Animating
a walk, where do we begin. Well first
we need a character. For today's lesson
we're going to use Mr.Stickman. Next
we need a clear and simple method of
approaching walks in general. I didn't
come up with the technique that follows.
I gleaned most of this from Richard
Williams book 'The Animator's Survival
Kit'. If you find this tutorial useful
I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
We're going to use a pose to pose method
to animate today's walk. At 24fps a
walk will usually range anywhere from
8 frames per stride for a brisk pace,
to 16 frames for a leisurely stroll.
In order to be clear I'm going to animate
at 24fps and make each stride 12 frames
(march time). Let's begin animating
a walk with the contact poses. This
is basically mid stride where the heel
strikes the ground. Contrary to what
you might think, this is the part of
a walk that has the least amount of
weight. It's the pose directly after
this, or the down pose that sells the
weight. We'll get to that much later.
For now let's concentrate on this pose.
Go ahead and pose every part of your
character on frame 1. Make sure the
forward leg striking the ground is straight
(knee is not bent) otherwise your character
may look like he's carrying a load in
the back of his pant's. Also make sure
you add a little vertical torsion in
the hips and shoulders (i.e., twist
the torso slightly). Now advance the
time 12 frames (frame13) and do the
the next heel strike pose. Remember
to key everything on your character.
The final heel strike pose will happen
12 frames later on frame 25. It should
look something like this.
Now
that we have the contact poses set let's
start breaking it down by adding the
passing poses. Go to frame 7 and pose
every part of your character in a passing
pose. Make sure to keep the shoulders
and hips in opposition to each other
and drop the shoulder and hips laterally
(i.e. curve the torso slightly, see
below). It should look like this.
Now
are walk is starting to take shape.
Once you get this far the rest is a
breeze. As long as the contact and passing
poses work you can do just about anything
you want with these break down poses
and it'll work. For now we're just going
to animate a generic walk. Let's break
it down further by adding the actual
weight bearing pose or down pose between
the contact and passing poses (frame
4). The forwrd knee drops and bends,
the head shifts forward and the Hips
and shoulders tilt. It should be something
like this (don't for get to key everything
on you character or one pose might wind
up affecting a pose you've already worked
out).
Now
we'll add the striding or up pose between
the passing and contact poses (frame
10). This is where your character bounds
upward and begins to fall farward. The
hips begin moving back toward the centerline
so the body will be ready to catch it
self with the opposing foot.
We're
almost finished. Now it's time to go
back and inbetween everything. In your
curve editor you'll want to smooth out
any nasty bumps or ledges in your curves.
You'll also want to make sure you've
got a nice steep hard edged curve for
the heel striking the ground. At this
point the walk is pretty much finished.
I like to go through and off set keys
on overlapping joints to loosen up everything
and give it a more natural feel. Also
make sure frame 1 and frame 25 match
up perfectly. When you're all done you
should wind up with a nice looping walk
cycle between frame 1 and 24 (frame
25 is a repeat). Here's what it looks
like.
And
this is what it looks like in motion.
Using
this technique anyone can acheive convincing
walk cycles of all types. Now that you've
completed a faily generic walk why don't
you try animating the following types
of walks.
A sneaky walk; a feminine walk; a Strut;
a sad walk; a drunk walk; a goofy walk;
ect
