Hi.
I’ve just started animating, and wanted to show off a walk cycle I’ve been practicing on.
This one is supposed to be without a lot of character if that makes it clearer.
Would appreciate some criticism on it.
EDIT: On revision number 4 now. This is the latest:
[VIMEO]178775655[/VIMEO]
Ready to be called final?
I’ve redone my walk cycle, based on the feedback I received from people on the Polycount forums, and uploaded to syncsketch:
EDIT: These are outdated now.
Front: http://www.syncsketch.com/playground/c36b37b69ab940658655a827b40111a5
Back: http://54.164.74.32/playground/a7135d59615c4e729cf14fc18e51c36e
Left: http://www.syncsketch.com/playground/dca0a84eed6d4f5399c810c1b63dc656
Right: http://www.syncsketch.com/playground/62157e4bea3147878d7dcef029d114f5
I welcome all feedback and criticism. 
You have a bit of knee popping, from what I can tell. The hands sort of hit a wall from the front view, but not from the side. I think it’s probably a matter of spacing.
The biggest thing, however, is to make his feet step in front of him more. They’re really far apart and his Center Of Gravity(COG) is never over the point of contact. You’re keeping his foot in line with the hip, but that would cause him to fall over, or force him to move side to side really far. So, you should either make his body compensate and balance, or move his feet closer to his center line when you plant them on the ground.
Other minor notes. I think his hip sway is a bit too sever. Having fists while walking seems odd. His ankles seem kind of stiff…he’s not really bending them much. I don’t know how to draw on this synchsketch thing, but basically his foot is planted flat a little late, and his heel starts lifting up a little early. End result is that his ankle never really rotates much. Feels strange.
Hi Roumenov. Thank you for taking the time to comment on my walk cycle. I greatly appreciate it.
It’s odd how hard it is to see obvious issues after staring at the same frames for a while, only to have them be really obvious when someone call them out.
Yeah, around frame 8 and 38. I think the down position is the one I find the hardest to make. I want to push the character down, so I lift the thigh and bend the knee to lower him, but it keeps giving me this knee-pop. It’s better than the first version, but will work on that even more for the next version.
Do you have any good advice for getting an acceptable feeling of weight on the down, while not bending the knee too much? I could increase the stride length, but what I have feels appropriate to me. I have experimented with longer and shorter steps earlier.
Yeah, I see it as well. I’m going for an isometric view on this, so the spacing makes it look kinda odd from the front angle. I think it could be that the arms need to swing a bit more towards the center of the character at the up-part of the arm.
Hmm. So if you view an average person from the top, the legs generally move in arcs and not straight lines? What do you think about the passing position/up position? Should the legs be brought closer together overall?
-The comments I received on the first version of this was that he was too stiff, so I guess I overdid the hip movement. I’ve been a bit critical to it during the entire process, but decided to just stick with it, and see if it would turn out all right in the end. I figured failing in the other extreme direction would be a good experience though. I am wondering if maybe this hip movement would have worked for a more feminine walk. It looks like the main problem is the up-down rotation that is supposed to be the hip being pushed up on one side to take the weight of the step.
-The fists are just me being lazy. I was going to pose and animate relaxed hands once I’d gotten the basic walk done.
-Will definitivly try to improve the ankle in the next pass. It’s one of those ares I also feel is a bit off.
I also think that there should be some more up-down on the shoulders.
Again, thank you for those pointers. I will incorporate it in the next version of this. Though I’ll be gone on vacation for 3 weeks, so it’ll be a while before the next version is up.
Heyo, I don’t have a lot of time at this moment. but I wanted to give you a quick reply.
First, it’s great that you’re being thoughtful on each point. A lot of people see feedback and sort of gloss over. That’s ok if you’re working and have to get shit done, but I think it’s less ideal when you’re trying to learn.
I think the main thing I can say is that you’re definitely in the right direction. I think the most revealing thing is that you asked what the “average” person does. I think that’s a bad way to think about animation. There is no such thing as an average character or person. If you think someone’s average, that’s just telling me you don’t know them. If your character/animation is average, that means it’s uninteresting.
Don’t aim for average. I think the most useful thing you can do is go REALLY specific.
This goes back to the crit thing. You should go point for point, but you should always be doing that agains the backboard of; “How is this serving the goal?” or, “Will doing this reinforce the character?” or, “Will that change make the viewer feel more of what I want them to feel?”.
I know it seems daunting when you’re just trying to learn the basics. But remember that “the basics” are all basic assumptions that are only useful in so far as they reinforce the goals.
Case in point, hip swing. I said it’s too much because nothing else about his motion matches with that hip swing. But if you’re going off a specific person who’s a fucking DIVA, then the advice would be to give him more attitude in the shoulders, and maybe do something with the head. It all depends on the goal. So, when looking at feedback, consider your target. If the target is unclear, you should pause on applying the advice until your target is clear. Make it a specific person with a specific story. Where are they coming from, and where are they going? This is what separates an okay walk from once that’s impressive. Most of my comments have to do with just natural mechanics. But a lot of these details can change depending on the context and goals, like the hip swing.
It’s also way easier to figure out what’s right/wrong when you have a specific idea of who this is. The easiest obviously being if you’re replicating a specific walk from a specific person in a specific setting.
