I had an epiphany and figured out the enigmatic trick to a cat's walk cycle. So, to make it easier on the rest of the world, I made a tutorial video, explaining the trick as best I could. If I didn't explain it very well, comment with any questions, and I'll try to answer them as best I can in the description.

Also in this video I used my new fursona--at least, new to my viewers! I'll post a video sometime with a better drawing of her--maybe an upcoming art video. :) This video also proves that I'm still animating. I made the cycle with Flash CS5, and the video with movie maker and PSE 7. At the moment, The Tygrine Cat is put on hold. I have a bunch of other projects I'm going to do, mostly so I can practice using Flash. I hope to use it to animate the series when I make it. On the books, right now, are a couple AMVs (one of them is a Warriors one ;) and a few other cool videos. :)

NOTES and Q&A:

At 1:40, sorry, I messed up on the fourth cat, the one on the bottom right. The hind leg that is bent should be in back--the straight one should be in front. Sorry about that. : / You get the idea of what's drawn there, right, though?

At 1:36, I made a similar mistake. The third frame, the hind legs should be switched--I forgot to recolor them. The blue one should be on the right, the red one on the left.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• animation art
• walk cycle
• walk cycle tutorial
• cat
• tygrine

[PonyLoves83]

Thank you :) You should be seeing your name in my animation's description because you helped me with the walking cycle :D

[DragonwolfRooke]

@PonyLoves83 Aw, thanks! :)

[Sunpelt58]

this helps alot!!! I am glad you posted this vid!!!! :D

[lpscircus]

you ether have a lot of cats, or really study them! 'cause I have tow cats and I never noticed! (tho I never really lookeed!lol) i'm gonna try it! i love your vids!

[Graptor82]

@DragonwolfRooke Can you please upload a run cycle of bones if possible thanks.

[shadowcatcher5000]

THIS~ Is going to help me SO~ much. THANK YOU!

[wolfblazeJinks]

im a new amv'er and i was getting SO stressed out cuz i couldnt figure out the leg movements. i kept finding dif tutorials on youtube and all of it just kept stressing me out even more! but win i went on this one all of a sudden it made......sense!! AND THE WORLD OPENED UP TO ME AND ANGELS SANG!!!!!!!!!!!!..............­...not rly but SERIOUSLY u take it step by step and keep it simple! ty ty ty ty!!!!!

[shadowstripe01]

@DragonwolfRooke it's weird though most people find a run cycle really hard to do but i find it easy but i find walk cycles confusing and hard for me even if i know how a cat moves and it's anatomy

[DragonwolfRooke]

@shadowstripe01 It's fine. :)

[shadowstripe01]

@DragonwolfRooke thanks for explaining i just see it like that you know i honestly don't picture the long legged animal running like a cat does i just ment the format the fore legs push off the ground then the hind lgs do and in that little moment is the part that you mentioned when both fore and hind legs are in the air for the breif moment it's still a little hard to explain the way i think -sorry if i'm a bother-

[DragonwolfRooke]

@shadowstripe01 Actually, gazel and deer run very differently than a cat does. Deer move in bounds, leaping. A deer would have both feet off the ground for a long time, and then hit the ground with both in swift succession, and then be off again. A cat has all feet off the ground for a short time--they spend a longer time with their front paws off, their hind legs pushing against the ground for thrust.

[shadowstripe01]

@DragonwolfRooke a run cycle isn't all that hard actually the trick is to picture a long legged animal- like a gazel or a deer- running then make the legs shorter so when you animate it the front legs will push off the ground while the back legs are off the ground and vise versa -sorry if i didn't do such a good job explaining it's hard to explain but i might make a vid on it-