Cartoony Animations - Stewart Rig
I worked on this project during my time studying animation at the Atlantic Technological University in Ireland. We were assigned 4 animations using the Stewart Rig (https://www.animationmentor.com/free-maya-rig/): a walk cycle, run cycle, jump, and idle, as well as creating our own textures or even extra props for the character.
After a quick test of the rig, I immediately knew I wanted to stretch Stewart as much as possible with very exaggerated and cartoony motions, with a lot of bounce and bobbing.
Walk cycle: I aimed for a carefree, lighthearted, and dynamic motion that uses a lot of bobbing akin to older cartoons.
Run cycle: much like the walk, I attempted to create an exaggerated animation that exhudes happiness. I went for more of a skip than a traditional run, making use of the stretchiness of the Stewart rig.
Jump: Here I wanted to push the stretchy factor to its limit with Stewart becoming very distorted in the quicker parts of the jumping motion. Again, I attempted to heavily exaggerate the motion with a very strong windup to emphasize the cartoony nature.
Idle: once again, the exaggeration of the movement and breathing here plays with the established elasticity from the other animations; I wanted a stance that again appears carefree, broken up by Stewart looking around to avoid monotony.
For the custom textures, since I already knew the animations I was going to make would be cartoony, I chose to dress Stewart in Takaba's costume from Jujutsu Kaisen, since they would share the cartoony/silly aspects.