1st Attempt At A Cat Walk Cycle

After watching tutorials and observing how my own cat walks, I have finally committed myself to paper and created my first feline walk cycle. To begin with I focused solely on the legs. By ignoring the entire cat and focusing purely on the leg movement, I was able to get a real feeling for how the legs move. The cycle works pretty well. The leg movement is quite fluid although there is a slight kink between the first and last frame. Watching the cycle frame-by-frame I noticed that the forelegs and the back legs don't cycle evenly. There isn't good symmetry which throws the cycle off.

After focusing just on the legs, I then went on to animate the whole cat. As my first attempt it's not bad. The basic cycle is there but it is far from perfect. The tail moves up fluidly but then seems to stay frozen in the air before quickly falling back down again. I need to think more carefully about how gravity will be acting on the cat as well as ensuring that the cat stays along its walk lines. At the moment, the legs seem to all move to the top line and this creates the illusion of a float or lack of weight. Because of this, the cycle doesn't loop perfectly and clicks.