Walk cycle

mqrgot · Mar 2015

Hi, I was wondering if I could get some feedback on a walk cycle I made. Something about it looks a bit wonky to me, but I'm afraid I haven't quite developed enough of an eye for animation to see what it is

Thank you!

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http://syncsketch.com/playground/66838cd47ac2416c80e3c5299e335d34#28053

slipsius · Mar 2015

Hey, so this is a bit difficult to crit because you rendered it using motion blur. That makes it drastically harder when going frame by frame. So I strongly suggest leaving that out next time. And honestly, you dont need to do a nice render if you`re just looking for critiques before it's done. A playblast will do. Multiple angles is good too. Front, side and 3/4 view. I can give much better crits if I have those.

From this video though, from what I can tell, you seem to have slight pauses at the peak of each step. When the leg is directly under the body.
especially on his left leg. Frame 25/26. Where the animation loops. Check your curves. Make sure everything is continuing nicely through that section. no flat curves or anything. You`ll have to set your curves to cycle pre and post, then show infinity so you can see how the start and end is interacting with each other.

egymer · Mar 2015

Hi there! This might help:

Make sure you're hitting all of these poses, and make them strong! For example, on the "contact" position, the front leg should be completely straight. Another thing you'll want to do it go through and smooth up all your curves. What i mean by this is - because it's a looping cycle, anything that's slightly off is very noticable. So you need to go through you curves and make them look relatively "smooth" (i.e. there aren't any outlying keys throwing the animation curve off).

SuperSoupy · Mar 2015

I like the general motion that you give this, the exaggeration on the steps of the legs are nice. What gets me is the way that the upper body bends forward as each foot presses forward. I think this is a bit too much. The character's torso leans too much, in particular, when his right foot pushes forward, compared to the left side. It's like he's almost limping because of it so that could do with being toned down a bit.

What the others have said rings true as well. Unless the intention is to have the motion be less smooth and more exaggerated, use the Richard Williams approach posted above. If the anim is intended this way though, I like the direction it's going in.

mqrgot · Mar 2015

Wow, thanks for all the feedback! I tried applying it as best as I can, but I don't think I managed to completely get rid of the bump in its step. Anyway, there's a front, left and three quarter view in the link below.

http://syncsketch.com/playground/c589ca81581d4eb89847284d9f78af32#28167

I checked out the curves, but couldn't really see an issue with the transition of the loop. I figured the issue was mainly in the hips, so I'm including what the curves look like on that controller. I don't know if that's useful in any way but I figure you never know

Thanks again!

slipsius · Mar 2015

Can you zoom in on just the translates so I can see them better? It looks like you've just got too much movement in too short of a time. Especially in the translate y. I drew on the first frame for what your translate y should look like.

PeteHawk · Apr 2015

I added some comments to syncSketch. Watch your balance and arcs!

Mark Dygert · Apr 2015

You are waiting too long to pick up the heel of the back feet, when the heel on the front foot makes contact that when the heel on the back foot should lift. You're leaving it pinned to the ground which means it has to swing forward quickly giving it an uneven walk.

You have some weird hip roll going on, at 8f, it's twisting the same direction as the upper torso when it should be doing the opposite.

I'm not sure if it's the angle of the render or not, but it seems to be leaning to the right when the torso comes forward?

slipsius · Apr 2015

Looking back at the feet after Mark's comment, his left foot doesnt have an even stride. If you took your global control and translated him along the world, your feet are going to be sliding all over the place. The reason for this is that if you do a walk cycle where they are walking in place (rather than moving through space), if your foot is touching on the ground, the translate z (forward and back movement) needs to be linear from the time it touches to the time it leaves the ground. no keys on the trans Z between those 2 points.

The biggest point of offense for this right now is that left foot right around the time the cycle loops. It slows down at the end of the loop and speeds up at the start of the loop.

I do suggest setting all your controls to pre and post looping, and going through each one to make sure the curve at the end /start of your loop is the desired effect you want. It appears that's a step you've missed over all

Mark Dygert · Apr 2015

Slip brings up a good point. What might look good in place might not work when actually translating through world space and vice versa.

I normally animate a walk/run cycle moving through world space with a consistent rate of movement like a game would apply, if you know that rate it's even better. Then zero out the forward motion to create an in place cycle. I've found that I get much more believable results with less sliding.

Good luck! You're off to a good start! Keep at it, you're not off by much.

Walk cycle

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