front walkcycle

[jtg91]

Im having trouble doing a walkcycle looking from the front any tips? or anything i can have a look at to help me? thanks, josh

[ElusiveMoose]

First place I go is ASK. He's got some nice illustrations of front walks.

After that, get a hold of a copy of Muybridge's Human Figure in Motion--great photo reference of people doing different actions (a lot with a motion grid in the background and everything).

Good luck!

[jtg91]

i have looked at ASK and couldnt realy and found a few tips but the walks that he shows are not normal walks. i have found this http://www.polykarbonbbs.com/showthread.php?t=15070 and it has some tips so i will give it a go and see what i can do.

i might go and buy that book it sounds good thanks moose

[Evil Demon Creature]

That guy animates pretty good. But not good enough for me to want to take lessons from him. (if Comlock made some tutorials on the other hand)
But if it helps you out, then it helps you out.

The only advice I can think of is to try and get a mastery of drawing things in a 3d mindset. More or less gain the ability to see a 3d world projected behind the flat 2d space and be able to trace it. Even if you are only able to do it with simple shapes like spheres or blocks, it'd be plenty adequate (since you'd just use those to plan out your roughs and trace over them afterwards).
Otherwise you would pretty much need either direct reference material or a whole lot of practice at it (I might have to lookup/buy that reference book myself).

[jtg91]

I know that guy isnt that good but i just needed an idea on what to do just the basic steps thats all.

[ElusiveMoose]

i have looked at ASK and couldnt realy and found a few tips but the walks that he shows are not normal walks.

If you look on page 146 of ASK, he has a nice reference for a natural, normal male walk directly away from the camera. It's pretty much the best reference you're going to find outside of Muybridge's photo references (it's possibly even better, bc Williams has sketched in action lines to show tilt of shoulders, hips, etc).

One other thing is you might be careful about having characters walk directly towards or away from the camera. There are some places where this works very well for staging, action, whatever. But a lot of shots I've seen like this just aren't very dynamic and typically look a little wonky. Could be better to do a 3/4 view walk towards camera. Just my opinion.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing some of this when you start working on it.

[jtg91]

thanks moose i didnt look hard enough in the book this helps alot. This is for my 10 ways animation project, ive kinda made it 2 difficult for me so it may look jumpy at some points as there are alot of different poses and views of the characters i wish i thought about this when creating the storyboard. but i suppose you got to practice the difficult stuff sooner or later.

[pixelmark]

I maybe a bit late on this, but I found this...
http://engr.smu.edu/~alcantara/walkcycle/walkcycle.html

It seems to have a good front view, and the second link at the top is very nice. Good walk cycles can be difficult, seeing as you really want the whole body to move along with it.

[jtg91]

The second link is good its more of the walk im looking for thanks pixel

[jtg91]

heres my 1st attempt i was just focusing on the leg movements my thoughts where that it needs an extra key just before the leg snaps back down to make it smoother what you guys think oh and im having trouble making the thigh look like its coming forwar (i really suck at doing this:o )

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r24/jtg91/frontcycletest.swf

update: http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r24/jtg91/frontcycletest-1.swf

made movement smoother and made the thigh look like its coming out more and the legs slide back doesnt look like his stomping anymore. still need to add an extra key to smooth it out more just before he puts his leg down

[Sharlston]

Good attempt, but at the moment the mass of the body remains pretty stationary. Try and sketch out a rough 'bounce pattern', experiment with it because you can exaggerate it and give a great cartoony effect; and like Moose said, notice how Ken uses lines to denote how the hips/shoulders work.

Perhaps, you could break the body up into main masses, like, the torso, the head, the arms and the legs. What you have so far, like you said yourself, primarily focuses on the legs; which, although isnt bad, it would be more benefitial if you looked at the whole picture.

Hope I've helped a little, at the moment the only decent advice I can give is keep reading ASK and just keep practicing.

Good Luck.

[jtg91]

yeah my next step is to focus on arm movement and body and head movement. i have never done a walkcycle from the front before so i wanted to see how i could do the steps 1st. i will update the thread when i have done the movements of his ams body and heads thanks for the help sharlston

[ElusiveMoose]

Good work so far, Josh.

The subtle shortening of the thigh helps with the illusion of it moving forward.

Try spreading the legs a little to make room for the requisite male equipment. He looks like he's holding something between his thighs.