Another case point, the fists. If he’s walking out of his house to give someone a beating for not giving him the drug money they owe him…the fists make sense. Then the hip swing makes less.
So, when you ask about the feet and the center of gravity. It can go in many ways, and I’m sort of reluctant to tell you how it “should” be, because I don’t want to give you a goal. The goal comes from the director or lead, in this case that’s you. Give that some thought, and go watch people. It’s an answer that really isn’t objective and has to come from whatever goals you set on.
Peep this. He’s going somewhere, and he’s got a purpose. https://vimeo.com/83522905
Also this one. There’s a tone he’s matching. He basically made a music video just by animating a bunch of naked people walking/running/jogging. https://vimeo.com/52069544
Hope that helps!
lol, I’m so full of shit. “I don’t got time, but lemme jus’ write a fucking essay right quick…”
This comment made my day. 
Thank you again for taking the time to write said essay. I’m glad you think I’m heading in the right direction, and I think you’re offering sound advice. The same advise seems to be popping up all over, so I’ll probably have to start following it when I get smart. Also, you’re giving me good and relevant examples. I probably should spend time doing “character/personality” animation, and I probably will in the near future.
At the risk of sounding like an idiot: This time though, my goal actually was a generic, boring and “average” walk.The kind that would have to fit 200 different generic and boring NPCs in a low budget video game. Something that doesn’t really steal the focus from what’s going on, and isn’t trying to convey any specific personality.
The DIVA hips probably ain’t the way to go though
How would you approach something like that?
I usually try watch people walking by when I wait for the bus every morning and afternoon, though some people seem to get a little creeped out over that. Or worse, sometimes no one is actually around.
Got any advice to share on references? It seems a little difficult to find the really good stuff on YouTube, though I guess most people don’t watch people walking in high def. slow motion .
On the first take, one guy told me that some people actually bump their heels together on the passing position, and that a couple of fingers distance feels appropriate to him. To me, that kind of advice is nice, because I find it hard to break the rules to achieve a specific purpose, when I don’t really know how it’s “normally” done.
So, I’ve tried to incorporate the feedback, and make another revision of this.
Front: http://syncsketch.com/playground/7ec1157b620543f0818bc52749de925a#97482
Back: http://syncsketch.com/playground/31f9a0290ddf443cbbb802c33cdfd49d#97483
Left: http://syncsketch.com/playground/67bc4b05f0a944489c10cd20128a477e#97484
Right: http://syncsketch.com/playground/d824b63cba4745df849b577b45de865d#97485
I hope you guys have some more feedback for me 
Did some more polish, and did a quick “proper” render:
[VIMEO]178775655[/VIMEO]
Ready to be called final?
Hey, sorry for the lack of response. I thought I’d written something about your prior comment, but I guess I never posted it.
At any rate, I’d suggest that it’s a better exercise to not worry so much about generic stuff. That said, it’s not a bad exercise and I think the output is a MASSIVE improvement. Holy shit, I was actually pretty surprised looking at the start and finish, it doesn’t even look like the same person did it.
Quick notes;
The hip sway should maybe ease into the extremes a bit more…I feel like there’s a small spacing issue there and I don’t really know how to describe it. Take a look and see if you recognize what I’m talking about. If not, it could just be me. Other thing I noticed is a slight hitch when the foot comes off the ground.
Only significant note I really have is that I think you could relax the hands a bit more, the thumb seems to stick outward a little much…i’d also try to offset the fingers a bit, they’re sort of looking like a default pose, rather than a natural, “relaxed” pose. Otherwise, this look a thousand times better. Really great improvement.
Yeah, I see it. The pelvis kinda jerks back and forth in the horizontal rotation. Will do some cleaning up there.
Hands… :hmm: Definitively the hardest to get right. I just used a basic relaxed pose from some other pose I found. Will need to dig up some references. Know any good places for that?
Thank you for continuing to critique my work. I really appreciate it.
I’d look at drawings for hand reference more than photos or videos. Usually they’re very small in videos and it’s hard to see how fingers are offset or how they tend to group.
A classic point of reference that pops up a lot is Hogarth’s hands from Iron Giant. There’s a really good model sheet form the production of that film that’s very enlightening.
I tried to add an image from a link, but these forum tools seem to be really unreliable…
This page has most of the models and about halfway down are a few pages of Hogarth’s hands. http://ultimateirongiant.com/model/model.php
Note how the fingers are not evenly spaced. Nor do they curl the same amount. They act together in different ways depending on the type of action and how they press against other surfaces. Usually one of the exterior digits(pinky or pointer) leads or follows on actions.
This is the hand pose I cooked up.
Does it look relaxed enough?
Also, do you think his feet are planted a little to quickly? I feel like there may be a little hitch there as well.
I did a new render with all the changes, and uploaded to the same vimeo video. The changes this time:
-The hands got a better relaxed-pose. I bent the fingers a little more than in what I posted above.
-The hips had a jerky movement in their left/right rotation. This was smoothed.
[VIMEO]178775655[/VIMEO]
Bonus:
Added the animation to a female, as a test.
[VIMEO]181581434[/VIMEO]
Heya, I missed the notification. That hand pose looks waaaay better. It’s looking a lot more natural as a whole, too.
This whole project has shown a massive improvement from start to finish =D
