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View Full Version : how to create a turn during a walk cycle in Maya 8

perius
09-26-2007, 02:09 PM
Hello....

Animating is still new for me in Maya. I understand how to create a walk cycle. My problem is that I'm trying to figure out how to have my character take a few steps and then turn to the left/right and continue walking?
I've been trying various techniques, but so far with not much success. If there is an experienced animator who can assist with this, I would really appreciate your input.

This is my goal for my animation. I wish for my character to take 3 or 4 steps and then make a turn and continue walking. Along the way, I want to have him step over a small object (i.e box). This now brings me to the next question. Do I cycle the initial walk in the graph editor and then edit the individual steps, or, is there another approach in creating this animation? What is the proper method in creating this sequence?

Once again, I would appreciate any assistance.


Thank you.
MOSS
09-27-2007, 12:51 AM
I would not use a cycle for this. I would animate each step individually.
perius
09-27-2007, 01:12 AM
Hi Moss.

Thanks for replying. If I understand correctly, to create an animation as I described earlier the only real way to do this is to animate each step manually then. Is the cycle feature in the graph editor strictly to repeat the same move or walk then?
As I stated, animation is still something new to me. There is a feature that comes with the time slider where you click and drag a red bar across the slider. Will this option aid in any way, or am I to do as you suggested.... animate each step and action manually?

Thank you again.
Delucubus
09-27-2007, 02:50 AM
With what you want to do a cycle won't be the best idea. What you will be able to do is copy and paste certain parts of your cycles to make things a bit easier. For example, for the first 3 steps you could copy your root's Y, X position (depending on what the forward movement axis is on) as well as rotation curves for the different cycles.

Best idea would be too just get up and film yourself doing it. Pay close attention to where your weight is and how the weight moves during the turn and step over action.

But ya, cycling your animation won't work, but some clever copying and pasting would definely help.
perius
09-27-2007, 02:58 AM
Hi.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had figured that animating the full process would be the case. I have no issue with doing this, but the copying and pasting I'll have to play around with to get it done right! let the fun begin!


Thanks again.........


Cheers.
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