It was a dream summer job (I was a student at University in the UK at the time), working at the Orlando animation studio - which was then part of the Disney World Park, and an attraction in itself. Visitors would stroll through the "animation ride" and gaze through the glass walls, watching the animators busily at work.
On my last day at the Studio, when I was due to head back home, studio head Max Howard offered me the chance to play Goofy - to be one of the Disney characters in the park itself.
To become Goofy, you had to learn how to do the "Goofy Walk" (see the gif above). The original animated walk was created in the 1930s by Art Babbit, one of Disney's legendary animators.
Follow the links below to find out more about walks and character walks.
And so, in the sweltering summer of 1989, I had the surreal pleasure of stepping into the oversized shoes of Goofy at Walt Disney World.
Being Goofy
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| Art Babbit (left) and Richard Williams, Soho Square 1973 |
The costume was thick and heavy, boiling hot in the Florida heat. 20 minutes was the maximum you were allowed in the park before returning to air conditioned safety, panting and sweating, having been hugged, prodded (and even kicked) by swarms of small children, delighted to meet Goofy in person.
The kids would kick you to see if you were "real", and you weren't allowed to say anything (all the costumed characters are silent), not even "Ow!".
Art Babbit
A year or two later I got to work with Art Babbit on The Thief and The Cobbler. Art himself had retired from animation (he died in 1992) , but I became his assistant animator, cleaning up many of his old scenes of Tack the Cobbler and putting them "on model". Art had worked on The Thief for years, and had given animation classes at Dad's Soho Square Studio back in the 1970s, focusing on animation basics - walks and character walks. These remain the basics of great animation to this day - which is why the early classes at Animation Apprentice focus on walks and character walks.
You can see a few of my shots on RollerCoaster Rabbit below.
Locomotion Resources
There are many resources on walks (and locomotion generally) at Animation Apprentice.
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| Goose-stepping "Monty" |
- Animate a Sneaky Walk with Monty
- Animate a Basic Walk "On The Spot" with Monty
- How to Animate a Basic Walk with "Monty"
- Animate a Lamp Hopping with Pixo Jr
- Animate a Run Cycle with "Heavy"
- Animate a Jump with Monty
- Animate a Military Walk with Monty
- Animate a Run Cycle with Monty
- Animate a Masculine Walk with Monty
- Animate an Angry Walk with Monty
- Animate a Sad Walk with Monty
- Animate a Basic Walk with Heavy
- Animate a Double Bounce Walk with Monty
- Character Walks with the Bio Motion Walker
- How to Fix a Floaty Walk Cycle
- How to stop feet sliding in a walk cycle
- Why animators need treadmills for walk cycles
- Why Walk Cycles Need Sine Waves
- Animating the "ZigZag Walk" on "The Thief & The Cobbler"
- Two Ways to Animate a Walk Cycle - Which is Best?
- Character Walks by Alexander Savchenko
- Why Animators Should Always Take Two Steps
- Character Walk reference by Houman Sorooshnia
- 100 Ways to Walk by Kevin Parry
- How to Fix Knee Pops in a Walk Cycle
To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.
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