Weekly diary of work for ‘3D Animation Fundamentals’.
Walk Cycle is a great way to express a character’s emotion. Through different ways of walking, the audience can better understand the character.
I used to animate anger by clenching fists and raising shoulders. But there’s no doubt that these are stereotypes. Feeling anger doesn’t necessarily walk in a anger way, it really depends on the character. So how to animate the walk cycle mainly depends on what the animator wants the audience to know about the characters’ inner self.
It’s important to keep foot stick to the ground during walk cycle. I don’t want to see a character wobble during walking, otherwise it’s just like a crudely character in game.
Here is the link for the walk cycle animation blog:
I animated the walk cycle two steps a second to perform a natural walk. The processes of the animation were separated into two parts. Basic walk cycle and time setting were done in the blocking stage. Then body squash & stretch was added and graph editor was cleaned in the polishing stage. But something went wrong with the rig I guess. I was trying to control the mustache but there is no change after adjusting the value in channel box. So, I get rid of it in the final step.
Things to remember
- Turn the smoothness level down to the lowest to make the animation run smoother and faster. Remember to bring it back while playblasting.
- Walk cycle poses & the time setting.
How to practice walk cycle
As for the suggestion to practice walk Cycle, the easy way is to set up some adjectives about emotion and then freely combine them to customize the feeling of Walk Cycle.