PAST Call For Entries: #WalkWithCharacter

.
UPDATE: This Call for Entries has ended – and our website nearly imploded under the absurd weight of GIF submissions. Thanks to all who sent their wandering characters in the direction of our PictoHome! We are lovingly sorting through 700+ submissions before a final stampede manifests at the 20th Pictoplasma Berlin Festival in May. Updates to come in the coming months, just as soon as our overloaded servers and browser caches stop belching black smoke...

In the meantime, 👏👏👏 to all characters for crossing the finish line

NEW CALL FOR ENTRIES COMING UP SOON

Original post:

To embrace the relentless march of time, celebrate our upcoming 20th PictoBerlin anniversary and accompany the first wobbly steps of our updated webhome, Pictoplasma presented a call for entries, challenging you to take it one step at a time, move forward in your own unique way, and create the one walk cycle to Rule Them All!

Calling all international artists, illustrators and animators to pay tribute to, question, or break traditional walk cycle rules – by demonstrating their own characterful stride, clever timing, and fancy footwork.

The rules
● Your Character should walk from left to right →
● Characters must be animated against a white background.
● The loop should start and end in the centre of the frame – and your character should not leave or interact with the edges of the frame.
● As long as your character animation loops back to its primary pose, whatever happens during your loop – how many frames it takes, how many legs are involved, any creative derailments or escalations – it’s all completely up to you, your skills and your imagination…

(the above GIF by the great Phillustration is an almost perfect example – apart from the background not being white...)

More rules?
● Entries must be uploaded as a GIF (minimum dimension 800 x 800 px, max file size 15MB) to home.pictoplasma.com (formerly known as Pictofolio – sign up for a FREE account, or log in with former Pictofolio password).
● To be considered, entries must include the hashtag #WalkWithCharacter in the about section.
● You can enter as many unique walk cycles as you desire.
● The deadline for entries is January 12th, 2024.

Should you require a reference for your walk cycle, find your starting point with this basic template or this slightly more baroque template – created courteously for this call by BARBAR Studio.

However, of course you are more than welcome to ignore all vanilla guides, break established rules, re-invent the craft and forever disrupt the animation industry!

What else?
Apart from selected entries being proudly featured on Pictoplasma and our social media pages, a hand-picked crop will join together into an animated character stampede at the 20th Pictoplasma Berlin Festival, where they’re expected to parade and show off their attitude.