Character Walk Cycle Please Crit

[T.L.Caroopy]

Here's an updated walk -

http://www.archive.org/download/Character_Walk_Cycle_Test_002/walkpersp002.mov

Apologies for posting twice, the other files didn't work before.

[adam-crockett]

a MAJOR flaw in your walk is that you are LIFTING the hip with the passing leg, instead of letting it DROP under its wieght. This single change will affect the rest of the moving parts, as you adjust the shoulders to move in opposition to the hips.
The hands are way floppy. Tone down that secondary motion there. Also, I dont think anyone walks palm down like that. Maybe turn the hands towards a more natural angle.
Im just looking at the recent one you posted, and there aren't multiple views of that one, but it looks like he is not shifting his weight over the planted foot at all.
It also looks like you are rotating the shoulder forward with the passing foot, which is wrong. It should be moving back with the arm. Again, multiple views would make this clearer.
The head movement is really distracting. Try to tone that down, even it out.
Shoulders have too much up and down movement.
Nice start though!

[T.L.Caroopy]

Thanks for the response - thats why I needed it to imrpove whilst I have all this free time to do so.

Thanks again.

[Tasimasu]

hi ı want to say something, when making animation one of important point is ; can you explain every action of your character or not ? if your character is a robot and it was very old model he can walk like that. maybe exaggeration shoulder movement cause by damaged suspansion etc.... but if he is a human it s not posible to walk that.. : ) so first make a list of your character behaviour and physical condition... is it happy, angry, in a panic old heavy young monster bla bla.... so you can give right poses to your character.. it protect you to make wrong poses. anyway crituques are above take care them..ı just want to tell that. and sorry about my english ı hope it s clear : ) ..

[pollywoggles]

Hey,

The walk works for me. Maybe a little more shifting of the hips over the passing leg for balancing (it's probably more obvious in an othographic front view, but from the 3/4, it doesn't look enough). I'd overlap the hips a little more with the leg motion, having the hips hit its extreme, a frame or two sooner. I really like the contact pose on frame one, with the front (right) leg being completely straight -- it'd like to see that same straight in the left leg 15 (or so frames) later -- it's looking a little soft.

Yeah, that's pretty much it -- a few stylistic suggestions:

the overlap in the hands and fingers seem a little extreme to me (but it still works)

the up and down motion of the hips (it looks like your z-rotation) feels a little too much (but, given his character, would also work fine for me)

the hips going up on the passing leg works fine for me -- as many of us walk like that.

I wonder how it would look having the contact leg completely straight on the passing pose. It might help with that bouncyness you have going on the hips and shoulders.

[adam-crockett]

Hey,
the hips going up on the passing leg works fine for me -- as many of us walk like that.
I'd like to see a video of that.

[T.L.Caroopy]

I have to aggree with adam. I studied some walk cycles and it looks far more natural to lean towards the leg thats lifting. As for the emotion for this cycle, its just an average walk cycle, there is no emotion attached to it, the character is simply walking from a to b. My main goal through this is to get the weight and timing right.

Thanks for the crits through.

Here's an update;

Front and Side:
http://www.archive.org/download/Elmer_Walk_Cycle_Test_Orth_001/walkorth001.mov

Persp:
http://www.archive.org/download/Elmer_Walk_Cycle_Persp_003/walkpersp003.mov

From what I see there seems to be a pop in the right leg as it goes back. And I toned it down majorly.

[adam-crockett]

Shoulders and hips should twist more. The weight of the arms are twisting the shoulders around the axis of the spine. The hips reach out with the leg. The hips and shoulders move in opposite directions from each other. You have them rotating on, lets say the z axis (front view, now they also need to rotate on the y axis, around the spine. (your axis labels may vary)
The finger movement still isn't working for me. Just put the fingers in a relaxed position, and let the secondary animation be subtle.
Even his head out. Its rocking back and forth. We generally keep our heads stable and looking forward when we walk.
Hope those were clear?

[T.L.Caroopy]

Thanks

I haven't actually animated anything on the head yet. I'll tone down the fingers and when you mean rotate the shoulders and hips do you mean up and down? At the moment I believe they are rotating on the z axis side to side.

Thanks again, this kinda crit will help me improve and get me another job.

[adam-crockett]

I mean forward and back. The arm rotates forward and back, and it pulls the shoulders along with it. Same with the legs.

[pollywoggles]

I'd like to see a video of that.

Donald Duck? Ha!

Well, there's that mocap lab at Ruhr-University that sometimes gets mentioned on these forums:

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

That site isn't entirely satisfying to me, because it seems to imply that hips up on the side of the passing leg is a "male" thing and that, on that type of walk, the shoulders are stiffer -- because in my experience I've observed that walk with the characteristic counter on the shoulders, making it smoother and more feminine.

Sounds like I might have to go out and shoot reference... not finding any good walking online (except catwalking females, who generally seem to exaggerate their hips) -- it could be an interesting topic for our animation discussion forum area.

[rblitz7]

Nice walk cycle!!:) I think thats a free model cause ive seen it around but where can I download it?

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