Walk cycle WIP / jerky motion, help please

cheyne · Post by **cheyne** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:24 am

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a walk cycle for main character in my first short. I used references including video refs and Animators Survival Kit.

I am mostly happy considering it's my 2nd walk cycle ever (last one about 10 years ago!) but straight up I can see the motion is a "jerky".

Using default interpolation, "smooth".

I'm aiming for a "jolly gait" for the characters walk. Ultra cheery walking along on a beautiful day.

This is a first pass, so I know I need to:

1. get some bopping in the torso and head to help with a convincing walk
2. some point animation to make the arms look nice
3. arm/shoulders to move back and forth

Besides the above which I'll work on, I would really appreciate some pointers while I practice.

Maybe I need to look at changing interpolation method? Easing in or out, in/out etc? Time to get my nose stuck back into Animators Survival Kit.

VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdjYr2Rzg7Q

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:34 am

cool character.
I think one of the main problems is the momentum is reversed... if you think of a bouncing ball, at the top of the arc is the slowest - the passing pose should have the fastest momentum. the slow down should be at the extremes... make sense?

Fulkster · Post by **Fulkster** » Fri May 27, 2011 6:10 am

(from a newb... so take it for what it's worth!):oops:

...you could probably delay the arm swings at the extremes a tad; (I just got the Animator's Survival Kit myself this past week) but what I'm noticing most from your clip is no raising of the head (and also body) at the passing positions of the feet (and lowering at the heel contact)? ...otherwise, the walk looks too smooth, like skating.

Like I said, for what it's worth, from a newb!

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Fri May 27, 2011 8:05 am

Before you do anything further, raise the torso at the passing position of the legs as Fulkster suggests. This will add a sense of weight. (See p. 112 of ASK.)

crsP · Post by **crsP** » Fri May 27, 2011 11:58 am

If you are practising walk cycles then concentrate on that. You have that transition at the start which is quite pointless. If you had just the character, with only a ground plain for foot fall reference, then you will have more time to give attention to the walk cycle. In a walk, the most important parts are the leg movements, but you cut off the camera for some reason. This doesn't help when evaluating what's going wrong or right. In the Animator's Survival Guide, Richard Williams points out the use of simple stick figures to practice. The point of this is to not get distracted with erroneous details and keep the attention on the task at hand.

cheyne · Post by **cheyne** » Fri May 27, 2011 3:16 pm

Hey Funks!
Thanks for compliment about the character, I have a WIP in the "Share your work" section with some sketches of other characters too here - viewtopic.php?t=18895.

I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean about the momentum. I posted this just before I left for work and whilst riding I had a bit of an epiphany. I'll work on it and post back tomorrow.

@Neeters

Thanks man totally makes, sense. I had a look at the DVDs I got. I need to buy the book, I've been borrowing from the library!

@Fulstker
I'll take tips from anyone mate! So thanks. I'm only a fledgling animator myself, we learn together

I understand what you mean about the head movement, am looking at it now it totally makes sense when I go over my refernce material and Animators Survival Kit - I got the DVDs too, AMAZING! So much to learn from Williams, so inspirational.

@crsP
The transition isn't there for nothing, you are seeing it because it's part of a scene, I just rendedered the part where you can see the character starts walking

I'm going to load up the character in another .anme file tomorrow and concentrate on the walk cycle by it's self and comp it together.

Why you can't see the feet - I planned the scene this way because how the short develops to the ending, it's an animated joke.

Totally agree with you on the stick figures to block out work - same as sketching before you render a drawing I guess. I started drawing in ASpro and animating then picked up Animators Survival Kit again, have been watching DVDs too - back to basis I go

THANKS GUYS! I'll work on this some more and post back with some updates.

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Sat May 28, 2011 2:22 am

cheyne wrote:Totally agree with you on the stick figures to block out work - same as sketching before you render a drawing I guess.

That reminds me, I made a generic stickman in AS while working on some of the exercises in ASK. Here's a link to the v.6.2 file if you're interested in using it: Stickman

Here's the original thread where I posted it: The Animator's Survival Kit