To get a feel for how my character, Dalan, moves, I began experimenting with run cycles. The first thing I did was a lot of research into various run cycles for different characters, as well as observing how people of different body types, stamina, and personalities run in real life. Some of the references I found are really interesting and well done. Here are a few I found that helped me out a lot:

Below is the basic run cycle I came up with for Dalan Raymer, the Shadow Phantom in my series, DA Shadow phantom. He is the type of character to dash straight into battle or danger without much thought on the matter. That, coupled with his slightly smaller body type, led me to explore a slightly more chaotic run style for him. He's fast, outstripping most opponents with ease, and impulsive.



I started with the concept, i.e., the stick figures. These provided the initial idea for the run cycle, the flow of motion. After that, with each consecutive step, more and more details are added. Also, I test these as an actual animation. Photoshop has an Animation feature (under the Window tab) where you can set each image/layer as a separate frame. You can place these frames and time them whenever they are supposed to come up, one after the other. If you want them to flash quickly, have each image/layer stay be visible for one frame only. To slow it down, either add more images as in-betweens, or have each one stay visible for two or three frames. It's a handy feature. That way, you can test the movement of the animation and perfect it a bit before importing it into an animation program such as Flash or After Effects.

I also found references for four legged creatures running, as well as flight cycles of birds and bats. This could be very useful, considering what my main character changes into, as a shapeshifter.


The process I've been going through to create a run cycle has been a lot of fun. For one, it has reminded me of a very important concept in character design: when drawing characters, even in a two dimensional medium, always treat them as if they are three dimensional. That will make doing different angles of them easier and more believable. Even in a basic run cycle, it isn't just the legs and arms that are moving. People's bodies naturally twist and turn while running or doing anything, for that matter. So it would make sense to visualize characters as being three dimensional to begin with.

As always, everything I learn about art, animation, and storytelling is always a journey, never really about some final end destination. There are various things to accomplish along the way and levels to reach, but I'm afraid that if I finally did get to the top of some great height with nothing else to go for, I wouldn't know what to do or where to go. I need to keep learning.

So, to all the people out there who, like me, thrive on learning of some sort and the experiences that go with it,

Happy Traveling!

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