Walk Cycle.

Our next task is to create a walk cycle, where a character with simple design walks on the spot, almost like it is on a treadmill. I am nervous about the task as i have never done a walk cycle before but i have animated animals moving. I decided that instead of diving into it i would get a couple of books out of the library as i don't want to jump into the exercise and get it completely wrong.

LIST BOOKS.

The books i got out were extremely helpful, they explain in words and with images how to make walk cycle animations along with all the principles. I want to make sure that i fully understand how to draw the separate frames, i don't want to start drawing it and not have researched into it properly. I have been looking on Youtube as people walking, there is a particular film which really helped, its a really slow walk cycle so its easier for me to see all of the angles that they arms and legs meet when a person is walking.

Slow Female Walk Cycle - www.youtube.com

I found this one really helpful, the grids on the screen show just how much the body bobs up and down when you walk, it demonstrates how you are not at a constant height when you are walking, also its really interesting to see (in this particular clip) that the arms do not move quickly, or even far. I guess if i animated someone with quick swinging arms it would make the character look as if they were in a rush,  or even speed walking if the legs were moving quickly as well (it would probably look really naff). If i was to animate fast arms and legs it would not look like the character was running because when you run, both of your feet are off the floor at the same time on certain points, where as when you are walking, you always have one foot on the floor, so it would look like i had made a walk cycle and pressed fastforward  on the player.

In the brief, we were told to create a basic figure, the task was not to create a character walk cycle, it was so create a walk cycle, so i decided that i would go for a basic human frame, nothing too complicated, but not as simple as a stick man. The walk cycle has to walk on place, it can not move across the screen.

*Why animate in place? There is one main advantage:

You only have to draw a single stepping cycle, then you can reposition it across the screen, saving time and paper.

The main disadvantages of animating in place:

1.It can be confusing.2.The "arcs" on the character can look weird when the character is moved across the screen.3.It can be difficult to match the character properly to the background, if he has to register to something on it. * http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

I wanted to add the circles on the character where the main joint are to act as anchor points would do on After Effects. There are the main points that the limps will move most dramatically. Obviously, they will move from the shoulders and hips, but the movements will be much more subtle and perhaps smoother then they would be at  the joints. Also from the film i linked to this post above helps to demonstrate the movement. The hip moves, the top of the leg moves, and then the bottom of the leg extends, and then the heel goes down first. It also helped me break down the basic main movements for my walk cycle. I worked it all out in my book but my scanner is currently broken, so i found a image that demonstrates the main sequence of a walk cycle.

























After designing the movements in my book i did a similar thing to the image above by adding striped to the legs and arms that are at the back of the animation, so in this image above, the characters left leg and left arm are striped to add depth.