Also, to eliminate more of the "stomping", show some of the bottom of the foot right before he places it on the ground. Gives you more of a feeling of him rolling the foot as opposed to just slapping it flat on the ground.

Sharlston's got a great point about looking at the whole picture. It'll give you more fluidity and natural movement. It's possible to do one part at a time and make it look good, but if you're a little off on the big picture, it could look robotic or unnatural.

Keep playing with it and practicing.

If you have a scanner or digital camera, try getting William's pictures into the computer and laying your character on top for a reference of keyframe positions. Could help with some subtleties that aren't immediately obvious with a walk.

Last, try not to think about animating a walk. Animate the character. What's he like? What's he thinking about? His attitude? He looks like a college frat boy or possibly a wannabe hip-hop thug. How do those types of people walk? How is it different from how a businessman or a ballet dancer would walk? These questions will help you with looking at the movement and deciding whether it really reflects what you have in your head or not.

Again, great job. Good luck, and keep updating us with your progress.

[flashcartoons]

i have looked at ASK and couldnt realy and found a few tips but the walks that he shows are not normal walks. i have found this http://www.polykarbonbbs.com/showthread.php?t=15070 and it has some tips so i will give it a go and see what i can do.

i might go and buy that book it sounds good thanks moose

that tutorial was great i saved it all. lol

also jt good job keep working on it until you perfect it :)

[jtg91]

update movement of arms again i cant give it the look that the arm is going back so it is more of a swinging movement. thanks for the help guys.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r24/jtg91/frontcycletest-2.swf

[myhatisoff]

Thats looking much better!

It's coming along nicely. Keep it up!

[jtg91]

thanks hat. next step is to add up and down movement and make his body twist a little.

[Sharlston]

Don't forget about his elbows ;)

You can get a great effect by making him swing them arms around, little hand flicks/exaggerated motion. Secondary movement, is the term, I believe.

Looking great though, cant wait to see the final version!

[Quikhamsta]

i say the best way is to just get someone in front of you to do it over and over and watch .... try to see the hip and shoulder movements, try to jot down not only what moves and when but also the timing.

all seems a bit late anyway :/

[kayambila]

Hello!! Am still new here. But I think I've got an answer to ur Q. Bio Motion Lab gives you a Dynamic animated Reference Stick figure for walking cycles towards the camera. It allows you to adjust the weight, stride, gender, mood (happy, Nervous, sad) etc of your charactor. This is for realistic human motion tho. So you might have to exhagerate for 2d animation depending on your style. Click Here (http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html)to access the page. It works to your exact specifications. You'll love it!!!

[jtg91]

thanks thats a good bit of software very helpful it would beter if u could go througfh it frame by frame

[Sharlston]

I guess you could just keep clicking on/off

[pcdoctor]

heres my 1st attempt i was just focusing on the leg movements my thoughts where that it needs an extra key just before the leg snaps back down to make it smoother what you guys think oh and im having trouble making the thigh look like its coming forwar (i really suck at doing this:o )

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r24/jtg91/frontcycletest.swf

update: http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r24/jtg91/frontcycletest-1.swf

made movement smoother and made the thigh look like its coming out more and the legs slide back doesnt look like his stomping anymore. still need to add an extra key to smooth it out more just before he puts his leg down

The 1st pic looks like he's marching in place but it's better than anything I could do.

[jtg91]

update movement of arms again i cant give it the look that the arm is going back so it is more of a swinging movement. thanks for the help guys.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r24/jtg91/frontcycletest-2.swf

this is the one after i think it looks better with the arm movements looks less like his standing still.

[kayambila]

Yeah... we getting somewhere... Just add a lil more stride if you can. Try making the upper body swing from side to side, or move up and down a lil... For the kind of style i think it's good so far. :)

[jtg91]

thanks kayambila. i havent done much else to him lately as im trying to get my mum to but me a tablet, to be truthly i havent done anything since b4 christmas but as soon as i get a tablet im going to get right back into animation. i agree with the swaying his body is very stiff.

[pcdoctor]

Hey Josh,

Are you using a Wacom, mouse or paper/pencil/scanner?

Thx!

[jtg91]

just a mouse i dont have a scanner and tablet but i really want them both. i sometimes draw stick figures to remind me of the basic leg positions.