Torchlight Destroyer - Animated Walk Cycle / Walkthrough
mod
Hey All!
Over at 11secondclub.com, I noticed a lot of walk / run cycles being made by people who are just learning animation. Almost all of them appeared to have the same mistakes in them. So, instead of saying the same comment over and over, I decided to create my own walk cycle, demo reel worthy, and document and explain how I went about doing so. I am going into detail that a lot of experienced animators take for granted, and don't think to mention to those newer guys. The only problem was I didn't want to use any of the free rigs that populate junior demo reels. I remembered that Runic released rigs for their game Torchlight, so I downloaded those only to find they are for Max, which I don't know. So, I exported the Destroyer from Max into FBX format, rigged it in Maya using AdvancedSkeleton, and started on my way!
This is the end product after crits from this thread.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/09-FinalR1_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/09-FinalR1_Walk_S.mov
Disclaimer: This is in no way the only way to animate a walk cycle, as everyone will do it differently. This is how I do it, and I am hoping it will help at least a few people. I am currently working as an Animator for a small game company, but I have less than a year of studio experience, and am the only animator in my company. Therefore, I am not claiming to know everything there is to know about animation, and I will appreciate any constructive critiques you wish to give, whether it be on my animation itself, or if you have any tips on my work flow, please let me know how I can improve.
Each step will have Quicktime movies attached for you to view the front and side view, followed by the explanation of what I did during that step. Quicktime is used so you can scrub through the animations, rather than hitting replay on youtube over and over. I realize this makes for a boring looking wall of text, but PC doesn't support quicktime previews, sadly enough.
Lets begin.
Step 1 - Contact poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Contacts_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Contacts_Walk_S.mov
I start by animating in Linear, as it helps me see what needs to be animated next. What you start on will vary between animators, as a lot of people will start on stepped mode.
I always start every walk cycle with the contact poses. That's where the heel of one foot and the toe of the other is touching the ground. This is a heavier character, so for now, I'm doing a 47f cycle. Contact poses on frame 1 - 24 - 47. Not 48 because that will give the second half of the cycle an extra frame, which creates issues when trying to mirror the first half over.
I create the first pose on frame 1. I key every controller, then key them all on 47. Once I have the same pose on all 3 key frames, I go to frame 24 and basically go through all of the controllers, one by one and reverse them all. So, for the feet, I'll grab the right foot on frame 1, and on the time slider, I'll copy the key, click the left foot, go to frame 24 and paste the key. This will put it in the same position that the right foot is on frame 1. Then, In the attribute box on the right side of the screen, I just reverse the numbers. For instance, if on the right foot, rotate Y is -13, then on the left foot, I change it to 13, instead of -13. And instead of 0.5 on translate X, I'll change it to -0.5. The spine is a little easier as you don't have to copy and paste. All I do for the spine controllers is reverse rotate X and rotate Z, but leave rotate Y alone, since rotate Y is lean forward and back, and you want that to be the same on contact poses. The shoulders don't need any reversing, since the numbers actually work the same in terms of rotation. But I do copy and paste them from left to right, on the appropriate keys.
So I do that for all the controllers, basically mirroring frame 1 onto frame 24. There are other ways of doing it. Instead of doing it in the attribute box, you can scale them -1 in the graph editor.
Please note - do NOT copy and paste via the edit - keys menu. This copies all keys, not specific key frames and will completely screw up your key frames. Only copy and paste by right clicking on the key frame on the time slider.
Some things to remember while animating a walk cycle
-EVERY controller should have movement on it at all times
-When your right foot is forward, your right hip will be forward and down, while your right shoulder will be back and down.
Step 2 - Passing Poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Passing_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Passing_Walk_S.mov
This is where I key the two poses where the legs pass each other. This step is where I add all major weight shifts in the body. Remember, when you are standing on one leg, your weight should be balanced over that leg. SHIFT THAT WEIGHT! If you aren't moving the body from side to side in your walk cycle, it won't look right in the end.
I add these keys on 12 and 35.
Already with only 5 keys on all controllers, the walk starts to take shape, even though the curves are still on linear.
As mentioned, I like to work in linear at the start, as opposed to stepped mode, because it helps me see sooner if I need to adjust any poses. Just because I had those initial poses in step one, doesn't mean I cant change them. If you feel a pose needs to change, CHANGE IT. Don't be afraid to tweak as you go. Just remember to tweak both poses. the one you`re changing, and the opposite of that pose on the other arm / leg.
Step 3 - Impact Poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/03-Impact_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/03-Impact_Walk_S.mov
This is where I add a lot of the weight to the character. Without the characters leg being fully straight under him, his knee will buckle a bit due to the weight of the armour. This is shown by dragging the character down in the translate y, as well as shifting the characters weight over the foot that is now the only foot touching the ground. The shoulders are also rotated down to show the weight of the shoulder armour.
I add these keys on 7 and 30.
Please note that in this step, I also start to take into consideration the drag on the arms. I went back and changed some of the posing (arms and head) of the passing poses to help sell the drag. This is only the beginning of the drag (overlap), as I will do more with it later on.
Step 4 - Breakdown poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/04-breakDowns_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/04-breakDowns_Walk_S.mov
I add a key on frame 18 and 41 (between the passing and contact poses). The main reason for these keys are to smooth out the legs and give the feet a bit more weight to them. Also, 2 frames after the contact pose, I made the front foot (the one that is just starting to touch the ground) go flat onto the ground. This is to help sell that the foot is slamming down to the ground as it would when walking in real life. Its usually 2 or 3 frames after the contact pose, depending on what frame rate you are animating at. 2 if its 24fps, and 3 for 30fps.
I also smoothed out the arm arcs, the knee arcs, and just made sure the body wasn't shifting weight too fast by dragging it back to the side it was already leaning on. I fixed the head jabbing out in front of the body too.
You won't see a huge difference between this and the last one, but its still a very important step, and will making it much easier later on when I finally hit that splined button. Remember, I'm still animating on linear.
Step 5 - Spline it, baby! Yeah!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/06-SplineIt_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/06-SplineIt_Walk_S.mov
Grab those controllers, get your butt in the graph editor and hit the ever so awesome spline button. Boom! PERFECT! done and done!
Just Kidding!! Hitting that button does not make it done. It's one step closer, but definitely not there yet. After hitting spline, I then go controller by controller, fixing all the curves, 1 by 1. It can be a daunting task at first, but if you go 1 by 1, you soon realize it's not that bad. Time consuming, no doubt. But anything worth while takes time. This step really separates the good from the great, in my personal opinion. Here are some examples of what I do with the curves.
The feet - when they are touching the ground, I switch them back to linear, as you need that constant motion in order for the character to not appear to be sliding on the ground. But, in the air, the foot should be in spline. Which then takes some adjusting for when it switches between the two.
All the curves will be messed up on your first and last key frame. This is because the computer can't spline the first and last together. So, what happens is if you put the first and last together, they will appear linear. You can see this for yourself if in the graph editor, with all your controllers selected, go up to curves > pre-infinity > cycle, then curves > post-infinity > cycle. This makes it so that if you extend your time slider at the bottom, if you go past your last key frame, it will cycle back to the first key frame. In order to SEE this effect, in the graph editor, go to view > infinity. The infinity curves will now show up on your graph in a dotted form. Now if you zoom in to your first or last key frame, you`ll see the linear effect. So I go through and fix all of those. Most of the time, all you need to do is hit the flat button, but not always. Some will need you to smooth out both sides to give it the curve you need.
Whatever you do to those first and last key frame curves, you must duplicate on your middle frame (24, for me), which is the exact opposite of the first and last frame. If you don't duplicate it, the cycle will look lop sided and, well, wrong. Unless you are going for that effect (like a limp or something).
Step 6 - Offsetting
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/07-OffSet_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/07-OffSet_Walk_S.mov
This is where I start grabbing controllers and offset them by a frame or two from the controller higher up in the hierarchy. So, to start, I grabbed all 3 spine controllers, and in the graph editor, grabbed all the key frames and shifted them over by a frame. then i deselected the bottom spine, and shifted them over a frame, then deselected the middle spine and shifted it over a frame. I do this with the arms and elbows as well. Sometimes it takes a bit to get the offsetting right. its not always as simple as 1 frame right. This really helps sell the fluid body motions that you see in real life. Head bobbing and proper shoulder bobbing can be achieved this way.
Step 7 - Polish
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/WalkCycleFinal.MOV
Finish it up baby! Give it that last bit of love. Add motion to those fingers, fix whatever you see wrong. If you can't see anything wrong, or know something is, but can't figure it out... ask someone! Then, of course, pimp it out to your friends here on Polycount
And that concludes my walk through of how I created this walk cycle.
Questions? Concerns? Tips? Suggestions? The front and 3/4 view looks great to me. But the side view doesn't seem to show the weight that the front view does. So, this is me asking, what's wrong? For some reason, I feel part of it is the model, as the side view is way less bulky than the front, but I know there is more to it than just that. I just can't put my finger on it. If any of you animators know why it looks off, please let me know. Also, for you more experienced guys, if you have a better workflow, or know how I could improve mine, post it! I'm always looking for ways to improve.
