Do you measure steps in a walk/run?

[stewartjones]

Err, why evenly?

Evenly will make it mechanical. Each step you take won't be exactly the same as the last, so why should your character's?

[markus8585]

i would try and find a way to copy the animation and loop it then just tweek it so its only slightly different alot easier than doing each step individualy from scratch

[Smartypants]

Err, why evenly?

Evenly will make it mechanical. Each step you take won't be exactly the same as the last, so why should your character's?

First, thank you for the reply.

Yes, this is a good point. I don't want the run to seem mechanical. But wouldn't you say that peoples' steps are roughly the same distance apart? I think he'll look like he's stumbling or drunk if his steps are too varied.

If you have to get a character moving across a space, how do you go about it? Do you just eyeball it?

[stewartjones]

Yea, definately eyeball it I would say.

So, say the scene starts with him on contact. We move on average a stride (2 steps, left then right, or vice versa) a second. So, here's my frames:

Using 24fps (film/movie)

0 - contact
3 - extreme down
6 - passing position
9 - extreme up
12 - contact (opposite foot)
15 - extreme down
18 - passing position
21 - extreme up
24 - contact (same foot as frame 0)

Ok, so this is just a totally basic walk, nothing fancy, but enough to get from one place to the next.

Let's say its takes 3 steps to get to where i want my character to be. Now I don't know this straight off the bat. I know that this one step I've just blocked out took me roughly 1/3 of the way, so I'm eyeballing my guess here.

So, frame 27 is the next extreme down, 30 is the passing. Etc.. continute till you get to the point you wanna be at!

Once you've blocked it, you can then see, ah ok, this step actually looks a bit stupid, I'm gonna edit this key. And refining goes on and oon and on and on and... Well, in my opinion I think you could keep going forever on getting it perfect, but you have to hit those deadlines! :thumbsup:

I hope this helps some, it's a little hard to explain, and it's best just to give it a run through if you're not sure I guess.

Lemme know if I can help more. PM me if you wish, or just post up here... No doubt I'll be passing through again! haha!:D


-Stu

[Smartypants]

Thanks a lot. I will take your suggestions into consideration. Tell ya what... I'll send you a link to the run when it's done in the next day or so. We'll see how it comes out.

I truly appreciate the feedback, thank you!

[rv_umesh]

well u said abt walk sequence,then wat is the frame ratio for run sequence

[Dave_Hingley]

Vyn, i know what you mean about even steps it can look mechanical but conversley if you have a shot whare a character has to cross a certain space over a certain duration, there is a risk that your character could end up taking steps of such uneveness that the animation looks unnatural.

heres what i think about walks. If a character is just walking then i would start with a cycle and animate the upper body to match the mood (for example if the character is walking and talking). i wuold then adjust the position of the contact foot to have a little variation. Of course if the shot is a mid close up of the character then worry about what the feet is doing might be a little redundant.

If i have a character start walking then the first couple of steps will be smaller than in the middle and the same when the character stops, the steps will become closer together. there are times when it pays to use a cycle and there are times when animating the walk straight ahead is the best way to move.Sometimes a walk can be used as acting. to move the character to a different part of the frame to stop the character looking static. sometimes a walk is just that, a walk to halpe move the naractive along. Its a funny one isnt it? Sometime you can watch people walking and get an idea of the character and other peoples walks sat nothing about their character...

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