Leisurly Walk Cycle

[Delucubus]

Looking pretty solid, nice overlap on the hands, smooth arcs, etc..

One thing I notice is the push off on the foot when its back seems a little off. It think the toes stay bent too long, and the foot doesn't rotate back far enough to make it feel like he's using it to move forward with. So the toes would go straight a frame or two sooner and the foot would rotate further back.

Also when the legs move forward they could probably go straight a frame or two earlier before they hit the ground, getting more of an extension might help get a better sense of weight on them. I think this is a big one that will help.

Good job though.

[travishowe]

Thanks for the quick response, Delucubus!There was definitely something that bothered me about the weight, and I was having trouble placing my finger on what it was. I think you've pinpointed it. iMuchas Gracias! I'll post an update with these fixes soon.

Listening to Andrew Gordon's podcasts, Angus MacLane says that walk cycles are where he struggles the most. I don't know if its my toughest subject (dialogue is rough!) but it's certainly one area I find EXTREMELY challenging!

Thanks again!

Travis

[Activemind]

in addition to what was said before, i wonder if the torso is also not too stiff?

i see shoulders are moving indeed, but i wonder if the ribcage actually does? not much, but just a little would help, i think.
i'm also thinking about the timing of the steps (i hope my english does the trick so you can understand...) i feel you could give it a shot and shorten the time between when the foot lifts off and the moment it steps on the ground. also that would help the shifting of the weight look more convincing, as now it is too floaty, it lacks the nice balance you would expect to see.
funny thing is that from front view it looks really good, but from the others it looks like it's another walk cycle :)
hope this helps:)

Keep up the good work!
Cheers!

[travishowe]

Hey Virgil, thanks for the crits. It's funny that you mentioned that the front view looked like a different animation, cuz I was thinking the same thing. I couldn't figure out why that was, and even after these updates, it still feels that way.

Here's the newest update. I've left the controls on this time, to make the motions easier to read.

www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkAll_v02.mov (http://www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkAll_v02.mov)

Thanks again for your crits, and if anyone's got more, lay'em on me!

Travis

[gagn]

His spine and neck are still too stiff.. Note how the space between his chin and collar bone is always the same (side view). His back isn´t posed in a very "lesuirely" way, but rather like a palace guard. It needs to sway more front-back, as well as his head.
The feet move very nicely.

Hope to have helped in some way.

[travishowe]

Hey Everyone,
Thank you so much for your input. I agree that the upper body is too stiff, although I think it may be that he needs to be less chest-pushy-outy, not so much that he needs more "bob" to his walk. I will try and add a little bob, but I don't want it to feel too cartoony, as that's not what I was aiming for. I also want to make the leg stretch out even further on the contact than it is right now. I should have an update soon.

Thank you all so much, and if anyone has any additional thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

Travis

[Delucubus]

Ya, I think you're right about stretching the leg out a bit more and less pushing out of the chest. Both of those will help.

I still think you could work on the feet pushing off still. One thing that might help is to attach a sphere to his heel and track the arc that the sphere makes (if you search google for arc trackers there's several, i just dont' know them off the top of my head, sorry). They might be rotating forward still too early, and the arc won't look nice and figure 8-ish.

This is a pretty cool PDF about walk cycles:
http://www.immerzeelpictures.com/animationmentor/Kyle%20Balda%20-%20Walk%20Cycles.pdf


On the first page there is a little drawing of a character's feet, it's exagerated, but you'll see how the foot doesn't start rotating forward until the up position, at passing it's almost pointing straight down (i'm talking about the drawings right underneath the big "Important")

[travishowe]

Hey, the link doesn't seem to be working.

[Delucubus]

Hmm. . . worked fine again for me, not sure :shrug:

Here's an example from the illusion of life, same basic thing:

http://www.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/walkcycle.jpg

[travishowe]

Hey Ya!

Thank you again everyone for your crits. I've tried to apply them as much as possible, and they have helped immensely. Here's the latest version:

www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkS_v03.avi (http://www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkS_v03.avi)

A couple of things to note. The arms have not been completely adjusted to the new spine shape, so they're clipping a bit with the legs (although you might not be able to tell from this angle). Also, I only had time to test out the critiques on the LEFT foot, so the right foot is (basically) where it was before. I'm still not fully happy with the left, although I think the main reason for that is the contact still feels a bit off...

Thanks for taking a look!

Travis

[blakboks]

Hey Travis,
This is looking pretty good.
The thing that stands out the most to me, is that the heel lifts too much too soon, and results in a strange bend in the leg after the pass position. At that point, the leg should be pretty much straight until the contact position, when weight is transferred to the other foot. Especially in a leisurely walk, since you're trying to make the actions as lazy and lacksidasical as possible. Keeping your leg bent while weight is on it takes quite a bit of energy compared to a locked knee.

This may be my personal preference, but I'd also recommend getting a bit more rotation into the hips. Exaggerate the weight transfer between legs. I see you're trying to get more weight transfer by snapping the foot down after the heel contact, but I think more rotation in the hips will help out much more.

Keep up the good work!
-Chris

[travishowe]

Hey Everyone,
Thank you all so much for your crits. I've updated what I could, although I didn't fully understand what you meant, Chris, until just now... so I'll have to go back and fix that foot bend. I think that's a great suggestion.

Here's the latest:

www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkAll_v05.mov (http://www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkAll_v05.mov)

Thanks again,
Travis

[Atrex]

looking pretty good. it's good that you're thinking of the transfer of weight, but like chris said...you need to add rotation in those hips/ which would case some more rotation in the shoulders to counterbalance. also, i like how your shifting your weight from one leg to the other, but it feels like he's hitting walls on both sides. ease in and out of those weight shifts. watch the feet as they roll off the ground, they hit a few frames where they dont move at all, and watch the hands in the front view...they look like they break.

[travishowe]

Hey all,
Thank you again for all of your feedback. Matt, Chris, I couldn't agree with you more about the hip rotation. I put some in there, and it made such a big difference. Also, Matt, your suggestion about making sure that the hips don't "hit a wall" on their motion from right to left was dead on. That really helped as well.

Here's the most recent version:

www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkAll_v07.mov (http://www.useyourpower.com/andyWalkAll_v07.mov)

For now, I'm going to put this aside. I have another project I need to get started, as I'm meeting up with an old friend come late July, an animator from Pixar who will, I know, have a lot to add to the extremely helpful list of critiques you have already given me. I know that the thumb is clipping with the leg, and the fingers aren't animated at all, but I want to have the walk finished before I solve those problems. I'm going to make the hands feel like they're colliding with the leg a bit, which should add a lot to it in terms of believability, I hope.

Thank you again, all of you, for your help, and if you have any more critique, please let me know. Like I said, i will be coming back to this, but I'm going to try and get one or 2 more animations done before my meeting with Dan.

Good luck to everyone!

Travis

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