TUTORIAL: How to Animate A Skip Cycle

How do you make a character skip in animation?

This short but info-packed 6-minute tutorial by Felix Sputnik (the pseudonym of German animator Michael Schlingmann) might be the best explanation of a skip that I’ve ever seen. Sputnik breaks down the physics of a skipping human and explains why things happen during the movement. “It’s best to understand movement, rather than copy it from reference,” Sputnik says in the video.

At the end of the tutorial, Sputnik, who has worked on feature films such as The Thief and the Cobbler, Space Jam, Corpse Bride, and The Road to El Dorado, promotes a forthcoming tutorial on four-legged cycles.