Team VeloEtoile: Reference for cycling

Youtube has a great feature where you can slow down the video, I found video's of Alberto Contador's races and print-screened the needed frames.

Team VeloEtoile: Animation research of cyclists

 I had a look at two of the many cyclists that Alison recommended for research, Mark Cavendish and Alberto Contador.

Firstly, I examined Cavendish's form through the power of youtube, I examined how the cyclist's body moves in conjunction with the bicycle.




I found that when the cyclist accelerates, the bike sways and tilts - making it more unbalanced but builds momentum.

Old lady concept

I started to sketch out some rough concepts for the old lady character in Emma's animation. I really liked the protagonist's personality, so it was too good an opportunity to pass by!

For some reason, it turns out I really liked sunglasses, big perms and hats. I keep imagining her as some wacky, colourful character who just likes to live as she pleases.

Animation research for old lady

I've been told to do research on movement since I'm an animator.
This is reference for Emma's old lady character.

To start myself off, I found a youtube video of an old couple walking and examined the walk style of the old woman.

I found that the movement is very minimal, the foot seems to almost slide because its not lifted very high. The cane also serves as supporting most of her weight and is firmly planted. At 0:06, the cane appears to be more slanted than her left leg - if the cane had slanted a bit more, she would've slipped. The walk as a whole feels quite delicate, it seems like any wrong movement could cause a fall. She seems to hobble as her feet take turns supporting her weight.

I drew some sketches to help me and focused primarily on the feet.