struttin’ Lilith

For this project, I had to create an original character and animate a walk cycle from scratch. I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to take inspiration from Total Drama Island, since I’ve always loved the way the characters are drawn—simple shapes, exaggerated proportions, and lots of personality. I wanted my character to fit that style while still feeling like my own creation.

I started by gathering references on Pinterest. I looked at body proportions, stylized poses, and different ways artists simplify anatomy. Since walk cycles rely a lot on real movement, I also paid attention to how people actually walk. I even acted it out myself to understand how the hips move, how the legs swing, and how the upper body reacts. It helped a lot when planning out the poses.

When I moved into Adobe Illustrator, I spent time setting up my file carefully. I separated every body part onto its own layer so the animation would be easier later. I turned each piece—arms, legs, torso, head, hands, feet—into symbols so they could be rigged properly once imported into Adobe Animate.

In Animate, most of my work was focused on making the movement look natural. I adjusted anchor points, tested rotations, and played around with timing. The hips were the trickiest part, but once they felt right, the rest of the walk cycle started to flow better. Small adjustments, like adding a bit of shoulder movement or making the arms swing naturally, helped bring the character to life.

The final animation ended up looking relatively smooth and close to the style I was aiming for. This project taught me how important file organization, reference research, and anchor points are when animating, and it made me much more confident in building characters for movement.