WalkCycle -><- Conflict

[animationrigs]

I think this might be more of an animation question. I believe what you are looking for is the cycle with offset option. If I understand. Here is what I think you have.

You create a 16 frame cycle.
The first and last frame are the same except your character moves forwards
You want that cycle to continue in time after the 16 frames you animated.


If this is what you are try to get, just select your curves and turn on the "post infinity" cycle for anything that doesn't translate through space and "cycle with offset" for anything that does (like feet and body).

Hopefully that was what you were looking for???

[QNL]

select curves? the only curve i got there is the nurbs circle..

[animationrigs]

In the graph editor. The animation curve.

[QNL]

The postinfinite didnt work... however ive tried to play a little with the grapheditor..

I copied the animation after 6.0 you can see at the red line i've drawn..

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/6321/walkcycle3mc1.th.jpg (http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=walkcycle3mc1.jpg)

What is disturbing me is the blue curve, you see?

its going downwards... and it affects the animation... and it continous going downward every time i copy again...

Could anyone tell me how to fix this?

[animationrigs]

If your character is actually translating through space for your cylce (walking forward) then one of your curves (probably the blue one) would continue increasing or decreasing as you get further in time. ie it makes sense that it would do that.
Perhaps what you are really trying to get is your cycle to walk in place?

[QNL]

yes i would like to keep him in place... after the blue line gets further and further down...

the animation gets more and more messed up...

[animationrigs]

IN that case you do not want cycle with offset. What you need to do is not easy, you need to subtract off the travel distance relative to the body for each key for each object that is traveling through space.
We may have some code to help you out, let us check into it.

[QNL]

however i'm not so advanced as you are...

if you have the solution.. please explain it to me detailed so i can understand...

[animationrigs]

In detail:

Your body is translating forward, and your feet are too...
1. Make sure you feet and body are all keyed on the same frames
2. At every frame you have a key on the body, subtract of the "Z distance" back to the origin (if character is moving foward in Z). This will move the body back to the origin while leaving the feet off in space.
3. Subtract the same distance off of every control that moves forward with the body (the feet for example)

This isn't a perfect solution btw, if you have forward drift in your cycle it would kill it, but it definitely get's you a whole lot closer. Oh and it's a pain. We do have some mel that could help you, but it isn't quite available yet. What version of Maya are you using? Depending, perhaps we can setup a quick link for you.

[QNL]

I dont understand what you mean with subtract... I don't know what subtract means in the maya world.. could you please tell me what you mean with your sentences that include the word ''subtract'' ?

and im using maya 7.0.1

Also this really disturbs me I have to do alot of anoying things.. Ive heard that a walkcycle is quite simple...

maybe the mel will help me

thank you for your help by the way.

[LiquidStorm3D]

This is definitely an animation question, but here is a quick rundown of how it's done...

1. Center your character on the axes and set the pose to when the forward foot lands.
2. Key that pose at frame 1 and the last frame of your animation range.
3. Go to the middle of your animation range and mirror the pose, so that it's the opposite side and key that.
4. Scrub thru your animation and go the the frame between the first and middle keys, and raise the leg that is moving forward.
5. Do the same for the other side, between the middle and last keyframes.
6. The arms should be around the middle when both legs are around the center.
7. The arms should also be opposite of the legs when they are out from the body, so when the left foot is in front, the right arm should be in front. The same goes for the other side.
8. Adjust the curves and add keys to smooth out the animation. Don't forget to add secondary movements like the hips swinging, the torso rotating and the weight shift when the legs switch position in the middle.

Your curves in the graph editor should be like a sine wave for many of the keys. The curve should go up, then come back down, and repeat. There are some that will go up, down, up down... depending on the speed of the animation on them. It takes tweaking to make it look right, so make sure you spend enough time on the curves to get the look that you want on the walk.

The animation will loop and you will notice what animationrigs.com told you earlier about the subtracting and adding to the keys. Watch the legs and arms especially and you will see them go behind 0 in Z, and then in front of 0, and then back.

[animationrigs]

To clairfy even further what Liquid has said. If you REDO your cycle then you can just animate it in place as described in Liquids post. ie don't translate it forward through space, make it look like the feet are sliding instead.

Actually. What are you trying to do with the final result? Your current cycle may work just fine even though it's translating....

[QNL]

hm are u saying i have to make a walk cycle without translating the character forward?

btw: im making a walk cycle for my movie.. theres alot of walking.. and i just dont want to spend all my time on getting all the walks done..

[animationrigs]

:) Actually what we are saying is that you can do both.
Typical walk cycles are done in place without moving the body forward in space. The feet just "slide" underneath the body so it appears as though the character is walking.
So what happens is that the "cycle" is imported into scenes and then some master or group node is animated...like a motion path for example.

BUT

That can be tough to animate a foot slide that will work properly with forward translation. How often do you want a character to walk in place? Depending on the application an animator will usually just take the cycle and bake it out so that it is moving through space anyway. So why not just animate it walking through space in the first place.

Depends on what you need to do with the cycle is the point.

Hope that helps.

[QNL]

what about the nurbs circle I got? i can drive that thing forward.. the whole character will go forward...

but then ill have to find the right speed or else hes gonna footslide...

EDIT: ive read your post again and it sounds great... why didnt i came up with that.... i just animate him walking but keep him in place... then i could use that nurbs sphere to translate the whole character forward... and i can let him walk whenever i want... cause then it would be easier to walkcycle...

oh yeah one other thing...

how to animate him walking while i must not translate him forward...? :shrug:

ive never done that before! :eek:

EDIT: ive just used my brain... and im gonna try.... :|

[animationrigs]

Exactly the point. The footslide is a problem if you animate the character in place. It's hard to know that you are animating the feet at a rate that works when the character walks forward. I can't speak for all "wizeguys" but often times you take the master/layout control and animate that forward in space, good enough to minimize slide. Then bake out the position.

Once again, depends on the use, but if it's a background character a little slide may not be a big deal.
You can usually avoid footslide if you animated the character walking forward in space though

sounds like you got it though. Have fun

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