For my basic walk cycle i followed Penny's Blog and also used "Richard Williams- the Animator's Survival Guide' they were both very helpful and useful to my final walk cycle. I did the walk cycle about 4 times before getting it perfect. Here's one of my failed examples
After this attempt i had 3 more goes at trying to get my walk looking normal so i payed closer attention to the richard williams book. And drew out rough sketches of what the poses, just because it helped me understand them more and was easier to animate once i understood the anatomy.
I drew the poses without the arms because it was easier so then i could just focus on what the legs should look like . I then added the arms into the animation without drawing them, because there much easier to visualise.
Here's the final playblast of my finished basic walk cycle, I think it turned out well, and the other walks i did helped me correct my errors and get the final result which is shown below.
Here's the Final Rendered Version of my Basic Walk Cycle
Character #1 Age: 38 Gender: Male Weight: Heavy and Muscular Where's he Going: He's Going to for a meal with friends Mood: Happy and Hungry Where will he be going after: He'll be going for drinks with his friends What's he want: Food & to see his friends Power Centre: Shoulders/chest
Character #2 Age: 20 Gender: Female Mood: Hungover, so feeling a bit tired and sick, and generally can't be bothered. Where is she going: To work Where's she going afterwards: back to bed what does she want: Her bed and not to be at work Power Centre: Knee's ( really downward as if her leg's are dragging her to where she's going)
Character #3
Age: 65 Gender:Male Mood:Angry and annoyed ( because he had to pay full fare on the bus, because he didn't have his pass) Where's he going: Trying to get on the bus. Where's he going afterwards:home to complain to his wife. Power Centre: Chest (so his back is hunched over) What does he want: To get on the bus for free
I decided to go with character #3 and in our tutorial session we got put in groups and acted out each other's character's walks, i have put the video's i thought were very useful towards my walk below.
I really like this one, because she does the hunched over perfectly and i love the look back she does at the driver to tell the driver once again "i'm not happy with you".
And the look back in this video is just perfect, so if i did a look back in my personality walk i would definetly take reference from this because i think it's brilliant and shows the mood perfectly.
This would be quite good for the walk off, wrapping himself up, just some different idea's to think about here.
I like Mr Fredickson's walk from Up, but i couldn't really find a good reference video so this one will have to do, i think it show's it enough. I like that he is quite hunched and never really looks happy and thats how i want my guy to look.
I quite like the way this guy moves, its very hunched and slow.
Before I animate a walk cycle i like to draw out the poses, so then i can visualise what the walk should look like. Basically for this walk i've planned out that i want the characters back hunched over quite a bit, and high shoulders with clenched fists, so you can tell he's angry & annoyed. I'm going to add in more arm movements during the walk cycle, to give him more personality.
Here is a few poses of the walk stepped out. It's just a more exaggerated walk cycle with a head turn. I plan to add in some more arm movements like shaking his fists in anger, or a nice head shake, which would show he's annoyed.
I was having alot of trouble figuring out how to animate this walk cycle, so i started again, with a different character (Morpheus Rig)above, and i found this reference video on youtube and found it very helpful to use some of the poses in my walk.
I started my walk again because i couldn't get it quite right, i'm now using the (max rig) and using an angry walk cycle from "the animators survival kit" by Richard Williams. Below is a playblast of what i've done so far, its just quite basic but i'm gonna add in all the details in at the end and get the important stuff done first.
This is a rendered Frame of my Pose for "Troubled By Result"
Basically this guy has just got a letter telling him that his child has been expelled from school again and he's annoyed and fed up. I thought this angle looked the best because it shows his face expression well.
This is the Pose for "what's under there" basically he's playing that cup & ball game where someone puts a ball under a cup then moves the cups around really fast and you have to guess which one it's under. So the moom is looking in the cup because he picked up an empty one. I don't think the expression works too well, so i might change it because i wanted his expression to say "hmmm wheres the ball".
And this Pose is " Pleased To See" this guy is casually sitting waiting for a friend to come, and when he see's the friend he does a laid back wave as in to say "hey" with a big cheesy grin on his face.
And Below from a Front view just to see his facial expression.
I drew the poses without the arms because it was easier so then i could just focus on what the legs should look like . I then added the arms into the animation without drawing them, because there much easier to visualise.
