Jacquelin Vanderwood
November 2004
The first thing you need to do when creating the animated bounce step is to get that trusty pencil out and draw some legs as I have done below. The center leg in red represents the passing position or that the opposite leg is walking. In this animated walk, the rule of thumb would be two bounces per step which indicates a double bounce.
In this part we've added in the two up positions in the walk showcased in blue.
In this part of the lesson we add in the opposing leg. The legs outlined in green are considered the stepping foot.
If we look closer we can see the curve on which steps are being taken.
The first step or step 1 located on the right is actually frame 1. If we move onto the number 5, this would be considered frame 5. If you were to create a full animation, then you would draw in-between leg positions for frames 2, 3, 4, etc.
Here we have the frames or leg motions broken up into individual parts using a timing graph so that you can understand the timing of each position that has been drawing so far.
So if we draw out the bodies in more depth we can then draw the curving line under and over the heads to see how the movement is being created. Position 1 is in the down position, position 5 is in the up position, position 9 is in the down position, position 13 is in the up position, and position 17 is in the down position. You can also change the positions by putting 1 in the up position, etc. You would then draw those legs in the appropriate movement for that position. This is the basic format for the bounce step.
Copyright (c) 2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
