Tips on Walks

 Small disclaimer, and spoiler alert for those of you who didnt already know...I'm a....complete....NOOB! Yes that's right, so all this jumble of information below you is just some random things I have picked up by research and working on my own walk cycle. I still have a lot to learn myself, but I hope for anyone reading this other than myself, can pick something up from this. If not, at least you know I'm good at wasting your time :).

"Setting the Tempo"

 This is normally this first thing we do before we can eat our walk cycle up. First we gotta set the table boy!

Example of Tempo's from Richard Williams

4 frames- Cartoon Run
6 frames- Realistic run or
8 frames- Normal human run
12 frames- Business like walk/ March Time
16 frames- Strolling walk
20 frames -Elderly or tired
24 frames- slow step
32 frames- even slower


 Lets talk physics

The basic version of it is this, to walk from point A to point B, there need to be acceleration, and in order for there to be acceleration there needs to be a force. With me so far? Hang in there, were almost home. All we feel is us pushing our foot against the ground, and that's half the battle, the other half of it or the "force", comes from the earth itself. So, your foot pushing is the acceleration, and the force is the earth....Gee, I hope the youtube video I got this from is right... This is Newtons Third Law, a push or pull on an object that is resulting from contact with a separate object. I think I got this down, my brain hurts now so I'll move on.

This is a pretty cool site I found on the topic, worth a look:
 http://www.rubberbug.com/walking.htm


Random Garbage

With pretty much all of the average walks I have seen, there seems to always be a pause at the top of the arm swing, and at the back, with a faster motion between the two. Perhaps I can capture this if I am doing this type of walk. People barley pick up there feet, surprised we don't stub our toe more often. While working a walk cycle my mentor peter gave me. I noticed the heel begins to lift off the ground right after the passing position. Furthermore, and this is rather important, the heel rising off the ground on the frame after the passing position is NOT done by rotating the foot back and rising the toes. I found it better to use the ball roll, because then you wont have issues with your foot arc. You transition from ball roll to rotating that foot and rising those toes, it should be a smooth transition into that.

 Ok this is about the fiftieth time I've noticed this, my legs appear to look better when I have a cleaner graph editor. I know this sounds obviously but not really. Check this out. The first picture is what my curve editor looked like before I blew keys away. The second is after. After blowing keys away my legs seem to run smoother. I'm still learning when and how much to change the graph editor and what are good rules of thumb for it.

*Overlapping the hand at end of each swing can really add fluidity to the animation
*DONT make cycles of head action in circles or figures 8's....like I once did....
*Move the shoulder back and forth in an arc
*Shoulders appose hips
*Belt line bends down with lowest leg
*Your feet are never straight ahead of you, never parallel they are typically tilted off its axis. Moreover, the knee control is always pointed over the big toe.





Arm movements,

With the heavy and bulky character I am working with, I was told by a girl working at framestore,  "the weight of the step should influence the swing and thrust the arm forward". Looking at a walk cycle done at ianimate with a similar character, I noticed the lower arm draaaags until it the upper arm is at its peak, and THEN the lower arm catches up. I think this could vary a little bit though, it should look like a nice transition.


Final

This is a walk cycle I did for practice, this is NOT in any way, a good walk cycle. There are a lot of things that can be improved.  I sent this to my mentor, and I got a lot of feedback. Here are a few things the could have made this walk better:

-->  *The hips translate left and right too much

  *The hands don't rotate in a curve. they just remain parallel

   

--> *When the hips are shifting his weight from one leg to the other the rotation begins half way.... too soon. the rotation should hold in place longer and then quickly change as the weight has finally been transferred

 *The feet are too far apart

 *This is a heavy built character, and it would have been nice to show that body builder stature  

This walk too me an awfully long time to get to this level, it was a freaking struggle, especially with the legs. So now...I am going to take everything I have learned doing this walk, and all the notes I have gotten on it, and apply it to the next walk cycle I do! I hope all this stuff helps.

Keep grinding.