3/4 view walk cycle

Blighty · Post by **Blighty** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:54 am

Below is a link to my first 3/4 view walk cycle

http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/3quarterwalk1.swf

Considering that a 3/4 view seems to be very common for most TV animation, it's surprisingly difficult to find any tutorials or advice online on how to animate one.

I'm aware that he moves as if he has a small grape clenched between his buttocks so any advice on how to improve it would be appreciated.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:25 am

That's pretty good. At that angle the only thing I'd suggest is a bit of side to side sway.

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:35 am

It doesn't look at all right to me -- as if he has a stick up his ass. No one walks that way (unless they are a robot).

I suspect what you need to study is how folks lean into their walk. Look at traditional walk cycles, because those are just as valid even if they are profile. The best description I ever read (Richard Williams, natch) was that a walk was a controlled fall. You lean forward until you almost fall, and then catch yourself. So what happens is the first part of the cycle has the character leaning forward, and then the body comes back, and so forth.

However -- if this IS a robot then it's great (still not believable, of course, because even a robot needs to follow physics, but who said cartoons were believable? :>).

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:35 am

The top part of the body actually looks pretty good for a first try, but the bottom definitely has some problems. I think it's because the knees seem to be bending off to the side instead of directly forwards, which makes the walk look quite comical. My advice would be to draw perspective guidelines that span the guys body and converge back at the horizon line (say half-way up) in the direction that he walked from. That will define a reference plane for the legs to rotate in. If you're really keen, you could also sketch ellipses aligned with this plane, that are centred at the hip joint and pass through the kee joint. Similarly, for the knee and ankle joint. These ellipses represent the approximate motion paths of the thigh and shins and will help you get the foreshortening right.

Also, don't be afraid of references, like an action figure, artists dummy, photos, video, or even yourself in the mirror, but steer clear of plain rotoscoping. By the way, a 3/4 walk cycle is extremely difficult, so take your time to get it right and you'll learn a lot.

FCSnow · Post by **FCSnow** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:59 pm

The walk cycle is actually quite good. What it looks like is someone walking down hill. The entire sequence reminds me of those Saturaday morning cartoon from the 60's.

To piggy back on your subject heading, here are a couple of sequences I created for cartoon still in WIP. While you can't see their legs, they are there, just to assist the overall animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_LXUW9eT0

Want a real challenge? Make you figure walk up steps.

FC Snow

Blighty · Post by **Blighty** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:07 pm

Funny you should mention Saturday morning cartoons from the 60's as I've been watching a lot of Herculoids, Wonder Twins and Filmation stuff lately.
I guess it shows.

I think that the best idea so far is for me to add a few perspective lines with vanishing point and try to keep everything in proportion. I think I'll add a couple of bones near the hips too so that, by scaling them, I can maybe make the hips swing (I did something similar with the chest but it's a little too subtle to see clearly).

I'm still having trouble making the character walk across the screen rather than down it. Maybe a hip swing will help fix that.

Again, I'm really surprised that there are so many tutorials online about animating a walk in profile but hardly any on a 3/4 view.

In fact, googling for "3/4 view walk cycle" brings up this thread as the first result.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:25 pm

Richard Williams has only one example of a 3/4 view walk in his book and comments that most animators avoid this because of the immense drawing problems.

I did several 3/4 walk cycles (front and back) but only after I did the same characters in profile, which helps a lot. Here's one with a giraffe (not my design!) http://slowtiger.de/examples/30.html

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:39 am

I think that the best idea so far is for me to add a few perspective lines with vanishing point and try to keep everything in proportion. I think I'll add a couple of bones near the hips too so that, by scaling them, I can maybe make the hips swing (I did something similar with the chest but it's a little too subtle to see clearly).

If you want to cheat a bit, you could use AnimeStudio's 3D capabilities to draw a bent stick leg side-on and then rotate it 45 degrees on the Y-axis to use as a reference for rotating and scaling your bones. Just make sure you change the default zoom setting (vertical viewing angle) from 60 to something more conventional like 30, otherwise the amount of perspective distortion will be too great, unless that's the look you're going for.

By the way, that's a cool walk-cycle SlowTiger.

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:16 am

Sorry to double-post, but thought I would mention that there are quite a lot of good 3/4 walk-cycles on YouTube. Most of them are 3D, though, where making a 3/4 walk cycle is just a matter of changing the camera view.

This one seemed like it would be good for a reference.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=occFkFbl3 ... re=related

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:12 am

Using a 3D cycle as reference is a good idea, if only for the perspective drawing. It's like using one of those puppets for drawing (anyone remember?) But take care to detach yourself from the reference and try to be really cartoony.

cuebit · Post by **cuebit** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:04 pm

For a few frames both feet are moving backwards.
When the front leg starts to move backwards, the leg at the back has to lift up and get ready to transport forwards.

Try to stick to basic keyframes for a walk cycle to get started and build from there to give the character it's own unique way of walking.
I cannot stress enough the use of keyframes and the benefit you get from them for the inbetweens when constructed well.

here i found a good example
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2286/232 ... 99.jpg?v=0

I know i't not 3/4 but most of your problem lies in the timing.
It's good reference material i think

Try to get a copy of 'the animators's survival guide' from richard wiliams.
I guess it's mentioned before here in the forum.

Blighty · Post by **Blighty** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:11 pm

I'm still not happy with the feet, they bend to the side rather than tilt.
I also think that a switch layer might be a good idea to show the underside of the foot just before it lands on the floor.
But I'm happy with the hip and shoulder swing.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Plhdg1Fv11Q

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:13 am

The illusion is complete! Nice job, man!

If you did end up using perspective reference lines, do you think you could put up a version with them still in, as I think it would be useful to the rest of us. Better yet, it would be great if you could include the bones as well. Understand if you don't want to, though.

Instead of using a switch layer, you could have a region of shadow that you keep transparent until the bottom of the foot comes up, and you could point edit the shape of the foot as well. Probably comes down to personal preference as to which technique is best, though.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:09 am

Blighty wrote:I'm still not happy with the feet, they bend to the side rather than tilt.

Try using scaling to "tilt" the feet. At a 3/4 view bending is actually "scale" when done in 2D. As the foot goes "up" more of the top is seen so it would appear longer. Since it is 3/4 view it would also bend a little bit.

the bottom of the feet are a nightmare for anything but side views. A switch layer may work but switch layers are only "linear" interpolation. The keys can't have smooth or ease in/ease out interpolation like bones have.

Maybe use another vector layer for the bottom of the feet that can have it's layer order animated. It would be on top of the foot when it angles up to show the bottom, then key it's layer position to be under when it's hidden. The point at which the bottom of the feet are seen and not seen would be fast enough that the switch wouldn't be too noticeable. This layer would be modified by the same bones that control the feet.

-vern

Blighty · Post by **Blighty** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:48 am

Thanks for the feedback people, in the end I used a lot of YouTube reference videos (the one that Rudiger posted is especially useful) and even a wooden mannequin.
Even though it still needs work I've uploaded a copy of the file here in case anyone finds it useful.

The idea of putting the bottom of the feet on it's own vector layer and animating the layer ordering is a good one, I'll add that tonight. After that I think I'll start work on my next character, a wheelchair-bound superhero!

By the way, there's a shape glitch on the arms (that's why I posted a YouTube vid rather than a .swf) I'll get around to redrawing the arms at some point but since I usually export to an image sequence it's not that big a deal.