If you don't mind, I can point out a number of issues in your cycles.
The walk cycle is great for showing examples of what's needed in the run cycle, but overall is a little too fluid and inhuman. It is more like what you'd expect from a liquid human imposter sort of creature, like those silver heartless from the kingdom hearts series.
What it does have though is excellent rhythm to its motions. If you think of the walk cycle as a piano, you have two notes. When the foot pushes the ground, the note is pressed and there's a big emphasis on the action as it pushes off. Then that note fades as the resulting motions are the residual effects of the foot pushing off/note being pressed. Then a finger hovers over the other note, getting ready to push it (build up of the action) when the other foot touches the ground and the leg and butt coil, the knee bends, etc.
This rhythm tells us when force is being applied and how important it is. The leg moving forward to be placed on the ground has little emphasis because I'm instead paying attention to the other leg now, and the shifts in the body it causes. Now, we walk with less help from our upper body, and typically you'll find our chests sway side to side rather than forward and backward because we're shifting our weight from one leg to the other. Three easiest way to see this is by watching someone walk while really into their music. They'll move their upper body more with their steps than usual, and you'll see it follow a V pattern as it moves toward the foot that's forward. When a person is taking slower steps, watch how much a tall person (180cm or taller) sways side to side, almost penguin-like, because they can't put that motion forward like normal without moving too far too quickly.
The running cycle is lacking in rhythm. Every frame feels equally important, and this leaves the whole animation feeling stiff. It doesn't have that same emphasis on each step as the walking cycle does. If you want something to study, look at some middle of the road, slice of life anime's opening. These tend to use running cycles on screen while the music plays because it's cheap and easy, they have it anyway, and it portays the character's personality. As goofy and ridiculous as some of their running can be, realistically, they tend to really emphasize a rhythm in movements to portray it as familiar to us.
Also the hair looks like she's moving backwards. Hair bounces, but it should get blown back by wind from moving too. When moving forward fast enough, the wind resistance fighting against you feels like wind and acts on us similarly.
Overall though, these are great cycles. I've seen peers study animation for two or three years and still not come close to this.
Sep 30, '16
Feb 14, '17