Cheers!
Stefan Lipsius
Over at 11secondclub.com, I noticed a lot of walk / run cycles being made by people who are just learning animation. Almost all of them appeared to have the same mistakes in them. So, instead of saying the same comment over and over, I decided to create my own walk cycle, demo reel worthy, and document and explain how I went about doing so. I am going into detail that a lot of experienced animators take for granted, and don't think to mention to those newer guys. The only problem was I didn't want to use any of the free rigs that populate junior demo reels. I remembered that Runic released rigs for their game Torchlight, so I downloaded those only to find they are for Max, which I don't know. So, I exported the Destroyer from Max into FBX format, rigged it in Maya using AdvancedSkeleton, and started on my way!
This is the end product after crits from this thread.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/09-FinalR1_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/09-FinalR1_Walk_S.mov
Disclaimer: This is in no way the only way to animate a walk cycle, as everyone will do it differently. This is how I do it, and I am hoping it will help at least a few people. I am currently working as an Animator for a small game company, but I have less than a year of studio experience, and am the only animator in my company. Therefore, I am not claiming to know everything there is to know about animation, and I will appreciate any constructive critiques you wish to give, whether it be on my animation itself, or if you have any tips on my work flow, please let me know how I can improve.
Each step will have Quicktime movies attached for you to view the front and side view, followed by the explanation of what I did during that step. Quicktime is used so you can scrub through the animations, rather than hitting replay on youtube over and over. I realize this makes for a boring looking wall of text, but PC doesn't support quicktime previews, sadly enough.
Lets begin.
Step 1 - Contact poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Contacts_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Contacts_Walk_S.mov
I start by animating in Linear, as it helps me see what needs to be animated next. What you start on will vary between animators, as a lot of people will start on stepped mode.
I always start every walk cycle with the contact poses. That's where the heel of one foot and the toe of the other is touching the ground. This is a heavier character, so for now, I'm doing a 47f cycle. Contact poses on frame 1 - 24 - 47. Not 48 because that will give the second half of the cycle an extra frame, which creates issues when trying to mirror the first half over.
I create the first pose on frame 1. I key every controller, then key them all on 47. Once I have the same pose on all 3 key frames, I go to frame 24 and basically go through all of the controllers, one by one and reverse them all. So, for the feet, I'll grab the right foot on frame 1, and on the time slider, I'll copy the key, click the left foot, go to frame 24 and paste the key. This will put it in the same position that the right foot is on frame 1. Then, In the attribute box on the right side of the screen, I just reverse the numbers. For instance, if on the right foot, rotate Y is -13, then on the left foot, I change it to 13, instead of -13. And instead of 0.5 on translate X, I'll change it to -0.5. The spine is a little easier as you don't have to copy and paste. All I do for the spine controllers is reverse rotate X and rotate Z, but leave rotate Y alone, since rotate Y is lean forward and back, and you want that to be the same on contact poses. The shoulders don't need any reversing, since the numbers actually work the same in terms of rotation. But I do copy and paste them from left to right, on the appropriate keys.
So I do that for all the controllers, basically mirroring frame 1 onto frame 24. There are other ways of doing it. Instead of doing it in the attribute box, you can scale them -1 in the graph editor.
Please note - do NOT copy and paste via the edit - keys menu. This copies all keys, not specific key frames and will completely screw up your key frames. Only copy and paste by right clicking on the key frame on the time slider.
Some things to remember while animating a walk cycle
-EVERY controller should have movement on it at all times
-When your right foot is forward, your right hip will be forward and down, while your right shoulder will be back and down.
Step 2 - Passing Poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Passing_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/01-Passing_Walk_S.mov
This is where I key the two poses where the legs pass each other. This step is where I add all major weight shifts in the body. Remember, when you are standing on one leg, your weight should be balanced over that leg. SHIFT THAT WEIGHT! If you aren't moving the body from side to side in your walk cycle, it won't look right in the end.
I add these keys on 12 and 35.
Already with only 5 keys on all controllers, the walk starts to take shape, even though the curves are still on linear.
As mentioned, I like to work in linear at the start, as opposed to stepped mode, because it helps me see sooner if I need to adjust any poses. Just because I had those initial poses in step one, doesn't mean I cant change them. If you feel a pose needs to change, CHANGE IT. Don't be afraid to tweak as you go. Just remember to tweak both poses. the one you`re changing, and the opposite of that pose on the other arm / leg.
