AuthorTopic: First time animating a walk cycle - help!  (Read 3574 times)

Offline glisean

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First time animating a walk cycle - help!

on: November 29, 2018, 03:30:43 am
I'm putting together a base for a character that I want to animate but boy am I having trouble getting the walk right.
What is throwing me off so much? Something about this isn't clicking into place for me. I've been looking at so many references and I still can't seem to get the walk right after so many iterations. Help!









Offline GDawgTheFab

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #1 on: November 29, 2018, 06:36:38 am
I am no expert on the subject, however while there a probably a few things I could point out, I think the biggest thing that might be throwing you off and the biggest constant in all of your animations is the lack of head movement, I would probably start with that and work at it from there.

Offline 32

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #2 on: November 30, 2018, 01:40:25 am
I can definitely see that you're on the right track here! A few tweaks to the 5th version and I think you're well on your way to a nice walk animation :y:

The main problem with the top 4 is that your arms and legs are swinging on the same side. Your left arm swings forward with your right leg and vice versa. Which you have done with the 5th.

The primary issue with 5 is that the left and right swings of the body don't match. In a "perfect" walk the left and right leg and the left and right arm will do the exact same motion, only flipped and offset by 1/2 the length of the animation. I would also say that the angle of your feet doesn't match the angle of the torso very well.

Rather than starting your rough animation using lines for all parts I would recommend starting with 7 balls/dots. The torso, the hips, the head, the hands, and the feet. You can just move those around easily frame to frame until you find the right motion.

Good luck  ;D

Offline dpixel

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #3 on: November 30, 2018, 02:01:28 am
I notice you have a lot of frames.  You can get nice smooth movement with 8 frames...would save a lot of time when fleshing it out.

Rather than starting your rough animation using lines for all parts I would recommend starting with 7 balls/dots. The torso, the hips, the head, the hands, and the feet. You can just move those around easily frame to frame until you find the right motion.

This is a great idea!

Offline Opacus

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #4 on: December 02, 2018, 12:12:54 pm
I'm putting together a base for a character that I want to animate but boy am I having trouble getting the walk right.
What is throwing me off so much? Something about this isn't clicking into place for me. I've been looking at so many references and I still can't seem to get the walk right after so many iterations. Help!











First off, don't worry about not getting a walk-animation right first go. It might be one of the most basic human functions, but it's also notoriously difficult to animate.

Thought a lot of good points have been made, I think you might also need to step back a bit and think of the basic principles of animation. I presume right now you draw a frame, then draw the next frame and so on? (The way the animation looks seems to suggest this.) Because if so, I'd recommend working with extremes and filling them with in-betweens later on. What you basically want to do is start with an animation with as little frames as possible; the most extreme positions needed to convey a walking motion. When you have those correct, add more frames to smooth it out. This way you start with an outline of the animation and have way more control over it.

For a walk animation, I'd start of with the contact position, where the legs are furthest apart and both feet touch the ground. Then move on to the passing position, where either the left leg passes the right or the other way around. Then you should have the most basic 4 frame walk animation. After that you can add the up and down positions, which fit in between the passing and contact positions. And as GDawgTheFab (who would definitely get my vote for username of the year if there was such an award) pointed out, head movement is vital, hence the 'up' and 'down' terms, where the head is at the highest or lowest point.

To make it all a bit clearer, here's an image from the fantastic 'Animator's Survival Kit':



There you can clearly see all the positions I described. So start of with the most extreme positions and add more frames to make the animation smoother as you go along.

Further, I'd like to suggest focussing on a completely side-view character while getting down the basics. A walk-animation is hard enough as it is and you're not doing yourself any favours by working in that difficult semi side view.

And finally, it might be a good idea to start of with the basic 4 frames I described (contact > pass > contact > pass), posting that here for feedback, and after you know you've got that right move on to adding more frames. The less frames you have, the easier it will be to make changes. And the better the basics are, the easier it will be to add good in-betweens.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2018, 12:22:23 pm by Opacus »

Offline glisean

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #5 on: December 11, 2018, 01:58:06 pm
So I tried another hand at my walk animation. This time with a fleshed out character. I have gotten a better handle on the leg movements but something about the characters left arm isn't working for me. Also how can I slow down the walk and have it still look natural?



I think I'll also try to lower the character with every landing like the above suggestion.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2018, 01:59:48 pm by glisean »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #6 on: December 11, 2018, 03:49:30 pm
his torso isn't moving at all so it looks like his pelvis is extending every time he moves his legs
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline glisean

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #7 on: December 12, 2018, 03:40:23 am

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: First time animating a walk cycle - help!

Reply #8 on: December 12, 2018, 09:30:18 am

better, but still lacks shoulder rotation. everypart of the body moves when you walk!


I really like your website and specially this post and that's the reason I am commenting here WuxiaWorld         

will you pricks fuck off already?
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |