My first few Maya tests

I downloaded the Personal Learning Edition (PLE) of Maya from the website. Since then I have been practicing and starting to get the feel for it. I'm starting to see the possibilities of what I can do. I then watched "Meet the Robinsons" and "Ratatouille" and started to see them in a completely different light. I was now seeing them from an animator's perspective. Before when I would watch CG animated movies, I always thought it was impossible for me to be a part of that. Now, I feel it is within my reach. I am nowhere near the caliber of those films, but I definitely now feel I am on the right path. I've been viewing several blogs from different animators. A few of them are currently enrolled, or have completed the Animation Mentor course. So I am able to see what lies ahead.

I've put together a clip of some of my animation tests. The first clip is to try and convey natural and fluid movement with a pendulum. The rest of the clips are a basic walk cycle. I even moved the shoulders and swayed the body to help push the action. The last clip, I added head and eye movements. The walk seemed very similar to the Robert Patrick walk from "Terminator 2".

The cycles are a little fast because I realized later that I was working on them with the frame rate set at 12 frames per second, not the standard 24 fps. So that's why it's a bit fast. I'll correct that next time.