female walk cycle

[Amrit-Derhgawen]

Hello there!
Yes, its coming out! But this walk is more like a "macho walk", it doesn't look very "femal-ish" to me. The neck and the torso is kinda stiff, and it makes the walk somewhat stilted. Try loosening things a bit:bounce: . Hope that helps.:)

good luck
-A

[Sp3ctre]

I will most certainly take a look at those things and yes, everything helps thank you

[cmccad]

Normally, the center of gravity is at it's highest on the passing pose (weight all on one leg) and lowest on the extreme (weight on both legs). Your animation seems to be just the opposite.

Maybe have her legs extend a little farther: in other words, have her take longer steps. Right now it feels like she's got a chain connecting her ankles, and when her foot moves far enough in front, it jerks to a stop.

The arms look nice and fluid, and nice secondary animation on the hair. :)

[Sp3ctre]

thank you so much cmccad, that was the big thing I had mixed up, take another look, but I still haven't done anything about the stiff neck and shoulders

http://www.cgauiw.com/jones/girl_walking.mov

[mayajunky]

yea, I agree that the center of gravity could use some tweeking, it looks as though the hips are driving both legs instead of one leg pulling the hip along which is in turn pulling the other leg and then pulling the foot up. for the stiff neck, i would try to offset some timings using overlapping action from the shoulder movements to get a nauralistic flow going...and then do the same thing with the head....would give less of a bobble-head effect. of course, these are all just opinions, take em if you want to but just keep on practicing.

---mayajunky.com

[Sp3ctre]

I will most certainly play around with all these suggestions. You guys are great, keep the crits coming.

[Sp3ctre]

http://www.cgauiw.com/jones/girl_walking.mov

okay check it out once again if you please, but there are still a few things I haven't fixed yet, but I think this is better than what I had.

[mayajunky]

yea, that's looking better, i would still have to say though that it looks like her feet are coming in too far (side to side) when shes planting her feet on the leg forward. looks like she would fall over right now where the center of gravity is. sorry if that's a little vauge, finding it kind of hard to verbaly communicate my opinion. and by the way, i've never actually tried to do a feminate walk cycle, i guess that could be how far you would cross feet on a walk like that.

[Amrit-Derhgawen]

Yes, now the "cross-leg walk" or "cat walk" looks much better. But I think that you still have to do something to get rid of that "stilted-ness". I pretty much agree with "mayajunky". Also, it would be better for you to read Animator's Survival kit. Its a great book to learn almost everything related to animation. You'll learn different kinds of walk/run etc. Whenever you animate something, before actually animating the whole scene, visulize and do a short research on the type of motion that you're trying to animate. Does that make sense? Know the character type and look for some video references that might help you

(go to http://www.animationlounge.com/index.php?board=8.0)

to understand that motion better. I hope that makes sense to you!

Good luck

-AD

[mayajunky]

wow, thanks for the animation lounge link Amrit, it looks like another awsome forum to me. i'm such a noob i've never heard of it!

[Sp3ctre]

oh, I totally have Richard Williams' book, I swear by it. However he gives very limited information on the kind of walk I'm trying to do. I 've looked through it a few times and can't find much else, so if you've got a page number or something, that'd be awesome. I'll check out that link in class a little later today.

I am having a bit of trouble placing where her center of gravity should go because I honestly can't even walk like this and I've got some reference vids, but they don't have exactly what I need. Basically I've got a bunch of stuff that's close and I'm guessing at the rest which is where crits come in and I really appreciate all that I'm getting.

[mayajunky]

hey, you might be able to find some more reference here

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com

[Sontaran]

Hi Sp3ctre, your second one looks like a good improvement. I think your on the right track.

Let me fire away a few thoughts in case any of these help. I'm far from experienced, but in my opinion, this kind of female walk needs to be suttle and smooth. Yours looks good, but have you tried slowing it down a bit to compare. Slowing it down a bit might make it a bit more sutlry (if thats wat you are going for that is).

I had another suggestion that might help too. If you offset the arm swing extreme pose a frame or two from the foot contact pose it might give it better balance. Ie: they don't both hit their extremes on the same frame.

The other thing I had in mind was that she might look more confident if she leaned back a little bit more as her front foot lands. I'm thinking of the Maralyn Monroe kind of seductive walk. Once again, just a thought. This might not be what you are trying to do. Might be fun to experiment with it.

[Sp3ctre]

http://www.cgauiw.com/jones/girl_walking.mov

here's another try and it's what I'm turning in for class tomorrow morning, what do you think?

also, Amrit, I've got a bit of a personal question for you. How close is Pune from New Delhi? I'm asking because my girlfriend's grandparents live there and I've just got to ask because I think it's awesome that I'm getting advice from someone who lives in the same country where my girlfriend's dad is from.

[Amrit-Derhgawen]

Well, first of all I'm sorry for my late reply! I was kinda busy. Ok, now I gotta tell you about your walk animation. Your previous animation was a bit better than this one. Because I think you over animated the girl's walk. It looks like she will fall down any moment. Use subtle movements, if you're trying to animate a realistic walk. Keep trying you're doing good.

Now for the "personal question" part, Pune is approximately 900 miles from New Delhi. Nice to hear that your girlfriend's grandparents live in Pune. Its really a nice place. I've never been there before though. If you wanna come here to New Delhi, you're most welcome! Well, I wanna ask you some personal questions too, but I shall not ask 'em here in this public forum!! heh heh :). So, keep animating and you'll get better with practice. I would suggest you to begin with some cool bouncing ball animations. Animate a soft "RUBBER BALL" and a hard "BOWLING BALL". Study their motions, and try to animate them! It'll be fun. Many newbies don't bother to make bouncing ball animations. But believe me! This is the first and a very important step that makes you an animator!:bounce: It will teach you a lot about timing and spacing, breakdowns, arcs, and lots of other stuff.

So, good luck.
+AD

http://www.cgauiw.com/jones/girl_walking.mov

here's another try and it's what I'm turning in for class tomorrow morning, what do you think?

also, Amrit, I've got a bit of a personal question for you. How close is Pune from New Delhi? I'm asking because my girlfriend's grandparents live there and I've just got to ask because I think it's awesome that I'm getting advice from someone who lives in the same country where my girlfriend's dad is from.

[Paul B]

I just find that her upper body keeps lunging forward too far everytime she puts her weight on her left foot...except in the last full step before the end of the clip. Would you try adjusting that part of the cycle for the other steps in the clip, I'd be interested in seeing the result-thanks.

[dalmanna]

yeah i agree with above, she looks like she should be singing 'show me the way to go home..' needs to flow rather than snap into each contact. keep it up though it is nearly there:thumbsup:

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