Step 3 - Impact Poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/03-Impact_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/03-Impact_Walk_S.mov
This is where I add a lot of the weight to the character. Without the characters leg being fully straight under him, his knee will buckle a bit due to the weight of the armour. This is shown by dragging the character down in the translate y, as well as shifting the characters weight over the foot that is now the only foot touching the ground. The shoulders are also rotated down to show the weight of the shoulder armour.
I add these keys on 7 and 30.
Please note that in this step, I also start to take into consideration the drag on the arms. I went back and changed some of the posing (arms and head) of the passing poses to help sell the drag. This is only the beginning of the drag (overlap), as I will do more with it later on.
Step 4 - Breakdown poses
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/04-breakDowns_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/04-breakDowns_Walk_S.mov
I add a key on frame 18 and 41 (between the passing and contact poses). The main reason for these keys are to smooth out the legs and give the feet a bit more weight to them. Also, 2 frames after the contact pose, I made the front foot (the one that is just starting to touch the ground) go flat onto the ground. This is to help sell that the foot is slamming down to the ground as it would when walking in real life. Its usually 2 or 3 frames after the contact pose, depending on what frame rate you are animating at. 2 if its 24fps, and 3 for 30fps.
I also smoothed out the arm arcs, the knee arcs, and just made sure the body wasn't shifting weight too fast by dragging it back to the side it was already leaning on. I fixed the head jabbing out in front of the body too.
You won't see a huge difference between this and the last one, but its still a very important step, and will making it much easier later on when I finally hit that splined button. Remember, I'm still animating on linear.
Step 5 - Spline it, baby! Yeah!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/06-SplineIt_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/06-SplineIt_Walk_S.mov
Grab those controllers, get your butt in the graph editor and hit the ever so awesome spline button. Boom! PERFECT! done and done!
Just Kidding!! Hitting that button does not make it done. It's one step closer, but definitely not there yet. After hitting spline, I then go controller by controller, fixing all the curves, 1 by 1. It can be a daunting task at first, but if you go 1 by 1, you soon realize it's not that bad. Time consuming, no doubt. But anything worth while takes time. This step really separates the good from the great, in my personal opinion. Here are some examples of what I do with the curves.
The feet - when they are touching the ground, I switch them back to linear, as you need that constant motion in order for the character to not appear to be sliding on the ground. But, in the air, the foot should be in spline. Which then takes some adjusting for when it switches between the two.
All the curves will be messed up on your first and last key frame. This is because the computer can't spline the first and last together. So, what happens is if you put the first and last together, they will appear linear. You can see this for yourself if in the graph editor, with all your controllers selected, go up to curves > pre-infinity > cycle, then curves > post-infinity > cycle. This makes it so that if you extend your time slider at the bottom, if you go past your last key frame, it will cycle back to the first key frame. In order to SEE this effect, in the graph editor, go to view > infinity. The infinity curves will now show up on your graph in a dotted form. Now if you zoom in to your first or last key frame, you`ll see the linear effect. So I go through and fix all of those. Most of the time, all you need to do is hit the flat button, but not always. Some will need you to smooth out both sides to give it the curve you need.
Whatever you do to those first and last key frame curves, you must duplicate on your middle frame (24, for me), which is the exact opposite of the first and last frame. If you don't duplicate it, the cycle will look lop sided and, well, wrong. Unless you are going for that effect (like a limp or something).
Step 6 - Offsetting
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/07-OffSet_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/07-OffSet_Walk_S.mov
This is where I start grabbing controllers and offset them by a frame or two from the controller higher up in the hierarchy. So, to start, I grabbed all 3 spine controllers, and in the graph editor, grabbed all the key frames and shifted them over by a frame. then i deselected the bottom spine, and shifted them over a frame, then deselected the middle spine and shifted it over a frame. I do this with the arms and elbows as well. Sometimes it takes a bit to get the offsetting right. its not always as simple as 1 frame right. This really helps sell the fluid body motions that you see in real life. Head bobbing and proper shoulder bobbing can be achieved this way.
Step 7 - Polish
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/WalkCycleFinal.MOV
Finish it up baby! Give it that last bit of love. Add motion to those fingers, fix whatever you see wrong. If you can't see anything wrong, or know something is, but can't figure it out... ask someone! Then, of course, pimp it out to your friends here on Polycount
And that concludes my walk through of how I created this walk cycle.
Questions? Concerns? Tips? Suggestions? The front and 3/4 view looks great to me. But the side view doesn't seem to show the weight that the front view does. So, this is me asking, what's wrong? For some reason, I feel part of it is the model, as the side view is way less bulky than the front, but I know there is more to it than just that. I just can't put my finger on it. If any of you animators know why it looks off, please let me know. Also, for you more experienced guys, if you have a better workflow, or know how I could improve mine, post it! I'm always looking for ways to improve.
