3/4 View Walk Cycle

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:11 pm

Hi everyone! I've been working on this walk cycle a while now, but I'd really like to get it polished and convincing. I'm planning to use this as one of the standard walks for this character.

http://vimeo.com/9238879

Also, any tips on when to increase the size of the character as she moves closer? I'm changing the layer scale in steps on the keyframes where she seems to be moving forward the most. But it looks a little weird to me.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:53 pm

Her right arm goes back too abruptly from its front position. Otherwise the walk is fine.

As for perspective: I use the trick to put my in-place animated walk cycle into a group layer and place that group's origin exactly at the vanishing point of my perspective. Now I can use the scale tool to enlarge the character. To control this I set every second step to onionskin.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:37 am

Thanks for your advice, Slowtiger. Your vanishing point idea is very clever.

super8mm · Post by **super8mm** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:28 am

Nice animation.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:23 am

thanks, super8.

AmigaMan · Post by **AmigaMan** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:03 pm

That's really nice. I don't know how you've rigged and keyed your character but if you've keyed the forearm and hands on the same frames as your characters upper arms then you could try the following trick that most CG animators do on completing a walk cycle. Select all the forearm keys in the timeline and drag them back (to the right) 1 frame. Select all the hand keys and drag them back 2 frames. This should give a nice drag to the lower arms and hands and give a smoother looking motion. You can of course experiment a little with the number of frames you delay certain parts of the character.

aleXean · Post by **aleXean** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:59 pm

Hey! That's a solid character, whats her line width?

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:11 pm

Amigaman: Thanks for the tip. I saw arms animated that way in Animator's Survival Guide, but I never gave it the old college try because it seemed like there were too many different things going on. Your trick makes it sound so simple. Can't wait to try it.

aleXean: Thanks.

On the head the line weights range from 2-4. All the lines in the body are at 4 right now, but I plan to vary them, too. Actually, I was so caught up in the walk mechanics that I forgot all about it.

Thanks for the reminder. I think a lot of the appearance also comes from the line color: dark brown (#3F3529).

robj · Post by **robj** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:54 am

Nicely done, nicely done. Nice motion and cadence with a sense of weight that is carried well. I hope to see her soon in scene or 2.

Rob