Dave Pryor's "Alien For Christmas"

THESE FEET ARE MADE FOR WALKING


Thought I'd share some process today. Maybe there are some Flash beginners out there that may benefit from some tips. In the beginning of this shot, the family walks forward in perspective into position. Since the Dad's walk is fairly basic and steady, I can save a lot of time by using symbols that gradually scale as he gets closer. After I make 2 keys and scale the body towards it's final pose, I can make tons of keys throughout the movement to simulate the up and down motion and various follow thru action (like the hat and the present bow). The feet are a different story. I draw a perspective line that shows roughly where the feet would land as he walks forward. I then loosely draw in Flash - frame by frame - the positioning of where the feet need to be Here you can see I drew the foreground foot in red and the background foot in blue. This helps from getting the feet confused. In this image, the onion-skin mode is on so you can see the sketched images overlapped. I scrub through the shot until I feel satisfied, then I use a few symbols that were pre-prepared for the shoes and move them into place over the rough digital drawings. This is also done frame by frame. In this case, I could get away with using about 4 symbols for all the needed foot shapes (You can see the final shoe symbols in the final foot position). After the shoe walking is complete, I hand drew the pants (legs) into place frame by frame to get the proper perspective on the complicated movement.