Cheers!
Stefan Lipsius
Replies
The side view does seem a little forced. One thing that's missing for sure is the rolling of the foot, his toes don't seem to bend at all. His armored boots could restrict this to some degree, but they do have the segmentation required for some bending at least.
The "head bang" is a bit much, perhaps. When walking, I think people tend to keep their eyes more or less level. Instead of the head banging up and down, it might be better to replace it with the head thrusting forwards and backwards a bit.
Lastly, I think he should lean into his walk a bit more. People are never up perfectly straight while walking, there's always a bit of lean towards the front.
Ofcourse, there are some animators that break this rule, even going as far as making their character lean backwards while walking. This results in a silly or parading walk though, which doesn't seem appropriate to this character. I think a more foreboding, brooding walk fits better, so leaning him to the front, perhaps even with a slight hunch, could help with that.
1) The head bob is excessive, and "out of character". Generally bobbleheaded animation conveys a sense of dopeyness, or lack of coordination, which is why you rarely see headbob on serious characters. It could work on him since Torchlight is very light hearted, but it doesn't really reenforce the "destroyer" name. Also the timing is ever so slightly off, so it looks almost like he's just enjoying a really sick beat while taking a stroll.
2)The feet barely move. You need to have ankle rotation, and some flex in the middle of the foot too.
The problem with the side view not looking "heavy" enough also has to do with the lack of compression when he steps. The heavy armor and huge torso should affect the stride more.
-Ill definitely tone down the head bob.
-The feet bend. They definitely are already bending in the middle. But straighten out once the foot lifts off the ground. So I'm not sure what to say to that.
better? worse? on the right track? Im not sure how i feel about it. the last version seemed more fluid. the feet are better for this one. but ya.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/09-FinalR1_Walk_F.mov
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14662692/09-FinalR1_Walk_S.mov
As for what's looking off... I think it has to do with the legs, and how they contact and bend to take the weight. It may also be from the limitations of the model. The new version you posted definitely is better in that regard though. However, I'm wondering about all the leaning backward and forward movement--it might be too much, so it may be something else to play with.
The contact and recoil part of this image.
Actually... That's anything thing I want to mention to all you new guys. And by all means, this is personal opinion, and i KNOW a lot of people are going to say the opposite of this. It goes with all those posts about our ambition being larger than our skill.
Anyways, for me, I've found that moving on from an animation is sometimes better that sitting there spending hours upon hours trying to make it absolutely perfect. And here's why. When you start an animation, you are at a certain skill level. Throughout that animation, your skill level increases through all stages of the animation. You "finish" the piece to the best of your ability, then go back and fix all the crits people gave you. But the crits aren't always something easily fixed, and it can sometimes take a LONG time, or a LOT of work to fix certain problems. Make it the best that you can at that time, but don't overdo it. If your skill level isn't where it needs to be to make it pixar quality, your piece will never be perfect. But, if you spend too much time on one part of the animation (ie - polish / crit fixing), then you're not getting better as fast as you could be, because you're not practicing all stages of animating... Polish is only one part of the animation. If your base isn't good enough, you can spend weeks on it, and it will still not turn out as good as you`d like. So, if the animation is better than the last one you did, move on from it! Start something new. But only if its better than last time. If its worse, then you really aren't getting better. For instance, this walk is definitely the best I've done. And I've definitely gotten better from doing it. That means, I can take my new skills and apply it to something new! Starting from the blocking phase! Starting fresh can definitely help you get better quicker. If you're piece is better than your last, you`re still improving your demo reel, so what's the issue? Don't beat your head against the wall trying to make it absolutely perfect if you know it will never be. Or if you know that if you started fresh, you could do better.
Least, I find I get better faster by starting fresh....
There are times that I do the animation and it works, it looks fine. But I know if I was to do it again, not only would I be faster but it would be better. I mostly think that's because I've been down that road and know the bumps so the next time through I can avoid them. That kind of "precognition from practice" is what kicks in and helps guide you the future making the results better.
If you have 50 straws in your hand and one of them is success you don't know until you start pulling out straws. If you never let an unsuccessful straw go then you can't move on and find success.
So fail as fast as possible so you can find success, just don't be in such a rush that you don't learn from your practice. Because that is what will enable you to find success that much quicker the next time you pick up a fist full of straws.
As for the animation its been great seeing it progress, at some point I might finish reading through the posts and respond. But each piece you've done over the last few months has been a steady improvement.